{"id":1364,"date":"2009-04-10T05:52:12","date_gmt":"2009-04-10T05:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ietransfer.wpengine.com\/?p=1364"},"modified":"2009-04-10T05:52:12","modified_gmt":"2009-04-10T05:52:12","slug":"venture-activism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/articles\/venture-activism\/","title":{"rendered":"Venture Activism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

What do CarrotMobs and sugar cubes have in common?\u00a0\u00a0 Other than finding their way into your Easter basket, they are the businesses and tools developed by Virgance to create change through consumer organizing.<\/h3>\n

Thus far, businesses dedicated to \u201cdoing good\u201d have been the purview and passion of big names and big businesses.\u00a0 Bono launched DATA and (RED).\u00a0 Bill Gates started the Gates Foundation and Home Depot has become synonymous with Habitat for Humanity.\u00a0\u00a0 However this past Tuesday Virgance<\/a>, a San Francisco start-up, threw a little party to celebrate the next stage of their Activism 2.0 model, the acquisition of Green Options Media Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Virgance was founded in San Francisco by two business partners interested in elevating activist efforts by connecting them with social networking tools and access to funding.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Not convinced that \u201cfor good\u201d had to mean not-for-profit, President and serial entrepreneur, Steve Newcomb began \u201clooking at activism as a potential start-up industry\u201d<\/a> because he wanted to do more than just start another technology company<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Virgance\u2019s businesses utilize\u00a0 campaign-style support strategies that build on networking and community activism tools already out there.\u00a0\u00a0 Taking a page out of what is now known as \u201cthe Obama strategy\u201d, Virgance campaigns leverage individual efforts to make a collaborative statement.\u00a0 Both 1BOG<\/a> and CarrotMob<\/a> encourage communities to use their collective buying power<\/a> to create\u00a0 impact based on their consumption preferences. 1BOG (One Block Off the Grid) works to bring one neighborhood block at a time onto the solar power grid<\/a> and CarrotMob organizes consumer events<\/a> (ok, flash-mobs<\/a>) to help bring more business to retailers who are selling responsible products (read earth-friendly).<\/p>\n

The Green Options acquisition<\/a> takes their online strategy even further.\u00a0 Currently campaigns leverage YouTube and FaceBook tools to generate awareness and rally participants.\u00a0 With the acquisition of Green Options’ fifteen blogs (including this one), Virgance has now acquired a stable of over 100 staff and citizen writers who write on individual topics uniquely related to environmental impact or social responsibility.\u00a0\u00a0 In the past these stories have migrated their way to the front page of Yahoo<\/a>, Digg, and into other syndicated content deals via tools that readers can use to vote their favorite stories into more mainstream media.\u00a0\u00a0 In this manner, Virgance hopes to build a green media empire<\/a> that can increase awareness and influence conversations<\/a> which will ultimately corroborate and support their campaign efforts.<\/p>\n

With whimsy, technology and social networking on their side, the Virgance\u00a0 approach to consumer-based activism just might be the new Bay area success story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do CarrotMobs and sugar cubes have in common? Other than finding their way into your Easter basket, they are the campaigns created by Virgance to create change through consumer organizing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":1365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,31,47],"tags":[450,1464,1680,2722,3822,3912],"adace-sponsor":[],"spectra_custom_meta":{"_edit_last":["65"],"social_buttons":["\"yahoo, digg\""],"tweet_this_url":["http:\/\/digg.com\/u1QyrJ"],"dsq_thread_id":["143461669"],"_thumbnail_id":["1365"],"_jetpack_related_posts_cache":["a:1:{s:32:\"8f6677c9d6b0f903e98ad32ec61f8deb\";a:2:{s:7:\"expires\";i:1689877922;s:7:\"payload\";a:0:{}}}"],"_uag_page_assets":["a:9:{s:3:\"css\";s:263:\".uag-blocks-common-selector{z-index:var(--z-index-desktop) !important}@media (max-width: 976px){.uag-blocks-common-selector{z-index:var(--z-index-tablet) !important}}@media (max-width: 767px){.uag-blocks-common-selector{z-index:var(--z-index-mobile) !important}}\n\";s:2:\"js\";s:0:\"\";s:18:\"current_block_list\";a:2:{i:0;s:14:\"core\/paragraph\";i:1;s:10:\"core\/image\";}s:8:\"uag_flag\";b:0;s:11:\"uag_version\";i:1713657651;s:6:\"gfonts\";a:0:{}s:10:\"gfonts_url\";s:0:\"\";s:12:\"gfonts_files\";a:0:{}s:14:\"uag_faq_layout\";b:0;}"],"rank_math_news_sitemap_robots":["index"],"rank_math_robots":["a:1:{i:0;s:5:\"index\";}"],"rank_math_og_content_image":["a:2:{s:5:\"check\";s:32:\"035822221f69ac9419fc4720d4cfbcb3\";s:6:\"images\";a:0:{}}"],"_uag_css_file_name":["uag-css-1364.css"]},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/virgance.png",225,83,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/virgance-150x83.png",150,83,true],"medium":["https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/virgance.png",225,83,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/virgance.png",225,83,false],"large":["https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/virgance.png",225,83,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/virgance.png",225,83,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/virgance.png",225,83,false],"adace-sponsor":["https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/virgance.png",130,48,false],"adace-sponsor-2x":["https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/virgance.png",225,83,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Kelli Peterson","author_link":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/author\/kellipsf\/"},"uagb_comment_info":2,"uagb_excerpt":"What do CarrotMobs and sugar cubes have in common? Other than finding their way into your Easter basket, they are the campaigns created by Virgance to create change through consumer organizing.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1364"},{"taxonomy":"adace-sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/adace-sponsor?post=1364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}