Amy Sample Ward, Community Builder and Nptechie: How I Have Fun and Do Good

 Happy Monday, Have Fun, Do Gooders!  

The fourth guest post in my have fun, do good blogger series is by Amy Sample Ward.  Amy is a blogger and trainer focused on supporting and educating organizations and changemakers in the use of evolving technologies that cultivate and engage communities. 

She is also the CDI Community Development Manager for TechSoup Global where her work focuses on developing new programs and opportunities to strengthen and grow the global networks for changemakers, innovators and nonprofit organizations making our world a better place.  You can read her blog and learn more about her work at amysampleward.org, and you can follow her on Twitter at @amyrsward


Amy Sample Ward, Community Builder and Nptechie: How I Have Fun and Do Good

For me, there are lots of ways of having fun and doing good. I have two rules of thumb I use almost always:

#1 Make it interesting

Because there are so many ways to "have fun and do good" I can fall victim to the option paralysis syndrome. So, to help myself narrow down the options, I look for the ones that aren't just fun and enjoyable but are also interesting, will use my brain, keep me engaged and even help me learn something new. Those are the things that are most fun to me, anyway! Often this means combining passions, so opportunities that use technology know-how, community or local people (especially new ones to meet), as well as real objectives and goals.

#2 Make it shareable

I also believe that a lot of what we do could be shared, repeated, and even improved upon, but often isn't because we don't really share with the world or even our neighbors information about just what we are doing to "do good." I like to find ways either in real-time, or after a project, to share. This can mean posting photos of our work and ideas, creating a short video interview with those I'm working with, or writing a blog post that documents our process and strategy while also including documents or resources. Sharing is caring, so they say!

With all the ways to have fun and do good, and option paralysis such a real thing in our information-overload-world, I'd love to hear any guidelines others use to help narrow down the choices and concentrate efforts for making the world a better place!

Image Credit: This is Michaela Hackner at the 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) participating in the Day of Service - a great way to have fun and do good with technology, and even an example of sharing!

If you like this post, you might also like:

• How to Find Your Have Fun, Do Good
• Zen Peacekeeper, Marianne Elliott, Shares How She Has Fun, Does Good
• Leonie Allan of Goddess Guidebook Shares How She Has Fun, Does Good 
• Amy Potthast, Idealist.org: How I Have Fun, Do Good

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