501derful.org
I just finished the book Microtrends and was really impressed with
the diversity of examples. What really grabbed my attention in the
greater sense was how easy a micro trend can bubble up from something
obscure to something significant. One trend that I think the author
missed was the rise of the one man non profit.
In my travels and workings I have come across a phenomenon that
actually concerns me more than the economy or bad PR. It is the rise of
the one man non profits and how they can impact the efforts of larger
organizations. I also began to think about ways that we can empower
personal engagement with philanthropy on a local scale yet retain the
large scale impact. In a series of posts over the next few days I hope
to explore those thoughts and not to irk too many people in the process.
Looking forward to them. I’ve noted, anecdotally, a trend among volunteers who classify themselves as part of the young, hip crowd, searching for “a meaningful, small project” and equating that with a small (or micro) nonprofit, only to grow rapidly overwhelmed by the scope of a problem compared with the seemingly available resources with which to address a solution. How does a large organization market a systems approach to address a community’s desire for localism without resorting to a whitepaper about process?