Crowdsourcing ideas and content from supporters

Summary: 

Crowdsourcing is the process of opening a creative or problem-solving exercise to include input from a wider group outside of the usual inside thinking and decision-making channels. The wider concept of crowdsourcing includes solicitation of “user-generated content”, which can include multimedia creative submissions.

In advocacy and movement-building, this can mean asking your supporters for their ideas to build a group visioning process or for their input on proposed policy platforms or even strategic campaign plans. The user-generated content side of advocacy crowdsourcing typically involves organizations receiving and using creative concepts from their base in campaign communications. Such creative can include campaign slogans, custom re-branding, images and videos.

Input and resources for this framework were provided by: 

Steve Anderson, founder of OpenMedia, who have generously made public many of their learned experiences on crowdsourcing for advocacy. Here are their own participant credits:  Thanks to Reilly Yeo who was involved in our crowdsourced processes in our early work as well as the Crowdsourcing Masterclass sessions that she taught with our founder Steve Anderson. Thanks also to community engagement specialist Dave Meslin, Soledad Vega, and the entire OpenMedia team and collaborators past and present. 

Content was also provided by Michael Hoffman from GatherVoices App, Mobilisation Lab’s crowdsourcing articles and Doug Hattaway’s account of the Our Tomorrow campaign, Alan Smith and the Roosevelt Institute’s Next Generation Blueprint project.

This guide was prepared and reviewed by: 

Steve Anderson, Tom Liacas, Alan Smith

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