An interesting article in today's Globe & Mail....it highlights the fact that many "Generation Y" activists are dissatisfied with the formal structure and inadaptability of many traditional nonprofits. An excerpt:
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"They're bemused by the dense bureaucracies and regimented campaigns of big non-profits such as Amnesty International, the Red Cross and the World Wildlife Fund. But rather than fight the power, they're stealing it, forming small, nimble charities that rely on blogs and Facebook networks rather than onerous mail campaigns and donor drives.
They're smart. They're driven. And for some, they're a little vexing.
"One thing that bothers me is that they're missing the wisdom that existing non-profits have spent generations picking up," says Linda Graff, a non-profit consultant and author of several books on volunteer management. "Those who run charities, they know a thing or two. The upstarts don't realize this."
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It's an interesting issue on a couple of fronts. The fact that these youth are frustrated by the "dense bureaucracies" of many NGOs is pretty consistent with what we know about youth and what we know about large NGOs. Their response - to create new nonprofits and charities that are nimble and responsive - shows an entrepreneurial spirit that many of us in the sector are relying upon as we move forward through these complicated times. It definitely provides hope that this coming generation will solve challenges in creative and innovative ways. But I am concerned by the emphasis on new nonprofits and charities. Canada has over 180,000 of these organizations and we still haven't quite solved the problem. I would hope that the entrepreneurial and creative spirit of this generation would challenge traditional organizational structures and develop truly innovative responses - networks, collaboratives, and loose affiliations that can create social impact. I suspect these are happening but that the article just attends to more traditional structures. The problem is, when you start with a vision of being nimble and responsive, it's hard to grow without become ossified and sluggish.
Now, all of that said, the consultant raises an important point. How do we transfer the wealth of skills and knowledge from established organizations into the minds and actions of young, energetic world-changers? Now that's a challenge worth exploring...
Youth
Youth activism in social issues is very essential these days as the report on this issue is very poor.So it's now the time to develop the activism of youth because in this fast generation they're progressively going away from the social activities.
Streek,
Anxiety Cures
re: Generation NGO - youth activism
Eli - I'm glad you brought up the topic of Youth Activism.
The article's brief description of youth activism is in good resemblence of the organization I belong to - Project YouthTube. I agree that there is a consistent feeling of frustration based on bureaucracies in established NGOs and the need to build/create initiatives of our own. Heck, I was there a couple of years ago!
Generally speaking, my biggest annoyance with established NGO boards is that they place too much emphasis on the survival of the organization (most often financially) and end up losing their original objectives or reason for existence. Perhaps as a young person, I enter the realm with an idealistic mindset and believed that NGOs or any community organization should only exist if there is a social demand for it. So, when the realisation hits that it all comes back to $$$ and witnessing decisions based on "how much project funding can we get for this" rather than "how are we going to solve ___ issue" - it's easy to become jaded.
Second, the intoxication of battling activist egos! Sometimes it seems like people are only there to use the organization as a soapbox. Maybe this is because of "too much experience" and members become more like politicians than activists, in addition to the inability to attract or retain new blood, makes the organization morale not much more different than what it stands against. Youth are often tokenised in NGOs, especially in recent years when funders have opened more youth-related funding opportunities. Now, many organizations that have historically never served or targetted youth are jumping on the bandwagon and claiming their one youth board member who is under 35 yrs old.
Third, times are changing and some established NGOs are not flexible enough to adapt new perspectives. Technology, for example, is often an area that is considered low-priority for established NGOs. Sure they have a simple HTML website and they use basic outreach tools such as newsletters or email-blasts, but how many NGOs use web analytics or social marketing? When I search facebook for community organizations, it's not surprising that most of the hosts/admins are youth. By closing these options, they're closing opportunities to connect with this generation of youths.
Based on my own experiences, these are the main reasons why I was turned off (there are exceptions to my generalization). When I started work on Project YouthTube, it became an enpowering and liberating experience. Our objective was to build youth political clout, so we started by looking at what power this generation holds. We're not as wealthy as the baby boomers nor do we make the demographic numbers or voting blocks - but we do know how to blog and social network. Based on this logic, we started connecting with other youth activists and organizations to share knowledge and experiences, in collaboration, Project YouthTube was born. In the wiki world, hierarchies are flatten, and popularity is based on merit rather than age or income or senority.
This said, one of my major criticisms of the new breed of activism is that there is a disconnect from what people write on websites and their actions in real life. I sometimes call Project YouthTube and other online youth initiatives as "cloud campaigns", both literally and physically. Our ideas are there but they kind of float above our heads and does not direct our hands or feet. For example, there are many youths who contribute to blogs and online forum discussions on politics or social issues, yet youth voter turn-out is still extremely low in Canada. Theoretically, if youths are making up 40% of online content, they should be making up 40% of the votes.
There has to be credit given to older generations of NGOs where they were able to organize massive direct-action campaigns. Ideally, if the two forms of activism can connect we may be able to solve the issues that have been outstanding for such a long time. However, like any generation gap, there has to be progressive dialogue that is respectful of all participants. Maybe it's time for established NGOs and activists to hop off their high-horse, swallow some humble pie, and talk on an equal platform with youths. And maybe it's time our generation start to recognize that relying 100% on new communication tools are making us lazy and sluggish, probably has some health connections too, and get over the bitter taste left by bruised egos.
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