"Social Actions: Open Source Microphilanthropy in Action" by Bryan Miller

Bryan Miller heads up the Strategy and Consumer Insight department over at Cancer Research UK, the world’s leading independent organisation dedicated to cancer research and the UK’s largest fundraising charity. He's also a blogger, writing about digital fundraising and non-profit marketing at Giving in a Digital World.

And he's just posted one of the most clear and comprehensive descriptions of Social Actions I've ever read.

Of course you'd expect me to promote any blog post that begins, "Social Actions is a fantastic online initiative..." But Bryan really has captured both the programs and philosophy behind this initiative in a very concise write-up. It stands well on its own and as a solid introduction to our recently-posted video on "Social Actions and the Microphilanthropy Movement."

An excerpt:

"There are several things that I especially like about the whole Social Actions initiative. Firstly, the way in which it recognises and specifically works to meet the growing desire for people to be able to personally choose how they get involved with specific causes that interest them - in both financial and non-financial ways.

"Secondly, because it goes out of its way to make making a difference easy for everyone. Not only through its aggregation of actions from a host of different sources, clever search functionality, and use of widgets to present specific, context-sensitive opportunities on other sites. But also by emphasising the massive impact that even the smallest action can have, if sufficient people are motivated to take it. Social Actions’ founder, Peter Deitz, defines Microphilanthropy as any small scale activity or gesture, facilitated by technology, that carries with it some intent to do good and has the effect of transforming communities for the better - which is a significant, and potentially very powerful, expansion on traditional thinking around online community fundraising.

"Thirdly, the way in which they have so wholeheartedly embraced the whole open source philosophy - engaging the wider online community to help develop the tools with which they will subsequently take microphilanthropy action opportunities to countless more people."

Catch the complete article here, and thank you Bryan for capturing so well what Social Actions is all about.