Coyote Helps: a nonprofit mobilizing volunteers to help make interactive spaces more kind & public-spirited 
 

Coyote Helps is a new nonprofit (501 c 3 status pending) focused on helping to make the Internet a place where people can more easily engage with the human, environmental and community causes they care about most. The goal is to leverage existing online resources - online communities, volunteer matching platforms, apps, etc. - to help people connect with causes they care about and to learn about issues from credible sources, and to help nonprofits, NGOs, government programs and other mission-based initiatives connect with potential supporters.

The Coyote Helps vision is a world where people feel more connected to their geographically-close communities as well feeling a greater connection to and curiosity about all of humanity, a world where people both appreciate the people immediately around them as well as people on the other side of the globe.

Coyote Helps is run entirely by volunteers - unpaid staff. The founder is a volunteer herself and receives no monetary payment for her time in managing the efforts of this nonprofit.  

Financial donations are not accepted at Coyote Helps.

Why Coyote Helps?

What we now know as the Internet was launched in the 1970s. There was no World Wide Web. A lot of the interactions people had on the Internet then were via text based online communities called USENET newsgroups. When America Online launched, with its much easier user interface, millions of people came onto the Internet. The launch of the World Wide Web brought even more people online.

In the 1990s, the Internet was a nicer place than now: it had far less misinformation and far less people who were online only to cause havoc. Civic engagement flourished, as is documented here…..

However, the rise of social media has contributed to greater polarization of both political views and resources. More and more resources are going behind paywalls. A lot of the Internet is strategically-placed misinformation and hate speech, and the use of artificial intelligence has amplified this. The “good” places of the Internet, like web sites where people can find volunteering opportunities, or apps that help people find causes to support, are being drowned out. 

Coyote Helps is a small effort to mobilize humans to counter the negativity of the modern Internet. Volunteers do this by amplifying volunteering opportunities, volunteer testimonials, stories about philanthropy, civic engagement and other encouraging, enlightening content on various online communities and social media channels.

What Exactly Do Volunteers Do?

All volunteers are online. Volunteers make a commitment to provide on-topic, quality content to at least one of these online communities on Reddit (subreddits):
High-performing volunteers may be asked, or can ask, to take on additional moderation and facilitation duties for a subreddit (and possibly multiple subreddits). 

Volunteers also make a commitment to provide information about volunteerism, volunteering, civic engagement, and philanthropy on their own social media channels via BlueSky, Mastodon, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

These activities are done via the volunteer's own social media accounts.

How to Volunteer.

You do not have to be an official volunteer with Coyote Helps to share information about volunteerism, volunteering, civic engagement, and philanthropy on the Internet, including any of the aforementioned platforms.

But if you wish to be an official volunteer, you will be eligible for:
A volunteer application will be added to this page when the nonprofit is fully registered and ready to accept volunteers. Policies and procedures will be available at that time, as well as more information about expected time commitments.

The people behind Coyote Helps: the board of directors will be added once the nonprofit is ready to officially launch. The founder of the nonprofit is Jayne Cravens.