Beth Kanter and the art of paying it forward.
Published December 03, 2008 @ 05:10AM PT
Yesterday, Marnie Webb (@webb) asked the following via Twitter:
What are you ideas for non-monetary contributions to do-good orgs this holiday season?
I was reminded of Beth Kanter, who has been a substantial advocate of Millennials Changing America. In addition to widely publicizing the tour and donating to it, Beth gave to the tour $50 from a $500 gift certificate (from Bill Me Later) for free coffee (a real plus for hours on the road).
I'd like to extend my thanks to Beth for her generosity and her continued creativity when it comes to figuring out new ways to pay it forward, as well as for encouraging us all to do the same. Please be sure to check out her post on gift economies, "coffee karma," and paying it forward.
Tweetsgiving - Holiday gratitude, Millennial style.
Published December 02, 2008 @ 02:34PM PT
I just wrote this post over at NetSquared about Stacey Monk, Avi Kaplan, and Epic Change's successful drive to raise $10k in two days over the Thanksgiving holiday.
The man, the myth, the "old old-Millennial" himself, L. Lessig (and co.) on An Open Transition!
Published December 02, 2008 @ 11:27AM PT
Larry Lessig (and brilliant company) have launched An Open Transition:
President-elect Obama has made a very clear commitment to changing the way government works with its citizens. To this end, we offer these three principles to guide the transition in its objective to build upon the very best of the Internet to produce the very best for government.
Behold! Lessig speaks!
From his blog:
As I indicated yesterday, I was very encouraged by the decision by the Obama transition team to freely license change.gov (not actually a .gov entity, so not exempt from the rights of copyright).
But over the weekend, a bunch of us got together to begin (actually, continue) the process of framing "open government principles." The first round is described at Politico by Ben Smith.
Be sure to check it out.
Old People: Stop excluding us because we're old.
Published December 02, 2008 @ 08:31AM PT
Old People: We're Millennials too!
I have been getting a lot of feedback from older people who suggest that talking in "generational" terms (i.e. "Millennial activism") is counter-productive. They, too, are tech-savvy, and they, too, are interested in positive change. I should be talking to older people as well, they suggest.
I find it is important for my generation to form its own identity with its own voice, as if we don't contribute accordingly, that voice will be, like ones before it have been victim to, adopted and written for us by advertisers and news magazines. Fortunately, it is not in our disposition to let that happen and we're already predisposed to this mentality (Is this what was being suggested when we were being fingered for being narcissistic? We won't let other people . For me, the impulse of talking about Millennials - or Y, or Splinters, or whatever the hell we're supposed to be called - doesn't stem from separating ourselves from older generations. I've been told by five different people in the past month, "We used to say 'Never trust anyone over 30, too!'" It is not my intention, or in the intentions of nearly all of the people I met when interviewing Millennial activists throughout the country, to hold elder generations in contempt. Similarly to the way that we've become "first globals" by using the Internet to break abstractions like "collateral damage" into tangibles like Facebook friends, the Internet has helped this generation to realize that being over-30 isn't necessarily a death sentence with regard to one's capacity for upholding ideals and pushing for positive social change. For this reason, I'm led to believe that every time someone mentions having once advocated for never trusting anyone over 30, that person is projecting something that has little to nothing to do with Millennials.
Of course, there are plenty of older-than Millennials Millennial activists out there like Jay Rosen, Clay Shirky, Stacey Monk, and many, many others who are great examples of old people engaging in forms of activism/engagement that is typically associated with younger people.
[Note: Stacey, to be fair, is only a few years older than the years that typically define Millennials - I point that out because I don't want her to think that I am flaunting her old-ness. She isn't nearly as old as Jay Rosen, who's got to be at least, oh, I don't know - in his late 40s!]
Millennial Activists: A Transferable Essence
I do agree with an element to the protests of such definitive rigidity regarding the parameters of what is embodied in a generation. What is remarkable about the Millennials' predisposition to break down walls is its ability to perpetuate and spread its own transferable essence - that is, because a large part of our perception is based on access to globalized technology, while our age bracket has been more steeped in the fruits of openness created by said exposure than others, the generational moniker - or tendencies that define it - aren't confined to its age bracket. I had mentioned this "transferability" in a radio interview a few weeks back, and apparently it's been on Penelope Trunk's mind as well (thanks to Alex Herder for bringing this to my attention):
We should determine our generation not by our age but by how we use media. This comes from Margaret Weigel, who has worked at Harvard and MIT doing research on digital media engagement:* "We should not judge people rigidly by the years they were born," she says, "If we want to define people by categories, it should be by behaviors because this is something each of us chooses."
In fact, on her blog, Trunk offers a quiz called "What generation are you part of, really?"
Be sure to check it out if you get a chance to do so.
- Are you an old Millennial (26-30+)?
- How narroly/broadly should this term be defined?
Briefly - Please do me a solid.
Published December 02, 2008 @ 07:07AM PT
My Change.org idea for Barack Obama is number 2 (in Fair Trade). Let's make it number 1, please.
Feel free to vote here.
Barrons: Next-Gen Givers
Published December 02, 2008 @ 06:28AM PT
Hat-tip to Danny Moldovan at Change.org for this one:
Next-Gen Givers: Generous Gen-Xers are putting their own spin on charitable giving, combining their desire to achieve with their desire to do good.
How do you engage the wandering 20-something set?
Published December 01, 2008 @ 07:57AM PT
I especially enjoyed meeting with Seattle Works while I was in Washington. The organization, "the premier community organization for local young professionals," is headed by Alison Carl White and with her and board member (and fellow Mainer) Sarah Haeger, I had a fantastic conversation about generational differences with regard to approaches to activism. Seattle Works, explains White, was started by and has by default concentrated on engaging Generation X. The organization, not unlike many other groups that have been in touch in the recent past, are curious regarding how to appeal to younger volunteers.
Haeger and I had a conversation the following day regarding the average age of inactivity with regard to volunteer programs. Regardless of the generational moniker, 21-28 is a real dry spell for Seattle Works and we discussed the reasons for this - a substantial number of Millennials are in their awkward 20's. We're getting settled into post-college, pre-family lives, and that transition is something of a cluster - we're trying to feel like we're adults while we're not yet entirely on our feet. We often lack stability of home, relationship, routines, or whatever else keeps us on a schedule.
- Is this something that your organization/campaign has experienced issues with?
- How do you retain the 20-something crowd, especially when we've got so much going on?
- Are you a 20-something that has found a way to strike some sort of comfortable balance between your hectic life and volunteering/activism?
