The countdown to the Sustainable Development Goals is still ticking, even amidst a global crisis. We can’t just rely on local and global authorities to reach the SDGs — we need people power. And as the Community Developer at MakeSense, Evelyn Zuluaga has become an ambassador for this message.

A community launched in France by Ashoka Fellow Christian Vanizette, MakeSense is now home to a global network of volunteers in more than 155 cities and offices in 6 countries. To create a movement for social and environmental change, MakeSense works with already-existing initiatives and brings in citizens, entrepreneurs and other organizations to work together.

Evelyn is committed to understanding the process behind building people power. Speaking at the virtual summit of Changemakers for the Planet and Climate (Cumbre de Agentes de Cambio por Planeta y Clima) in April, she shared learnings on the “tipping point” of social change, advice for mobilizing communities, and examples for putting it all into action.

Understanding the magical 25%

If a community is going to adopt a different point of view — one that contradicts an accepted way of life — at least 25 percent of the community population needs to come on board, according to researchers led by Damon Centola of the University of Pennsylvania. This is the “tipping point” that Michael Gladwell refers to in order to transform a whole generation.

How to reach the 25 percent? MakeSense has set out to influence 10 percent, mobilizing this group as ambassadors to carry the message to the remaining 15 percent. In other words, they work with one person and ask him or her to activate 2.5 more people. The strategy, says Evelyn, is to focus on this number, rather than trying to directly influence everyone.

The goal is ambitious: influence 180 million people by the year 2030. Where to start? MakeSense has a strategy.

A recipe for reaching communities

To carry out their projects, MakeSense uses a five step methodology:

1. Get to know the people in the communities you are trying to influence: their profiles, thoughts, professions. Most importantly,understand what a “day in the life” looks like for them.
2. Identify the pillars of that community: What do the members of that community really want? What are their motivations? How do community members interact and communicate with each other?
3. Map the social structures and models of the community: This requires researching and determining the functions that each member exercises within his or her community.
4. Understand the experience of community members: What’s the best way to contact them? What tools and platforms do they use?
5. Design the best escalation process for each community based on the previous stages. It is also important to get to know the people with the most potential to inspire the spaces and the mechanisms from which the initiatives can be scaled up.

Putting it into practice

The Energies for Climate initiative — led by MakeSense in collaboration with the gas and electricity provider EDF — illustrates the way this process works, Evelyn says.

Their first step: Finding a community of ambassadors — leaders from across the world willing to implement initiatives at the local level. People from as far away as Bogota, Paris, Mexico, Morocco and India expressed interest. Another Facebook group joined in to share messages, exchange ideas and spread clean energies. Once they aligned their activities, the participants produced a collective documentary film based on the ideas they exchanged.

The group found entrepreneurs already working on clean energy solutions around the globe, collected video clips about local actions in six different countries, and edited them together into a one-hour documentary.

Sending a call-out, they mobilized others to participate in a training and show the film in schools, community centers and other spaces — reaching a large number of viewers. Hundreds of people around the globe responded, engaged in the conversation, and shared their own experiences. What began as an initiative turned out to be a movement.

Take-away

When it comes to strengthening our communities and creating change, especially around global problems like climate change, we need the right tools. If MakeSense offers one lesson, it’s don’t limit your vision. Think locally, but also think broadly. Let’s come together to ask the big questions: What are we doing? What will we do in the future? How far can we go?

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This article is based on an article by Arturo Vallejo that appeared in Resiliente Magazine.

Cumbre de Agentes de Cambio por Planeta y Clima was hosted by Ashoka México y Centroamérica. Learn more about MakeSense here.