I was intrigued to see a piece on BoingBoing this morning about
CraigConnects, which is the new venture launched by Craig Newmark, who put the Craig in Craigslist. The ostensible goal of CraigConnects is to "connect and protect" not for profit organisations, which is naturally a laudable goal even if it does cause one to ask "Protect from whom, exactly?"
Anyway, I figured given the innovative nature of Craigslist, CraigConnects would have some new structure or unique perspective on this little world I happen to inhabit. Something new under the sun. Craig Newmark is dedicating the next twenty years to CraigConnects, after all.
I wandered around the site for a while, trying to get some actual information on what Newmark intends to do, but there isn't much. Not that I doubt his sincerity or intentions, I just am not sure what his actual plan is. I came to the conclusion that, at least in the immediate sense, CraigConnects is a daily Radio Free Monday. Which is fine! Radio Free Monday is quite useful. But it's not exactly
innovative.
It may be that CraigConnects intends to grow itself into something like CharityNavigator, perhaps with a slightly more effective, more informative interface. He does say that part of their mission is to protect "organizations, and the public, from fake organizations that have a good story, but actually end up hurting the people they profess to serve." Which, again, is laudable, but a trifle vague.
The thing about Craigslist is that it's in the middle of a very high level of supply and demand. People need
stuff, and need to get rid of
stuff, and need to buy and sell services (and drugs, and sex, but that's true in any open market, really). The world of philanthropy has a different rhythm; nobody
absolutely needs to give ten dollars to save some animals by the end of the week, not like they need to acquire a ten-dollar portable cooler to carry their sandwiches in or whatever. Well, maybe around tax time people need to give money for a writeoff, but that's the most urgent it gets on the donor end, usually.
More publicity for a cause/fund/grant is always better, but I don't see what motivation potential donors have to visit CraigConnects, at least not in the volume he is apparently hoping for. Unless CraigConnects has formulated a plan to somehow market not for profits more effectively than they can do for themselves, I'm not sure I really see how this project is going to need twenty years. It takes me between forty minutes and three hours to code Radio Free Monday, and I don't even have any interns.
Huh. Maybe I should get some interns.
Mind you, I don't claim to be an expert on social media's relationship to your common or garden Not For Profit. I'm not even an expert on one of those things, let alone how the two interact. It'll be interesting to see what precisely Craig makes of the Connect, though.
On a quasi-related note, since I...well, mentioned Radio Free Monday, Kate of
Candlemark & Gleam would like me to let you guys know that it is
Read An eBook Week! As we're already halfway through the week I thought it best not to wait until...next week, um, to let you know that C&G is offering half-off their eBooks for the rest of the week with promo code REB50.
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