mySociety

Sometimes, small acts make a big difference. If you’d like to help mySociety, consider a couple of these ideas, below. They won’t take long, but they’ll do a lot of good.

1. Tell the world about our work

Spread the word, by whatever means you prefer.

• Talk to people It may seem a low-impact way to make a difference, but if everyone who knows about us tells one person, we’ll double our impact.
• Put up posters At the moment, only FixMyStreet has downloadable posters, but  if anyone would like to design posters or flyers for our other sites, please do (see point 3, below)!
• Tweet and retweet, Facebook your heart out, mention us on your favourite forum, or write about us on a blog – these days, social media is often the quickest way to get a message heard.
• Contact your local press Lots of the content on our sites is of great interest to the local papers and radio. In particular, reports on FixMyStreet, FixMyTransport and WhatDoTheyKnow can be very locally focused. So if you see something you think they’d run, let them know.

2. Raise a little money

Like all charities, we’re always in need of funds. Money from cake stalls, head-shaving, parachute jumps, whatever – we’ll take it, and we’ll give you a big fat thank you as well. Here’s one nice idea: Tim Dobson did a sponsored walk for us, reporting potholes all the way.

Donations can be made here, or for sponsored events you might like to use our MyDonate page.

 3. Share your skills

You may be surprised by what can help. In the past, people have donated expertise in marketing, catering, SEO, translation, graphic design, and more. If you think your skills might help us, please do let us know.

4. Tell us what we’re doing wrong

If you’ve found something broken on our of our sites, don’t keep it to yourself. You can submit a report via these links: FixMyStreet, TheyWorkForYou, Pledgebank, FixMyTransport or Alaveteli (the software which runs WhatDoTheyKnow). For all other sites, please send us an email or drop into our mailing list.

Anyone can use these pages to make a report; they look very technical, but don’t be shy. All you will need to do is create an account, and then you’re good to go.

Just click on ‘new issue’ near the top right – it helps if you use the search box first to make sure we’re not already on the case.

5. Share your ideas

“If only your website let me do THIS”… Well, let us know what you’re thinking, and it might just happen.

Most of our sites are still in active development, and we take suggestions from our users very seriously. After all, you know best what’s not working for you. Just drop us a line and we’ll put your ideas on our list for discussion.

 See also

Other ways to get involved with mySociety

Image credits: Thank You by Henrico Prins, and Tweet Tweet! by Id-iom, used with thanks under the Creative Commons licence. Fault by Myfanwy Nixon.