Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, announced in his blog that he was forming a new nonprofit-Jumo-an online platform to connect individuals and organizations working to change the world.
"I'm firmly of the mind that we have to foster relationships between everyday people and issues and organizations that are personally relevant to them," wrote Hughes, who also helped organize the online campaign for Barak Obama's presidential run. "It's now possible to provide each person with information and opportunities for meaningful action tailored specifically to who they are. If Jumo can make sure that happens and offer opportunities for meaningful engagement alongside it, I think we can speed the pace of global change."
Jumo, based in New York City, means "together in concert" in Yoruba, a West African language. Said Hughes in an interview in Crains New York Business, "It's insane that we've come so far technologically, and as a civilization, yet more than a billion people live on less than $1 a day. It's not like we don't have enough resources; we just haven't figured out how to distribute them."
In an interview that appeared in the LA Times blog, Hughes said, the most effective way to give support is to create a site that can match people, their skills and interests with the organizations who need them. "I really want to move away from the old model in which you have to rely on people giving $10 after a humanitarian crisis to a newer model where people give money but also their time and their skills…to the causes that are personally meaningful to them well before the crisis moment presents itself."
The full launch of the site is slated for this fall.