This is a presentation that I prepared for some Silicon Valley tech leaders who wanted to know how they could help activists in the wake of Prop 8.

1. Next-Gen Activism for
Marriage Equality
Some prototypes and brainstorming to
kickoff the conversation

2. What’s Needed?
A consolidated, easy-to-use platform that allows
organizations to share resources, and guides
supporters to volunteer opportunities.
Open to a wide range of organizations and initiatives:
grassroots
local
statewide
national
Enabling collaboration among organizations:
sharing resources
tracking outcomes
cross-referencing each others’ communications
managing volunteers and attracting new supporters

3. Who needs this service?
Four types of users:
State and National
Organizations
Grassroots Organizers
Volunteers
Potential Allies

4. Who needs this service?
STATE/NATL ORGS LOCAL ORGS VOLUNTEERS ALLIES
Assume bird’s-eye-view; share knowledge
Share and leverage resources
Cross-reference communications
Collect and evaluate reports from local orgs
Distribute resources to local orgs and volunteers
Track outcomes

5. Who needs this service?
STATE/NATL ORGS LOCAL ORGS VOLUNTEERS ALLIES
Delegate resources in locally targeted
campaigns
Find and assemble local volunteers
Receive guidance from state/national orgs
Distribute guidance and resources to volunteers
Track local campaign progress and report
outcomes

6. Who needs this service?
STATE/NATL ORGS LOCAL ORGS VOLUNTEERS ALLIES
Efficiently provide support and services
Find local opportunities to help
Receive relevant news and alerts
Involve their friends
Engage with new organizations
Report outcomes

7. Who needs this service?
STATE/NATL ORGS LOCAL ORGS VOLUNTEERS ALLIES
Receive highly targeted, personalized
messaging from family and friends
These users will probably not seek out the service
Instead, it will be recommended to them by our
volunteers:
“Hey, Mom and Dad, look at the photo album I
posted.”
Or, “Hey, everyone, I’m doing a fund-
raiser. Check out my progress on
this site.”

8. Why is this necessary?
Your supporters want to help, but are totally confused.
IT’S HARD FOR PEOPLE TO FIND
PERSONALLY RELEVANT NEWS/
OPPORTUNITIES
PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL ASSETS
DON’T KNOW HOW TO OFFER THEM
THERE ARE TOO MANY CONFLICTING OPTIONS

9. So how would this platform
look and function
for the different users?

10. State and National Orgs
State and national orgs would
interface like Facebook
groups -- only interconnected.
Organization admins would
have a secure method to view
their members’ contact info,
collaboration tools, resources,
and reports.
Volunteers would see only
the group’s info, news, and
events; with opportunities to
join and participate.

11. Grassroots Organizers
Local organizers would
get a stipped-down
version of the state/
national interface.
They have the same
collaboration tools, but
with other local groups,
rather than with the
state/national orgs.

12. Volunteers
Volunteers’ profiles
look like “missions”
-- a list of
opportunities to
help locally, which
they can then
choose to accept.
The site tracks
social relationships,
and makes
suggestions based
on what your
friends are doing.

13. Allies
The site helps
volunteers to create
their conversation-
starters
Mini-sites that offer
targeted, effective
talking points
Volunteers can use
these sites when
broaching these
topics with friends
and family.

14. Calls to action
Volunteers join as many
organizations as they want
on one central site.
Then, each organization can
target communications to
their members based on
demographic info.
Or organizations can
collaborate, sharing
membership lists to reach
even more people.

15. Let’s look at some
usage examples.

16. Scenario 1:
Local Organizer Has a
Great New Idea

17. Local Organizer Has a
Great New Idea
Let’s say you’re a local organizer with a great new idea -- for
example, hand-holding day to boost visibility.
You need a tech platform that lets you:
Put together a plan and share it with state/national
organizations
Get feedback from state/national orgs
Communicate the plan to your volunteers and to other
local organizations
Get documentation of the campaign from your volunteers

18. Local Organizer Has a
Great New Idea
So, first the organizer
formulates their plan offline.

19. Local Organizer Has a
Great New Idea
Then the organizer uses
the technology platform
to send their plan to
their affiliated state and
national organizations.

20. Local Organizer Has a
Great New Idea
Feedback on:
USC GLBT Hand-Holding Day
Affected area: Los Angeles
Dates: 2/14/09
Then they get
feedback. Hi guys,
Love the image! You might consider
teaming up with the nearby LA GLBT
center; they have Valentine’s Day plans,
too. You can find their contact info on our
profile.
Also, try to avoid using the word “hate” in
your publicity. Our focus groups show
that it can turn some people off.
Good luck,
Dave at EQCA

21. Local Organizer Has a
Great New Idea
Then they communicate their plan to their
members, and to other local organizers.

22. Local Organizer Has a
Great New Idea
Then afterwards,
attendees post
photos and reports.
These outcome-
reports are sent to
local organizers, as
well as to
participating state/
local orgs.

23. Scenario 2:
The Media Wants to Cover
Events, Conduct Interviews

24. Media Wants to Cover
Events, Conduct Interviews
Media exposure is great!
We want to make it as easy as possible for
reporters to find out about campaigns
And also to find people to interview

25. Media Wants to Cover
Events, Conduct Interviews
It’s totally easy for reporters to
log on and find local
organizations
It’s easy to request an interview
with relevant organizations
And because everything is
stored on one central site, it’s
easy for spokespeople to point
reporters to additional
resources

26. Media Wants to Cover
Events, Conduct Interviews
Reporters can find events
that are happening locally
And they can sign up for
alerts, so that they receive
immediate notification of
new events

27. Media Wants to Cover
Events, Conduct Interviews
Reporters can search
members to find relevant
interview subjects
Demographic-based
searches or available
Or an organization can
recommend one of its
members

28. Scenario 3:
Somebody Wants to Help,
But Doesn’t Know How

29. Somebody Wants to Help,
But Doesn’t Know How
Let’s say someone decided that they want to help
out -- or maybe they saw one of your ads
They need to know:
What’s happening right now that affects them
Who needs their help
How they can involve their friends
When new opportunities to help arise

30. Somebody Wants to Help,
But Doesn’t Know How
So when they visit the site, the first thing it asks is
where they are.
94118

31. Somebody Wants to Help,
But Doesn’t Know How
Then it shows the user all of the volunteer
opportunities happening nearby, and lets them
pick the ones they like.
And then they create an account -- linked to their
Facebook profile -- and bam, you’ve got them and
all of their Facebook friends.

32. Somebody Wants to Help,
But Doesn’t Know How
Or, if there are no local volunteer opportunities, it
gives the user to option to form their own local
grassroots organization.

33. Scenario 4:
A Volunteer Wants to
Conduct Outreach with
Their Family Members

34. Volunteer Conducting
Outreach with Family
So, let’s say that you have a conservative Lutheran
family.
They don’t support gay marriage yet -- but you
want to reach out to them and talk about it, with
the hope that eventually they’ll come around.
You’ll need some resources:
How to broach the topic in an appealing way
Talking points that are proven-effective
Connections to other allies in your community

35. Volunteer Conducting
Outreach with Family
Members tailor their
To what kind of community would
outreach to specific you like to reach out?
communities Faith-based
Are these:
And to specific Friends
Co-workers
people Family
You indicated that this is a religious
And to specific community. What religion is it?
places Lutheran
What is their zip code?
Upload related photos:

36. Volunteer Conducting
Outreach with Family
The result is a mini-
site with personalized
talking points and
community resources.
Volunteers can show Here are some Lutheran Pastors near
94118 who have experience with gay
this to their potential family members:
allies, or just use the •
•
Paul Adams, First Arlington Church
George Mason, St. Michael’s Parish
• Eric Finner, Lutheran Church of Oakland
information to start a Facts About Lutheranism
conversation. and Gay Family Members

37. Also Worth Noting

38. Facebook Connect
A technology that lets you
use Facebook profiles on
your own networking site
Users sign in to your site
with their FB profile
And update FB profiles
with info from your site
Thus drastically improving
your site’s visibility

39. Facebook Connect
MoveOn.org uses it

40. Outreach Opportunities
There are GAZILLIONS of
opportunities to reach out to
potential volunteers
These are people who
DESPERATELY WANT TO
HELP, but don’t know how
Oh my God, seriously, it kills
me that you guys have ZERO
outreach at events like the
Valentine’s Day pillowfight, it
would be so perfect if you did

41. So, To Sum Up:
We need a consolidated, easy-to-use platform that
allows organizations to share resources, and
guides supporters to volunteer opportunities.
Ideally, this platform would be managed by larger
organizations, overseeing user-generated content
from grassroots organizers and volunteers.
Volunteers and supporters are desperately
searching for an platform like this.
We can tap in to existing technology and social
networks.