Category Archives: Workshops

Secrets of Crowdfunding Success: Join Us for a Webinar!

New to ioby? New to crowdfunding? Trying to decide whether our platform is right for your idea?

Our introductory webinars give a  basic introduction to crowdfunding with ioby, including our top tips for successful campaign planning, proven grassroots fundraising techniques, case studies of successfully funded projects, and  an opportunity for you to ask questions.

neighborhood projects

We offer a general webinar, “Secrets of Crowdfunding Success,” that is geared toward anyone with an interest in crowdfunding for neighborhood projects.  We’ll be  conducting this webinar three times in coming weeks:

  • Thursday, May 28th  @ 12:30 – 1:30 pm EST
  • Wednesday, June 3rd @ 5:00 – 6:00 pm EST
  • Tuesday, June 9th @ 9:00 – 10:00 am EST

Click here to register for one of our introductory     webinars.

Crowdfunding webinar

We also regularly offer introductory webinars in major topic areas such as parks, safe streets, and community gardening.

We’re offering   Crowdfunding  for Parks Projects on Wednesday, May 27th  @ 12:00 – 1:00 pm EST

Click here to register for our “Crowdfunding for Parks Projects” webinar.

If you’re interested in finding out more about crowdfunding for neighborhood projects but can’t make any of these times, or want to ask specific question about your idea, feel free to contact us at action@ioby.org.

ioby goes to Memphis


The ioby-Tactical Urbanism-Neighborland mashup

Exciting news from ioby’s Gowanus office here.

Over the last few months, we’ve been admiring the good work of Tactical Urbanism and Neighborland, and we’ve been wanting to work together. And now, we are.

Next weekend, we’re all going to Memphis. Alan Williams from Neighborland and Erin Barnes from ioby, two of folks behind two digital tools for creating a real-world impact are hosting a get-together and training the day following the upcoming Tactical Urbanism Salon.

Following Friday’s Park(ing) Day Memphis, on Saturday, September 22, ioby and Neighborland will be joining our friends at the Tactical Urbanism Salon.

Then, on Sunday, Sept 23, Neighborland and ioby are having a get together at Crosstown Arts, and we would like you to join us. Civic-minded Memphians of all walks of life to come enjoy the afternoon and learn a little bit about how these two tools can help people make Memphis a better. We’ll bring cold beer and other refreshments – you bring your family, friends and neighbors.

Neighborland is a social network that empowers residents and organizations to share ideas, solve problems, and seize opportunities. ioby is a non-profit crowd funding tool that helps bring new community ideas to life, block by block. Together, we can help new ideas turn into community projects, and then get the funding they need to get done.

All are welcome, but space is limited so please register for this free event! See you next week in Memphis!

What: ioby-Neighborland Memphis Kick Off Event
Where: Crosstown Arts, 427 N Watkins Street, Memphis.
When: Sunday, September 23rd at 2pm

Tree Care Workshop

Thanks to New York City’s MillionTreesNYC Program, over 200,000 street trees have been planted around the city in the past five years. However, the new trees won’t make it another five years if they are not properly cared for. Join the Jackson Heights Beautification Group this Saturday, March 31 for a tree-care workshop. Beyond teaching you how to properly care for street trees, you will also learn how to share your tree care knowledge with others.

 

If joining a grassroots tree care movement appeals to you, come to The Renaissance Charter School, 35-59 81st Street, Jackson Heights this Saturday from 10am to 1pm. For more information, visit the event page at http://on.fb.me/H6S8Uf. Hope to see you there!

Video for Volunteers 101 – Feb 28, 2012 register now!

 

Video is something everyone can use as a tool to create social change. Video for Volunteers 101 is designed to get you started creating video content that you can use to build awareness, raise funds and tell the world all about the great work you’ve undertaken. We’ll cover basic concepts of video creation, guidelines for planning your video, the fundamentals of shooting and strategies for editing your piece. Our goal is to put the power of video in your hands.
Training is done in partnership with ioby and Good Eye Video. Good Eye Video is a video production company for non-profits. They produce, educate and strategize with organizations trying to tell their stories. They believe in the radical idea that every human being has a story that can change the world. They believe video can make it happen. ioby thinks they’re right.  RSVP here, please.

 

Recipes for Change Workshop

 

We had a great workshop session on Saturday to get feedback on our Recipes for Change toolkit.  Thanks to those who came, we had a range of participants: young and old, local residents and visitors from abroad, project leaders and people with just great ideas for projects in their neighborhoods.  That diversity of participation led to insightful feedback on aspects to make us better from an array of perspectives. 

It was helpful for us to know for instance, how our toolkit was viewed by an experienced project leader in comparison to someone who just has an idea but doesn’t know where to start. It was also interesting to compare the views of those who want a compact list of tips and those who want a longer set of templates and visuals. Over the coming months, ioby and Places for All will be asking ourselves the questions raised at the workshop to refine the toolkit based on your comments. We think in the end Recipes for Change is going to be a really useful tool and resource.  Thanks for confirming this to us on Saturday and letting us know we should keep going to make this project happen. 

If you have any additional ideas or comments, please email info@ioby.org

Below are some images from Saturday, credits to Katie Doane for the great photos.

Share & Build Recipes for Change, Sat., Nov. 12, 2pm

On page 40 of ioby's Business Plan, you'll find our Founding Principles. I'm gonna save you the trouble of looking for them and just tell you now that the third one is:

 

Local people often know best what changes are needed in their community, and are the best source of creativity, ingenuity, and motivation needed to realize change.

 

 

Basically, what this says is that you are the expert on your community's needs and the best ways to address those needs. You and everybody else out there like you. Tami in Brooklyn is the expert. Jared in the Bronx is the expert. Martha in Queens is the expert. You get the idea.

 

And so, rather than create a bunch of "expertise" from our organization's staff, one of ioby's three main objectives is to share the expertise, knowledge and experience of project leaders that post their projects on ioby with all of you. And back in August, we started a new project to do just that. 

We started working with Clarisa Diaz from Places for All.

Together we've built a toolkit that we're calling Recipes for Change. Admittedly, it is hokey. But it makes sense. Every project has key ingredients and steps to being successful. At at the end, the chefs, er…uh…project leaders, give you extra tips and lessons they learned along the way.

The Recipes for Change recipe box, just like any other recipe box, can grow. You can contribute your recipe, and we'll throw it in the mix and let others use it. 

And so, not surprisingly, the Recipes for Change recipe box is under development, with just eight recipes so far. But those eight are pretty damn good and we have a working draft that we want to share with you to see what you think. 

We're getting together on Saturday, November 12 at 2pm in Brooklyn for a two-hour workshop.

During this time you can talk directly with ioby project leaders that have taken their ideas to fruition and who want to share their "recipes" with you. You can RSVP here: http://recipes4change.eventbrite.com/

All of this is part of a larger project called Amplifying Creative Communities that we're working on with Parsons the New School, DESIS, IDEO, Shareable, and our old friends the Lower East Side Ecology Center and Green Map, all funded by the Rockefeller Foundation's NYC Cultural Innovation Grant. The exhibition is open until November 20 and you can check out our toolkit on your own anytime, but we'll be there in person only on Saturday, November 12. The workshop is from 2-4pm, but we'll be hanging around from 11am – 4pm if you want to just walk in and browse without participating in the workshop. 

Please RSVP. Location information here.

Here's a sneak peak: