Building a sustainable economy will require a continually billowing cascade of energy, intelligence, and creativity. There is no shortage of ways to contribute.

Here are some ways you can help through Grass Commons.

Volunteer

We are currently recruiting volunteers to help us catalog data from sources of consumer information from all over the web. Researchers can work here in our Eugene office or from anywhere on the internet. We work hard to insure that Grass Commons work is educational for all of our volunteers and that the work they do is of great interest to them.

Code

This website will also serve as the home base for a host of NICK-related open source projects — developers welcome. Grass Commons will publish dancing skeletons (operable applications not yet fleshed out) of projects openly designed here. Anyone interested in working on software under discussion but not yet at the dancing skeleton stage is welcomed to contact us about other arrangements.

Research

The NICK’s greatest need is that of information. Whether by filling the gaps among the current yardsticks we use to measure products and companies or foraying into new realms of data that you feel should be brought to consumers’ attention, anyone can help. Grass Commons is not, at its heart, a research organization. We are building tools and infrastructure so that anyone with research to contribute, however large or small, can do so in a way that it becomes conveniently accessible to consumers everywhere when they need it most.

We do not currently have projects available for direct research, except to those working as volunteers (see above) — but stay tuned!

Advocate

Lots of great projects out there get stuck on data; we want to help them. Rather than trying to come up with the end-all be-all synthesis of all the data we find, we’re offering variables to others so that they can try their own formula. As the NICK grows, it will become ever easier for advocacy groups to direct consumer spending by building rating systems using NICK data. In this, without duplicating research or incurring massive data overhead costs, advocacy groups will be able to produce label-ready summary results for products and companies. Convince your favorite nonprofit to get involved!

Donate

The world needs conscientious consumers, conscientious consumers need our software, and we need your support. Every little bit helps, and we love to be reminded that we are part of a great community of people who care about the future and recognize the power of consumers to help shape it. Grass Commons is a labor of love — so far all the labor on the project has been volunteer. But to be successful we’ll need an increasing amount of resources for legal consultations surround NICK contracts, technical costs, and an expanded (and remunerated) workforce. We’re small and cutting edge, yet Grass Commons promote the kinds of deeper, bigger, richer, structural changes that everyone hopes to find in a nonprofit, and we operate at so modest a level that you can be perfectly assured that your donation honestly helps.

Tax-deductible online donations can be made through PayPal (see button at right), or send checks payable to Grass Commons to:

Grass Commons
1410 Orchard St, Suite 215
Eugene, OR 97403

Grass Commons is a 501(c)3 public charity.