On 38 hours left: You can put creative tools & tactics in the hands of the next generation of changemakers

Dear Friends,

I am hoping you can help me spread the word about a project of passion that I embarked on earlier this year.

Almost ten years ago, I made a friend, mentor, and colleague that would change my life. His name is Andrew Boyd: he’s an activist, troublemaker, and author of the Activist Cookbook, which was published in 1997.

Over the years, Andrew has given me many opportunities to learn from him and to work with him, and in return I’ve consistently badgered and cajoled Andrew to update the Activist Cookbook for the digital era.

This past January – much to my surprise – he agreed.

Shortly after, we were off-and-running thanks to a bit of seed funding from the Canadian labour movement. Since then, we’ve been joined by a fantastic editor (Dave Oswald Mitchell, previously editor of Briaripatch Magazine, a publisher (the amazing O/R Books, mind-blowing partners like the Yes Men/Yes Labs, Ruckus Society, and SmartMeme to name a few, and – most importantly – more than 40 cutting-edge political troublemakers from around the world have joined the project as contributors.

It’s a fantastic enterprise – perhaps one of the most important projects that I’ve ever worked on – a complete re-invention of Andrew’s Activist Cookbook for the complex times that we live in. We’re taking the best ideas and tactical innovations and distilling them into a design manual and web toolbox that anyone can use to design effective creative actions.

As for funding, luckily there’s this cool new Internet-powered thing called KickStarter ;) …which makes helping out more fun and collaborative. Basically, if you throw down a little something (or, even better, a big- or medium-sized something), then you get something back. For a $60 pledge, for instance, we’ll mail you a signed copy of the book once it’s published. For $250, you’ll get a copy of the infamous “Iraq War Ends!” prank New York Times signed by the Yes Men.

http://beautifultrouble.org/

Have a look at the rewards, watch the project video, and then please consider helping to make this project happen by spreading the word or helping to fund it.

We’ve just hit our $12,000 goal (thanks to more than 200 people who’ve contributed). But there are still 38 hours to push this to the next level, and to let even more people know about it. Every dollar received over our goal will be invested in keeping the web component of the project growing and evolving for years to come.

Our aim when we launched this crazy project was to put the best creative tools and tactics in the hands of the next generation of changemakers. Can you help us get it there?

http://beautifultrouble.org/

Yours in trouble,

Phillip.

P.S. Any kind of support is helpful! Even a tweet or a Facebook share can help ensure that we reach people that we wouldn’t have otherwise. Thanks for your support. :)

P.P.S. Here’s a pre-written tweet, if you just want to quickly re-tweet something: https://twitter.com/#!/phillipadsmith/status/123766929994432512