based). We appreciate the opportunity to host online communities of
practice - http://e-democracy.org/practice - like the CityCamp
Exchange, the Digital Inclusion Network, Locals Online, Local Labs and
more.
With every donation today - from anywhere in the world - we earn a
chance to win the $10,000 Golden Ticket.
If your donation makes that happen, we will dedicate the majority of
that 10K in funding to the online community of practice of your choice
on our network. It will fund active outreach, professional forum
facilitation, and online special events (live webinars, etc.).
To donate today, visit:
http://bitly.com/givemnedem
If the GiveMN site is slow (they will raise millions for thousands
of non-profits based in MN today), use our PayPal option:
http://e-democracy.org/donate
Thanks,
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.org
P.S. Here is our "domestic" letter from today from our local forum
network. Very exciting.
Subject: Good morning. Support the Lasagna Revolution.
Good morning!
It is Give to the Max Day in Minnesota - http://bitly.com/givemnedem
I wrote this up this morning …
I'm excited about the power of connecting people.
Not just those who already show up or have the same background -
everyone, ALL people in local communities right down to the
neighborhood level.
* Yesterday, on my area's Neighbors Forum, Julia posted that she
needed help right away to bake eight lasagnas for a memorial service
later that day for a dear friend. Within the hour Julia posted back
that all eight were baking away across in neighbors ovens.
* Also yesterday, in District 1 in St. Paul, on a new very diverse
forum built with door to door outreach, a very dynamic and open
exchange about the proposed closing (and likely passing on to a
non-profit for some programming) of the local Conway park center
involved the local city council member and very concerned residents
and neighborhood association staff.
* The other week, a found dog was reunited within 45 minutes with its
owners via the forum. (I swear lost pets are our number one forum
recruitment tool. People join out of necessity and stay for community
life exchange. :-))
From unleashing the capacity of neighbors to help each other to
building community to raising diverse voices and generating greater
understanding across diverse communities who live together, this
doesn't just happen.
Why does this work?
1. You are here. You take time to read and reply.
2. You share. You post community announcements and forward posts to others.
3. You volunteer. Each forum has a dedicated Forum Manager (and stay
tuned for all sort of new volunteer opportunities where you can help
in small ways.)
In the last year we crossed the 20,000 site members mark with about
15,000 forum members in the Twin Cities. With Knight Foundation grant
support, over 4,000 new forum members were recruited across St. Paul’s
many new start-up forums led by our amazing summer outreach team. (See
their picture ... linked below. They spoke 6 languages.)
When I heard the story how Hmong youth baseball team members from
public housing coached by our outreach team member Vang volunteered to
translate when needed for Donna, our African-American grandmother
outreach team member, while going door to door in St. Paul introducing
these forums, it choked me up. This is real. You can "Like" everything
you want on Facebook, but if you really want to connect everyone, all
people in local communities you have to go to people whether they are
at community events and their homes. With inclusive outreach it takes
dedicated people and real resources to build trust and engage people
together from across ALL communities in relevant and meaningful ways.
Whether you are on one of our rocking forums with over 1000 members
reaching 25% of households daily or on a quiet *for now* start-up
forum trying to figure out what it means to be instantly connected
with interested neighbors across your local community, you help make
this happen.
So let me add two more numbers:
5. You invite others. Invite them to: http://beneighbors.org
4. You donate: http://bitly.com/givemnedem
Today is Give to the Max Day in Minnesota. Your donation might just be
the one that wins us the $10,000 Golden Ticket. If we win, we will
door-knock your neighborhood with our outreach team just for your
local forum. If we raise even $500 in combined donations across your
forum, we can organize a special door knock and for example bring
Spanish or Somali speakers if that is part of your community that is
least connected on your forum.
There are three main reasons we encourage you to donate any amount to
E-Democracy for hosting this forum:
A. You value it. Perhaps you learned something, raised your voice,
saved a buck, or got a free couch.
B. You believe in inclusive, open, and civil connections in
community and you want us to do more outreach in your area. Our grant
resources are focused on lower income areas of St. Paul when it comes
intensive door to door outreach. With donations we can expand to your
area and do more inclusion work overall.
C. You want to increase our support for your local volunteers. Thank
them for their time. Adding new volunteer roles and training to
bolster forum engagement is a top priority. If your time to volunteer
is limited, a donation will help us coordinate those efforts across
our network.
When I woke up this morning with a headache and didn't know what I'd
write, I decided to think of you across the table with a cup of coffee
in hand.
It has been an exciting year. We've grown more in the last year than
at any time in our first 18 years. For the first decade I subsidized
this effort with my business (speaking about democracy online around
the world ... it was fun) and lots of volunteers. Then slowly we built
up more volunteers, some funding, and a few donations. We broke
through with a three year grant - our first multi-year grant ever. Our
work is on fire and our staff team (many are part-time, seasonal) is
awesome. I want to give them more work and create more summer jobs for
students (mostly.)
Even with social media exhaustion, there are thousands of people to
reach - from new residents and immigrants to young people and seniors
who are online (our likely oldest poster is 93 and has lived in
Phillips since 1958 ... her son types for her due to arthritis ) - who
if asked would join you on your forum tomorrow. Let’s make this
happen.
If you've read this far you are awesome ... let me note that while
grants can help us bolster inclusive outreach on a temporary basis in
some targeted areas, it will be your donations, forum sponsorship, and
local events that drive our volunteer-supporting work in most
communities. The more people who step up and donate any amount, the
more likely other funders will be inspired to help us reach more
people in great leaps.
So there we go, it is up to you, if you value your forum today or want
your start-up forum to reach hundreds more people and join the fun,
please donate today on Give to the Max Day:
http://bitly.com/givemnedem
(See the slideshow of our summer outreach team and some video.)
Your participation and support is appreciated.
Sincerely,
Steven Clift
Founder and Executive Director, E-Democracy.org
Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/democracy
Tel/Text: +1.612.234.7072