Grassroots 20 social change through the social Web

Abstract

The Internet presents a wide variety of capacity-building opportunities for the nonprofit sector, especially grassroots-based organizations with geographically dispersed members. These opportunities have become more accessible and practical for laypeople with emergence of Web 2.0 and the prevalence of social network sites like Facebook and MySpace in contemporary life, theoretically making it easier even for under-resourced organizations to leverage the Internet to increase outreach, fundraising and recruitment capacity. This report details the participatory action research basis and findings of the accompanying practical component of the thesis project which entailed the development of a new Web 2.0-enabled website for Sierra Club Canada, the country's foremost grassroots environmental nonprofit organization. With no other organizations in the sector taking full strategic advantage of the Internet to improve campaign capacity, this new website will establish Sierra Club Canada as a premiere online presence and a resource for a growing number of grassroots activists and supporters of environmental causes.