Nominations for New Media Awards 2006

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Pledge Bank

PledgeBank is a site that gives people the reassurance to do things they wouldn't otherwise do. Launched 10 months ago PledgeBank has given people the motivation and confidence to do things like become school governors, raise money for little known causes, plant trees, go on protests, start whole new financially sustainable organisations and even dye their hair blonde. Translated by volunteers into 9 languages, PledgeBank is now spreading across the globe, with pledges to join politicial parties in Italy, write to politicians in New Zealand and pay taxes in Russia. Over 30,000 people have signed pledges so far, and over 250 pledges have so far been successful. Tom Steinberg We all know what it is like to feel powerless, that our own actions can't really change the things that we want to change. PledgeBank is about beating that feeling by connecting you with other people who also want to make a change, but who don't want the personal risk of being the only person to turn up to a meeting or the only person to donate ten pounds to a cause that actually needed a thousand. The way it works is simple. You create a pledge which has the basic format 'I'll do something, but only if other people will pledge to do the same thing'. For example, if you'd always want to organise a street party you could organise a pledge which said 'I'll hold a street party, but only if three people who live in my street will help me to run it' The applications of PledgeBank are limitless. If you are a parent you could say that 'I will help run an after hours sports club but only if 5 other parents will commit one evening a week to doing it '. If you are in a band you could say 'I'll hold a gig but only if 40 people will come along'.

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