Learning for Civic Action Challenge
Sentinel: Revolutionary Nonprofit Social Media
What is the name of your solution?
Sentinel: Revolutionary Nonprofit Social Media
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
We inspire, educate, and bring global "superhero" teams together to take civic action.
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Profit driven media and social media cannot provide the accurate information we all need to build truly working systems. We've seen political laws shift to allow more money into politics, and we have taken note of how that has changed all conversations. We've seen social media giants shift from having minimal ads to being well-known for freely and openly sharing and selling our personal information and location data to big data companies and even governments. We've taken note of how social media companies change their priorities when they move from building a community to making profit for their investors. We believe that building a truly global decentralized online community that prioritizes the voices of the MOST marginalized, not just the loudest western voices, is what is sorely needed. The social media giants are purely money-making machines, and that necessarily prioritizes money-making accounts and business practices.
That's why social media is toxic, outrage focused, squashes marginalized voices, and makes people feel lonely.
That's why traditional media has wall-to-wall coverage of the UK coronation but nothing about the coup in Myanmar or the teacher strike in Nigeria.
We started the DG Sentinel to combat that. We aren't using unique technologies, because we don't need to. We believe that our innovation lies in who we are, the diverse perspectives that we amplify, our amazing staff of volunteers who work incredibly hard even though we have yet to launch. Technology stacks come and go, but our innovation lies in our people. Our social network is built on empathy and connection, linking individuals who want to change the world for the better. We are leveraging an incredibly strong and talented editorial staff to work with marginalized and ignored people to bring their stories to the forefront of our global understanding of how we are all connected. We are incentivizing our users and our staff to reach out and understand each other and work together across borders, religions, social groups, and linking the everyday superheroes that we know are out there fighting against oppression of their class, their gender, their communities. We want to bring those superheroes together into a global network of collaborators and experts who skill share and mentor each other to achieve a massive shift using thousands and thousands of small initiatives.
What is your solution?
Imagine if Twitter had been a nonprofit that could have never been bought out, that was focused on Black and brown voices, and that rewarded impact instead of outrage.
That's us.
We have created a novel social media platform that:
1. Inspires people with high quality, curated, editorial stories from around the world.
2. Allows people to post their thoughts and initiatives and connect to each other.
3. Focuses on users' "mission" (what they care about changing in the world) and "superpowers" (what they're willing to do to help fix things).
4. Connects people to their superhero teams.
Here's more:
Our solution is to leverage existing technology in a new and novel way. Most social media relies on for-profit models, which inevitably creates a prioritization of stockholder needs (that is to say, money) over safety, community, and so on. Overall, a survey found that 91% of Americans “agree” or “strongly agree” that people have lost control over how personal information is used by different entities. Media companies spread disinformation. And loneliness is a rising epidemic.
In the initial stages, we'll use WordPress to set up our website for sharing content, collecting donations, and demonstrating our concept. The website will serve as a foundation, a place where we can initiate our mission and start building our community. Our platform will be more than just a content-sharing site; it will be a catalyst for community organization and activism. We'll offer tools and resources that empower users to start, manage, and participate in various projects and campaigns related to the issues they care about. We are planning on infrastructure to support 10-40,000 users in the first two years and growing steadily year after year.
One need only look to major social media networks to realize the problem is skewing vastly towards the desires of corporate profit and not actually fostering meaningful connection. We are going to leverage an amazing editorial staff working with original authors globally with unique and important stories and perspectives to prime our social media users to focus on the good that we are doing in the world rather than how much money we can make for ourselves. Using that strong editorial, we seek to inspire others to organize with each other, providing organizational support, pitching in on temporary projects, helping out with raising awareness, and so one. Simply put, our solution is to put community FIRST.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
We are our target population and our solution is changing our lives already.
Our community is global, and our voice is global as well. We are going to be serving our own community, and those communities that our online space works to support. Dismantling the regular barriers to collaboration, that is to say national borders and lack of empathy, we are working to teach people how to reach out and empathize with each other, by incentivizing empathic behavior. Our solution is primarily aimed at serving the global internet community of 5 billion strong, which encompasses diverse demographics of social media users who are currently underserved by the prevalent profit-driven social media model.
Specifically, we aim to serve users who are seeking more meaningful connections and genuine engagement. This includes activists, educators, community leaders, socially conscious individuals, and essentially anyone looking for a space to share and engage with meaningful content.
These users are currently underserved due to the commercial nature of mainstream social media platforms, where the focus is often on generating revenue rather than fostering meaningful community engagement. They are frequently exposed to content that is dictated by profit-driven algorithms, misinformation, and privacy breaches.
Our solution addresses their needs by providing a non-profit, community-driven media platform. Here, content is curated to foster genuine connections and promote positive social impact. Our platform offers robust tools and support for users to initiate, participate in, and manage various projects and campaigns related to the issues they care about. It promotes a safer, more inclusive space for meaningful discourse and action. By prioritizing community welfare and positive social impact, we expect to create a significant shift in how users interact and engage with social media. The platform aims to empower users, enabling them to become not just consumers of content, but active participants in global discourse and community-based initiatives.
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
Our CEO (me, hi!) is an "influencer" tired of social media, a former columnist for major papers, and a former award-winning government attorney.
I've seen the problem first-hand. And as a queer, brown woman living in America, I've seen my voice get squashed by arbitrary algorithms and racist news stories. I was inspired to help create the solution for people like me who just want friends, family, a voice, a community, and the ability to change the world.
Our entire team of 90 volunteers are the people we are serving. We are the audience. We know exactly what we need to thrive online, to find superhero teams (we are one ourselves), to discover purpose, to make friends, and to change the world (that's what we're doing!).
We're deciding our own algorithms. We're giving ourselves consistent feedback and widening our circles. We come from over 25 countries and can ask our friends and families for perspectives that are completely unrepresented at Twitter or on CNN.
We have purposely built a global organization on the single idea that empathy and connection is how we can survive as a society, rather than clicks, outrage, and profit. This basis of global empathy and organizing to solve problems small and large creates a rolling wave of prioritizing volunteering, connection, and empathy. We purposely hire for gaps that we identify on a rolling basis, seeking to add new cultures and backgrounds to our existing already stellar and varied volunteer staff.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Enable learners to bridge civic knowledge with taking action by understanding real-world problems, building networks, organizing plans for collective action, and exploring prosocial careers.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
We are truly global; incorporated in Delaware.
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
What is your solution’s stage of development?
Pilot: An organization testing a product, service, or business model with a small number of users
How many people does your solution currently serve?
~300
Why are you applying to Solve?
We have been looking to fund initially with high net worth donors, but are running into blatant and not so blatant levels of sexism and racism. It's well known that startups run by people who are not male and not white receive very little VC funding (in the low single digit percentages). We are hoping to partner with true experts who know how to get us the funding we so need in order to launch this project.
Second, we are always looking to expand our community, since community building is what we do! We are especially excited to join the Solve network, share our amazing connections and Advisory Board, and tap into yours as well.
Third, our CPO Kester Osahenye is excited to work with Solve on publicity and sharing our solution with the world.
And finally, we look forward to sharing our best practices with other leaders and learning how to be stronger leaders ourselves.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Isvari Maranwe
What makes your solution innovative?
We put people first. This radical act positions the technology as a tool to serve the empowerment of the user. The current model exploits first, and always. And we are changing the market to prioritize the good people do in the world, instead of fame, money, and power.
We incentivize people to become superheroes in their free time and provide them the tools, inspiration, education, and community to get there.
As the money in politics has grown, the political conversations have changed. Megacorporations have learned that whoever has the loudest megaphone gets the most attention. We aim to change that on a global scale.
Social media offered us hope of connection and then used us as a commodity to be sold. Starting with minimal ads to being well-known for freely and openly sharing and selling our personal information and location data to big data companies and even governments. We've taken note of how social media companies change their priorities when they move from building a community to making profit for their investors. We will never make that switch.
We believe that our innovation lies in who we are, the diverse perspectives that we amplify, our amazing staff of volunteers who work incredibly hard even though we have yet to launch.
Technology stacks come and go, but our innovation lies in our people. Our social network is going to be built on empathy and connection, linking individuals who want to change the world for the better. We are leveraging an incredibly strong and talented editorial staff to work with marginalized and ignored people to bring their stories to the forefront of our global understanding of how we are all connected. We are incentivizing our users and our staff to reach out and understand each other and work together across borders, religions, social groups, and linking the everyday superheroes that we know are out there fighting against oppression of their class, their gender, their communities. We want to bring those superheroes together into a global network of collaborators and experts who skill share and mentor each other.
What are your impact goals for the next year and the next five years, and how will you achieve them?
We will:
- Fix loneliness through a quality online community and purpose-oriented projects
- Upskill users to be global leaders
- Connect people to superhero teams that can successfully use micro-movements to change the world
- Share inspirational, honest stories from the ground
- Support hundreds of initiatives to change the world (our pilot of ~300 launched over seven successful projects)
- Steal people away from toxic media that is hurting their lives and happiness
Our impact goals are basically to foster inter-cultural understanding and organization, priming our user base with our editorial section to boost marginalized voices, inspire people to join and work together, and over time create a long-lived 'superhero' community filled with people skill-sharing with each other and working with each other to solve problems in small and large ways. We support the helpers, facilitating and fostering those conversations, helping people realize that we can accomplish amazing things just by listening to each other and understanding that we all have a different intersecting perspectives and we can all accomplish a world that is better for everyone, not just a fraction of the world's population.
In 5 years, we hope to have started a revolution where everyone in the world cares more about their impact than money or fame.
Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?
Here are some of the KPI's we will be measuring:
People & Culture: Total active volunteers, Total unfilled positions. Slack activity percent from last week
Website: Total site visitors per week, Total Sentinel users, Total Sentinel Superheroes, Total number of views on the week's featured articles
Online Community: Total number of users who log in daily, Total number of users who post > 1x per week, Total number of users who post >3x per week, Number of launched initiatives
Fundraising: Total amount of funds raised, Total number of grants applied to, Total amount raised through the Sentinel Showcase campaign
Editorial: Total number of articles published, total number of articles exceeding x likes/views, Total number of features
What is your theory of change?
We believe that success is the good people do in the world. Not fame, money, or power.
Just like social media changed people's focus from money to likes, fame, outrage, and notifications, we are the new cultural revolution tying people's self-worth and purpose to their impact on the world.
We have proven that this is a much better fix to loneliness and misinformation than current social media and traditional media.
By removing the expectation of quid-pro-quo in terms of corporate profit motivated models, we remove the capitalist drive to prioritize profit over human life. We hold our individual voices coming together in a chorus as the utmost of importance in the world, and removing making profit from the equation will help create a social network truly separate from profit-making priorities.
We are a social media that is nonprofit and focused on inspiring folks to take civic action and providing them with the resources to get there. We believe in less than a decade, we can make everyone chasing their best superhero self and bragging about the impact they have on the real people around them.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
Our CTO is leading a team of web developers from around the world to produce a bespoke app and mobile-first website that allows us to share high-quality articles, allow users to post information, uses a unique algorithm, and rewards users for social initiatives and human connection.
We have been able to get quite far in development with WordPress plugins but are looking forward to your grant allowing us to support our ability to add all of our product specs to our product and our ability to sustain viral growth.
We are social media created by and for the global majority and we will never sell your data, sell out to a billionaire once you've built a large voice, squash Black or queer voices, or try to get rich off of your content, stories, and voice.
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new business model or process that relies on technology to be successful
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
If your solution has a website or an app, provide the links here:
www.dgsentinel.org
In which countries do you currently operate?
In which countries will you be operating within the next year?
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
How many people work on your solution team?
We are all volunteer: about 90 staff around the world.
How long have you been working on your solution?
1 year.
What is your approach to incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusivity into your work?
We are majority minority.
We are queer-led, female-led, and minority led.
We have people from diverse genders, race, ethnicities, cultures, and countries (over 25!).
Our goal is to uplift marginalized/global majority voices worldwide and we succeed at that by starting with our volunteer staff and internal community. The success of the internal community we created at Dweebs Global is, in fact, what launched The DG Sentinel.
Finally, we have a Black South African CTO, our CEO (me!) is Indian-American, our Editor-in-Chief is Filipino-American, and more. We are extremely well-qualified for the Black and Brown Innovators Program: that is literally who we are.
A fun note/story: at our C-Suite meeting last week, we were seven people from seven different countries...and it wasn't our whole C-Suite.
What is your business model?
In addition to working with high net-worth donors, galas, swag, and traditional nonprofit fundraising, we have a unique business model.
1. Sponsorship from companies: In exchange for yearly sponsorship, we provide companies with resources to train their employees to do good in their free time, to make friends and connections around the world, and to upskill.
2. Sponsorship for our newsletter: We offer sponsorships for our 40K+ subscribed newsletter to keep it free for readers.
3. The Sentinel Superhero Lab + Superhero Tier: For $9/month users will be able to access premium content on how to change the world, a dedicated community, and a badge to wear in real life.
4. Our Advisory Board: We are growing an elite community of movers and shakers for $20K/year. Our board already includes an Emmy-Award winning director, TED producer and UN Creative Ambassador, famous influencers, NYT-bestselling authors, and more.
5. The Sentinel Showcase: We will partner with small, local brands around the world to uplift their work to a global audience in exchange for them sharing a cut of a Sentinel-branded content they design with us.
While we are a social media site, we will never sell data or let people pay us to cover them, boost them, or feature them on our editorial.
People are always looking for new communities and positive impact and we've already received a lot of support for some of our initiatives.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable?
We have been focusing on soliciting donations from high net worth individuals. However, we are steadily shifting our funding model to push more for community funding (micro donations), corporate sponsorships, and grant applications (such as this one).
Solution Team
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Isvari Maranwe Chief Executive Officer, The DG Sentinel
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Our Organization
The DG Sentinel