Tools for Change

What being an I.T. CAN be like...

Statement on the Co-operative Identity

Link: Statement on the Co-operative Identity.
The International Co-operative Alliance's mission is to unite co-operatives worldwide.
This link is to a list of principles which define co-operative organizations.

Petitions - Going the Distance

Care2 has the best petition system I've seen anywhere at the Petition Site.

Here's their idea list regarding how to furthur promote petitions...

Promote the petitions you support

• Send emails to your friends asking them to sign the petition. You can do this quickly and easily with the Email this Petition link in the top-right corner of each petition's page.
• Post links on relevant discussion boards and blogs. This is often an
  excellent way to quickly reach lots of interested people.
  
• Send out a press release about the petition. This is particularly effective
  once you've collected a number of signatures.
  
• Talk about the petition in online chat rooms.
  
• Add a link to the petition in your email signature.
  
• Add a link to the petition in your online newsletters.
  
• Contact writers and journalists who write about the topic and tell them
  about the petition.
  
• Add links to the petition on your web site.
  
• Ask interest groups with large audiences to add a link on their website or
  in their newsletters.
  
• Submit it to search engines (usually takes 3-4 weeks to be indexed).
  
• Subscribe petition signers to your newsletters (for pricing, please contact
  the PetitionSite.com team through our contact form;
  select "Opt-in Newsletters" under "Check your interests").

Go beyond the petition

• Contact leading interest groups working on issues similar to your petition.
  Ask them how you can help them.
  
• Organize school, neighborhood or other groups to brainstorm ideas and take
  action.
  
• Make a donation to a group working on the cause.
  
• Be a model citizen and "walk the walk!" As Mahatma Gandhi said so well, "You
  must be the change you wish to see in the world."

Other ideas? Send us an email: petitions@earth.care2.com.

Tools For Change

Who They Are

Tools for Change has been providing consulting, training, mediation and facilitation services nationwide for over 15 years. Founder Margo Adair formed Tools for Change to promote the integration of spiritual and political perspectives to promote personal, spiritual and political transformation to help bring about a just society. She and other associates around the country,  have  forged multi-cultural and multigenerational alliances in many different settings.

Principle Associate William (Bill) Aal has worked in social justice and ennvironmental issues for 30 years. In addition to working with Adair on the integration of the spiritual and political, he works with groups and organzations on opening the imagination to change, looking at issues of economic and social justice with creative and analytical tools.

Adair, Aal and other Tools for Change associates are diverse in our skills, class, race, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientation and physical ability.  Each of us have a long history in social change work, fighting the radical right, queer organizing, anti-racism work, the environmental and anti-nuclear movements, women’s health issues.

Tools for Change helps organizations  and individuals to develop and implement innovative policies and practices that advance cooperation, creativity, trust, democracy and accountability. Our associates have extensive experience in personal and community empowerment, communication skills, diversity issues, leadership development, mediation and facilitation.

Applied Meditations

Includes applied meditations available only on the web and meditations excerpted from Tools for Change books.

Creating Shared Intent for Perilous Times
Useful for any highly charged situation, designed for demonstrations. Excerpted from the book Meditations for Everything Under the Sun   Download PDF

Principles of Applied Mediation
Excerpted from the book Meditations for Everything Under the Sun.   Download PDF

Visioning Future Time
Only available online    Download PDF

Faith in The Future
Excerpted from the book Working Inside Out. This meditation can be found on tape number seventeen.   Download PDF

 

Exercises for organizational transformation

Handouts and exercises to help develop your organization.

The Playing Field
A physical exercise where participants step forward or step back as they answer a list of questions.    Download PDF

Helpful Approaches to Conflict
Conflict is a natural and inevitable part of life, not a reflection of something gone 'wrong'. This handout discusses healthy ways to approach conflict.  Download PDF

The Dynamics of Tokenism
Creating a Multicultural Setting   Download PDF

Creating an Atmosphere Where Everyone Participates
Organizations striving to create democratic relations usually function with the notion that everyone can and should participate equally. Yet patterns of social interaction form currents below the surface, directing how we view ourselves and each other.
Download PDF

Concepts for Creating Justice
Looking at Power Relationally   Download PDF

Shining the Light on White
Excerpted from the workshop Challenging White Supremacy: A Workshop for Activists and Organizers    Download PDF

Patterns of Power
Common Behavioral Patterns that Perpetuate Relations of Domination  Download PDF

Conflict Resolution
Problem Solving, Conflict Resolution, and Constructive Feedback  Download PDF

Consensus Decision Making  Download PDF

To Equalize Power Among Us
Despite our best intention we find, more often then not, that we duplicate the patterns of power we find so abhorrent in dominating culture. This pamphlet has some helpful guidelines to help us equalize relations. Excerpted from the pamphlet Breaking Old Patterns Weaving New Ties.    Download PDF

 

Articles for Justice

The Intersection of Racism, Classism & Gender Oppression In Addressing Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault    View HTML

Overcome Liberalism    Download PDF

 

Pamphlets

To Equalize Power Among Us
Despite our best intention we find, more often then not, that we duplicate the patterns of power we find so abhorrent in dominating culture. This pamphlet has some helpful guidelines to help us equalize relations. Excerpted from the pamphlet Breaking Old Patterns Weaving New Ties.
Download PDF

 

Spiritual Cinema Affiliate Program

Click Here Become an Affiliate Now!

The Spiritual Cinema Circle Affiliate Program is an excellent way to share the benefits of membership with others and MAKE MONEY when new members sign up.

As an affiliate of the Spiritual Cinema Circle, you will be provided with numerous links, web banner advertisements and emails that you can use to promote membership. When someone clicks on any advertisement or email that you display or send, when they sign up for the Spiritual Cinema Circle membership, you get paid a referral fee of $10 for every member you refer. We provide you with the web graphics and text links and complete emails. All you need to do is display them on your own website and email to your friends and customers. Earning money as an Affiliate of the Spiritual Cinema Circle is easy!

The more people you refer, the more you earn per new membership.  Once you reach 50 new members in a single month, you start earning $15 per new membership and continue earning at this higher rate as long as you refer at least 50 members each month. Plus, you get paid a residual monthly commission for every member that remains an active Spiritual Cinema Circle member.  For every active member you refer, you get paid $2.00 each month for the life of that customer.  You could create a huge money making business from ongoing residual membership earnings.

Join for free and earn a commission on every sale!

It costs you nothing to participate. Instead, we pay you commissions on sales from all Spiritual Cinema Circle memberships - you can earn cash through Spiritual Cinema Circle's Affiliate program.

Complete statistics always available to you

A complete set of reports is always available for your Affiliate account that shows exactly the number of visitors referred to Spiritual Cinema Circle by you or your website and who joined a program or bought a product at Spiritual Cinema Circle.

Your Commissions are paid promptly

The moment your customer registers for a program or buys a product, you will receive credit in your Spiritual Cinema Circle commission account. Each month your commissions will be paid to you.

Quality customer service keeps your visitors happy

Your customers will enjoy superior service and a positive shopping experience. We handle processing, shipping, billing and customer service.

It's fast and easy

Simply fill out the Affiliates Registration Form. When your enroll in the program and your site has been approved, we will immediately make available to you the Spiritual Cinema Circle advertising banners and descriptive teaser paragraphs about Spiritual Cinema Circle for your site.

Join the Spiritual Cinema Circle Affiliate Program NOW and enjoy a prosperous partnership

THE SPIRITUAL CINEMA CIRCLE is the world's leading provider of values-inspired entertainment, providing an exclusive monthly DVD-by-mail subscription service that has been written up in NEWSWEEK, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY and other major publications.  Founded by legendary film producer Stephen Simon ("What Dreams May Come", "Somewhere In Time", "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure"), the Circle has grown rapidly to include thousands of monthly subscribers in more than 50 countries around the world.

Join for free and you can earn a commission on every customer you refer (and a residual commission every month, for as long as that customer becomes a member)!

Click Here Become an Affiliate Now!

Linkshare

About LinkShare
Since 1996, LinkShare has been a pioneer in online affiliate marketing, and today runs the largest pay-for-performance affiliate marketing network on the Internet. LinkShare is the trusted third-party that brings together both merchants and affiliates. We track and report on every ad or placement in our network, send monthly payments to affiliates, and provide services and tools that help merchants and affiliates optimize their performance.

What is affiliate marketing?
A merchant, also known as an advertiser or retailer, is a web site or company that sells a product or service online, accepts payments and fulfills orders.

Affiliates (also called publishers) place merchants' ads, text links, or product links on their web sites, shopping engines, blogs, etc. or include them in e-mail campaigns and search listings in exchange for commissions on leads or sales.

Merchants acquire new customers and pay affiliates only when a sale or other qualifying action is completed. This is called CPA or performance-based marketing. It is very efficient.

LinkShare Technology
Affiliates and merchants choose LinkShare because of our reliable and accurate tracking technology. Our patented tracking technology is not cookie-based and therefore, does not fall prey to the tracking discrepancies that often result from cookies. LinkShare's robust technology ensures that tracking is accurate and complete. Because our technology is web-based, it is easy for affiliates to manage their programs and merchant relationships.

 

LinkShare Affiliate Tools and Solutions
LinkShare has designed the following tools specifically to enable affiliates to make the most of their affiliate marketing experience:

• Merchandiser Datafeed - allows affiliates to download individual product links to their website without having to manually create links to each product carried by a merchant.
• Signature - offers affiliates the ability to track down to the transaction level of each individual member, organization or sub-site.
• Dynamic Rich Media (DRM) - lets merchants create more effective creative content and pushes those updates to affiliate sites, so affiliates don't have to change their code.

Who are LinkShare's Affiliates?
At LinkShare, we know that our community of affiliates is composed of some of the most talented entrepreneurs around. There are many business models, and thousands of stories. Starting in early 2006, LinkShare has been celebrating our affiliate entrepreneurs, congratulating them on their successes and cheering them on by sharing a few of their stories with the world. Here are the stories of some affiliate entrepreneurs we admire. (links to MyStory page)

Be an Alanova / Amazon affiliate

alonovo.com Affiliate-Beneficiary Program

Program Description

As part of our commitment to the wonderful work that non-profit organizations are doing in making our communities and the world a better place to live, we have instituted a program that allows us to share revenue with organizations through our affiliate program.  We are continuing to develop affiliate relationships with a select group of environmental, workers' rights, educational advocacy, economic and social justice organizations and think tanks. If you are a representative of such an organization, and are interested in the alonovo.com concept, we encourage you to get involved with our effort, spread the word about social responsibility and in return generate funding for your organization. As we all know, the implications of this new intelligent marketplace paradigm will have lasting and profound impact on society, on the businesses who will be viewed and rated on our site, and ultimately the communities that will benefit from our success. 

How does the program work?

In return for helping us introduce your constituents to alonovo.com, through email and via your website, we share 40% of our shopping revenues attributable to your constituents, which today come from shopping commissions we receive from our merchants. Once a user chooses your organization as the beneficiary organization, then any shopping that the user transacts from our site (provided the user does not change the beneficiary organization) will generate commission that will be shared with you on a quarterly basis. We know that getting funding support from your members is often a challenging task therefore your association with alonovo.com will not diminish any of your current fund-raising activities and will only augment it. Your members will be shopping on our site in the same manner that they have come to shop on the internet, except now they will be able to shop in an informed manner.  There is no cost to the users for directing funds to you, we do not share user information with any other entity and joining this program is free.

Program Requirements

The requirements to join this program are simple:

• You must be a non-profit organization.
• Promote your members to alonovo.com to your members via insertion of special graphic links (multiple sizes available) on your website or email campaigns.
• Submit the requested information below.
• Next our affiliate department will review your request. If your organization is approved, you will be sent a package of information including a beneficiary agreement and sample link graphics.
• Once we receive the signed agreement, you will be sent special linking instructions and your organization will be listed on alonovo.com, at which point you can begin accruing funds.

It’s that simple!  As long as your members use our site to shop and keep you as their beneficiary, we will be sending you a check every quarter!

Have more questions? – feel free to email us at beneficiary@alonovo.com

Sympa

Sympa is a rich open source mailing list software. Its design highly focuses on customization possibilities and ease of administration.

   

	Advanced features

 

• Bulk emailer
• Internationalization, translated to 15 different languages
• Service messages and web pages defined by templates
• Subscriber information stored in a RDBMS (Mysql, Pg, Oracle or Sybase)
• Web interface with user and admin features
• Different web authentication backends including Single Sign-on systems
• Web document repository for list members
• S/MIME support for both signature verification and mail encryption
• Automatic bounces management
• External antiviral plugin
• Virtual robots management
• SOAP ML service

Your Site's Community Toolbar

Conduit is a free service that let's you create a custom dynamic toolbar in 3 easy steps

Featured Conduit: Greenpeace

Greenpeace is a global non-profit organization, with a presence in 40 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. Its mission is to expose environmental criminals, and to challenge government and corporations when they fail to live up to their mandate to safeguard our environment and our future.

Objectives

Greenpeace was evaluating options to build a stronger online community. After reviewing other options, they decided to create and offer Conduit community toolbar to their activists via their website.

What does the Greenpeace International community toolbar let you do?

	Get various news headlines and fresh content automatically via the RSS Reader
	Stay connected with Greenpeace International’s site constantly
	Chat with other activists who have the Greenpeace Conduit toolbar installed
	Get notified of new e-mails to POP3, Yahoo!, Gmail, or Hotmail accounts
	Search from anywhere on the web
	Includes a cookie cleaner, a history cleaner, and a cache cleaner

Download at http://greenpeaceinternational.ourtoolbar.com/

	" I love my Greenpeace Conduit toolbar. It keeps me connected with what I am passionate about, and I love the email notifier as well ".

Heifer International

Heifer's Mission to End Hunger

Heifer envisions…
A world of communities living together in peace and equitably sharing the resources of a healthy planet.

Heifer’s mission is…
To work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth.

Heifer's strategy is…
To “pass on the gift.” As people share their animals’ offspring with others – along with their knowledge, resources, and skills – an expanding network of hope, dignity, and self-reliance is created that reaches around the globe.

Heifer’s History
This simple idea of giving families a source of food rather than short-term relief caught on and has continued for over 60 years. Today, millions of families in 128 countries have been given the gifts of self-reliance and hope.

Read more about Heifer’s History.

Our Work

How Heifer does what it does

Behind our success is the hard work our field staff exerts so that projects function effectively with the best environment for project success. Scroll down to see our step by step process.

The steps are as follows:
1. Community groups approach Heifer International for help in setting up an animal or agriculture project.

2. Country program staff meet with applicants to make sure the group's goals are compatible with Heifer's mission and that they have the capacity to carry out the project successfully. Heifer staff and project participants go through a careful planning process to decide which animals or crops would be most beneficial.

3. The project plans are submitted to the Heifer International headquarters for approval.

4. Before receiving their animals, project participants must first undergo rigorous training to learn about Heifer's Cornerstones such as gender equity and sharing and caring, which will guide them toward just and sustainable development. For many participants, the training is as important as the animals they receive.

5. Families build shelters and other facilities needed to keep animals healthy. Often, families build zero-grazing facilities - airy pens with elevated floors that keep animals with destructive grazing habits away from valuable crops. They also may plant trees and grasses to be used to feed their new animals.

6. Once families receive Heifer animals, they put their training to use. Soon, eggs, milk and meat improve nutrition. Extra eggs and milk can be sold to improve income, while animal manure fertilizes crops. Bees produce honey, and trees, vegetables, fruit and other crops begin to produce food, fuel and fibers. Water buffalo, oxen and camels provide draft power that makes farming and transportation much easier.

7. It's now time for project partners to pass on the gift of self-reliance to others. Heifer recipients pass one one or more of their animal's offspring, training and skills to another family in need. The new recipients agree to pass on the gift as well, creating a chain of giving that can touch thousands of lives.

8. Heifer project partners share stories of their successes with other groups. Project participants encourage others to seek Heifer's help so that they, too, can become self-reliant.