If you want to change something, what is the first thing you need to do? Create a strategy for achieving that change. Then, you need people to support your change so that your ideas are not trapped in your mind forever. How can you identify people in all parts of the world that would support your cause and actually back it through funding and/or action?
Enter…The Point: make something happen, a social and consumer activism site launched in November 2007. What makes thepoint.com different from other activism sites, such as change.org or kiva.org? While money can be donated to causes on thepoint.com, the mechanism that spurs this donation is different. With other websites, people donate money as soon as they see a cause they are willing to support. With thepoint.com, a member creates a campaign, and participants pledge to take action only when enough other people have pledged to do the same. If this “tipping point” is reached, members agree to boycott a product, donate money to a particular cause, or take some form of civil action. While money is not involved in all of the situations, in those where it is, credit cards will only be charged for donations in the event that the terms are met.
Some highlighted objectives/causes on the website and their related terms and conditions include:
1. Objective: Get a major magazine to publish an issue without airbrushing or photoshopping the models in any of the features or the cover. TERMS: If this objective is met, then buy at least two copies of the magazine. (to show the demand for images “real women”)
2. Objective: Raise money for an AIDS orphanage in India. Provide basic needs, housing, and volunteer support. Terms: If we reach at least $1,000, then we will give money to: Peace Children Care Home, India.
The idea behind thepoint.com is simple: strength in numbers. It allows people to achieve change that would be difficult to spark alone. To support a campaign on this website represents a step further from “liking” a cause on Facebook. While I agree that awareness is an essential first step, it is hardly ever sufficient in creating large-scale change. With regards to thepoint.com, some actual action does follow when the tipping point is reached. Thus, some sort of compact is maintained and carried out, paving the way for real change.
From the above discussion, the creator of thepoint.com, Andrew Mason, can be seen as a social entrepreneur, and his website can be seen as a social innovation. Both Mason and thepoint.com bring people together in an innovative (novel, significantly better than what exists today, and sustainable) way to indirectly further all sorts of causes to further the mission of generating social value. A few points, however, complicate this assignment of labels:
1. Not all of the campaigns and fundraisers on the website enhance the wellbeing of the population. Is this problematic? Is it sufficient that the majority of the efforts on the website do? Does mixing these two categories of initiatives devalue those in the category of “greater overall good”?
2. Will the possible addition of advertisements to generate revenue affect the social value of thepoint.com?
3. Will requiring members to pay a certain amount in order to create a campaign or initiative detract from the overall social value of the website?
Aruna and I already spoke about this, but I thought I'd mention this to others.
ReplyDeleteI believe the revenue model thepoint.com seemed to find -- at least as far as I can tell -- is Groupon.com.
Yep, they combined The Point's notion of group commitment to action with the don't-charge-my-credit-card-until-the-tipping-point-is-reached function, and... voila!
In the case of groupon.com (short for group coupon), the action is buying stuff: manicures, massages, cookies, pies, gym memberships, meals, etc. at discount prices.
I think this tool/web platform/concept could be applied to regions that need some kind of infrastructural improvements related to energy, transportation, food supply, building drinking water wells...
e.g. What if person A proposed to spend $X building a refrigerated distribution warehouse 6 months from now if within 2 months, communities 1, 2, and 3, each had 100 people committed to buying a certain monetary amount of food from Person A for a certain period of time?
How could this idea be applied in areas without much internet access? What is the non-electronic version of this? Could it work? NOTE: Groupon generates its revenue by taking a certain percentage (50%) of all the money members pay for their groupon. So, If I pay $5 for a meal at Pamela's that would usually cost $10, Groupon keeps $2.50 and Pamela's gets the other $2.50.
I have a friend who works in Development at the Nature Museum in Chicago and groupon did wonders for them because they offered half price memberships...yes, they had to split the money with Groupon, but they saw it as money they wouldn't have gotten if not for Groupon. Plus now they get to report their much bigger membership figures to foundations that support their work.