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Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, Others Ante Up Another $30 Million To Change.org the World (fortune.com)
theodp writes: Fortune reports that LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman is "leading a $30 million funding round in Change.org, a for-profit petition and fundraising website focused on social and political change." Joining Hoffman in this round, as well as an earlier $25 million round in 2014, is Bill Gates. Change.org, Hoffman explained in a Friday LinkedIn post, "helps enable a world where you don't need to hire a lobbyist to have real impact on the issues and policies that matter to you." He added, "In its decade of existence, Change.org petitions have resulted in more than 21,000 victories, i.e., instances in which a government agency, corporation, or other entity has changed a regulation or a policy in the face of a Change.org petition urging it to do so." Last year, Hoffman joined Gates and some of the biggest names in tech and corporate America who threw their weight behind a Change.org petition that tried to get Congress to fund K-12 Computer Science education. The Change.org petition fell short of its 150,000-signature goal despite claims of support from 90% of the parents of the nation's 58 million K-12 schoolchildren (based on a Google-funded survey of 1,685 parents), widespread press coverage (including a full-page ad in petition signer Jeff Bezos's Washington Post), lobbying efforts by the tech coalition that organized the petition (which counts LinkedIn and Microsoft among its members), and even some free PR from Change.org.
Somehow, Slashdot readers will spin this as a reason to criticize Bill Gates. They can't put aside their hatred of Microsoft long enough to appreciate a good deed. No good deed goes unpunished on Slashdot.
A symptom of the 24/7 rage machine called the internet. It's not productive, results in no real change, but people get to bitch at each other.
Every issue gets forgotten within a week as you go back to your real life. Bill Gate can spend his money as he likes, but what a wasted effort.
a official whitehouse website.
Agh!
Seriously, I'll never understand the things that get funded; I'll never understand how people can just throw away $30 million on something like this—that's a lot of money!
The main problem with Change.org is that it's still easy to ignore online petitions like theirs.
They tout their "victories".
How many petitions fell by the wayside or were simply told "no"?
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
The fundamental problem we face is that people simple lack respect for human life. And this will literally never change as long as we can legally murder unborn children. There is real true evil in the world and most people here are unfortunately on the wrong side.
If they cared about these issues, as opposed to wanting to pretend to care, they could be doing more than asking others to commit more than an insignificant percentage of their own net worth to the issue.
Rule 35 of the internet: "If it can be hacked, it will be". - Charles Stross
The raw number of victories on any issues is the significant measure of effectiveness. Cost per petition is tiny, and diversity increases impact as well as traffic and exposure for all petitions. Global scope means it isn't tied up in the American political gang wars. For instance, The fight against slavery in Mauritania benefits from exposure to those in nations that enforce peace and human rights. Those who could end it don't because they think it doesn't hurt them, but a sign of international will scares them into action. Force always follows awareness, and that applies all the way from economic to military intervention.
I find it quite ironic that Hoffman says "enable a world where you don't need to hire a lobbyist to have real impact," which he accomplishes by throwing huge amounts of money behind a political initiative (the very essence of lobbying).
The main problem with Change.org is that it's still easy to ignore online petitions like theirs.
The real "main problem" is that, while "still easy", it may become difficult "to ignore online petitions like theirs".
I am a Greek that just checked this "change.org", and a popular petition right now is about a Muslim that was arrested in Greece for human trafficking of "refugees"; this petition asks from the Greek state to "let him leave Greece", and it is supported by... non-Greeks!
So, thank God, "it's still easy to ignore online petitions like theirs"!
That's not necessarily inconsistent. If the only way to get things done right now is quasi lobbying behaviour, then maybe that's the way to create a platform which makes lobbying non-necessary
We don't need more coders. We lack in the basics of reading, writing, speaking, civics, knowledge of history, science and math. Build a foundation first.
Like most of the rich liberals, they already made their money and have acquired their power. Now lets change the rules for the rest of us so they can transform into our compassionate overlords.
Also, why is it Change.org if it's for profit? Aren't orgs suppose to be non-profits?
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Pocket change from Billionaires - oh how generous.
The main problem with Change.org is that it is for-profit and sells your details every time you sign a petition on their site.
Strange that no-one is lobbying for literacy, which NCLB was meant to fix, sex education, or after-school care. It's difficult to imagine such issues don't matter to parents.
The best government money can buy!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Oh, Greece is ahead of the curve in ignoring petitions. Hell, they even ignore referenda. Remember that day when the people voted oxi and the government turned around and said nai?
Why not spend the cash on Global Warming, Billy?
What percentage of his net worth did Bill Gates personally contribute to this cause? Is he and the others associated with this cause asking each of use to contribute approximately the same percentage of our own net worth? Or maybe...more?
change.org, in trying to fight lobbying, have become a lobbyist. Though maybe they are more like a mafia trying to strong arm government. Another irony, why do people hate rich people influencing politics but do not mind rich people influencing politics through change.org? Though they are for-profit, so their first concern is making money, anyone asking what Bill Gates and Linked in get in return for the money they give to change.org?
getting deleted. Should have known.
Just like the Gates Foundation, Zuck's foundation, etc. its more greenwashing and moralizing to cover Billionaire greed and the equivalent of a Mafia Bust-out.
When the Mafia take over a business they loot the assets, run up credit bills, and run off with everything. Leaving a shattered husk. This essentially is the modus operandi of George Soros, who perfected that move while hunting Jews for the Nazis at age 14, of which he remains proud of, auctioning off the assets of concentration camp bound victims. Warren Buffet, who has not lived in Omaha for years (he lives in Palm Beach or NYC with one of his many mistresses) and Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos and Carlos Slim do the same thing:
A. Launch a "charitable foundation" that aims to "fix" conditions such as war, poverty, etc.
B. Put most / all of the press on the payroll, its quite cheap. [Most journalists work for either Soros and the Tides foundation which offers direct payments often exceeding raw salaries, Carlos Slim at the NYT, or Jeff Bezos of the Washington Post, or indirectly Bill Gates and Warren Buffet through the Gates Foundation].
C. Gain control of various assets while making sure to demonize "nationalists" who argue the assets belong to the people of the country not foreign billionaires.
D. Loot said assets as quickly as possible and then leave ruined husks behind for the suckers, the people of that nation, to clean up.
Change.org is nothing more than a billionaire green-washing scheme. Moar Immigration so Carlos Slim can get another $20 billion from Mexican and Central American bound telephone calls (seriously, that is how he got to be a billionaire, he bribed his way into that telecom monopoly in Mexico). MOAR Global Warming green stuff so Bill Gates and Buffet can make billions -- like barring pipelines so their Burlington Northern Railroad can carry all that oil.
"helps enable a world where you don't need to hire a lobbyist"
Billionaires fund a lobby to "help the little guy" with issues that "matter". They are advertising their efforts as altruism, while in reality selling products, corruption and partisan politics.
Meanwhile, the average citizens are sending their money to the ACLU and the NRA to protect the guarantees in the Constitution's Bill of Rights.
>> a for-profit petition and fundraising website.
So what makes this any different from just another big megacorp buying off politicians to protect its own agenda?
Why would it make it any more difficult?
"Three million violent economic migrants signed a Change.org petition to let a murdering rapist go."
"I don't visit Change.org, therefore, not even a single pico-fuck is given."
"But you're going to get a copy delivered to you to."
"This is what a trashcan is for. Single pico-fuck STILL ungiven."
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!