If advocacy will be improved, so will membership recruitment, press relations, nonprofit governance, delivery of services, administrative efficiencies, and many other endeavors. Two foundations that recognized this early on are the W. Alton Jones Foundation and Brainerd Foundation, which brought together 100 environmental leaders, foundation officials and technology experts in June 1995. The core demographic groups that support environmental causes are the fastest growing segment of users of new online services, offering unique opportunities to develop new electronic publications and services to meet their needs and interests. Mobilizing grassroots support for environmental causes requires investment in new information systems that can help individuals in different local communities understand how broad national and global environmental issues uniquely impact their lives. Of more than 1.3 million instances of membership communication, about 991,000 were delivered via bulk mail.
Press conferences are still the main way of communicating major issues to journalists.
Part of this culture shift will involve a much greater commitment to cooperation among organizations with shared goals. Such examples abound, but they have not been rigorously studied. What may be most exciting is the unexpected diversity of activist models out there. I have heard of environmentally committed foresters within the U.S. Forest Service who electronically share views that question official policy. There are multinational networks of activists whose communications frequently usher a story into the mainstream press, spurring change.