Comments on: TogetherList

TogetherList

raihan_ — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 18:08:23 -0800

TogetherList is a comprehensive database of women's rights, people of color, LGBT+, immigrant, climate change, and Muslim-American advocacy organizations that need your support. TogetherList aims to make it simple for people to connect to organizations in need, whether that be through volunteer work, financial support, advocacy through local government, etc.

By collecting a comprehensive access point for these organizations, TogetherList streamlines the process of finding which groups within each individual's local communities are the most suited for their skillset, interests, and resources.

I worked with the amazing NY-based designer (and aspiring falconer) Sougwen Chung, tech activist Willow Brugh and a whole team of awesome volunteers to get this site up and running.

We accept organization submissions here.

We are on Twitter.

You can browse orgs at the TogetherList site, but if you'd like to help our project, we would love to hear from you.

By: cichlid ceilidh

cichlid ceilidh — Thu, 24 Nov 2016 14:08:00 -0800

Hey raihan_, seems like a number of these sort of projects have cropped up in the aftermath of the election. Another user posted their site What Now? to mefi projects not long ago and I gave a shoutout to TogetherList there.

Your project seems to be aiming for something more expansive/permanent than a listicle or roulette kind of site. I'm curious about the problem you've identified and how you think TogetherList can help address it. In particular:

How does it differ from something like VolunteerMatch, Idealist, or AllForGood—large sites that non-profits may already be familiar with?

How did you come to the list of causes you've highlighted? Climate change is a particular environmental concern, but there are many others that better lend themselves to local action (e.g. availability of green space, cleanup of waterways, urban air pollution). There are several Jewish non-profits, but TogetherList categorizes them as "person of color," "muslim american," or "immigration." They overlap, but seems like an odd taxonomy that's largely a product of the categories chosen.

I realize you all just got started with this, so I'm sure you're still figuring things out. Great work so far; excited to see where you take it from here.

By: raihan_

raihan_ — Thu, 24 Nov 2016 23:03:20 -0800

@cichlid ceilidh: Firstly, thank you for that awesome feedback. This is going to be a short answer because I'm still in a food coma (ha).

I think we're trying to be a bit more neutral in our tone, and more inclusive in our choice of orgs. (And, yes, less of a "roulette") While VolunteerList, Idealist and AllForGood are awesome, we're looking to be a bit quicker: Find an org, click a button to donate or click another button to find volunteer info. It's more meant for someone who isn't familiar with those sites and wants to help in a context that they may not be familiar with.

"[R]econsider filters and categories" is at the top of our list at the moment. We are trying to highlight some of the intersectionality between causes and categories, in a way that people can find an org that really speaks to them on a few different levels. We don't want people to simply be reactive in their decisions to contribute time/money, we want them to find organizations that can be proactive in and–ideally–contribute on a longer-term basis.

Categories will be better defined over time, which (hopefully) addresses your point about Jewish non-profits and, yes, I agree about how some orgs can/will benefit from a more localized or map-based setup. We're still working on that (and frankly, we aren't trying to be an all-encompassing solution!).

Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions or comments. Again, thank you!

By: Krazor

Krazor — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 19:37:42 -0800

I really, really love this, raihan_. My wife and I are looking forward to volunteering. There are a lot of organizations out there, and finding a good place to start can be overwhelming. This helps. Thank you!