Do you have a dog or cat in need of grooming? If so, here is an opportunity to advocate for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill clean-up efforts. Consider taking your pet to a groomer who will donate your pet’s fur to Matter of Trust, a San Francisco nonprofit organization that has established a process for collecting animal fur and human hair to create nylon “booms” that naturally absorb oil from the water. Last week retailer PETCO began shipping donations of pet fur from its grooming salons to aid in creating these booms to soak up and remove oil from Gulf of Mexico waters. Once fur shipments arrive in the Gulf Coast region, volunteers gather to assemble the booms and prepare for their deployment. The booms are made by stuffing donated nylon stockings with hair and fur. With nearly 1,000 grooming salons pitching in, PETCO expected to ship up to a ton of donated fur per day hoping to reach 5 tons through this past weekend.
As a pet owner, I say it’s about time my pets begin contributing to society! Joking aside, this is a truly unique and worthwhile program. Get your four-legged friends to advocate for the wildlife in the Gulf who so gravely face endangerment.
What would you advocate for if you were given $100 to give away and report back? Interesting thought, right? Courtney Martin gave each of nine friends that amount and asked them to report back one month later on their advocacy choice. This appeared in the New York Times. They were also invited into the Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy which now meets on a regular basis to discuss their acts of advocacy or “kindness.” Ms Martin received a huge book advance and decided to make the giving away of some of it the problem of others. As word got out, some other small-time philanthropy advocates joined in.Small philanthropy takes a lot of creativity when you have that responsibility and have to tell others. This mini-advocacy idea has generated chapters of the Secret Society in different cities. Here is a list of what some people did with their $100.
• Turned the writing of New York City children in a literacy nonprofit into books.
•Distributed 10,000 pennies to friends throughout the country to drop so there would be more lucky pennies for people to find.
• Inspired by Lewis Hyde’s book “The Gift,” bought a handmade platter on etsy.com and gave it to a friend, who she hopes will pass it on to others.
• Slipped $100 into a thank-you card and asked a friend to give it to the clerk at her local Duane Reade who makes her feel like a million bucks whenever she buys toothpaste.
• Gave $100 to the most frequent commenter on her Web site, who turned out to be a former correction officer aspiring to write.
• Gave to four established nonprofits that work in Haiti.
• Gave the money to a woman he sees collecting recycling on the street.
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, and Andrea Weckerle, founder and president of CiviliNation, wrote this oped for the WSJ at the very end of December. I took some time off from blogging over the holidays (sanity check!) but saved this for my next blog post. It is the perfect coda to 2009 where incivility online and “badvocacy” seemed to explode exponentially, particulary as politics heated up. CiviliNation is a global non-profit education and research organization based on advancing how individuals communicate and engage online in a responsible and accountable way. This is an important advocacy group that deserves all of our attention and support. The oped is a call to action for many of us who advocate for fairness in conversations online and preserving reputations. Wanted to share with our followers.
Keep a Civil Cybertongue
Rude and abusive online behavior should not be met with silence.
by Jimmy Wales and Andrea Weckerle
In less than 20 years, the World Wide Web has irrevocably expanded the number of ways we connect and communicate with others. This radical transformation has been almost universally praised.
What hasn’t kept pace with the technical innovation is the recognition that people need to engage in civil dialogue. What we see regularly on social networking sites, blogs and other online forums is behavior that ranges from the carelessly rude to the intentionally abusive.
Flare-ups occur on social networking sites because of the ease by which thoughts can be shared through the simple press of a button. Ordinary people, celebrities, members of the media and even legal professionals have shown insufficient restraint before clicking send. There is no shortage of examples—from the recent Twitter heckling at a Web 2.0 Expo in New York, to a Facebook poll asking whether President Obama should be killed.
The comments sections of online gossip sites, as well as some national media outlets, often reflect semi-literate, vitriolic remarks that appear to serve no purpose besides disparaging their intended target. Some sites exist solely as a place for mean-spirited individuals to congregate and spew their venomous verbiage.
Online hostility targeting adults is vastly underreported. The reasons victims fail to come forward include the belief that online hostility is an unavoidable and even acceptable mode of behavior; the pervasive notion that hostile online speech is a tolerable form of free expression; the perceived social stigma of speaking out against attacks; and the absence of readily available support infrastructure to assist victims.
The problem of online hostility, in short, shows no sign of abating on its own. Establishing cybercivility will take a concerted effort. We can start by taking the following steps:
First, and most importantly, we need to create an online culture in which every person can participate in an open and rational exchange of ideas and information without fear of being the target of unwarranted abuse, harassment or lies. Everyone who is online should have a sense of accountability and responsibility.
Too frequently, we hear the argument that being online includes the right to be nasty—and that those who chose to participate on the Web should develop thicker skin. This gives transgressors an out for immoral behavior.
Just as we’ve learned what is deemed appropriate face-to-face communication, we need to learn what is appropriate behavior in an environment that frequently deals with purely written modes of communication and an inherent absence of nonverbal cues.
Second, individuals appalled at the degeneration of online civility need to speak out, to show that this type of behavior will no longer be tolerated. Targets of online hostility should also consider coming forward to show that attacks can have serious consequences. There are already several documented cases of teens taking their own lives because of cyberbullying.
A third step has to do with media literacy. People need to know how to differentiate between information that is published on legitimate sites that follow defined standards and also possibly a professional code of ethics, and information published in places like gossip sites whose only goal is to post the most outrageous headlines and stories in order to increase traffic. People can and will learn to shun and avoid such sites over time, particularly with education about why they are unethical.
Fourth, adult targets of online hostility deserve a national support network. This should be a safe place where they can congregate online to receive emotional support, practical advice on how to deal with transgressors, and information on whom to contact for legal advice when appropriate.
Finally, it’s time to re-examine the current legal system. Online hostility is cross-jurisdictional. We might need laws that directly address this challenge. There is currently no uniformity of definition among states in the definition of cyberbullying and cyberharassment. Perhaps federal input is needed.
The Internet is bringing about a revolution in human knowledge and communication, and we have an unprecedented opportunity to make the global conversation more reasonable and productive. But we can only do so if we prevent the worst among us from silencing the best among us with hostility and incivility.
In today’s Sunday The New York Times, the U2 singer Bono writes an opinion piece on Rebranding America. For those still scratching their heads about President Obama’s recent honor as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, this article provides insight into America’s renewed reputation in the world and President’s Obama’s role in that shift. As a non-American, Bono explains:
“But I will venture to say that in the farthest corners of the globe, the president’s words are more than a pop song people want to hear on the radio. They are lifelines.
In dangerous, clangorous times, the idea of America rings like a bell (see King, M. L., Jr., and Dylan, Bob). It hits a high note and sustains it without wearing on your nerves. (If only we all could.) This was the melody line of the Marshall Plan and it’s resonating again. Why? Because the world sees that America might just hold the keys to solving the three greatest threats we face on this planet: extreme poverty, extreme ideology and extreme climate change. The world senses that America, with renewed global support, might be better placed to defeat this axis of extremism with a new model of foreign policy.”
What was revealing to me was how Bono is described in the footer where the author’s bio and background are set forth in what seems like less than 140 characters. It says: “Bono, the lead singer of the band U2 and a co-founder of the advocacy group ONE and (Product)RED, is a contributing columnist for The Times.” This being a blog all about advocacy, Bono’s ONE organization is breezily identified as an advocacy group. Today it seems fairly common to describe groups organized around causes or issues as advocacy groups whereas years ago they might have been described as non-profits or NGOs…non-governmental groups. Worth noting how times have changed along with our descriptors.
I found myself landing on a new site called Justmeans. It has an interesting premise which isthat companies can subscribe and communicate with those interested in their good work. Companies who join use Justmeans’ distribution service to syndicate their work to various social networks. They have an impressive array of clients such as HP, Seventh Generation, Timberland, Financial Times, Best Buy, Intel, Accion, Campbell Soup (disclosure: some are clients although I learned about this site through my son who is involved with Starting Bloc). I was able to find out about what different companies are doing in the responsibility space all on one site. Since I am always interested in new conferences, I learned that Justmeans and the FT are organizing summits and have two coming up in NY this fall. For companies looking to reach advocates, it is an interesting way to communicate with those that matter. Check it out. I am going to follow some companies’ twitters through justmeans and see how it goes.
Advocacy is booming. Non-profits currently comprise 11% of the U.S. workforce according to The Quiet Crisis report. In fact, non-profits contribute to nearly 5% of our GDP and if were a country, the nonprofit sector would rank as the seventh largest economy in the world. More people are joining causes and volunteering although clearly the economy has had an enormous impact. However, according to the Economist, Americorps (a widely regarded one year volunteer initiative) saw a rise in applications before the economic crisis even struck.Also, New York’s public service site (www.volunteerNYC.org) saw a 27% increase since one year ago. The good news is that the passage of the Ed Kennedy Serve America Act is creating even more opportunities for national service advocates than ever before.
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All About Advocacy is a blog written by and for people who believe in the accelerating power of Advocates in society today.
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What would you advocate for if you were given $100 to give away and report back? Interesting thought, right? Courtney Martin gave each of nine friends that amount and asked them to report back one month later on their advocacy choice. This appeared in the
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, and Andrea Weckerle, founder and president of 
In today’s Sunday 
Advocacy is booming. Non-profits currently comprise 11% of the U.S. workforce according to 