Help Spread the Word
Welcome!
Thank you so much for helping to spread the word about Shared Nation.
We've included some basic information, important dates, testimonials, promotional graphics, and swipe copy for social media and blog posts below.
Take some time to browse around if you have any questions, please contact keith@sharednation.org.
QUICK LINKS:
Short Description / Long Description / Round Dates / In the Press / Sample Facebook Posts / Sample Twitter Posts / Testimonials / Founder Bio / Blog Post Headline Examples / Swipe Copy / Images
Short Description:
Shared Nation is a new, innovative platform that seeks to become the world's largest giving circle. It allows thousands of people to aggregate their resources and then make fast decisions about how to apply their shared funds to good causes.
Long Description:
Shared Nation seeks to build the world's largest giving circle, in effect a large people's foundation made up of thousands making small contributions ($2-$5). They aggregate their money each month and apply it to help solve global commons problems (e.g., climate change, inequity, species loss). Shared Nation’s initial focus, while it grows, is to use the community's pooled funds give support to start-ups and emergent organizations but with enough aggregated funds we will begin to do things like buying large tracts of land to put in conservation, building infrastructure and paying off debt for disadvantaged groups.
The premise of Shared Nation - that a big community can make investment decisions between hundreds of investment options - is made possible by its pairwise voting platform. By getting each member of the community to make votes between just a few pairs of candidate investments we can rapidly aggregate preferences with high precision, rapidly narrowing down options before the group undertakes a more traditional, deliberative voting process. Candidate organizations also benefit; one organization gets most of our pooled funds (roughly 73%), the seven other quarter-finalists share 10% of our funding, and all remaining submitted solutions get some small contribution for participating.
So far, more than 1,200 people have participated in the Shared Nation process, and together, we have raised and given away over $39,000. Our average user rating for the experience is 8.2 out of 10, and we have received initial angel funding from Dan Heath, coauthor of Switch and Made to Stick. Our app is available at the Google Store and on iTunes.
What sets Shared Nation apart from other crowdfunding platforms is this concept of mass aggregation -- people coming together behind a single cause versus making individual donations to many different projects. This gives our community much more clout.
Shared Nation is something completely new. The internet has revolutionized so many aspects of our lives; it’s time it revolutionized civic engagement.
Round Dates:
- July 2018: Oceans
- August 2018: Open (A crowdsourced round for favorite projects and causes)
- September 2018: Democracy.
As Seen In:
Stanford Social Innovation Review
Massive Aggregation: A New Form of New Power by Joe McCannon and Marika Anthony-Shaw
Stanford Social Innovation Review
Public Trust Reboot: Unleashing the Millennial Civic Spirit by Yordanos Eyoel
So You Think You Can Give
Episode 9: Putting a New Spin on Philanthropy: A Conversation with Shared Nation Founder Joe McCannon
Earth Island Journal
A Mega Giving Circle Makes Us Powerful by Joe McCannon
The Great Battlefield
Episode 156: Building a community to fund solutions for the world's problems with Shared Nation's Joe McCannon
Supranational Democracy Conference
Keynote Speech with Joe McCannon
Sample Facebook Posts:
- Discouraged by the rate of progress in the world? Check out Shared Nation. It introduced me to a number of good causes and organizations that give me hope for our future. It’s also an easy way to become a global citizen in a movement for justice worldwide. sharednation.org
- What would happen if thousands of people across the world put their TIME and MONEY together for the good of the globe? In our new kind of democracy, that’s EXACTLY what’s happening over at Shared Nation! sharednation.org
- Every month Shared Nation focuses on an issue of global importance. It’s a timely way to get engaged in the global conversation. I’ve joined and you can too by giving just a little. Shared Nation aggregates your efforts with thousands of others. sharednation.org
Sample Twitter Posts
- Check out @sharednation, a clever way to democratize #philanthropy and give everyone a voice. It's true action, not clicktivism. Join me in joining now. sharednation.org
- There is growing interest in #democracy without borders. @sharednation provides one means by which we can get there. Check it out today! sharednation.org
- Be part of something big. Join @sharednation now. #clout sharednation.org
Testimonials
"Shared Nation has created this fun, friendly, informative model that let's me participate in initiatives that I would never otherwise hear about, interact with people I would never have found and contribute in ways beyond (and including!) the dollars I spend. I love that even the initiatives that don't "win" now have exposure and each initiative has the potential to spark imagination and creativity." - Jane Warren, Shared Nation citizen
"This is a game-changer for how we come together to create impact. My contribution can only do so much. But if thousands of us, or a million of us (let's hold that vision, shall we?) all put in whatever we can, imagine the impact we could have!" - Nancy Stubbs, Shared Nation citizen
“Engaging with Shared Nation was hands down the best fundraising experience I have ever had! As a new organization, our participation provided us with a launching platform for Women Together. Our supporters loved being able to participate in the voting process...and for a small organization, the funding has been transformative, supporting us to make our first promotional video to garner further investment, and supporting our first women's global learning exchange in Malawi." - Anu Anandaraja, Shared Nation contestant
Blog Post Headline Examples
- Meet the small team that is trying to bring democracy to the world
- Join thousands in bringing power back to the people
- Shaking Up the Philanthropic Sector by Democratizing It
- Tired of the Government not Taking Action - Look Elsewhere, Starting Here
- If We Rise, Nothing Can Stop Us: This Organization Is Providing the Lift
Swipe Copy
Shared Nation seeks to build the world's largest giving circle. It wants to encourage millions of people to aggregate billions of dollars and apply them towards solving global commons problems.
At the moment, Shared Nation focuses on using aggregated donations to give support to start-ups and emergent organizations, but as its community grows it will begin doing things like buying large tracts of land to put in conservation, buying out bad actors, or organizing massive boycotts. In effect, Shared Nation seeks to become a supranational community, throwing around the collective weight of millions of people in global geopolitics.
Shared Nation was formed to help address public feelings of helplessness in the face of global problems while supporting organizations that have solutions and lack the capital they need. Shared Nation's marketplace benefits both groups; individuals gain clout by aggregating resources while organizations gain access to those aggregated resources, occasionally winning the majority of the group's funds (each monthly tournament winner gets roughly 80% of pooled funds) but always getting small amounts just for taking part.
Shared Nation is currently running monthly rounds on various topics of global importance. I suggest checking out them out today!