Next Gen Marriage Activism

Next-Gen Activism for Marriage Equality Some prototypes and brainstorming to kickoff the conversation

What’s Needed? A consolidated, easy-to-use platform that allows organizations to share resources, and guides supporters to volunteer opportunities. Open to a wide range of organizations and initiatives: grassroots local statewide national Enabling collaboration among organizations: sharing resources tracking outcomes cross-referencing each others’ communications managing volunteers and attracting new supporters

Who needs this service? Four types of users: State and National Organizations Grassroots Organizers Volunteers Potential Allies

Who needs this service? STATE/NATL ORGS LOCAL ORGS VOLUNTEERS ALLIES Assume bird’s-eye-view; share knowledge Share and leverage resources Cross-reference communications Collect and evaluate reports from local orgs Distribute resources to local orgs and volunteers Track outcomes

Who needs this service? STATE/NATL ORGS LOCAL ORGS VOLUNTEERS ALLIES Delegate resources in locally targeted campaigns Find and assemble local volunteers Receive guidance from state/national orgs Distribute guidance and resources to volunteers Track local campaign progress and report outcomes

Who needs this service? STATE/NATL ORGS LOCAL ORGS VOLUNTEERS ALLIES Efﬁciently provide support and services Find local opportunities to help Receive relevant news and alerts Involve their friends Engage with new organizations Report outcomes

Who needs this service? STATE/NATL ORGS LOCAL ORGS VOLUNTEERS ALLIES Receive highly targeted, personalized messaging from family and friends These users will probably not seek out the service Instead, it will be recommended to them by our volunteers: “Hey, Mom and Dad, look at the photo album I posted.” Or, “Hey, everyone, I’m doing a fund- raiser. Check out my progress on this site.”

Why is this necessary? Your supporters want to help, but are totally confused. IT’S HARD FOR PEOPLE TO FIND PERSONALLY RELEVANT NEWS/ OPPORTUNITIES PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL ASSETS DON’T KNOW HOW TO OFFER THEM THERE ARE TOO MANY CONFLICTING OPTIONS

So how would this platform look and function for the different users?

State and National Orgs State and national orgs would interface like Facebook groups -- only interconnected. Organization admins would have a secure method to view their members’ contact info, collaboration tools, resources, and reports. Volunteers would see only the group’s info, news, and events; with opportunities to join and participate.

Grassroots Organizers Local organizers would get a stipped-down version of the state/ national interface. They have the same collaboration tools, but with other local groups, rather than with the state/national orgs.

Volunteers Volunteers’ proﬁles look like “missions” -- a list of opportunities to help locally, which they can then choose to accept. The site tracks social relationships, and makes suggestions based on what your friends are doing.

Allies The site helps volunteers to create their conversation- starters Mini-sites that offer targeted, effective talking points Volunteers can use these sites when broaching these topics with friends and family.

Calls to action Volunteers join as many organizations as they want on one central site. Then, each organization can target communications to their members based on demographic info. Or organizations can collaborate, sharing membership lists to reach even more people.

Let’s look at some usage examples.

Scenario 1: Local Organizer Has a Great New Idea

Local Organizer Has a Great New Idea Let’s say you’re a local organizer with a great new idea -- for example, hand-holding day to boost visibility. You need a tech platform that lets you: Put together a plan and share it with state/national organizations Get feedback from state/national orgs Communicate the plan to your volunteers and to other local organizations Get documentation of the campaign from your volunteers

Local Organizer Has a Great New Idea So, ﬁrst the organizer formulates their plan ofﬂine.

Local Organizer Has a Great New Idea Then the organizer uses the technology platform to send their plan to their afﬁliated state and national organizations.

Local Organizer Has a Great New Idea Feedback on: USC GLBT Hand-Holding Day Affected area: Los Angeles Dates: 2/14/09 Then they get feedback. Hi guys, Love the image! You might consider teaming up with the nearby LA GLBT center; they have Valentine’s Day plans, too. You can ﬁnd their contact info on our proﬁle. Also, try to avoid using the word “hate” in your publicity. Our focus groups show that it can turn some people off. Good luck, Dave at EQCA

Local Organizer Has a Great New Idea Then they communicate their plan to their members, and to other local organizers.

Local Organizer Has a Great New Idea Then afterwards, attendees post photos and reports. These outcome- reports are sent to local organizers, as well as to participating state/ local orgs.

Scenario 2: The Media Wants to Cover Events, Conduct Interviews

Media Wants to Cover Events, Conduct Interviews Media exposure is great! We want to make it as easy as possible for reporters to ﬁnd out about campaigns And also to ﬁnd people to interview

Media Wants to Cover Events, Conduct Interviews It’s totally easy for reporters to log on and ﬁnd local organizations It’s easy to request an interview with relevant organizations And because everything is stored on one central site, it’s easy for spokespeople to point reporters to additional resources

Media Wants to Cover Events, Conduct Interviews Reporters can ﬁnd events that are happening locally And they can sign up for alerts, so that they receive immediate notiﬁcation of new events

Media Wants to Cover Events, Conduct Interviews Reporters can search members to ﬁnd relevant interview subjects Demographic-based searches or available Or an organization can recommend one of its members

Scenario 3: Somebody Wants to Help, But Doesn’t Know How

Somebody Wants to Help, But Doesn’t Know How Let’s say someone decided that they want to help out -- or maybe they saw one of your ads They need to know: What’s happening right now that affects them Who needs their help How they can involve their friends When new opportunities to help arise

Somebody Wants to Help, But Doesn’t Know How So when they visit the site, the ﬁrst thing it asks is where they are. 94118

Somebody Wants to Help, But Doesn’t Know How Then it shows the user all of the volunteer opportunities happening nearby, and lets them pick the ones they like. And then they create an account -- linked to their Facebook proﬁle -- and bam, you’ve got them and all of their Facebook friends.

Somebody Wants to Help, But Doesn’t Know How Or, if there are no local volunteer opportunities, it gives the user to option to form their own local grassroots organization.

Scenario 4: A Volunteer Wants to Conduct Outreach with Their Family Members

Volunteer Conducting Outreach with Family So, let’s say that you have a conservative Lutheran family. They don’t support gay marriage yet -- but you want to reach out to them and talk about it, with the hope that eventually they’ll come around. You’ll need some resources: How to broach the topic in an appealing way Talking points that are proven-effective Connections to other allies in your community

Volunteer Conducting Outreach with Family Members tailor their To what kind of community would outreach to specific you like to reach out? communities Faith-based Are these: And to specific Friends Co-workers people Family You indicated that this is a religious And to specific community. What religion is it? places Lutheran What is their zip code? Upload related photos:

Volunteer Conducting Outreach with Family The result is a mini- site with personalized talking points and community resources. Volunteers can show Here are some Lutheran Pastors near 94118 who have experience with gay this to their potential family members: allies, or just use the • • Paul Adams, First Arlington Church George Mason, St. Michael’s Parish • Eric Finner, Lutheran Church of Oakland information to start a Facts About Lutheranism conversation. and Gay Family Members

Also Worth Noting

Facebook Connect A technology that lets you use Facebook profiles on your own networking site Users sign in to your site with their FB profile And update FB profiles with info from your site Thus drastically improving your site’s visibility

Facebook Connect MoveOn.org uses it

Outreach Opportunities There are GAZILLIONS of opportunities to reach out to potential volunteers These are people who DESPERATELY WANT TO HELP, but don’t know how Oh my God, seriously, it kills me that you guys have ZERO outreach at events like the Valentine’s Day pillowﬁght, it would be so perfect if you did

So, To Sum Up: We need a consolidated, easy-to-use platform that allows organizations to share resources, and guides supporters to volunteer opportunities. Ideally, this platform would be managed by larger organizations, overseeing user-generated content from grassroots organizers and volunteers. Volunteers and supporters are desperately searching for an platform like this. We can tap in to existing technology and social networks.

Next Gen Marriage Activism

by Matt Baume on Oct 01, 2009

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Next Gen Marriage Activism — Presentation Transcript

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