DEFIANT:
Defiant is an organization dedicated to building a powerful Millennial constituency around a shared vision for our future. The energy of resistance is out there-- you’ve read the headlines and you’ve seen the crowds. Resistance is critical, but as we resist we also want to lay the foundation for the future we want to build. We need to build a better future worth believing in. We need to channel the energy of resistance into moving our country forward.
Defiant is founded on the radical idea that the only way to achieve a better future is for the people to own that vision from the ground up. We’re building “the room where it happens,” and inviting the great political minds of our generation in to speak and be heard. We’re going to use the internet to facilitate an open-source approach to the political process, and engage and empower young people across America.
THE MANIFESTO:
If you want to collaborate on a document with your coworkers, you open a Google Doc. If you want to collaborate on a party platform, policy paper, or piece of legislation, you throw money at a super PAC and pray.
Defiant is adapting a digital tool called Madison to help our generation crowdsource a Manifesto, a visionary platform for the future of our country. We’re going to invite young activists and other changemakers to channel the energy of resistance into an affirmative vision for the future of our country. We’re using proven participatory methods from crowd-sourced legislative experiments around the world (see Iceland or Taiwan) to build consensus.
The Manifesto process will conclude by late spring of 2018, so candidates can endorse the Manifesto in advance of Midterm elections. We’ll continued to use our online crowdsourcing process to refine and distill our vision, and solidify policy solutions for the American people. Throughout the midterms, we’ll focus on storytelling-- how Defiant’s internet thought-leaders become politicians, visionaries, and changemakers. We’ll seek out narratives that demonstrate the ripple effect of the Manifesto and its revolutionary approach to open-source politics and how an online movement breaks into the real world.
OUR TEAM:
The four members of our founding team (Milia, Christine, Danielle, and Zach) come from backgrounds in grassroots and Democratic party politics, start-ups, civic tech, content marketing, digital community-building, and Hollywood storytelling and production. We share a desire to combine our diverse skill sets to address the deep structural problems in our political system. That intersection of ideas and perspectives allowed us to see a bigger picture than we could on our own. From that starting point came the idea of a radically participatory democratic process that could unite and empower our generation through the power of their own voices.
WHAT WE’LL DO WITH YOUR CONTRIBUTION:
We are deeply committed to making the most of your contribution, no matter the size. We appreciate any support. To give you a sense of where your money will be going, here’s a list of some of our necessary expenses in the coming months:
$100 per month gives us a place to work
$200 per month buys us the server space to host the Manifesto
$240 keeps us online and connected via email
$300 gets us to the Detroit Arena convention to make our case to other activist organizations
$500 gets us to an activist or changemaker we need to talk to
$750 per month gets us health benefits
$1,500 makes one video featuring a young leader’s story
$5,000 buys us a launch video to introduce the Manifesto process
OUR TIMELINE:
We have a lot of work to do before we can start crowdsourcing our generation’s Manifesto. We’re doing research into Millennial values, building partnerships with other organizations, and shooting a compelling rollout video that will introduce the Manifesto project.
May & June: Research, polling, and focus groups on Millennial political values and opinions.
July: National listening tour, media promotion, partnership development, political outreach, and social media campaign that introduces our audience to Defiant and our mission.
August: One-month countdown to the launch of the Manifesto project. Four weeks of written and video content rollout.
September: Manifesto rollout. First community event to draft the preamble to the Manifesto. Event will be live-streamed and involve our digital community.
October & Beyond: Second community event to draft Section 1: The Future of Work. Further events and drafting sessions throughout the fall and winter.