Tools for people who help people.
Sign-ups, calendars, resource lists, ride requests, flyers. All the stuff your group already does, in one place your group would actually own. Free. No company in the middle.
See the idea Tell me what you thinkNone of this exists yet. This page is the plan. If something here is a bad idea, now is the time to say so.
We're organizing on borrowed tools
One app for sign-ups. Another to find a meeting time. One for links, one for the calendar, plus a spreadsheet nobody remembers who owns.
Every one of them belongs to a company that isn't on our side. They hold our people's names, numbers and answers. They can sell that info, hand it over, lose it, or shut us off whenever they feel like it.
That's a shaky thing to build a movement on.
So what if we had our own?
Mutual Tools would be one free set of tools a group sets up for itself. You'd get your own site and your own tools. Turn on what you use. Ignore the rest.
It'd be yours
Your group's info would live on your group's own site. Not on some company's servers, and not on mine either.
Made for your phone
Most of us do this work on a phone. So that's where the design would start, with buttons you can actually hit.
No tech person needed
If it takes a manual to figure out, it got built wrong. Pick what your group does and it'd set itself up to match.
Cheap to keep running
The plan is for it to work on the basic, few-dollars-a-month hosting most groups can already afford.
One place, not ten apps
Sign-ups, calendar, resource list and flyers would all work together, because they'd all be the same thing.
Free. For real.
No paid tier. No "contact sales." No ads. Nobody's info for sale.
Every group gets its own spot
We're calling that spot a node. It's just one group's own site and tools. Think of each one like a cell.
Nodes could link up with each other. Two groups agree to connect, and each one picks what it shares. A city chapter could send its events to a statewide group. Neighbors could pool their resource lists.
- No head office. Any group could connect to any other. Nobody in the middle signs off.
- Lose one, the rest are fine. No node would need another one to stay up.
- No list of groups anywhere. You'd connect by invite. A public list is a target list.
- Private if you want. Keep to yourselves, link only your own chapters, or open one door to a friend.
You'd decide how far things travel
Nothing would leave your node unless somebody marks it to. When you do share, you'd pick one of three labels.
- Public. Anybody can see it and pass it along. Good for an event flyer.
- Ask first. A group you're linked with has to ask before passing it on.
- Direct only. It stays with the groups you're linked with. Full stop.
The sensitive stuff, like who filled out a form or who's on your volunteer list, would stay home.
Built to keep people safe
People who organize can end up as targets. So safety would be part of the foundation, not something bolted on later. And it'd be for everybody with a login, not only the admins.
Hold less
Info you never collected can't leak or get demanded. Forms would ask for less, and old sign-up lists would delete themselves.
No email needed
Sign in with a made-up name and a passphrase. Nothing tying your login to who you are. No fingerprint or face unlock, ever.
A second passphrase for bad moments
If somebody's making you sign in, you'd type this one. It opens a harmless looking account and quietly warns your group.
Protest mode
Lock yourself out before you go somewhere risky. If your phone gets taken, there's nothing to get into. Somebody you trust lets you back in after.
Check-ins
Say when you expect to be back. If you don't check in, the people you picked get told.
An emergency switch
Three levels. Lock the site, wipe it but keep a sealed backup, or destroy everything.
Nobody holds the keys alone
Group drama happens. Big moves like deleting the site could need a majority of your keyholders to agree. One person couldn't take it hostage or walk off with it.
And every group would pick its own level. A community garden doesn't need what a group facing real threats needs.
What would be in the toolbox
This is everything on the list so far. You'd only switch on the drawers you need.
Collecting
- Sign-ups and forms, no account needed
- Surveys, quick polls, petitions
- A tip line and a suggestion box
- Answers that delete themselves on a timer
Sharing info
- A local resource list anyone could add to
- Announcements and guides
- One page for all your links
- QR codes you can re-point after printing
Teaching
- Lessons people take at their own pace
- Trainings and teach-ins with sign-up
- Kits so another group can run your training
- Onboarding for new volunteers
Coordinating
- Find a time everybody can meet
- Events, shifts and task lists
- Public event, private location
- "We need five people here now"
Trading help
- Needs and offers, matched up
- Rides, lending, freecycle
- A timebank where every hour counts the same
- A free store tracker built for donations
Safety
- Everything in the section above
- Safety plans for actions
- A way to document incidents
- "Hide me" if you're being harassed
Your site
- An easy page builder
- Your own look, not a cookie-cutter one
- Templates groups could pass around
- Fast, even on slow connections
Running it
- Setup that walks you through
- Teams that only see their own work
- Updates you approve, never forced
- Pack up and move whenever you want
The network
- Link up with other groups by invite
- Share events, guides and resource lists
- Back each other's sites up
- Co-host events and sign-on letters
Reaching out
- Drop the tools into a site you already have
- Calendar feeds in and out
- Ready-made posts for social media
- Honest warnings about outside apps
Print stuff
- A zine builder that handles the folding
- Flyers with the QR code dropped in
- Wallet cards and paper sign-in sheets
- A library for your downloads
Money
- A donate page with all your options
- Track funds by program
- Open books, if you want them
- Still the least figured out part
A couple I'm excited about
A free store tracker
Regular inventory software can't deal with random donated stuff. This would. Count what goes out on the table, count what's left at pack-down, and it'd do the math.
After a few weeks you'd know what goes fastest and what to ask donors for. Nobody would be tracked taking what they need.
From your site to a zine
Grab the food pantry listings from your resource list. Add a few paragraphs from an article on food insecurity. Drop it all on a clipboard and build a zine out of it, laid out so the pages fold right.
What your group already knows would turn into something you can hand out.
How a group would get a node
Somebody vouches for you
A group that already has a node would give you a voucher. That's how the network would stay in the hands of people who are here to help.
Set it up, or get hosted
Put it on your own cheap hosting. Or if nobody in your group wants to deal with that, another group could host you. You could move out later and take everything with you.
Turn on what you need
Say what your group does. It'd switch on the tools that fit and leave the rest out of your way.
Already have a website? Keep it. The tools could drop right into the one you've got.
No company. No investors. No ads.
I'm an organizer. I got tired of us building our movements on top of tools owned by people who don't share our goals. This is me trying to take some of that back, one ordinary tool at a time.
What I'm still chewing on
- How money should work without one person's bank account in the middle.
- How to alert somebody about a missed check-in without leaning on email or big tech.
- How to do translation without sending your words to a tech company.
- What to build first.
Have a say
This is the point where feedback changes things. What would your group use? What's missing? What makes you nervous?
Just want updates?
I'll email when there's something worth telling: what got built, what's next, and when it's ready for your group.
Just your email. Every email I send has a link to get off the list.