Blog for Change

I’m excited to announce that after reviewing the more than 400 applications we received for our Managing Editor position and interviewing dozens of amazing candidates, we have hired the one person who stood out among the excellent crowd: Josh Levy.

Wired News picked up the story earlier this week and published an article about Josh joining our team to lead our forthcoming social action blog network, which continues to receive a ton of pre-launch interest. You can read the story here:

New Blogging Network Editor Hopes To Transform Social Networking To Social Action

For those of you who aren’t aware of his legend, Josh is a writer, editor and social activist based out of Brooklyn, NY. He was most recently Associate Editor of TechPresident, a leading blog covering how technology is changing politics (and which I highly recommend). He is also currently a blogger for NPR, a role he will continue along with his full-time position as Managing Editor at Change.org. Equally importantly, Josh is also an all-around awesome guy who just about everyone loves. He has already seamlessly integrated with our team and it’s clear this was a match meant to be.

Over the past month he has been working behind the scenes to read through the more than 1200 applications we?ve received from activists, academics, journalists and practitioners interested in joining our team of bloggers. We?ve received some truly remarkable applications and will be conducting interviews this month before making an announcement about our blogging team in July. Overall, these are exciting times at Change.org and we can?t wait to show you the next version of the site! pharmacy
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Want to blog on an issue you are passionate about for an audience of hundreds of thousands of activists and nonprofit leaders?

Want to create the premier online space for your issue and become a leading voice for social action?

Change.org is launching a social action blog network this summer and is currently hiring a team of blogger/editors to help create a movement for change around the major causes of our time.

Positions are part-time and paid.

Each blogger will lead an online community focusing on a different social, political, or environmental issue, maintain a daily blog covering news and offering commentary, convene leading nonprofits and activists working on the issue, and help people translate their interests and passions into concrete action.

Change.org’s blog network will include dozens of communities around issues, including:

• Global Warming
• Human Rights
• Universal Health Care
• Poverty
• Human Trafficking
• Homelessness
• Gay Rights
• Global Health
• Women’s Rights
• Public Education
• War in Iraq
• Global Hunger
• Animal Rights
• Fair Trade
• Racism
• Peace in the Middle East
• Promoting Democracy
• Immigrant Rights
• Microfinance
• Darfur
• Prison Reform
• Disaster Relief
• Humanitarian Relief
• Autism Cure
• Cancer
• Domestic Abuse
• Mental Health
• Rights of the Disabled
• Sustainable Agriculture

For more information and to apply, go to www.change.org/bloggers

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Since announcing our search for a managing editor to oversee the upcoming launch of our social action blog network, we’ve been overwhelmed with responses – and received a total of 412 applications to date. This flood of interest is a great indication of the enthusiasm for the next version of Change.org, which I’m becoming more excited about by the day. The number and quality of the applications guarantees that we’ll have an amazing managing editor to run the network and bodes well for recruiting a team of bloggers (more on that later).

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Conference season is in full effect, and that means three things – trains, planes, and automobiles.

Over the past month I’ve used just about every means of transportation imaginable (and more SuperShuttle rides than I ever want to take again) to travel through 5 different cities and speak at a half dozen conferences ranging from the Wharton Business Technology Conference in Philadelphia to the Politics Online Conference in Washington, DC to the Nonprofit Technology Conference in New Orleans. To top it off, last night I touched down in San Diego for the International Conference on Fundraising, where I speak tomorrow.

It’s been a whirlwind tour, particularly for someone who works out of his apartment and for whom the longest trip of the day is normally to the corner burrito stand. (Yes, we all still work out of our respective apartments in true start-up fashion.)

I’ve had a great time in each city, and talking with others has helped me hone and lay the groundwork for the next version of Change.org, which I’ll write more about later. But the thing I’ve enjoyed the most about each of the conferences I’ve attended is the sense of community they provide among the loose network of social activists across the country each taking a unique approach to social change.

When starting your own venture it’s easy to be dead focused on your work to the exclusion of the outside world (indeed, at the exclusion of everything – including sleep). But the really exciting thing about the social entrepreneurship space we’re working in are the number of other people doing awesome work on related or complimentary projects, which help provide fodder for thought and inspiration for action. And while email, blogs, and phone calls can help to connect you to others to talk about their vision, nothing substitutes for seeing people in the flesh and blood. Conferences enable you to do this at scale, and to simultaneously help build a sense of real community among otherwise disconnected people and projects.

I’m not sure how much longer I can keep up with this travel schedule, but the conferences I’ve attended this past month have made me feel connected to a much broader movement of social activists than I’ve ever felt before, and it’s an awesome thing to be a part of.

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Tomorrow is primary election day here in California, as it is in 23 other states across the country. While elections are always an important time to reflect on the past and decide how to move our country forward, it seems that this election represents a particularly historic moment.

Today America faces unprecedented challenges both home and abroad, which for the past decade our political system has been unable or unwilling to address: inaccessible health care, failing schools, an energy crisis, economic inequality, and global instability.

But in the face of these ominous problems, this election offers Americans the rare chance to take the first step toward choosing a leader who can transcend the partisanship, pettiness, and special interest politicking that has prevented us from overcoming these challenges.

The excitement surrounding this election cycle is palpably greater than I’ve ever experienced, seeming to equal the importance of the hour. Over the past few weeks I’ve seen more than a dozen friends and family members, traditionally indifferent to politics, become engaged as never before. I’ve been affected as well. I normally take an emotionally detached view of electoral politics, having difficulty becoming too excited about any candidate because of the slew of compromises and concessions each has to make to competing interest groups to become “electable.”

But this election is different. Because of the gravity of what’s at stake, the unique nature of the candidates, and the sense that the country is ready for a shift in political culture, there’s a sense that transcendence from traditional political gridlock is possible. And I’m busting at the seams to get to the polls and participate in the process of helping to shape our country’s future for the better.

To encourage friends and family to affirm their commitment to vote and spread the message to friends, I’ve started an action called “Vote for America’s Future.” It doesn’t support any specific candidate, but asks people to make a public commitment to vote in their primary election and to encourage others to do the same. You can check it out here:

Vote for America’s Future

It’s a small step, but small steps from people across the country can change the direction of this country and overcome whatever challenges we face.

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