Slacktivism: Can it be a good thing?

Since 2009, I have been reading quite a bit about slacktivism. In most contexts I have found the term, it has had a negative connotation, directly implying that slacktivists are people who are too lazy to engage in something meaningful.Today, I read a great blog post that made me realize that I have been missing a very important dimension about slacktivism. It's not just about people being too lazy (though there sure is some of that involved): there's an element of acknowledging the fragmented attention span (and wallet depth) that most people have these days. As a result, if you can engage millions of people for a short period of time and get them to sign a petition (and pass it along to tens of others) or have millions of people to TEXT a $10 donation, you CAN make millions of otherwise seemingly pointless contributions VERY meaningful.But "The Art of Activating Slacktivism" by Kari Dunn Saratovsky goes one step further. He introduces the "teach a man how to fish" concept:"Nonprofits spend too much time trying to figure out how to use social media tools to entice new donors to give them $10, when they should be figuring out how to empower their existing donors to leverage social media tools to raise money for them."I look forward to incorporating this concept into our future fundraising campaigns at the Diabetes Hands Foundation.

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Online Communities for Nonprofits at NTC2010

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Chuck builds an asymmetrical Rubick's Cube... in 6 minutes!