Missions and Web 2.0
The following is an idea that I’ve had rolling around in my head and weighing on my heart for the last three months. People I talk to say nothing like this is out there, is that true? That’s why I want to ask a broader audience. Is something like this out there? If not, would it be useful? I want to hear your feedback.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how missions, para-church and international aid organizations communicate the work God is doing in their organizations. From what I’ve learned and observed, please correct me if I’m wrong, the way most organizations communicate both internally and externally has not changed much in the last 20 years. From monthly newsletters via snail mail or email to an occasional update on the website or a visit when the missionary is on sabbatical, it all seems pretty old school these days. It’s not because organizations have not wanted to update the way they communicate, but there has not been a toolset created which would allow them to do so.
With all the internet has to offer from social media to mass email, keeping supporters and donors up-to-date and more involved in what is happening in your organization should be fairly simple, but its not. It’s hard to aggregate all those tools into one cohesive process. So I have this idea…
What if it was simpler, what would that do? What if one simple message posted from a little village in South Africa was able to notify the world about an immediate need? And what if there was a person on the other side of the globe who just happened to check Twitter on their iPhone and wanted to help? And what if that need could be met automatically by that person? How would that change missions?
When you get down to the basics I see three elements to a missions organization: projects, people and places. Each organization has one or many projects (some may call them programs) that their ministry focuses on. Examples range from orphanages to disaster relief. Those projects occur in specific geographic places and are supported by people far and wide. People could be interested in a specific project if that project involves something they are passionate about: children, AIDS care, evangelism etc. If they have travelled to a specific place during a short-term mission trip they may be more interested in what is happening in that place across all projects. The question comes back to how do you keep those supporters up-to-date and engaged in the work?
If you can keep supporters engaged and up-to-date I think it gives you a lot. First, you can build a more passionate group of supporters who will spread the word about your work and bring in more support. Secondly, if communication can be streamlined and more support raised, there is less need to return home to fundraise so the work can continue on.
I think about all this and I think I see where the web could help solve this problem, I’m still thinking over what that solution might look like, but I see one there. The question I have for you is, do you see the need? Would you be interested helping me? I look forward to hearing from you.
