Member Spotlight: sahara#1209
Member Spotlights lend voice to our amazing community members working behind the scenes to bring this project to life. Thank you all for donating your time and talents to the good fight! 🗽
Tell us about yourself! :)
My name is Sahar, and I come from a blended non-profit/web2 background. Most recently I worked on product for a company called Superhuman. I left and was trying to reconnect with what was important to me and what work I wanted to be doing.
I started consulting as a way to learn about new spaces and teams and see what I wanted to do next. I was introduced to web3 and DAOs through one of the companies I worked with.
So all that was swirling around my mind when the SCOTUS decision was leaked. I was talking with Reshma (a friend and co-pilot for ChoiceDAO) and we had a hypothesis that Web3 could be a huge unlock for reproductive rights, and social movements broadly speaking.
First, there’s no shortage of amazing work happening in the reproductive rights space. But, it’s massively underfunded.
Second, people are angry and want to participate but they don’t know what to do. It doesn’t feel like enough to vote, or donate, or tweet.
The combination of those two problems are what led us to a DAO. When the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe was formalized on June 24th, we, alongside so many other contributors, started building out the project and community.
What were the early days like at ChoiceDAO? You were flung into the Web3 deep end.
It was electric; I was in New York for NFT.NYC when the decision dropped. People were outraged and ready to put that to action. ChoiceDAO started as a group-chat that exploded from 3 to 400+ people overnight. We hosted dozens of people in a conference room in NYC. We worked around the clock for a few days, hashing out the project details. Ideally we had more time to plan, but we needed to meet the moment.
From there, as the community grew, we migrated to Discord. (A Telegram chat with 400 people was hectic.) I was so inspired by the hundreds of people all over the world organizing with us, women and men, people from all walks of life.
How do you feel web3 stacks up against traditional fundraising and deployment options for nonprofits and social causes etc?
For social movements, the two keywords are speed and scale. You can reach more people faster than ever historically thought possible through Web3 community and technology.
For ChoiceDAO specifically, crypto was interesting for a couple reasons. One: transparency of funds and seeing the direct impact of work is so important. Everything is on-chain; you can see where money goes and when.
And second: the government doesn’t have easy jurisdiction over the funds we raise because it’s built on decentralized technology. It’s a fund-of-funds. Right now, my friends are donating to local organizations with the intent to support their IRL communities, and since laws are changing so fast, many of those local organizations are rendered inoperable or fleeing to places with fewer restrictions. Crypto controls for that and supports community-led organization around the high-impact opportunities. We’re small and nimble and can move quickly. Bigger, more traditional organizations have to navigate thrash and politicking. We can move quick, and we need to because people are in crisis right now.
Finally, a community-first approach gives power back to people. It gives everyone a voice; people are inspired to act, speak, and participate in a meaningful way.
What state is ChoiceDAO at right now? Where is it headed? If I asked for you a snapshot of today, August 11th, how would you describe it?
We spent the first month on legal and backoffice, like structuring the project to protect liability and make sure we’re operating legally. The second month, we built community and educational awareness. We’ve talked to thousands of people at this point about reproductive rights, and our Discord has been a resource center for people interesting in learning about the issue and how they can help.
Looking ahead, we’re defining exactly what success means for the community, and our project roadmap. It’ll be interesting to see what people want to fund. We also want to do work that don’t require funds: how can our members get involved on the ground?
What’s one message you have for anyone reading this who has no web3 experience, but feels strongly about advocating for abortion and against the Roe v Wade overturning?
Great question. My suggestion is to pick a few things you care about — climate, finance, reproductive rights — then find communities organized around those things. Then: dive in! Join as a member, as a contributor. That’ll be the best onramp to Web3. It’ll give you a reason to overcome the Web3 learning curve. You’ll also be supported by your communities. Opportunities to contribute will materialize seamlessly if you just stick around and keep at it.
Awesome. What something people would be surprised to learn about you? Fun facts and trivia?
I was on the first all-women’s mountain biking team in the US!
Wow, that’s amazing! Do you still mountain bike now?
I do! I hurt my back and had an injury for a while, but I’ve been getting back into the swing of it.
To keep up with Sahar, follow her on Twitter.
