501c3
Announcing PTP’s New Executive Director!
Dear friends,
The Board and Staff of PTP are thrilled to announce Arif Mamdani as the new Executive Director of the Progressive Technology Project!
We're especially excited to have Arif because of the leadership role he has played in increasing PTP's commitment to adding value to the organizing community through deeper and more comprehensive engagement. He has been exceptional as PTP’s Capacity Building Director in the last six years, leading our Community Organizing and Technology Institutes (COaTIs), TechCamps and workshops.
While there are many reasons that the board chose to appoint Arif, the simple fact is that he is the ideal fit for the position: he has the skills, necessary experience, and deep knowledge of the work and field to move us forward and to give PTP a very seamless transition. As part of the PTP team, Arif has been intimately involved with planning PTP's strategic direction. He is part of a new generation of leaders who early on saw the importance of adapting technology to organizing needs.
Arif comes in on the heels of six years of outstanding leadership from Mark Sherman who is stepping down as PTP’s Executive Director due to his strong belief in passing on leadership. Mark came to PTP in challenging times and has led us to a point of great strength in our staff capacity, fundraising, and role in the organizing world. Mark will stay on into the spring (which comes late in Minnesota!) to support the transition.
We have a full calendar this year of splendid programming for organizing groups across the country and we’re fortunate to have the expertise of Arif and a very strong staff team. We’re offering trainings on communications and technology, databases and technology planning, online social networking, and basic office software skills. These are all designed to bring entire community organizations up to speed with technology and to help groups integrate technology more deeply into the life of their organization for them to be more successful. You can find more details on our web site at http://progressivetech.org/
Thank you for you continued work and support of PTP. Please take a minute to send a note of support to Arif at amamdani
progressivetech [dot] org. You can always contact me or any other member of PTP’s board or staff with any questions you have – about this transition or any of PTP’s program activities. In Solidarity, PTP Board & Staff
Raising Change
Did it feel like Change or charity?
Doing a workshop at the “Raising Change” conference (San Francisco) had me reflecting a whole lot on fundraising strategies for the movement. A lot of those wonderings revolved around “social networking sites and fundraising” - the topic I presented. Is it a viable new way? Is it worth trying out? What can you expect to gain or lose in the short and long run? What does it mean to your offline fundraising? Really meaty questions I would say. Fortunately I had a large energetic group in the workshop which enhanced the usefulness of the session: there was a lot of wisdom passed around from our collective experience.
It was an impressive turnout by the way: the total number of people at the conference hovered around 600. As a young fundraiser, its invigorating being around peers in this sort of setting: “a social justice fundraising conference” (as described by the organizers). Albeit the fact that I’m reminded that we have a long road to travel. The gospel according to my workshop was simple: Social Networking sites are yet another possibility to raise change but are anything but a magic formula for fundraising. Read that as: Good fundraising communications and strategies used offline are relevant to online fundraising.
One of the more important lesson’s I’ve picked up from our Power of Change campaign is to remember we’re raising support for Change not begging for charity! The basic ingredient of a movement is a committed people. People, who commit time, People who commit to hard work, people who commit their resources, etc. Raising change is establishing a partnership with folks that support the movement and making sure we have the resources we need to further small “d” democracy.
If you’re interested in using social networking sites to fundraise and wonder how to do it effectively, this little exercise below could be a start in thinking about it.
Reflect on experiences you have had with folks sending you online appeals – through, email, e-newsletters, face book applications, etc.
- Was the design attractive?
- Was the content well catered to you?
- Did it reach you at a good time?
- Did the problem and the action have some logical consistency?
- Was the action easy enough to follow?
- Did it feel like change or charity?
Peace Kwame
Voter TechKit
We're excited to announce that we've brought up the initial version of our new online training environment for community organizers. We're calling it a Voter TechKit because it offers a comprehensive orientation to voter projects for 501C3 community organizing groups, with a particular emphasis on technology. I find the best part to be the video snippets from experienced community organizers. Thanks to Henry Serrano from Community Voices Heard in Harlem, Bineshi Albert from Sage Council in Albuquerque, Anthony Thigpenn with SCOPE in Los Angeles and Robby Rodriguez from SWOP in Albuquerque for their willingness to be beautifully videotaped for this project. Learn more about them here. We also had great authoring help from election maven Jan Adams, formerly of Californians for Justice and Applied Research Center.
Check it out and make sure to give us feedback on what works and what doesn't. We're intending to keep adding to it as we go along.
