TH Interviews Care2 Founder Randy Paynter
by Erin Courtenay - Madison, WI on 07. 7.06
As the founder and president of Care2, Randy Paynter is a leader in harnessing the power of online social networking to drive positive change for the environment. Randy started Care2 in 1998 and survived dotcom capriciousness to become one of the leading social networking sites on the Web, growing to the current membership of over six million. His enthusiasm and faith in our ability to make progressive change are infectious - so if you prefer to be a doomsdayer, read this interview with caution!
TH: How effective do you think online organizing has been for the environmental movement? Are we all just talking to each other, or are we having an impact on the "real world?"
RP: I'm continuously amazed by the impact our members are having. Some of the change is personal. For example, every day we get letters from members who have gotten rid of the toxic cleaners in their house and are now using nontoxic alternatives, or who used our social network to raise money for an animal shelter, or joined a nonprofit they learned about through Care2.
There are also many advocacy success stories our members have contributed to. So far, in my opinion, the main reason there aren't oil wells in the Arctic Refuge is because there has been such public outrage, mostly organized online. We've also recently helped protect the Great Bear Rain Forest, so far have helped block the Asbestos bailout bill (which means victims of asbestos and their families have retained their right to hold asbestos companies accountable for their actions), and just a few weeks ago President Bush created the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, creating the largest marine reserve on the planet. Progress may not always happen as fast as we'd like, but we are making a difference!
TH: What inspired you to create Care2?
RP: To make a difference. To change the world. To demonstrate that it's possible to "do well while doing good". Those all sound pretty cliche, but that's the truth.
I first realized I wanted to devote my life to making the world a better place during a visit to a remote Amazonian tribe, back when I was 13. The environmental destruction and poverty of the bigger towns was in stark contrast to the abundant wildlife and joy of the people we encountered deep in the jungle. I later spent quite a bit of time trying to find a product I could commercialize from the rain forest that would help to protect the forest and culture of the people - but I never found the right product. Then the Internet boom took off and I recognized the best way for me to save the forest and help the people was by motivating the masses.
We launched Care2 in 1998 as an environmental portal, and quickly expanded to support Health, Human Rights and other important causes. Today, our mission is to help individuals make a positive impact through their personal lifestyle and by giving them the tools to influence society. We do this by connecting our 6 million members to the information, people and organizations making a positive impact - like treehugger!
TH: What do you think the top five things are that an individual can do to "Make a Difference?"
RP: At Care2, our 5 step approach is to help individuals:
1. Get Involved
2. Get Inspired
3. Get Informed
4. Get Connected
5. And do this every day....
We hear from an amazing number of people who simply had never realized how easy it is to make a difference. Once they start, they realize how rewarding it is, and begin to see themselves as "environmentally responsible"...which of course leads to greater consciousness and more positive actions.
So, I believe the most important thing an individual can do is "get involved". Get involved in whatever cause gets you fired up, get informed, get connected to the people and organizations making a difference, contribute in whatever ways you can, and make this part of your daily routine.
We think of Care2's six million members as an ecosystem of people making a difference. Everyone contributes in their own way. A lot of our members make financial donations to our nonprofit partners, others volunteer their time, others sign online petitions, or blog, or debate the issues on our discussion boards, or send all their friends our healthy living tips. Heck, we've even had a number of marriages between members. It's all good. It all helps. When millions of individuals get involved in making the world a better place day in and day out amazing things happen.
TH: Care2 offers members everything from webmail to photo sharing to shopping guides - what are your favorite services that Care2 offers? Why?
RP: Wow. That's like asking me to choose between my children. We've got an incredible team that has indeed created a huge array of great services. I've already mentioned our fantastic healthy living solutions, so while I won't choose between my children, I guess I'd have to say:
Care2 Activist Alerts - we work with about 150 leading nonprofit organizations to get their campaign alerts out to subscribers of our 20 activist email lists. It's great because it's an easy way to keep informed of opportunities to make a difference on the cause(s) you care most about. Anyone who signs a petition on our PetitionSite.com can subscribe to one of these lists. (http://www.care2.com/actionalerts/)
Care2 Connect - our social network has over a million members involved in thousands of local and global causes. I love this area of our site because it's incredible to watch what happens when individuals are given the power to connect, host groups and share their passions. (http://www.care2.com/c2c/people)
Care2 News network - this is only about 6 months old, so is one of our newest services, but is basically a digg.com for progressive-minded individuals. A year ago I wouldn't have thought turning all editorial control over to "the people" would work - but it does! We're seeing a lot of interesting stories that would never make mainstream media sites, and we've recently let people add videos which is a lot of fun. (http://www.care2.com/news/)
ThePetitionSite.com - I love our petition service because it puts amazing power into the hands of individuals. Anyone can create a petition for free. We've had citizen-created petitions with over 100,000 signatures. We've recently added cool tools that enable you to effectively embed part of the petition directly into your website, as well as some great customization features. (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/)
Thank you Randy - and keep up the great work at Care2!
This was a very nice ad and public relations for Care2, but I hope if you ever have the opportunity again to interview Mr. Paynter that you ask him why Care2 allows their members to abuse others with slander and libel to a very serious degree and refuses to even acknowledge the volumes of complaints sent to Care2 from activist members who are constantly attacked.
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editor note: Any evidence of this? We're not in business with Care2, they are just a big green player and so we got an interview. But I don't know much about the internal conflicts and politics between members of that site..
Are there any financial interests between Treehugger and Care2?
Was that advertisement packaged as an interview? The answers given are eerily similar to promotional material distributed by Care2.
While I'm new to Treehugger, I need to be able to differentiate between ads and investigative reporting.
Please shed some light on the background of the interview. Thanks!
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editor note: Care2 and Treehugger are not affiliated.
It's possible that Randy is involved with Care2 promotion and "mission statement" kind of stuff, so that would explain why the same kind of language is used. Dunno.
I and many other members of Care2 have been submitting a steady stream (or mighty river?) of evidence to them through the channels they recommend for well over a year concerning problems on the site.
I love Care2, but there definitely is a serious problems with abusive posting and other unethical behavior of a few members.
There is a particular member who frequently posts libelous statements about other members, including myself, and has exhibited a pattern of identifying, preying upon, exploiting and manipulating Care2 members who suffer from mental illness.
Early on, Care2 did make an attempt to curtail this individual's activities, but then it seems they decided his entertainment value outweighed his nuisance value and abandoned all attempts to protect members from his abuses.
Yet, we continued to hope that the spectacle of the destruction of the reputations of innocent people and countless other abuses would be enough to compel Care2 to reconsider its neglect of this problem. Hope has become very dim at this point, although a tiny flicker remains.
To the editor of Treehugger, thank you for your indulgence.
Like you, when we were first introduced to Care2 we had high hopes for the site. However, lately, the site has been allowed to deteriorate to the point that members have to write petitions to Care2 so that other members can continue to use the site in a meaningful, socially responsible way without being the subject of abuse by infiltartors and disrupters.
You were very fair in asking for an example. We will give you an example. When members find it necessary to take time off from their activism to circulate a petition asking Care2 to attend to the problems on its own site, you know the problems have gotten out of hand. When 500 members tell Care2 that their site has deteriorated and they need to do something about it, you know that the problem is widespread.
You asked for evidence. This is the evidence:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/655128941
It reached a point where now I would not advise anyone with children to allow their children to get on Care2. It is unsafe because a number of unsavory characters are allowed to run wild on Care2.
Material that may be harmful to children permeates the site. Care2 claims to hide that behind closed doors. But these closed doors can allow children to come in. Simply by not having a mechanism to check the age of a member, a teenager, by simply changing his or her birthday, can enter those groups.
There is nothing environmentally friendly about a teenager lurking in a group among vicious, unsavory, shadowy denizens who are known to Care2.
We had high hopes for Care2 initially. We wanted to believe that something like Care2 existed. They squandered their chances.
We can understand that there can be growing pains, but social responsibility has taken a back seat at Care2.
Care2 cannot be socially responsible towards the world if it cannot be socially responsible within the confines of its own website.
The hope for Care2 is dim. It cannot be fixed from outside. The focus and the priorities have to come from within.
Putting out impressive press releases is easy, living up to the ideals of these press releases is the real challenge.
Enron failed that challenge, I hope Care2 doesn’t.
Hi - I just want to weigh in with a brief response to the above posts:
One of our primary goals for Care2 Connect Groups is to empower group hosts with the tools they need to make the world a better place. With literally thousands of active groups on Care2, the range of discussions and styles is huge. Some group leaders rule with an iron fist while some are far more lax and believe freedom of speech should not have limits. Given the passionate debates going on, inevitably in certain forums things get a little hot and certain individuals feel they are mistreated. That's unfortunate, and we hate to see that.. and we've had long discussions with our members about the best way to manage this.
In the end, we've stuck to the basic premise that making the world a better place requires many types of solutions and many styles. So, rather than have Care2 attempt to control/police/arbitrate the conversations and disagreements, we'll be far more effective if we empower the leaders to be effective in the style that works for them. In this case that means giving the group hosts the means to manage their groups the way they see fit. The consequence of course is that some people end up unhappy. (Note that of course there are limits to the freedom we allow, in that we take immediate action when individuals violate our Terms of Service.)
As I mentioned above, we have had many long discussions about this because it is such an important and multi-faceted challenge, and while the experiences posted above are limited to a tiny percentage of the members using Care2 Connect Groups, it's something we take very seriously. In fact, we run a Feedback & Suggestions group on Care2 Connect to make sure we get all of this out in the open and to provide the kind of transparency and accountability we believe is key to making such a grand experiment work. I'd be happy to re-open that conversation in that forum if our members so desire.
Thanks for caring!
great reply Randy i have been a member of Care2 for 2 years and i love it...like myself who has suffered abuse and am not very outgoing socially..it has helped my self esteem so much...i know its not always problem free..but the good things sure outweigh the bad..i am also an avid submitter of the news stories and have become more educated about what goes on in the world ..Care2 gets the thumbs up from me
Okay, Care2 members who have problems (real or imagined, it is not for us to say) with Care2 will have to solve these problems elsewhere. This is not the place.