Daily Archives: 18 April 2011

Online Fan Communities Work to Save the World

Even back in the 1990s, there were thousands of online communities for people who wanted to to share information and excitement about a particular television show, movie, sports team, celebrity, hobby or literary genre. Back then, instead of via Facebook or a YahooGroup, it was via USENET or American Online. Just as offline communities and groups will often “pass the hat” at their gatherings for a good cause, or participate in the occasional one-day group volunteering event, Internet-based fan groups came together online or in person back in the 1990s to improve their communities, promote a cause or generate funds for a nonprofit organization. Often, these fans engaged in philanthropy with no prompting from any charity or formal organization. I highlighted some of those fan-based online volunteering efforts. while at the Virtual Volunteering Project in 1999.

I’m not at all surprised that the practice is continuing: the recent National Conference on Media Reform in Boston, organized by the non-profit organization Free Press, featured the panel “Pop Culture Warriors: How Online Fan Communities Are Organizing to Save the World.” This blog details one effort:

The Harry Potter Alliance is a group of devotees worldwide who have hocus-pocused their shared love of the Potter books and movies into genuine social activism. As their website declares, they use the power of the Internet to “work with partner NGOs [non-profit, non-governmental organizations] in alerting the world to the dangers of global warming, poverty, and genocide. Work with our partners for equal rights regardless of race, gender, and sexuality. Encourage our members to hone the magic of their creativity in endeavoring to make the world a better place.”

The Alliance mobilized its fanbase to win a $250,000 grant from Chase Community Giving, beating out more than 10,000 other charities in a Facebook competition. They’ve donated more than 55,000 books to school libraries around the world, including the Mississippi Delta and Rwanda, and are helping to build a school library in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Five planeloads of supplies were sent to Haiti after last year’s earthquake. They’ve registered first-time voters and even petitioned Time Warner to make Harry Potter chocolates Fair Trade: that is, chocolate not made — or cocoa beans harvested — under inhumane conditions, such as starvation wages or child slavery.

The audio of the conference session on online fan communities is here.

If you are a nonprofit organization looking to increase diversity among your volunteering / supporter ranks, find out if there are fan groups in your area. Find them by searching on YahooGroups, GoogleGroups and Meetup.com. Also ask your current volunteers – and ask them to, in turn, ask their friends and family members – if they are a part of an online fan-based community and if that community would be receptive to message about volunteering at your organization. Create a written pitch just for the particular group you want to approach, inviting them to learn more about volunteering with your organization, or inviting them to attend a particular event or activity. Food banks, for instance, could put out word that those hosting viewing parties of a particular TV show could encourage attendees to bring food donations for the food bank. Or an environmental group hosting a trail or beach cleanup could get the word out about the event to fan-based groups. Or a school-based mentoring program could let a local chapter of a fan-based group know about the need for mentors, how easy it is to be involved, the difference mentors make, etc.

As noted in the article I wrote originally about online volunteering by fan-based groups,

  • For annual events: “People should keep in mind that these kind of events start off slow. You shouldn’t try to start huge. Let support build. Let the word get out. It will get bigger every year.”
  • Have a lead person or official chairperson who is well-recognized within the online community to lead communication activities with the group on your behalf. They want to hear from one of their own, not an outsider.
  • Talk to the group before the event about the recognition it may receive. If they are going to show up in their Star Trek uniforms for your one-day volunteering event, get their permission before you have local news reporters come out to film them – no one wants to be made fun of for their passions!

If you are a fan-based group looking for a nonprofit or NGO to support, engage in a conversation with your membership about what that organization should be: some members may already be affiliated with an organization and others may want to join them. Or they may know that a person affiliated with whatever you are following – a TV show, a book, a movie, a sports team, a singer, etc. – is already affiliated with a charity your membership like to add their support to.

And remember: this group will talk after the event or volunteering activity, online, in the online community, about their experience. Work with the group’s leadership to ensure that you hear feedback that can help you improve activities in the future, that might look great on your web site, or that simply might energize your organization to engage with this community again.

Also see Finding Community Service and Volunteering for Groups.