Creating a Local Change Maker Community

RECAP

Last SANDBOX - Meeting of Minds 13th of January

Recapturing COP21

Activation of local change maker community

What is our role when it comes to climate change?

Interactive Workshop

4 Themes (citizen participation, education, politics and systems thinking)

Discussing challenges and opportunities

Setting ACTION POINTS

The one who stood out in the endTo work against the lack of visibility and accessibility

of already established projects and initiatives

and give people the space to easily implement and start something on their own

Creating an Overarching Online Platform that pools already existing projects and initiatives, connect and inspires

collaboration while providing the space for people to easily get involved and/or create their own projects and initiatives

SANDBOX Meeting #2 - Follow up

Let me introduce you to...

Connecting Change

MonkeyTree

The MonkeyTree.Community

is a social crowdsourcing platform aiming to empower

bottom-up movements

This Platform is

steered by people

empowered by NGOs, already established social initiatives

and businesses.

Let me ask you a question...

How many of you have already wondered ...

Why ‘something’ was not being implemented in the city?

Why did nobody ever think about that ‘something’?

Why was ‘something’ just the way it was?

Is there nothing that we can do to change ‘something’?

How many of you have then thought of what this something could be?

maybe even played with this idea for a while and

thought about a way to implement it?

And how many of you have then lost that idea again sooner or later because it was just not possible, too difficult, too time

consuming, too expensive, and just too utopian?

You are not alone!

Throughout the years we understood that…... Today, social challenges are often

Too abstract,

too overwhelming

too intangible

not relevant enough to truly invest time and money in it.

Therefore we want to give people the tools to change this.

In order to do this, we are working on an online platform on which people can create, fund and participate in specific, achievable,

tangible and relevant projects.

Translating global challenges into local initiatives

We want to…...Give people the opportunity to share their ideas on how they want to

make a difference in their local community,

make those ideas VISIBLE

Who is MonkeyTree?

MonkeyTree started in 2012 as a protest to the capitalist mechanism of NGO fundraising.

…...but let’s start from the beginning…...

Sandrina’s StoryI have studied International Leisure Management meaning Event management, Management of the Creative Industries, Value-based experience Design as well Marketing, Branding and Concept Development.

During my Internship 2011 that I did within a Market Research Agency I got absolutely fascinated by Social Psychology and Behavioural Analysis.

Unfortunately the company I worked for sold those insights to

Coca Cola and Cadbury making

people buy stuff they do not need with money the do not

have.

So, I wanted to take that fascination, the insights and the knowledge on how to make people do stuff without them noticing to another level and help NGOs and social initiatives to spread their cause - make people do good things.

I decided to write my thesis on this subject - researching not just why people do good what motivates them and reward expectations they might but also how and if NGOs adapt those insights already, what their strategies are and whether they are successfully or not - the result of this study was:

MonkeyTree

Research Outcomes

PeopleWant to unfold themselves and develop, speak up for social wrongs and are aware of the environment they live in

Break social convictions through moral and social counter actions

Integrate postmodern values as development and discovery of their own selves, live with modern values such as amusement, joyfulness, and consumer goods.

Core values addressed• Social inclusion and social recognition through the community• Interaction through co-creation alongside of online as well offline activities, which create

purpose and real life connection.• Influence and recognition • Translating global challenges in local (tangible and relevant) initiatives• Seeking cluster and transparency and overview - one spot

NGOs• Many NGOs face the challenge of relying too much on traditional marketing techniques• Over aged Target Groups • Relying on corporate funds and governmental subsidies• No time to investigate how to reach more individual supporters

• The community provides a new way to reach a wider base of contributors and interest groups to break out of their vicious circle

• The community creates a transnational and transparent network - also for NGOs internally to share challenges, best practices and pitfalls

• Create projects that their individual donor can really relate to

Core values addressed

• Connection to its contributors• Security by overcoming competition and seeking transparency within the market but

also within their finances• Image

Nowmore about MonkeyTree

what do we do?

MonkeyTree

.House

.Community

.Fund

Online magazine-style with all updates about what’s happening in and around MonkeyTree feat stories, interviews, article, photos, ...

.CommunityAn online crowdsourcing platform

in which global issues are translated into local initiatives

Some Project Examples … and their challenges

Momentum:

Public Fridge / People LOVED the idea

Invited to speak at several occasions

Challenges:

Legal Issues

Trust / Community Building

...

Share Shop

Momentum:

Workshop / Inspiration

InnBetween offered Location

Challenge:

Initiator moved away

Project died

Sustainability AppMomentum:

Initiation

Workshop

Challenge:

Difficulties scheduling follow up meetings (everybody on their own agenda)

Not everybody on Facebook / Lack of communication platform

Missing IT knowledge / Developer

On The MonkeyTree.Community Platform we could turn those challenges into

opportunities and keep the momentum those initiatives created

Features- Group Support pooling Experts and professionals on certain subject (IT/Legal support,

…)- Upload and get involved in projects directly – easy communication and availability to

‘switch’ initiator- Post and accomplish Kindness Challenges- Blog stream (#theme, #topic, #content) – get inspired - Profile (summary of all your work on the community)- Map (find projects easy) - overview- Copy Paste projects from one city to the other - Connect with NGOs and other established Organisations to gain support and network- …

.Fund

How do we finance the projects

initiated? Not everything just works out with

good connections, inspirations and a

good will…

• We implemented a ‘Redistribution System’• People/Organisations pledge to give 1% of their monthly income

back to the community • Fund will be distributed to all members of the community who then

decide which projects they would like to support• Projects can request their fund at any time

We gave workshops to

NGOs

We built a Beta version of the Platform

Ronja Joined!

Gained experience in office administration & management, organisational structuring (5 years), project management (1 year).The urge to take action onto a fairer world got bigger and bigger, therefore I joined MonkeyTree 2015.

‘I want to take action - I want to turn my passion into my profession.’

With MonkeyTree I aim to help people get their initiatives and ideas off the ground but also to support NGOs and Organisations with their internal challenges.

Since last year, MonkeyTree not just offers creative support

but also (re)structural assistance and consultancy.

Maastricht meets MonkeyTree

In order to set up our platform, and proof its functionality

we decided to move the idea

offline...

1 Day - 3 Topics

Neighbourhood Solidarity

(InnBetween)

How can we create a more inclusive

society?

Global Responsibility

(Soup Solo)

How can we give people a feeling/

understanding of a global responsibility

that they can act upon?

One Planet

(LBB Eetcafe)

How can we engage people into a more sustainable living?

After the Festival was over, The Re:evolution established as a steady initiative – still focusing on inspiring the community and providing

an impact toolkit for social change

Challenges of the past 4 years

space issues

commitment of supporters

finance / not entrepreneurial enough

What is happening at the moment?

Working on a new

platform

New Platform until to be launched in May/June!

Partnering up with other organisations

New HeadquartersThe Atelier * Hoogfrankrijk 27

Setting Up the Stichting to get the Fund Rolling

What’s Next?

Co-Creating MonkeyTree.Communit

y

What is your main goal? Who do we need to reach this goal – and what are the different

milestones involved to get there? What would you use the community platform for? What success factor/challenges would you define?

The next six months are in the light of building up

MonkeyTree.Community and creating the first local change maker hot-spot here in Maastricht – giving you the tools

to create the change you want to see

To do so, together with the Green Office Maastricht, we will organise one Sandbox Meeting every month focusing on one aspect of ‘becoming a

change maker’ and introducing you to the different tools we believe are essential to steer change locally.

Thank You!