Civic engagement can mean a lot of different things though – from the casual forwarding of a friend’s email to deep involvement on a board of directors. Some engagement is lightweight some is deep, and that’s OK – we can’t expect everyone to have the same degree of interest in our mission.
The most effective social change organizations understand how to wield their portfolio of engagement tactics in Zen-like fashion; knowing just what kind of touch is called for to push to influence the outcomes of a particular decision.

Climate, Haiti, health care, filibuster, Afghanistan -- just keeping up on everything while taking care of your own day-to-day routine (oh yeah, that) can seem like two full-time jobs. Add on toxic chemicals in baby bottles and sippy cups (like, really?) and that sustainable fortress in the woods is sounding better and better.
Luckily, in Washington state, we have many groups looking out for our best interests -- organizing and mobilizing and pressuring the powers that be to get all Spike Lee and do the right thing.

What's cooking at Groundwire Labs including a new auction tool, a new tool for bringing Google Analytics right to where you are managing content on your website, and a letter-writing tool to target decision-makers.

Those of you with communications chops looking for a place to really make a difference should check out the communications director job opening at the Oregon Environmental Council. For over forty years, the Oregon Environmental Council (OEC) has brought together a broad range of citizens including outdoor enthusiasts, farmers, educators, and conservationists to work in creating a clean and healthy Oregon for future generations. We've had the wonderful opportunity to work with OEC the past few years, and want to take a quick moment and recognize outgoing Communications Director Jeremy Graybill.

Nothing like a good conference to connect with peers, boost creativity, recharge those batteries, and if you're lucky, get a couple nights of acting like you're 19 again. (What happens at the Personal Democracy Forum, stays at the Personal Democracy Forum.)

After nine years of service, our Executive Director Gideon Rosenblatt is moving on, creating a rare and unprecedented opportunity for the candidate with the right mix of tech-savvy, entrepreneurialism and passion for a sustainable world.

Best practices for when you know you can add someone to your email list - and when you probably shouldn't.

If you live in Washington State, join hundreds of citizen lobbyists to push for passage of the Environmental Priorities Coalition’s 2010 legislative priorities.

One of the great challenges for those of us in the environmental movement is going beyond our choir and reaching the majority on issues we care about. It’s a tough haul – our causes often crash against the American dream, scare the crap out of people, or are so scientific and abstract that the eye glaze happens within seconds along with excuses to get to the punch bowl/bathroom/talk to someone a little less, well, serious.

My 7-month relationship with Twitter has nothing to do with Ashton, A-Rod or American Idol. (Come on, I follow the entertainment blogs for that stuff.) Instead, it has become a place for keeping up with the social change and sustainability movement, what Paul Hawken describes as the "largest social movement in history restoring grace, justice, and beauty to the world." My little Twitter-sphere gives me a daily connection to the groups I care about most.

In the face of ongoing mis-measuring and misreporting of economic and environmental reality, how can advocates of social change move their agendas forward? One constructive step might be to reach out to people and groups who are working on the issues of media policy.

Gifford Pinchot Task Force uses the power of Salesforce database reporting to sort their 4000 members by level of activity, history of donation, actions taken, previous event attendance, click-throughs, and interest in the GPTF predator-tracking program to create a targeted phone-bank list of supporters most likely to come out a Washington Wolf Management Plan meeting.

From Friendster to Facebook, were The Naughty Aughties the beginning of a little TMI?

The sweet smile of Cindy Lou Who, blissfully singing on Christmas morning despite the absence of dollhouses or iPods, is a compelling reminder that the meaning of life is not gift-wrapped. We smile, perhaps we even agree -- then we sigh and feel compelled to get to the mall. What's up with that?

We like to talk online advocacy, relationship building, content strategy, the enviro movement, and sometimes - we like to totally geek out. Web designers/implementers - this one's for you.
This article describes our experience making rounded corners on Groundwire.org and gives an overview of some possible corner-rounding options, including CSS and javascript.

Now that the Groundwire website is launched, the toasts made, and the drinks consumed (mmm - martinis), it's time to talk about the lessons I learned as the project manager on this website implementation.
I was fortunate to work on this project for many reasons, but the most valuable take-away for me was getting a vivid sense of what the client experience is really like.

In our little enviro bubble, it’s easy to forget that many people have no idea, or only a faint notion, that a climate change conference is starting in Copenhagen next week. When people would rather talk about the Rose Bowl, babies sleeping through the night, and the popular hamster toy of the year, I get it -- and take a different approach. A few good resources to keep up with COP15.

Our reference to the French President’s quest for a more holistic measure of well-being than GDP generated a host of click-throughs last month. Is it possible that a critical mass of people are noticing that, after the basics of life are handled, it is friendships, love, meaning, freedom, beauty and all those intangibles that make life worthwhile?

While knowledge about the environmental, economic, or social benefits of a product or service is crucial to the topic of sustainability, consumers say that the notion of responsibility symbolizes why it matters. As a value-laden ideal, responsibility provides a more meaningful call to action for all those in society to participate in the greater good.

Email signatures are so ubiquitous that we rarely think about them. Here's what we learned when we did.