Our focus in Transition The Grove is local and understanding what affects us here locally. It is not always easy to recognise how global forces translate down into our lives here but they do. We are governed by people we directly elect to local councils to state government and to federal government. But we are also governed through international treaties and global organisations and they make decisions which have a huge effect on all our lives.
Until recently we had almost zero chance of having any influence whatsoever on these decisions but with the use of modern technology that has changed. Slowly the enduring mentality of ‘my voice doesn’t count’ is being countered through demonstrations of how coming together with one united voice IS powerful and can effect genuine change for the better.
Here is the story of [url=http://www.avaaz.org/]Avaaz[/url] which uses technology to influence decisions at the global level that affect all of us down to our smallest local level.
Dear fellow Avaazers
Because of your efforts my voice is heard — and millions of others. It feels really good not to be sheep but lions!
I’ve had moments in my life when I doubted the strength of goodness and compassion in the world and myself.
But being part of Avaaz has been profoundly thrilling. Every day I read the most incredible messages from you — messages of hope courage and wisdom. I lived and worked in war zones before starting Avaaz. From Sierra Leone to Afghanistan I saw some of the best and worst in humanity. But at Avaaz I have seen a humanity I didn’t know existed. There are millions of us we all just want to do the right thing and we’re willing to work for it.
Week after week we come together for a purpose. At the beginning it was often just to speak out. But as we’ve grown and our voice has grown we’ve begun to create real magic. Time and again we’re winning – actually stopping those things that break your heart when you read about them in the paper. Actually building the world we all dream of.
All the work of our 6.5 million strong network is made possible by just 4967 “sustainers” who donate a few dollars/euros/etc a week to sustain our core operating costs to enable Avaaz to plan responsibly around long term costs like our tiny but awesome staff team our website and technology and the security of our systems. It also means we have the ability to respond immediately to crises as they occur and jump on opportunities for action without delay.
Avaaz works to help to save lives in humanitarian emergencies protect the environment and wildlife fight political corruption and organized crime push for peace and reduce poverty.
Fundraising is often a problem for social change organizations. Government or corporate funding would profoundly threaten our mission. Funding from large donors also often comes with strings attached. And high-pressure tactics like telemarketing postal mail or direct on-the-street programmes often cost nearly as much as they raise! That’s why the Avaaz model – online people-powered donations – is the best way in the world to power an engine of social change and a huge part of our community’s promise.
I feel a huge and serious sense of responsibility to be a steward of hope and my team and I are deeply committed to respecting the trust you place in us with your hope time and resources. It’s a special thing we’re building here and if we can keep believing in each other anything is possible.
With hope and gratitude for this amazing community
Ricken Patel
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Avaaz
What we do Works. With over 6.6 million members in every nation of the world able to mobilize at a moment’s notice to pressing needs and opportunities Avaaz works –- together we’ve saved lives in Haiti and Burma reversed government policies from Brazil to Japan and won victories on international treaties from banning cluster bombs to preserving oceans. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown says of Avaaz “You have driven forward the idealism of the world… do not underestimate your impact on leaders” while the Economist says Avaaz is “poised to deliver a deafening wake up call to world leaders” and Al Gore says “Avaaz is inspiring and has already made a difference”. We’re only 3 years old and growing fast and the more our members get involved and donate the more impact we have.
We have no bureaucracy. Avaaz is a massive network of citizens but our organization is absolutely tiny – just 15 full time campaigners with operational and technology support. Most large global NGOs have hundreds or even thousands of staff. Our small size means we have no time for red tape layers of management or being focused on anything but getting results.
We have a world-class team that does outstanding work. Campaigning advocacy and social change are a serious and demanding business – the more competent the team the more impact our donations have. Avaaz attracts some of the best campaigners and advocates in the world. Many of our campaign directors joined us after being CEOs of successful multi-million dollar advocacy organizations and most have degrees from the top universities in the world.
We’re 100% Independent. Avaaz takes absolutely no money from governments or corporations. This is hugely important to ensuring that our voice is exclusively determined by the values of our members and not by any large funder or agenda. While we received initial seed grants from partner organizations and charitable organizations almost 90% of the Avaaz budget now comes small online donations. This means that the only agenda we have to follow is the people’s agenda.
Avaaz has donated almost $4 million to other organizations because we saw them as better placed than us to have impact on a particular issue. For example we’ve granted $1.6 million to Burmese monks and aid groups and $1.3 million to Haitian aid organizations – see this video from the groups that received our donations. The way we support organizations is important too. Most foundations have endless process and constraints that make them slow bureaucratic and risk averse in supporting advocacy. Avaaz finds the best people and organizations and doesn’t micromanage them – we just empower them to do what they know best.
We’re political (this really matters). Most charities offer tax deductibility for donations. But this means that they are in a way partially tax-payer funded and governments use that to place a very thick set of rules on what they can and can’t do. Chief among them is restricting what they can say to criticize support or oppose a politician. Avaaz is very rare in that our donations are not tax deductible leaving us 100% free to say and do whatever we need to to get leaders to listen to people. Since so many important issues are won and lost in the political realm this makes us much more effective than advocacy groups that shy away from speaking out politically.
We go where the greatest needs and opportunities are. Most organizations focus on a single issue over a long period of time. This is very important to do but that can mean that when desperate needs or amazing opportunities for social change arise they get ignored because everyone is working on their own issue. Avaaz campaigns target the most urgent needs and opportunities showing up just when a powerful burst of citizens’ attention is needed most. We work continuously with top quality partners in the areas we campaign on and all describe Avaaz as an amazing added value to their work.
Democratic accountability is hard-wired into our model. The Avaaz model of campaigning is people-powered. Our priorities are set at annual and weekly levels by polls of our membership and every campaign we run is first polled with members. No matter how much work we put into developing a campaign if it fails to get the greenlight from members we don’t run it.
There’s no other organization like us. Avaaz is the world’s first and only massive high-tech people-powered multi-issue genuinely global advocacy organization. In a world where the problems we face are consistently global and the solutions to them increasingly require global democratic action Avaaz is uniquely placed to effect change. No other organization can rapidly mobilize large-scale coordinated democratic pressure in over 150 countries within 24 hours. A new model of internet-based people-powered politics has changed politics in several countries and Avaaz is taking that proven model global. The result is already the largest global online movement in history and we’re just getting started.