"Be the Buzz You Wish To See In The World"
We Updated Our Wording To Clarify What We're Up To: Creating A Buzz Is A Key Feature
The Slight Overhaul
Hello! It’s been quiet on this Substack this week after the Saturday night story as we’ve been tweaking our nonprofit’s online presence to be clearer about what we’re doing. Some of our prior content was fuzzy about which direction we’d like to shift this country in — so now all of our stuff notes that we’re working “toward a healthier democracy and away from far-right extremism.”
It’s tricky to find the best words when your intention is to help catalyze a whole big coalition of Democrats, independents, and non-MAGA Republicans while anchoring your approach in values that generally align with the Democratic party. In the end, though, any specific agenda won’t be so reachable if democracy breaks down… so the words “toward a healthier democracy” carry a whole lot of weight.
We also added a critical bit about the “how we’re making this shift happen” — because part of the set-up of this work is to leverage and catalyze exponential spread, feedback loops, synergy, viral spread, and so on. It’s messy and kind of wild, but we hadn’t explained it well up front. That’s the “buzz” the post photo refers to. Plus we moved the scoop on “urgency & why we need a new effort” off the homepage and to its own spot.
The full gist of the more descriptive wording update is included below. The opening sentences are also now the “about” blurb on every single one of our social media and fundraising platforms. Updated branding! Or something like that! Woohoo!
With that, there’s now an updated printable, readable PDF of the entire website that you can pick up on the website homepage.
And here’s the new website homepage:
We’re Catalyzing Public Pressure, Engagement, & Coalition-Building
Shift the Country is a nonprofit set up to catalyze widespread public pressure & civic engagement to move the US toward a healthier democracy & away from far-right extremism. We reach and energize Americans and counter apathy by doing these 5 Things:
Thing 1: Building connection
Thing 2: Doing more with community & coalitions
Thing 3: Involving businesses through partnerships & pressure
Thing 4: Empowering vision, values, & moral courage
Thing 5: Driving the narrative at every level, creating a buzz in local chatter networks, & sharing it all everywhere.
We can empower people to make change where they live & inspire them to vote in overwhelming majorities in elections to overcome structures that protect minority party power. Together we can grow a coalition of Democrats, independents, & non-MAGA Republicans that leverages the power of the US majority to get government to do real problem-solving; & to better serve this multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracy so we all have the opportunity to survive, thrive, and flourish.
For more on why we need this shift, check out the "About" tab on the website, or the “Urgency and Why We Need a New Effort” page. Or, get everything on the website all at once in the more readable printable PDF "Big Shift Framework” (if the PDF link is broken check the website for the current PDF).
How We’re Making Shift Happen
This thing is set up in part to catalyze viral/exponential spread of all kinds of things through interconnected social networks in-real-life and online – through action, stories, outrage, and ideas that spread and that inspire more. The more people we reach and fuss we create and real-world impact we have… the more we’ll inspire more action, engagement, alliances, voting, and change… and the more this shift will grow. It’s organic, synergistic, messy, risky, systems-oriented, and human.
We enable more of it all by sharing, encouraging, and amplifying content, writing, podcasts, videos, etc. on every possible aspect of this shift – from joy to pain, and from struggle to success. We catalyze this shift by getting volunteers together on Zoom calls to create early actions and outreach, and to evolve it as we go. We use the 5 Things as a framework. We start coalition-building, we explore business pressure/partnership options, and we increase our initial reach through ad funding as it’s available, and through the connections/communities/coalitions we grow. Then we do more.
Get Started
Join in on Zoom calls. These teamwork calls are a key to ramping this shift up.
Sign up to volunteer here. Bring your brain! We’re doing teams and working groups to grow this.
Join our social media:
Substack: Shift the Country, the main sign-up for blog posts, action, & announcements.
Eventbrite: Shift the Country – plus background info about events here.
Share our stuff! Sharing our stuff with people and groups you’re involved with helps grow this shift. Actively talking about what we’re doing and recruiting folks to volunteer or join our Zooms helps too.
Print the website as a PDF if needed. The “Big Shift Framework" PDF is essentially a printable version of the whole www.shiftthecountry.com website for easier reading (available on the website homepage for download). Part 1 of the framework has the 5 Things plus other basics that individuals or a group might need to get started separate from online events Shift the Country will be hosting. Part 2 of the framework is context and back story about what’s at stake.
Donate To Grow This Shift!
Donate here:
Donate on the website... one time or monthly
Donate via ActBlue: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/shiftthecountrynow
Donate via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ShiftTheCountry?fan_landing=true
Donate through an Eventbrite event registration
Substack: Get a paid subscription
Donate by mail, payable to: Shift the Country, PO Box 1093, Ames, Iowa 50014
Donations are not tax deductible.
Shift the Country is doing a $50,000 fundraising push on both ActBlue & on this website. Cumulative progress shows on the ActBlue page.
It's funding to secure realistic funding to cover advertising, staff, & tech to grow our reach & to help inspire people & groups everywhere take action that grows this shift. We can help Americans counter the far-right threat to our way of life, and catalyze widespread public pressure & civic engagement to move the US toward a healthier democracy.
Funding is critical as Shift the Country may be the only nonprofit in this mission space... with a strategic, achievable operational approach designed specifically to help counter a far-right autocratic movement... while also changing the long-term direction of the US.
There's more on this uniqueness on the "About" page, and in the last bit of the "Where Did This Shift Come From?" page. For easier reading, you can essentially print or download the whole website with this PDF (if the link is broken, get the current PDF on the website).
"Light up the darkness." - Bob Marley