Replies

IMHO, redundant to integrate with FR.

But I love the idea that you’re fired up about doing something.

Here’s my 2 cents, a whole lot of IMHO...

FR has many informal groups and relationships, i.e., ping lists, etc.

You could set up a recurring thread on FR, or a ping list.

It’s a free country - you can make your own website, your own corporate organization, non-profit or for-profit (which of course has the disadvanting of paying income tax but the advantage of not having tax-exempt rules applied to it).

You could start a for-profit business that sells products or services or even just fundraises, i.e., sells coffee mugs, or sells activist articles and research, or provides services to people who want to start activist movements, etc., etc. There are tons of ways to get into activism - a ton of ideas no one is doing yet or has even thought of yet.

You’ll want to use your time and effort to have as much impact as possible, not a teeny-tiny impact.

FR is just one such great, high-impact idea. Wow.

You could start an FR ping list for your new idea - the ping list could be an exploratory group.

I did this once, actually got to the point of having some conference calls (via a free web service). It was very cool to hear FReepers gathered, but the group / idea didn’t really take. No harm done. But a good cheap way to explore your idea.

IMHO...

Points and questions to consider in your own mind:

* It’s very difficult to get an idea going that has significant impact, without having people experienced in building such organizations.

* Am I starting a different kind of organization, or just yet another political activism group ? Is my idea ALREADY being done ? If so, how is my idea going to be differentiated ? Example: say I want to start an organization to raise awareness about second amendment rights. It’s already a crowded space, with the big player being the NRA. I need to consider my market positioning in such a case.

* Do I legally need to organize as a political organization ? I need to learn about the different types of political/non-political organization options and the legal requirements of each, and which is best for what I am trying to do. There are penalties for political groups that are not properly organized or do not follow the law regarding their type of organization.

* What specifically am I trying to change or do ?

* Will my organization have any real effect or just be a drop in the bucket of political activism ?

* Who is my target audience - conservatives (preaching to the choir), the left (trying to reach lost atheists or misled Christians) or non-political types (trying to raise awareness amongst the merely unaware or disinterested types) ? All of these target audiences and many others offer worthy goals for the activist, but I should just be clear from the outset who my target is, and honest to myself if I’ve not settled on one.

* Am I really going to be able to have some effect on my target audience ?

* How will my group have this effect ? My target audience already is bombarded with activism from politicians, groups, etc., - constantly.

* Many people will participate in batting around ideas.

* It’s like herding cats getting people to agree on specific methods, goals, strategies, tasks, etc.

* Once you have specifics decided on - Not many people will take their time and resources to actually implement an idea. People typically do not have time or money to actually do things. There may be creative ways to utilize the efforts of such low-involvement people - FR itself is a wonderful example of this.

* It’s excellent to simply start a good recurring FR thread - you can see there are many and those threads typically get heavy traffic. Do not underestimate the influence of FR - since the general public, media and various thought leaders and influencers - lurk in very large numbers. And they act on what they read here on FR.