With the exception of a few ineffectual sessions with an in-house therapist at my college following a bad breakup, I had no experience with the counseling process when I made my first appointment to see a career counselor earlier this year. I had heard the gamut about counseling, though: it’s so helpful, it’s a total crock, it changed my life, it’s a waste of money. All I really knew was that I’d hit a wall with my own efforts to clarify my job goals, and seeking professional help seemed like a good next step.

When I first contacted my counselor, she suggested we speak on the phone for a few minutes to make sure it would be a good fit. I told her my central problem (“I’m interested in a lot of jobs and am having trouble narrowing down”) and she laid out a path to clarity: we’d take stock of my strengths and preferences, then match them up with careers that would put them to best use. Sold!

Talking to a career counselor can be like talking to an old friend - except you get job tips after some venting. (Photo credit: Linzi Clark)

Personal revelations

My counselor spent the lion’s share of our first 50-minute session taking a wide-ranging personal inventory of me. Questions went from “Did you go to a private high school?” to “What are your relationships with your siblings like?” By the end, I felt a little self-conscious from blabbing so much, but my counselor wanted to learn as much about me as possible. Toward the end of that first session, she asked what impressions I thought my parents’ working lives had made on me. As I thought aloud about it, I found myself saying, “They gave me a sense that there were no limits, but also that there was little direction.” After saying it, I realized that this one sentiment explained a lot about how I’d lived my life thus far. A good counselor can help draw you out and let you reveal for yourself factors and habits currently operating undercover.

Identifying themes

Another benefit of this kind of personal reflection was being able to tease out the strongest themes in my personality, with the goal of matching them to career possibilities. My counselor gave me a post-first-session homework assignment called “Seven Stories.” You jot down brief descriptions of 25 different times you can remember enjoying doing something, thinking you were doing it well, and feeling proud to do it. Not just one or two of those things; all three. Then you take the seven stories you like the most from the bunch and write a paragraph about each of them. The exercise takes time, but can quickly reveal some striking trends in personality. In my case, I immediately noticed themes of close personal relationships and a desire to help; in addition, my counselor picked up on the tactile nature of many of the stories, and on how most of the goals I reached came from me setting my own bars and reaching them.

After identifying themes like these, we moved on to more formal methods of personal data mining, including the Strong Interest Inventory and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (for professional use only!). Using info from all these sources, we compiled a list of some of my strongest personality trends (artistic, extroverted, collaborative, intuitive), then dove into career matching. The Strong especially includes lots of cool matching tools, but there are other helpful sources available free to anyone online, including O*NET’s Interest Profiler (created by the U.S. Department of Labor).

The total picture

Something I found at first frustrating but then comforting throughout career counseling was my counselor’s contention that there are thousands of jobs any person can find satisfying, and by the same turn, there is no such thing as a job without drawbacks. So she emphasized that career search is not about finding the one magic title that will solve everything, it’s about matching your interests and skills as much as possible to a line of work. Kind of like Dr. Phil’s 80/20 rule.

In this vein, my counselor also appreciated that there’s a lot to every job that’s not in the description, but that affects its total scope tremendously. A doctor’s bio blurb might indicate his academic degrees and areas of specialty, but it won’t mention that it can be lonely running a private practice, that his office is a two-hour commute from his home, or that insurance paperwork takes up half his time. Another example comes from my counselor herself: she always enjoyed counseling, but it took her awhile of working with teens, then business school students, before she realized she would really feel most at home working with young professionals in the arts, which is her focus now. When searching for the right opportunity, pay attention to the kind of daily lifestyle (work environment, potential colleagues and peers, even seasonal changes, etc.) your work could entail.

A few notes on choosing a counselor

A trusted friend gave me the name of a counselor she’d seen and found helpful, and since my friend and I are a lot alike, I was confident that I’d see eye to eye with the person on at least some things; it turned out she was just the counselor for me. If you can’t get a recommendation, make sure to scour potential counselors’ websites for clues to their style, and ask for a ten-minute phone chat before you book your first appointment (if the counselor doesn’t suggest it first) so you can get to know each other a tiny bit before starting. If you’re not at ease with the person’s demeanor, or you feel they’re focused on different goals than you, take an initial pass and try someone else.

Career counseling can be expensive, no doubt about it. Frankly, I don’t think I’d ever spent so much per hour on any activity, except perhaps flying. And it absolutely stretched my budget. But for me, it was worth every penny. I consider it a great investment in the future, ounce-of-prevention style: the new ideas and methodologies I learned have streamlined my thinking, and will save me time and headaches down the road.

Tell us about your experiences with career counseling!

With the exception of a few ineffectual sessions with an in-house therapist at my college following a bad breakup, I had no experience with the counseling process when I made my first appointment to see a career counselor earlier this year. I had heard the gamut about counseling, though: it’s so helpful, it’s a total crock, it changed my life, it’s a waste of money. All I really knew was that I’d hit a wall with my own efforts to clarify my job goals, and seeking professional help seemed like a good next step.

When I first contacted my counselor, she suggested we speak on the phone for a few minutes to make sure it would be a good fit. I told her my central problem (“I’m interested in a lot of jobs and am having trouble narrowing down”) and she laid out a path to clarity: we’d take stock of my strengths and preferences, then match them up with careers that would put them to best use. Sold!

Talking to a career counselor can be like talking to an old friend - except you get job tips after some venting. (Photo credit: Linzi Clark)

Personal revelations

My counselor spent the lion’s share of our first 50-minute session taking a wide-ranging personal inventory of me. Questions went from “Did you go to a private high school?” to “What are your relationships with your siblings like?” By the end, I felt a little self-conscious from blabbing so much, but my counselor wanted to learn as much about me as possible. Toward the end of that first session, she asked what impressions I thought my parents’ working lives had made on me. As I thought aloud about it, I found myself saying, “They gave me a sense that there were no limits, but also that there was little direction.” After saying it, I realized that this one sentiment explained a lot about how I’d lived my life thus far. A good counselor can help draw you out and let you reveal for yourself factors and habits currently operating undercover.

Identifying themes

Another benefit of this kind of personal reflection was being able to tease out the strongest themes in my personality, with the goal of matching them to career possibilities. My counselor gave me a post-first-session homework assignment called “Seven Stories.” You jot down brief descriptions of 25 different times you can remember enjoying doing something, thinking you were doing it well, and feeling proud to do it. Not just one or two of those things; all three. Then you take the seven stories you like the most from the bunch and write a paragraph about each of them. The exercise takes time, but can quickly reveal some striking trends in personality. In my case, I immediately noticed themes of close personal relationships and a desire to help; in addition, my counselor picked up on the tactile nature of many of the stories, and on how most of the goals I reached came from me setting my own bars and reaching them.

After identifying themes like these, we moved on to more formal methods of personal data mining, including the Strong Interest Inventory and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (for professional use only!). Using info from all these sources, we compiled a list of some of my strongest personality trends (artistic, extroverted, collaborative, intuitive), then dove into career matching. The Strong especially includes lots of cool matching tools, but there are other helpful sources available free to anyone online, including O*NET’s Interest Profiler (created by the U.S. Department of Labor).

The total picture

Something I found at first frustrating but then comforting throughout career counseling was my counselor’s contention that there are thousands of jobs any person can find satisfying, and by the same turn, there is no such thing as a job without drawbacks. So she emphasized that career search is not about finding the one magic title that will solve everything, it’s about matching your interests and skills as much as possible to a line of work. Kind of like Dr. Phil’s 80/20 rule.

In this vein, my counselor also appreciated that there’s a lot to every job that’s not in the description, but that affects its total scope tremendously. A doctor’s bio blurb might indicate his academic degrees and areas of specialty, but it won’t mention that it can be lonely running a private practice, that his office is a two-hour commute from his home, or that insurance paperwork takes up half his time. Another example comes from my counselor herself: she always enjoyed counseling, but it took her awhile of working with teens, then business school students, before she realized she would really feel most at home working with young professionals in the arts, which is her focus now. When searching for the right opportunity, pay attention to the kind of daily lifestyle (work environment, potential colleagues and peers, even seasonal changes, etc.) your work could entail.

A few notes on choosing a counselor

A trusted friend gave me the name of a counselor she’d seen and found helpful, and since my friend and I are a lot alike, I was confident that I’d see eye to eye with the person on at least some things; it turned out she was just the counselor for me. If you can’t get a recommendation, make sure to scour potential counselors’ websites for clues to their style, and ask for a ten-minute phone chat before you book your first appointment (if the counselor doesn’t suggest it first) so you can get to know each other a tiny bit before starting. If you’re not at ease with the person’s demeanor, or you feel they’re focused on different goals than you, take an initial pass and try someone else.

Career counseling can be expensive, no doubt about it. Frankly, I don’t think I’d ever spent so much per hour on any activity, except perhaps flying. And it absolutely stretched my budget. But for me, it was worth every penny. I consider it a great investment in the future, ounce-of-prevention style: the new ideas and methodologies I learned have streamlined my thinking, and will save me time and headaches down the road.

Tell us about your experiences with career counseling!

Hark! A lark! (Photo credit: Meghan Kearney/USFWS, Creative Commons/Flickr)

With all the awesome organizations and people in the Idealist community, there’s no end to the variety of exciting opportunities to get involved. Whether you’re into birds or boards, tech or taxes, we’ve got something for you. Check out this sampling of great upcoming events:

Presidio Family Bird Count

On September 9th, join the Golden Gate Audubon Society for bird spotting in San Francisco’s Presidio. In the afternoon, young participants will have the opportunity to present their tallies. Last year, over 50 kinds of birds were recorded. The event is totally free and includes a “binocular bootcamp and birding basics” class for those who arrive early.

Stay Exempt Workshop

Every year, thousands of nonprofit organizations in the U.S. lose their 501(c)(3) status because they don’t file with the IRS or don’t file correctly. This one-day workshop on September 25th in Portland, Oregon will help you navigate tax compliance and regulations to keep your organization exempt.

Helping Hacks: The Goodnik Hackathon

Have a nonprofit tech project that needs help? Are you a hacker, developer, database genius, or project manager? Or do you just want to help connect some techie folks with the organizations that need their expertise? Then get involved in Goodnik’s Hackathon. For one weekend, August 24th – 26th, New York’s best developers and designers will team up with the city’s nonprofits to create innovative solutions to real technological challenges. Neat, huh?

Boulder County Board Match

Board service is a great way to get involved with causes you care about. If you live in Boulder County, Colorado and want to learn more about participating on a board, or if you’re looking to build your own org’s board, head over to to the Boulder County Board Match on September 19th. You’ll be able to make connections with local organizations, gain professional development, and learn everything you could want to know about nonprofit board service. There’ll even be childcare available if you can’t find a babysitter that day.

Is your organization throwing a party, offering a workshop, or launching a project? Add it to our event listings! Just log in and click on “Post a Listing” to get started.

It’s no secret that the past few years have been challenging for nonprofits as they try to serve their clients with shrinking budgets. We saw this first hand last year when we asked nonprofits to share the impact the recession was having on their organizations.

This year, we again approached the thousands of organizations on Idealist to ask them how they’re doing, what they anticipate in the coming year, and to learn more about their human resources practices. We also asked job seekers to share their experiences to get a more complete picture of how the sector as a whole is faring. In total, we surveyed over 1,000 U.S.-based organizations and 3,000 active job seekers to find out who’s hiring and who’s looking, the latest in funding and compensation practices, and what’s posing the biggest challenges to both organizations and job hunters right now.

In general things are looking up with 48% of all nonprofits plan to make new hires in 2012 and 54% say they will offer salary increases in 2012, up from 47% last year. However, what’s compelling are the experiences of job seekers and hiring managers.

What we know about today’s nonprofit job seeker:

From Job Seekers

• They are experienced: 30% of job seekers are over the age 50; 26% have more than 11 years of experience in the nonprofit sector.
• They value opportunities for career development: In fact, this is one of the top reasons job seekers who are currently employed full-time (33%) are looking to leave their current organizations.
• They are committed in and outside of the office: 83% of job seekers have volunteered, demonstrating an interest in staying and growing in the sector.
• They want to hear from hiring managers: The number one challenge job seekers face is the lack of communication from employers. In fact, 86% say they never receive any feedback or follow up at all.

Tip for job seekers: Given your experience and needs, it’s even more important that you are searching for organizations that are a good fit. Be sure you’re searching for the right opportunities by asking yourself a few key questions.

What we know about today’s nonprofit hiring manager:

From Hiring Managers

• They wear many hats: 84% have responsibilities in at least one other area, most often program management, office/facilities management, and communications.
• They appreciate attention to detail: Because they have to juggle multiple responsibilities, hiring managers place emphasis on potential employees following instructions in order to move through the hiring process as quickly and efficiently as possible.
• They also prefer job seekers not call: Also because of their limited time and resources, 40% of hiring managers prefer that you not follow up about your job application status.
• They value passion: 86% say that understanding their organization’s mission is very important.

Tip for organizations: With many job seekers looking to leave their current organizations due to lack of advancement, you may need to get creative with how you support your employees. Over at Idealisthr.org – a community for nonprofit HR professionals  – a nonprofit recently shared a successful leadership pipeline program they created designed to retain and support top talent. You can also strengthen your organization by tapping into the Idealist community.

There is more information in the surveys. Download the Job Seeker Survey and the Organization Survey to learn more.

The 2012 Olympic Games kick off today! Though few of us will live the dream today and compete, there are lots of other ways to get involved in some healthy athletic competition while making the world a better place.

Not an Olympic champion? No worries. You can still become a great athlete and give back!

Good Sports partners with local sporting good manufacturers to provide athletic equipment, footwear, and apparel to disadvantaged youth across the country, lowering the cost of participation in activities that might otherwise be inaccessible. Besides the obvious benefits of an active lifestyle, “kids who participate in sports enjoy better nutritional awareness and improved self-esteem.  What’s more, these kids are 57% less likely to drop out of school, 49% less likely to take drugs, and 37% less likely to become teen parents.” They’ve provided over $6.5 million in equipment to more than 400,000 young athletes to date. They’re looking for an intern, so if you’re in Quincy, MA, interested in the sports industry, and want to support a great cause, check out them out!

Coaching Corps trains college students to be volunteer coaches in after-school programs in California. The organization also develops and promotes best practices in youth sports and after-school programming and advocates for public and private support and investment in youth sports for low-income communities. They’re currently looking for thirty people to join their AmeriCorps program. You’d do some coaching yourself, help recruit volunteers, and receive lots of training in youth services.

The Union Settlement Association knows it’s never too late to promote fitness. They’re seeking a volunteer Exercise Leader for older adults. The organization works with a predominantly immigrant population in East Harlem, serving over 13,000 residents every year. Their programs include education, childcare, nutrition, senior services, counseling, the arts, job training, and economic development. The exercise leader would get older residents excited about physical activity by running a weekly fitness class that caters to a range of mobility levels. If you’ve got an hour to spare every week, share your passion and motivate some older folks to stay healthy!

And, of course, there is the Special Olympics. With nearly 4 million athletes around the world, the Special Olympics is the largest sports organization for people with intellectual disabilities in the world. Over fifty local chapters are listed on Idealist, and they hold events year round. Check out opportunities near you to work with these remarkable athletes.

Know any other great opportunities to get involved in athletics? Have a great sports story to share? Tell us about it!

The idea

A female firefighter who rappels out of helicopters and slogs through swamps to help people in distress. A woman who has provided foster care to over 200 troubled teens in her lifetime. A young Somali man who escaped his country’s civil war, won a scholarship to a Canadian university, and now helps refugees.

They, along with others, have volunteered to be on loan at Surrey Libraries in British Columbia as part of the Human Library, an event where people become living books.

The Human Library is as straightforward as it sounds: instead of grabbing a book off the shelf, you sign out a person and listen to them tell tales for a couple of hours. Think audio book, but with a handshake (or better yet, hug) at the end.

This notion of bringing books to life began twelve years ago with a Denmark youth organization that wanted to challenge prejudices. The idea has since been adapted around the world, and can now be found in over 45 countries.

Why we’re adding it to the Idea File

• New take on an old concept. Libraries everywhere have gone through many transformations (books rescued from the trash in Bogota and traveling donkey libraries in Ethiopia come to mind), and the Human Library further proves these institutions aren’t dying, but rather, evolving.
• Respects and appreciates diversity. Everyone has a story to tell. People of all experiences, ages, and backgrounds are encouraged to participate, tapping into the knowledge and expertise of the local community.
• Encourages empathy. We read to immerse ourselves in other contexts and see the world from someone else’s point of view. When talking to living books, you might find that your similarities thread you together, instead of your differences.
• Values real-time conversation. With eBooks, iPads and everything in between dominating much of our time today, being able to look into someone’s eyes and connect around our humanity is refreshing.
• Adaptable in many contexts. The concept doesn’t have to be limited to an actual library: it could work at schools, festivals, government offices, corporations, and more. Depending on resources, it could also be an ongoing program or a once-in-a-while event.

How you can replicate it

The folks who created the first Human Library want nothing more than for you to borrow their idea. They’ve already done a lot of the initial legwork for you; their website has a guide for organizers in eight different languages, sample evaluation reports and forms, tips for readers, and more.

Interesting fact: the first Human Library took place at a music festival in Denmark. (Photo via Ravi Basi.)

We also reached out to Ravi Basi, one of the organizers at Surrey Libraries, to hear her advice for people looking to start a Human Library where they live. Here’s what she had to say:

Finding living books

1. Use your own networks. Relying on unsolicited offers from the public is too random and complicated of an approach. Instead, gather recommendations from staff, community agencies, colleges, and nonprofits in addition to scanning local newspapers.
2. Set your criteria from the beginning. Living book volunteers at Surrey Libraries, for example, had to have a story to tell, good communication skills, be personable and friendly, and understand the concept and goals of the Human Library. If they met this criteria, they then went through an interview process.
3. Incentives, while not necessary, are nice. The living books will probably be enthusiastic and eager to participate. But still, to show gratitude, you can do things such as offset parking costs, provide lunch and snacks, and give gift bags.

Organizing the event

1. Start small. Rather than hosting a day-long event, try an afternoon or evening event of four hours. Learn the glitches, and then improve next time around.
2. Allow readers to pre-register. To ensure the living books aren’t left without readers, devise a registration system where people can sign up for time slots in advance.
3. Have a back-up plan. Err on the side of having an abundance of living books and line up spare readers to account for no-shows.

“Anyone who plans or participates in the Human Library will find it to be a valuable, even profound experience,” says Ravi. “It’s worth doing.”

_

If you’re inspired to bring the Human Library to your community, feel free to email Ravi for more advice: rkbasi@surrey.ca.

Do you know of other projects that are fun and potentially replicable? If you’d like us to consider posting it as part of this series, leave a comment below or email celeste [at] idealist [dot] org.

It's your move. What would you do? (Photo credit: Cristian V., Creative Commons/Flickr)

You found a job you love and think you are close to getting it. In the process, you learn some things about the organization that make you uncomfortable. What do you do? A community member shares her experience:

I recently had the experience of interviewing with an organization for a position I was very excited about. I got offered and attended a second interview, being one of two candidates up for consideration. I thought, finally, it’s happening! But then I found out about a few policies that simply do not jive with my personal morals. If I had known beforehand, I wouldn’t have applied. Thankfully, I had read something in the news recently that brought it to light (the info wasn’t exactly obvious on their website!).

So I was stuck with a difficult decision. Do I continue on, possibly get offered a job that would be great experience (after nearly a year of searching)? Or follow my morals and hope something better comes up? Ultimately I decided to retract my application.

I’m curious if others have experienced a similar situation. Would you have done the same thing? Does the job market affect how you would make that decision?

What do you think?

–

Have a career question you’d like to ask the community? Send it to me allison [at] idealist [dot] org.

Start your week off with coffee and a few good articles (Photo Credit: macinate, Creative Commons/Flickr)

Happy Monday! Last week, the internet was brimming with great career advice. Here is a round up of links to help you start your week off with reflection and action.

Have you found your place in the social-change landscape?

Although people are buzzing about social entrepreneurship, the reality is that social entrepreneurship is not for everyone and we need people NOT to be social entrepreneurs. Lara Galinsky, Senior Vice President of Echoing Green, wrote in the Harvard Business Review that rather than focusing on one way of making a difference, we need to encourage people to explore the various ways they can have a social impact:

But social entrepreneurs alone cannot change the world.They need artists, volunteers, development directors, communications specialists, donors, and advocates across all sectors to turn their groundbreaking ideas into reality. They need fundraisers, supporters who can change policies, someone to create a brochure describing their work. If everyone wants to start a new organization, who is going to do all the work?

If you’re ready to recharge your job search, complete this activity to figure out what kind of work you’d most enjoy in the social sector.

What beliefs are holding you back?

Sam Davidson, Co-Founder and President of Cool People Care, recently made a short list of things that don’t exist. Though they seem innocent, I think they can actually hold us back from creating the personal and professional lives that we really want:

Getting rich quick

An overnight success

Something that is easy to do and worth doing

“It’s not personal, it’s just business.”

That which is valuable or meaningful that came about effortlessly

A life without regret

The perfect man/woman/child

Having it all

What would you add?

Feel like you’ve hit a wall? Travel someplace new

Though it may seem counterintuitive, sometimes our expertise can make it difficult to be creative because our minds become set on a particular way of thinking.  According to the folks on American Express Open Forum, by going away for a while, your mind is allowed to wander which boosts creativity:

Creativity is all about making new connections between seemingly disparate concepts. “When you escape from the place you spend most of your time,” he says, “your mind is suddenly made aware of all those errant ideas previously suppressed.”

But it’s not enough to simply hop a plane to anywhere. If you want to experience the creative benefits of travel, then you have to rethink its purpose in the first place.

“Most people, after all, escape to Paris so they don’t have to think about those troubles they left behind,” Lehrer explains. “But here’s the ironic twist: your mind is most likely to solve your stubbornest problems while you’re sitting in a swank Left Bank café. So instead of contemplating that buttery croissant, mull over those domestic riddles you just can’t solve. You have the breakthrough while on break.”

Read something interesting recently? Share your thoughts and a link below!

As a thank you to our community, each week we’re highlighting interesting organizations and opportunities that you’ve shared on our website. Because of you, Idealist.org is a hub for people who want to create a better world. Thank you.

Interesting and unique ways to create a better world (Photo Credit: Many Languages One Voice)

Volunteering is a great way to share your skills, pick up some new ones, and be part of some high-impact, meaningful work. This week, organizations posted almost 1,000 opportunities to pitch in. Here are some highlights:

Book Design Volunteer (New York, NY)

Behind the Book is looking for volunteers to help turn students into published authors! The organization organizes inspiring workshops that help students write and illustrate a story or create an anthology of their collected works. They need a volunteer to then edit and format the materials and upload them into blurb.com to make beautiful and inspirational piece of work available to the public. If you have an eye for design and a passion for education and literacy, help budding young authors get out their first published works.

Volunteer with Upwardly Global (San Francisco, CA)

New immigrants to the U.S. often find it difficult to rebuild the careers they left behind. Accomplished surgeons and engineers take entry level jobs, and American employers miss out on a diverse, skilled, ambitious and too often untapped pool of talent. Upwardly Global seeks to eliminate barriers to employment and close the gap between college-educated, work authorized new Americans and employers who need their skills. Volunteer for a few hours or a few times a week to mentor a job seeker, hold mock interviews, or share networking tips. Your industry knowledge and experience with the American work culture are invaluable resources to new immigrants, and you’ll get some great cross-cultural experience in the process.

Amharic-Speaking Volunteer (Washington, DC)

Some kinds of volunteers are particularly hard to find. Many Languages One Voice (MLOV) needs help collecting and sharing the histories of Washington, DC’s immigrant communities, but they can’t do it without the language skills. If you’ve got what it takes, let them know! Photography experience is a plus.

Meadow Monitoring (Sonora, Modesto, and Groveland, CA)

Like meadows? Like looking at them? Then head out to the Stanislaus National Forest to help out the Tuolumne River Trust. Volunteers will be trained to conduct basic field work, and they’ll report back on erosion, conifer encroachment, and vegetation cover in the meadows to help determine which areas are in need of habitat restoration. If you’re lucky enough to be able to participate in this one, send us back some pictures!

Don’t see a volunteer opportunity here for you? Don’t worry, we’ve got thousands more! See anything you’re particularly interested in? Tell us about it!

Today is Nelson Mandela’s 94th birthday. There are various conversations and events happening online and offline celebrating his life and impact. What stood out to me is the above video which chronicles Nelson Mandela’s life via social media.

According to Mashable,

Happy Birthday, Nelson Mandela

“To commemorate the occasion, Prezence Digital Production created an information-packed but easily digestible video detailing the events of Mandela’s life. The four-minute video is a quick tour of Mandela’s timeline, told through a combination of hypothetical Facebook status updates, tweets, Instagram photos and Foursquare check-ins. It contains archival photos and actual quotes from Mandela, relatives, friends, political figures and media outlets.

The video, backed by the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, runs on the premise that Mandela may not have spent 27 years in captivity if social media platforms were available back then.”

While the video is meant to be a fun way to explore the life and impact of Nelson Mandela, it also made me wonder: what role does social media play in moving social movements forward?

Do you have examples or thoughts on this? Share them below.