ioby FEATURED AT MOVING MOUNTAINS SYMPOSIUM

22 May ioby FEATURED AT MOVING MOUNTAINS SYMPOSIUM

ioby co-founders Brandon Whitney, Cassie Flynn and Erin Barnes. Photo Credit: Devin Mathis, 2013.

The name is always written in lower-case letters: ioby. But the core ideas the organization embodies are all CAPS. (Oh, and ioby is pronounced eye-OH-be to rhyme with Nairobi.)

The nonprofit is a case that makes a point the charismatic entrepreneur/author/environmentalist Paul Hawken made to an SRO crowd at Mountainfilm 2007 and in his book, “Blessed Unrest”: “The world is busy saving itself.”

Or could be.

Why?

“Because there is inherent goodness at the heart of our humanity,” said Jane Goodall, UN Ambassador for Peace in her review of “Blessed Unrest.”

How?

“The movers and shakers on our planet aren’t the billionaires and the generals – they are the incredible numbers of people around the world filled with love for their neighbor and for the earth who are resisting, remaking, restoring, renewing, revitalizing…,” said Bill McKibben in his glowing comment. McKibben, founder, 350.org, a Mountainfilm regular (he plans to talk at this year’s Moving Mountains Symposium via Skype) knows from whence he speaks. He is one of the people he described.

So what is ioby?

Its ethos is the opposite of NIMBY. In other words the acronym stands for “in our backyards.” ioby is inclusive, not exclusive.

Its mission: Deepen civic engagement in cities by connecting individuals directly to citizen-led, neighbor-funded environmental projects in their neighborhoods, primarily through ioby’s web-based crowd-resourcing platform.

Crowd-resourcing is a word ioby co-founders and principals – Brandon Whitney, Cassie Flynn and Erin Barnes  – made up by combining the concepts of crowd-funding (the ability to pool small donations made online to a specific cause or project) and resource organizing (a core tenet of community organizing that considers activists and advocates the best supporters to ensure financial sustainability of a cause or project).

Shatia Jackson and Kirsten Bonardi Rapp turn 462 Halsey, a vacant lot in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, into a community garden by raising $1,417 on ioby.

The trio believes crowd-resourcing is a powerful way to build support and ensure the success of any given project.

Check out the website for examples of crowd-resourcing appeals in action. Here are a scant few:

The Shore Soup Project based in Rockaway, Queens, New York wants to deliver hot soup door-to-door to residents in the community, all of whom have been hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. The nonprofit needs volunteers and a total of $133,935. To date, it has raised $1,052.

The Marin School of Environmental Leadership is a school within a school focused on project-based education and environmental issues. It is designed to create community leaders of tomorrow, but still needs $4,697 of a total of $5,057 to get off the ground.

And one example hits closer to home – if home is the Telluride region.

Last Monday, May 13, we received an email from EcoActions Partners and an entity calling itself “Telluride Grown.” The appeal for funds was to help create two aquaponic demonstration units in time for Mountainfilm. The units and related collateral at the festival will demonstrate how the partnership will create a model of “urban agriculture” in a remote, high-altitude location, highly challenged to grow food using conventional methods.

What is “Telluride Grown?”

Telluride Grown, led by Telluride’s own Kris Holstrom and Steve Cieciuch, is a plan to bring an aquaponics-powered greenhouse to Telluride.

“Telluride Grown” is a project on ioby’s website as follows:

“The eventual project will be a series of greenhouses to raise fish and organic vegetables for local consumption. This portion of the project is to create two small aquaponic units that will be used to demonstrate the concept to the intelligent audience attending Telluride’s Mountainfilm Festival. This year’s Mountainfilm theme is Climate Solutions. The Telluride Grown aquaponics demonstration units will show the activist crowd that attends the festival how aquaponics works and how small and medium scale efforts can be part of a larger climate solution effort…”

The page goes on to describe next steps and the rationale for the project.

For phase 1 of the aquaponic project to come to fruition will cost $10,125. When we last checked, about $1000 had been raised. It’s a good start.

How does ioby measure success? When it sees urban neighborhoods with more sunlight, open space, fresh veggies, greenery and people!

“When money and people connect to great projects, we’re getting it done,” they say.

To learn more, click on this link ( video.http://ioby.org/about/meet-ioby)

AND

Listen to my chat with Erin Barnes, ioby’s executive director.