We have followed the development of the Jumo website and network over the last year or so, and that organization has recently announced a development ‘merger’ with Good.is that will make it/them arguably the largest nonprofit socially-conscious network around.
The union will bring together Jumo’s model of searching for and supporting projects by topics with Good.is’s focus on stories, data, and news about a myriad of projects near and dear to the ethically-driven, the socially-engaged, and the community-oriented. What will the merger entail, and what might it mean for nonprofits and social-action groups who want to extend their outreach?
Jumo was started by Chris Hughes, who cut his networking teeth developing Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg. The site has that sort of ethos about it, as members can follow/support their own projects, as well as link with others on the network to see what they are following and supporting.
Good.is has built up a vibrant coalition of small businesses, nonprofits, and engaged individuals. If you are not familiar with Good.is, perhaps the most striking thing about it is how small-business friendly it is and how apolitical (though clearly with a progressive agenda) the breadth of topics are – from the Iowa straw pole, to why a few 20-somethings still are not on Facebook, to how many people in countries around the world believe alien life lives disguised among us (insert your favorite political joke here).
As Mr. Hughes posted on Jumo’s blog about the merger, size could be everything:
GOOD brings to the table a vibrant community of three million monthly users who read and interact with their dynamic content. Jumo brings a network of motivated activists and nearly 15,000 socially driven organizations…
As our teams combine, you will see the emergence of a single, vibrant online network on GOOD.is. And in the spirit of our heritage as a non-profit, we will be open-sourcing our own codebase to enable other social entrepreneurs to use our progress thus far for their own endeavors.
If your nonprofit or charity is not yet associated with Jumo, you should quickly consider tapping into its network of people who are ready to contribute time and/or money to your cause. Jumo, like any good social network, depends on interaction, so you will get feedback from the projects you support – and thus your project must be prepared to give updates to your supporters.
These are earliest days yet, as Chris Hughes points out in the blog’s statement, but we encourage you to sign up for both sites if you have not already. Then follow their merger and development to see how their work can work for you and your organization.