Change.org is a recently launched social network for social activism, incorporating nonprofits, politicians, and ‘change’ in general. One of the few non-profit startups on the web focused on philanthropy and bringing together a social change in politics and the general world, the project has so far managed to raise $26,865.
How It Works
Users sign up and either create or join groups in things they care about and would like to ‘virtually’ be active in. This leads to interaction and, if something is recognized as important by users, the users of that group can get together and organize a real rally/march/lobby. The idea is that passionate and involved users now have a central place, on the web, to do a lot of things and bring general awareness to their beliefs. 
In the same way, non-profits and politicians can sign up for their respective type of accounts and try and achieve awareness to their ideas and beliefs (which is a bit different to a regular user’s privileges on the site). While there aren’t many of these currently active on the site, I expect a number of non-profits and politicians are going to join as they raise more money and eventually start marketing the site (and the site itself starts getting more word-of-mouth through its users).
Opinion
Change.org features an interesting set of features and ideas and can definitely be crossed out as just ’another social network.’ Starting today, they’ve even set an ambitious goal to raise over $3 billion in this election cycle. The way the site’s set out, using the huge tag cloud on their homepage as an example, I think it’s the perfect way to introduce potential activists to how they can participate. I definitely think such a project has legs, and if they can raise just the enough amount of money to start marketing it to the pure ‘mainstream’ (as opposed to the hardcore activists), it might just achieve its goal.
