Mission-Driven Community: Creating Positive Change in Hard Times
Ragtag’s community of skilled tech volunteers is ready to serve — and you can help.
During the last few years, Ragtag has tackled many urgent needs.
We’ve reliably jumped to attention when there was a time-sensitive, urgent organizing task. This community has served as a trusted, stable base of tech experts for activists and campaigners to reach out to and know they are in good hands.
For example, we set up sites and provided immediate tech support for events and organizations like the March For Our Lives, Indivisible, and Spread The Vote — all organizations that continue to demonstrate leadership in the movement for positive change in our society.
One very recent case study in this area: we did some work with FreeFrom — we designed and built the tech for their Compensation Compass, an app that helps survivors of domestic violence cover the costs of abuse. It’s now available in all 50 states. (You can read an article about it here.)
But, of course, we’ve also worked to learn more about — and to address — consistent, longer-term gaps in the organizing ecosystem.
- We’ve cultivated our community, bringing in and providing a home for over 700 progressive tech volunteers.
- We’ve been present at and participants in events like Data 4 Black Lives, Tides Advocacy’s Beyond Impact conference, the inaugural National Network Assembly, and Rust Belt Rising’s interactive trainings. In 2018–2019, we participated in just over 20 conferences and speaking engagements, to listen, to teach, and to be an active part of the progressive solution.
- We’ve pushed out options like Ragtag Helpdesk and Web Squads to aid mission-driven campaigns and grassroots organizations. Over 650 people used the services of Helpdesk since the 2018 midterms launch, and we’ve built almost three dozen sites through Web Squads in just under three years.
- We’ve invested in developing Ragtag staff to make what we do even more scalable. Our smart and committed group of 6 work together every day to make sure our efforts reflect our values.
Although there’s always more to do, we’ve accomplished a lot in a few short years.
We’ve learned that part of what makes us so effective — and what brings our community together — is that our collective heart is really about relationships.
Our volunteers understand the value of making connections, using our knowledge and skills to fix problems, and doing so in respectful, empowering, and inclusive ways. They see that the solutions to the issues that ail our society lie in doing what we can, with what we have, when we can, and consistently bringing that generosity of spirit to service.
If you or someone you know might be interested in supporting this kind of work, there are a few options:
- Donate here to Ragtag. Become a monthly donor, or give us a one-time donation.
- Volunteer here with Ragtag. Sign up here.
- Let us help your grassroots org or campaign level up your tech. Submit an inquiry.
- Spread the word about Ragtag. Follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter. (Retweet us! Here’s a tweet about the FreeFrom project you could RT right now.)
If you’re already an active part of Ragtag’s community, we encourage you to think about these ways to help as well — maybe become a donor, or give us a shout-out on Twitter. Let’s continue to build this movement of progressive technologists together.
