Movement roles project/Peer organizations/Models/Mozilla

Description

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Mozilla Foundation is a web-based, volunteer-driven NGO network

  • About 50k active volunteers (bugzilla accounts)
  • Builds local support mainly through informal activities
  • Avoiding a chapter structure or “entities without goals for effective contribution to the global movement”
  • Most legal entities are in the USA
  • Entities outside the USA (one in France and one in Japan) do not have independent boards

Three reasons why users like this model

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  1. Responsive and flexible: can operate and decide globally with minimum of fuss
  2. Inclusive: can invite volunteers to participate anywhere on their own terms without formal membership
  3. Efficient: low overhead

Three concerns of users about this model

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  1. Centralized
  2. North American
  3. Need to drive participation around the world

Other examples

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Another web-based volunteer organization similar to Mozilla is Creative Commons

  • outside USA partners with existing organizations
  • Has pulled back from creating chapters
  • More focused on building participation
  • Board is co-opted with active recruitment for non-US member(s)

A number of older NGOs with global reach have also maintained a relatively centralized global organization through a number of cycles of growth while nurturing local roots, such as African Medical and Research Foundation, BRAC, The Nature Conservancy, Human Rights Watch, or Americares.