Affero Manifesto
News / Affero, education, giving
Written by: Rob Harvey
What is Affero? Affero is a Latin word meaning “to bring, give, impart, turn over”. The aim of The Affero Project is to activate a global tribe working against poverty and injustice. We seek to bring about change by aggregating small donations and mobilizing these resources to worthwhile causes around world. Our members understand that new technology enables new kinds of gathering together and getting things done. And Affero is architecting a platform of participation where members log on, learn about causes and categories, share their interests with friends, and collaborate towards collective action. How would you like to change the world? Would you like to fight human trafficking? Maybe help provide medical relief to a third world country reeling from a recent natural disaster? Or made help the homeless in the inner city. At Affero, you choose your cause.
There is this thing called the internet. Last week I spent a day with our very own Marc Krejci as he outlined the next level of AfferoProject.com. You’re gonna love it. Marc really gets it. He’s all about the democratization of discovery, learning and participation. Our new site will match members with meaningful opportunities to connect and make it easy to share with others. He is wire-framing our future site to include verticals like adventure travel or athletics where your passions will overlap with purpose and provide space for us all to collaborate with each other. I can’t wait for you to see it!
For instance, maybe you’d like to go with us to Uganda next time and trek through the terrain on a four-wheeler, then go white water rafting before checking out a local orphanage or hospital. This adventure learning allows you to experience first hand the life-changing work going on there. Perhaps you will dig Team Affero because you would like to run a marathon like Josh Mitchell and get sponsors to cover each mile you run, raising awareness and funds for a specific charity or cause. The future site that we’re planning will foster many more ways to engage missions of mercy, compassion, justice and empowerment. How cool is that?
Mr. Digital, Marc
Josh and Christy
The word of mouse. Many people born before the 1980‘s are still catching on to how much social media has transformed the way we live and how organizations doing great work need to communicate with their target audience. The savvy ones in the business world have certainly caught on and are navigating the marketplace of ideas with their message and competing effectively for mindshare of those surfing on the web. Erik Qualman and others have documented how platforms like facebook, YouTube and twitter are fundamentally changing the way business and people behave. These social utilities connect hundreds of millions of people to each other via instant communication. But to what end? Why not harness the power of this connectivity to help provide clean water to those in need? Or address extreme poverty and hunger?
New technology enables new kinds of social action. As Clay Shirky and others have noted, when we change the way ideas spread, we change society. Think about how revolutionary the printing press was! Fact is, online word of mouth is powerful for influencing peer groups. Everyone is a media outlet. Will you use this exchange to help the orphan? To help bring clean water to where it is desperately needed?
Steve
Power to the people. At Affero, “You Give. You Vote. You Decide.” We operate essentially like donor-advised fund where you decide how much you want to give each month and vote which category or cause gets funded. To some degree we are structural minimalists like Steve Moore describes in one of his insightful vlogs at The Mission Exchange. This is especially true here in our beta launch. Our categories aren’t unpacked with organizations, yet. We deliberately resisted the development of systems and policies because we want to empower grassroots activity. We don’t want to control the process but provide our influence by empowering members, serving them and resourcing them. We aim to accelerate positive change through continuous cross pollination of ideas and opportunities beyond the organizational boundaries often associated with agencies doing the great field work themselves.
A generosity movement. Recently I was on the phone with Jonathan Mitchell who is doing some creative and impactful work with a similar process, spotlighting great works worthy of support. Through Ministry Spotlight, he aims to facilitate discussion, debate and partnership. His goal is similar to Affero’s in that he desires is to work alongside causes and help them enter the conversation going on every day online. We recognize that many times the most effective organizations doing great work in the field are small and lack the resources or inclination to market themselves. We know that too often donations are given in reactive, short term and harmful ways. We aim to change that.
Jonathan
What impressed me about Jonathan’s work is that he and his team are eager to collaborate without reinventing any wheel. And they are specifically seeking out economic development organizations that emphasize dignity over dependency. They are committed to empowering indigenous leadership and perpetuating indigenous funding for sustainability. This is hard work. Because, as noted by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert, relief is easier than development.
I am encouraged by a growing community, committed to bringing hope and empowering people all over the world. This movement is positioned to be viral friendly, spending itself so that others become advocators and activators, givers and sharers. Will you run with these pacesetters? Will you decide today how much you can give to be a change driver ? Are you in?
Peter Rees
Some exciting thoughts Rob. Nice post!
Rob Harvey
Thx Peter!
1099 form
whats your facebook profile?