ACS: Mashing Up Old Dogs and New Tricks

By Allison Fine

The hell with them! That’s what many of my techie friends say when I share with them stories of traditional activist organizations that are being left behind in the Web 2.0 world. But, it seems you can mashup old dogs and tricks and come up with something very new and interesting. The American Cancer Society, one of the most venerable and long standing charitable organizations in the world, has stealthily and successfully become connected and collaborative in new and interesting ways.

When I was doing the research for by book Momentum about 18 months ago the one missing ingredient for the book was the lack of examples of traditional organizations that had transitioned from the old economy to the new. There were a litany of great examples of activist organizations like the Genocide Intervention Network and Just Vision that have connectedness in their DNA. What I didn’t find were examples of the nonprofit "wise men," the old, traditional organizations, working in more open and connected ways.

Until now.

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