By now you know that I am convinced that YouTube (free), when combined with WordPress.com (free), is a powerful tool for education, mobilization, recruiting, and everything else connected with communications.
This includes charities.
I am also convinced that, despite the hundreds of millions of videos and websites out there, almost nobody is systematically using YouTube and WordPress.com to produce a systematic programs of recruiting, training, mobilization, and implementation. In other words, it's not a matter of technology; it's a matter of vision.
This is why these extraordinary technologies are not being used effectively for education. I realize the Khan Academy is the exception that proves the rule, but there is no way that he will get all of the students in the world, not even free of charge. He will get more than anybody else, but he won't get all of them.
This is true in all areas of service. What people need is training in mobilization. There are lots of informational videos out there. There are lots of books out there. But we do not see systematic program of recruitment, training, and mobilization. If we think of the Communist Party in England in the 1930's, there is not much out there to rival it. The system of recruitment, training, and mobilization that is described by Douglas Hyde in Dedication and Leadership (1966), based on his experiences as a Communist leader in the 1930's, is virtually nonexistent in most areas of the society.
I have used the example of Sunday school classes online. The Sunday school materials that are on YouTube range from terrible to abominable. They don't show any understanding of lighting, sound, or organization. You cannot go online and find competently produced 12-week Sunday school programs devoted to specific topics. There are denominations out there with people who have the technical skills to produce such materials. There are mega-churches out there that could produce such materials in abundance. They don't do it. Why don't they do it? They lack vision. They lack dedication. They lack any assessment of what the new technology can do to build organizations. They are still operating in terms of printed books and magazines. They do not understand that printed books and magazines are now supplemental to digital communications. They are operating in the world that existed before 1995. They are operating before Netscape Navigator changed the world.
LOCALISM
Think of all of the fraternal organizations that have come into existence in the United States. These organizations have chapters all over the United States, and some of them have chapters all over the world. Think of the talent that is available to these organizations. Think of what a local chapter could do with a smartphone, a $25 cable to convert the smartphone's headphone jack into a microphone jack, an $80 tripod, a $200 wireless microphone, a $70 video editing program, a free YouTube channel, and a free web site.
People belong to special-interest organizations of all kinds. Any time you have more than a dozen men or women gathered together, there will be enough talent in the group to begin to produce effective video training materials. One of them can speak. One of them can use a video editing program. One of them can show up and point a smartphone at a speaker. Everybody can toss in $20 or $40 apiece to buy the equipment. (They all own smartphones.)
From the very beginning of the United States, this country has rested on a foundation of voluntary associations of all kinds. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about this in 1830's. He was astounded.
Let's assume that there is a voluntary organization that has a specialty. It helps children, or it helps old people, or it has a food pantry, or whatever. There are charitable organizations all over the country that have successful local programs. All they have to do is to produce a series of videos that train other organizations to set up a similar program locally. There is a PDF manual. There are online YouTube videos. Everything that a local organization needs to do in order to start a small-scale program could be put online free of charge.
Successful national organizations are in a position to provide this kind of information to local affiliates. Every charitable organization could produce videos that could be used to reproduce small-scale versions of the national program. What would it cost to produce these materials? A few thousand dollars? Is there talent available in-house? Of course. Could be posted online for free? Of course. Should every organization do this? Of course.
Where are these materials? Nowhere to be found. Not even with Google.
It is not a matter of money. It is not a matter of technology. It is a matter of vision, self-discipline, and a willingness to commit minimal resources for the sake of extending the vision.
These organizations are great at fund-raising. They are great at sending out fund-raising letters. They are great shaking down the membership. What they are not even remotely competent doing is reproducing themselves. That's because the people at the top have no interest in reproducing the organization locally. Only if the local organizations could be used as fund-raising devices by the bureaucrats at the top, with their $100,000 salaries and their perks, are the leaders interested in developing such materials.
THE TEST
There is a really easy way to know whether a charitable organization is worth sending money to. Find out about its online training programs, offered free of charge or for a minimal amount of money, that local people can use to launch small-scale versions of the organization. If the organization does not have anything like this, don't send in a dime. It is just a bunch of guys shaking down the membership for lifetime careers. They are not interested in transforming society. They are not interested in solving whatever problem the organization is officially dedicated to solving.
Obviously, I'm not talking about some medical research organization devoted to curing a disease. I'm talking about charitable organizations that raise money to help the poor. If all it's doing is raising money for the national organization to help the poor, which means collecting money at the top to distribute down the chain of command, the organization is interested in empire-building, not helping the poor. Helping the poor is the excuse; structurally, the organization is committed to establishing permanent sources of revenue for senior employees at the top of the pyramid.
If the organization has training materials online that help local activists to reproduce the program locally, view these materials. Read the manual. Then decide whether it's worth your support.
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