The Affero Blog
Affero Manifesto
By Rob Harvey in News
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?
Famous Photos, Fast Cars & A Friendly Heart
By Beau Miller in News
Affero Member Profile:
I had the pleasure of meeting Georgia Durante on one of my business trips to LA earlier this year. A few us were headed to the west coast to shoot a marketing video and when we were looking for homes to rent we stumbled across a really cool place called The Enchanted Manor. A place which I later learned was owned and operated by Georgia. While we ended up staying in a home closer to where we were shooting, fortunately for me, we still got to meet Georgia. And believe me when I tell you, I had no idea how fascinating our dinner together would be!
To say that Georgia has lived an wildly interesting life would be a total understatement. If I were to tell you that she became “the most photographed woman in the world” in the summer of ’69, as the beautiful “Kodak Girl” in the blue polka dot bikini would you believe me? Well, it’s true. That was her on the thousands of cardboard cut-outs in stores across the globe. And what if I told you that shortly after her very successful modeling career she became Hollywood’s leading female precision stunt driver, a status she held for decades? This is also true. And if this isn’t enough for you, how about the fact that she got her education in driving fast as a getaway driver for the Gambino crime family in New York. This may sound a bit outlandish, so before you call me a liar, let me tell you that you can go ahead and check out her best selling memoir “The Company She Keeps,” where all of this can be substantiated. Surprise, surprise, Georgia is an amazing author too. I don’t know about you, but I think that if this blog post ended right here it would definitely fulfill the criterion of profiling a member of The Affero Project community in an interesting way. But the truth is, this is just the tip of the iceberg with Georgia. I haven’t even got the chance to tell you about how loving, generous and brave she is, and that’s what matters most. Georgia’s heart is really what makes her, well…Georgia.
When I decided that I was going to start blogging about Affero members each week, I checked the member list and wasn’t surprised at all to see that Georgia had joined the movement. I didn’t even have a chance to call and tell her about it, and she had already taken the initiative to read about Affero on Facebook and join the community. No pitch necessary, no clarification needed. When I called her tonight she summed it up really quickly when she said, “Beau, I am always willing to help with a good cause, and this is really something special!” It meant a lot to me to hear her say that, and Georgia, I’d like to say this in return – you are something special. The hospitality and love that I experienced when Georgia invited us into her home for dinner was really beautiful. We felt like family and forged a friendship that will last for many, many years. Beyond that, we got to meet a very special 4-year-old girl named Angela, whom Georgia lovingly adopted as her daughter a few years ago. Knowing Georgia, and what a great mom she is, it came as no shock to learn that her experience with adopting Angela inspired her to take action and give back by serving on the board of Grandparents As Parents, an organization committed to providing programs and services to meet the urgent and ongoing needs of grandparents and other relative caregivers raising at-risk children. This is just who Georgia is. A loving and compassionate person with a real heart for others. As you can imagine, throughout her life Georgia has had multiple brushes with death, and has lived to share her story. And I, for one, am thankful that she did. The way her life has changed, the ways she serves those in need and the stories she’s been able to share have been a blessing to me. There is no question that Georgia has helped to make the world a better place, and I’m proud to call her a friend and a fellow member of The Affero Project.
Peace & Polka Dots,
Beau
P.S. Grandparents As Parents is putting on a cool event at the House of Blues in California this September, so if you are in the area be sure to check out their website for more info.
Parents Using Affero Project to Empower Their Children and Teach Compassion
By Beau Miller in News
Hey everyone, here’s a little something that I thought was really cool and wanted to share with all of you. I have a great friend and fellow member of the Mosaic church community named Larry. A couple of weeks before Affero launched, I called Larry to tell him all about it. I must admit, the first reason for my call was that I knew he had some spare change, and secondly, I knew I could strong arm him and threaten him enough to get him to cough it up. After all, I’m bigger than he is and he would do anything to avoid me tickling him or picking him up and putting him in my pocket. Just kidding, the real reason I called Larry is because he is a great man with a true servant heart and a burning desire to help those in need.
So, not surprisingly, right after I told Larry about Affero he was on board 100%, and said he’d sign up. Like the noble, handsome (you’re welcome Larry) and generous man he is, he did sign up – with a total of three separate accounts! Three accounts!?!? Yeah, this is the cool part. Larry decided that it would be one thing for he and his beautiful wife Buffy (in this case I actually mean it) to set up an account and give, but it would be even cooler if they could involve their young kids, Benjamin and Savannah. So, Larry and Buffy (who are in the running for Affero’s Parents of the Year award), sat down with the kids at the computer and told them all about The Affero Project and what they could do to be a part of changing the world. They read over the categories, let the kids see what each org needed, and then, after they set up accounts in Benjamin and Savannah’s names, they got to vote for where they wanted their money to go. They were so excited, and were practically begging Larry to go out in the cool Affero t-shirts I promised them (and have yet to deliver), and tell the world the good news. How cool is this? Seriously, what a beautiful vision for connecting with your kids, and in turn, connecting them to their global neighbors in need! Encouraging a life of giving and compassion from a very young age – sweet!
Often times kids grow up thinking that giving to charity is something for their parents to do. Their parents will worry about the orphans, widows and the poor for now – and then someday in the future, it will be their turn to learn what social justice is all about and start giving. But much applause to Larry and Buffy for using their God-given creativity to give their amazing kids a voice in the fight right now. Just imagine what Benjamin and Savannah will be doing ten years from now. I can tell you this much, I know they’ll be doing something extraordinary. So, parents out there, this is a time that it might be good to tear out a page from Larry and Buffy’s parenting playbook. Affero is all about empowering people, and no matter how young your kids may be, they want to be a part of something bigger. They want to help. So consider setting up Affero accounts for them, and just wait to see the joy in their eyes and on their hearts when they get to decide if their dollar is going to be the dollar that is used to dig a well in Africa or for schooling for Dominican kids. It’s a powerful thing, and we are excited to hear the stories of your little kids, doing big things in our world.
Peace & Love,
Beau
What People Are Saying
We wanted to share what people are saying about The Affero Project so far! Visit www.afferoproject.com/community to leave your comments and read others. Be inspired! Ordinary People, doing Extraordinary Things!
Beau Miller
This is pretty darn exciting! I am getting so much joy out of this community. 32 members and $168 already – pretty darn good. Can’t imagine what it will look like when Affero really catches fire with all of the people in our world who want to do good for others.
Mike Coates
After I voted for Human Trafficking, I was reading how they need $100,000 to build restoration houses in the US. I realized how sweet it was to think that we could be giving $100,000 a month to them. That’s insane!
Steven McLaughlin
I can be a bit cynical when it comes to giving, but this is definitely something I can get behind. Let’s keep it going!
Thomas Kruse
Let’s do this. Activate.
What Is The Affero Project?
In Short…
The Affero Project exists to educate, inspire and equip people to help end global poverty and injustice worldwide. We have created the worlds-first online giving platform and community that allows people to give small change every month, and combine their contributions with thousands of others, and together decide where the pool of money is given. Empowering Non-Profit Organizations and Non-Government Organization’s, bringing sustainable change to individuals and communities all around the world.