“Transformational change requires an organization to look outside of its core group of true believers and put a greater emphasis on mobilizing those less engaged,” write Amy Celep, Bill Shore & James Siegal in the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Magnify provides a platform to engage an organization’s community ecosystem, from board members to clients and from staff to supporters. Why does it matter that we recruit an ecosystem?  Organizations are stronger when they have place for these diverse actors to collaborate. Not only can clients sometimes become advocacy partners, as in the case of the nonprofit Miriam’s Kitchen which asked its chronically unhoused clients to join in their collaborative working group and resulted in more public restrooms in Washington DC, but also alums — previous board members, supporters who have moved away, and prior staff — can participate in small ways that extend an organization’s reach.

In his now famous work on “The Strength of Weak Ties“, Mark Granovetter characterizes weak ties in our networks as the bridges who give us access to new information and new groups of people. Organizations need to activate their weak ties. Weak ties are individuals who aren’t the loudest or the most active, but who have tremendous value to an organization because they integrate new groups of people and bring information to help an organization make smarter decisions. Organizations thrive when they engage their weak ties — and through collaboration with those ties, organizations are more likely to succeed in transformational change.

Join us, and whether you’re an organization or a weak tie, we’d love to collaborate with you and magnify your voice. Onwards!