February 7, 2002 | Read Time: 1 minute
A nonprofit organization that has spent the past six years helping charities and individuals connect online is now trying to build a worldwide network to connect them offline as well.
The Idealist Web site currently offers a searchable database of more than 25,000 nonprofit organizations around the world. Once they are registered with Idealist, groups can post information on the site about their work, special events, and job and volunteer opportunities.
Ami Dar, Idealist’s executive director, says that when he first thought about starting the organization, “what I was dreaming about was that in every neighborhood or community in the world there should be a place where you could walk in and find your neighbors and find resources to help you, together with them, take action on whatever issue concerns you.”
Not knowing how to create such a network, he instead started the Web site that eventually became Idealist.
Idealist now has an e-mail newsletter with more than 80,000 subscribers, which led Mr. Dar to believe that his organization had built enough credibility to return to his original idea. He sent an e-mail message to the charity’s supporters in early January, and asked them to hold or attend one of a number of meetings on February 5.
More than 125 meetings are scheduled in 40 countries. Mr. Dar says that participants will discuss the idea of starting a “help center” in their own city or town and identify who else they would need to talk to in order to move forward with the idea.
For more information: Go to http://www.idealist.org.
