This is the feedback I gave them on their January Changemaker Challenge.
Let's see if they respond...
This is a good initiative, but I think you miss the mark. This seems like an attempt to respond to people asking "what can I do?", but what % of people with that question are going to go through this and actually make changes in their lives? I'd say less than 1%, waaaaay less. Everyone wants to know "what can I do?", so let's say low estimate 1 million people, are you going to get 10,000 people making meaningful change after this? I doubt it. Why don't you just make a website called "The Story of What You Can Do", and set it up like newegg.com, except instead of electronics you have a bunch of things they can do. They can pick from categories, they can filter by ease, impact per $, location, etc. Just like Newegg has lots of vendors you could allow users to contribute, you could get every TED talk speaker to make a list of things people should do, and why it would help, and a link to their TED talk. These could be and should be really small things, and there should be a lot of them. Users could make profiles, they could track certain issues and get updates when new things come in, they could post what changes they've made and get points or badges or other rewards. This would be so easy for you guys, and you know this is exactly what people want. Stop beating around the bush, stop assuming everyone is a leader, most people want to be followers. So stop fighting it and just make a huge wiki/database of what we can do. If you want some money, just let me know. If you want the list I've started I can give you that too. I look forward to hearing from you.
Let's see if they respond...
This is a good initiative, but I think you miss the mark. This seems like an attempt to respond to people asking "what can I do?", but what % of people with that question are going to go through this and actually make changes in their lives? I'd say less than 1%, waaaaay less. Everyone wants to know "what can I do?", so let's say low estimate 1 million people, are you going to get 10,000 people making meaningful change after this? I doubt it. Why don't you just make a website called "The Story of What You Can Do", and set it up like newegg.com, except instead of electronics you have a bunch of things they can do. They can pick from categories, they can filter by ease, impact per $, location, etc. Just like Newegg has lots of vendors you could allow users to contribute, you could get every TED talk speaker to make a list of things people should do, and why it would help, and a link to their TED talk. These could be and should be really small things, and there should be a lot of them. Users could make profiles, they could track certain issues and get updates when new things come in, they could post what changes they've made and get points or badges or other rewards. This would be so easy for you guys, and you know this is exactly what people want. Stop beating around the bush, stop assuming everyone is a leader, most people want to be followers. So stop fighting it and just make a huge wiki/database of what we can do. If you want some money, just let me know. If you want the list I've started I can give you that too. I look forward to hearing from you.