Below is a curated list of awesome digital tools for activism. These are tools for individuals, ad-hoc groups or formal organizations that are campaigning, organizing or communicating for social change. Some of these tools are open source projects that requires some technical knowledge to set up and host yourself. Some are software-as-a-service tools that you use by going to a webpage in your browser. Feel free to share suggestions.
Contact Congress (Open Source) - Send emails to members of the US Congress. This was developed by EFF as an open source project. They use it for their own campaigns internally. There is also a hosted version run by Fight for the Future (see below).
Call Congress - Coordinate call-in days to US Congress, the President, or local or corporate targets. Original project from Fight for the Future and Taskforce.is, but with lots of development from Mozilla and the EFF. Frontend looks like this, https://call.mozilla.org and the backend looks like http://callpower.org. A hosted version is available, and the code is AGPL.
Twilio.org's Rapid Response Kit - Collection phone-related tools using Twilio's service. Kit includes: Auto-Respond (inbound voice/sms responder), Broadcast (simple way to broadcast texts/calls to a list), Conference Line, Forwarder, Ringdown (call down a list of people, if 1st person doesn't answer go on to the next), Help Line (Press 1 for..., Press 2 for...)
Ushahidi - Platform for data management and visualization. Other tools include CrowdMap, CrisisNET (data about world crises), Ping (tool for checking is someone is ok after an emergency), SMSsync (two-way SMS gateway). Check out their github repos.
Crowdring - web app where people around the world can place a free missed call to sign a petition
TakeCharge.io - opensource or SaaS online donations powered by Stripe.
Countdown - A quick & simple tool for making your own webpage with a countdown to your upcoming event.
CiviCRM - Contact management system for non-profit / activist sector, including donations, memberships, events, SMS, bulk mail & full CRM.
Spoke - Text-distribution tool for organizations to mobilize supporters and members into action. Spoke allows you to upload phone numbers, customize scripts and assign volunteers to communicate with supporters while allowing organizations to manage the process.
Software as a service:
Loomio - Tool for collaborative decision-making in groups. Note: Loomio's code is also open source, but it's generally used as a hosted service.
Change.org Petition site. Chose a target, make a petition, send it to your friends. If they get traction, Change.org has staff that can provide support. (They also have org accounts, that allow groups to do branded pages and export contact info of signers.)
Contact Congress (FFTF) - Used to send emails to members of the US Congress. This is Fight for the Future's hosted-version of the open sources Contact Congress. Ideal for organizations that send a lot of emails to congress, but who don't have tech staff who can install and maintain their own version of the open source software.
ControlShift - Distributed petitions, events and local groups for progressive advocacy organizations. Tools to help make campaigns more participatory.
Riseup - A provider of communication tools for activists, including free webmail, chat, and VPN
Action Network - A nonprofit digital organizing toolset for progressive organizations. Includes petitions, advocacy, fundraising, mass email, and more for free or cheap.
