5) Description of initiative: Genocide Intervention Network will change the way the United States and the international community respond to the world's worst crime. The organization's aim is to recruit a committed and diverse group of individuals and communities to form an active network that realizes the "never" in "never again." Members of the Network educate their communities, lobby their elected officials and fundraise directly for civilian protection.

We are addressing the knowledge, capacity, and especially, the will to fulfill our responsibility to protect.

A global network of citizens committed to preventing and stopping genocide by themselves and through their government is necessary if we are serious about ending the crime of all crimes. This network would empower citizens to be agents for social change. The educational tool would combat the ignorance about genocide by teaching that genocide is a man-made crisis and can be confronted with a wide toolbox of policies. The advocacy tool would empower citizens with the knowledge on how to leverage their public officials (i.e. with our Darfur Scores) and fund managers to ensure they are not complacent or complicit in genocide. The fundraising tool will provide a direct avenue for citizens to focus on the most important gap in genocide – civilian protection.

An equally important part of building the first permanent anti-genocide constituency is building social capital. Citizens will bridge and bond with other individuals and groups through their work on Darfur to build a sustainable community committed to a more just and peaceful world – preventing future genocides and mass atrocities.

Our primary beneficiaries are American citizens and victims of genocide or potential genocide, currently Darfurians.

6) Description of innovation: GI-Net is mobilizing a global network of citizens who will pressure their governments for increased action against genocide, while simultaneously committing their own dollars to support security efforts in regions like Darfur. This is unprecedented! Our approach is to move beyond the DC insider/elite circles and the tiny human rights constituency and establish widespread (political) support against genocide among ordinary citizens. As David Rieff from the New York Times writes, "Some human rights advocates insist that their only obligation is to document abuses, not to shape government policy or figure out how enforcement can be implemented." In line with Rieff’s charge to reform the existing approach, GI-Net is engaging in straightforward political activism; we are lobbying churches, colleges, and shopping malls in the Midwest as assiduously as we lobby Capitol Hill or large donors such as the Ford Foundation. GI-Net takes its case to the public.

7) Delivery model: Our outreach relies on on-line and offline channels. Our on-line tactics include our website, email alerts, linking to the blogosphere and popular social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, YouTube, Google Groups. We also pursue the on-line and off-line coverage of the New York Times, PBS, NPR, and smaller media outlets. In addition, we have been privileged to have garnered celebrity support. For example, Angelia Jolie placed an ad for GI-Net in USA Today, Roll Call, The Hill, and People magazine. Also, Mia Farrow mentions GI-Net in TV and radio interviews and during her speaking engagements. Off-line outreach is structured, through our STAND (a student anti-genocide coalition) chapters and Regional Outreach Coordinators, as well as GI-Net members holding events (i.e. showing Hotel Rwanda), knocking on doors, and passing out flyers at other events. GI-Net is also completing a Speakers Bureau to have often-sought speakers educated on GI-Net so they can promote it whenever they speak.

8) Key operational partnerships: We have tried to form as many partnerships, of varying substance, with as many of the Darfur and human rights groups. At the highest level, GI-Net has incorporated STAND and the Sudan Divestment Taskforce directly into the organization. At a lower level, we coordinate during campaigns, like with Center for American Progress during www.BeAWitness.org, with the Holocaust Memorial Museum for our large-scale conferences, and with Save Darfur during the two major rallies. In the business sector we have partnered with MTV, specifically its college branch mtvU. 3 students, including 2 of our colleagues, teamed up with mtvU and went to refugee camps to make a documentary. Since then we collaborate on nearly every campaign. In the government sector, we have worked closely with officials from the city, state and federal level to pass amendments, legislation, write open letters, and organize press conferences. Since GI-Net fills a particular niche (grassroots political organizing) all these partnerships are critical to our success. We depend on our partners to do their parts so we can succeed in reaching our goals.

9) Financial model: We have all the necessary financial controls in place to ensure our financial health is secure. Since we are still in the start-up stage, we will begin internal auditing next year. With regards to our financial accountability with supporting civilian protection, we have worked with numerous experts at the World Bank, State Department, Treasury Department, USAID, and humanitarian organizations working in Darfur to establish all the necessary accounting and reporting requirements to ensure our funding is effective.

          • Costs as percentage of income: 5%

          • Financing: We are currently financed through private donations and foundation grants. Some sources include: Omidyar Network/Humanity United, Bridgeway Foundation, Draper Richards Foundation, Echoing Green, US Institute of Peace, Open Society Institute, Breskin Foundation, and Frankel Family Foundation.

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: •Raised over $1,500,000, including over $300,000 for civilian protection. •Engaged over 600 colleges and high schools to raise funds and take political action •Organized large-scale lobby days with hundreds of students. In the week of our events, the number of co-sponsors for the legislation for which we lobbied increased by sixty percent. •Successfully organized students to call Senator Lugar’s donors to persuade him to pass the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act. •Successfully got California state to divest its pension plans, the largest in the country, with over $350 billion in combined assets.

          • Number of clients in past year: Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands.

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Start Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: A lot of our growth depends on the rapidly deteriorating situation in Darfur, Sudan. Regardless of what happens, GI-Net will further develop many of the programs we've recently launched. For example, we will expand the successful Congressional scorecards www.DarfurScores.org to include the Executive Branch and state governments. We will also strengthen our divestment screening tool. Unfortunately, since Darfur will not be the last genocide, GI-Net will use the 3 tools (Educate, Advocate, Donate) to focus on other crisis - either current genocides or potential genocides (i.e. Burma, DR Congo, Côte d'Ivoire). We will also focus on structural changes to genocide. These include mandatory genocide education, enlarging the US peacekeeping budget, and developing a standing rapid reaction force for the UN.

12) Origin of the initiative: When people hear about genocide in the 21st century, they ask "What can I do?" Instead of feeling helpless and being a bystander, GI-Net provides easy, effective and entertaining ways to have a hand in stopping genocide. (We need to stop genocide out of moral, legal, security, and economic reasons.) The initiative started when I was at Swarthmore College and could not find the answer to "What can I do?” I teamed up with several classmates, researched the reasons for why the world fails repeatedly to stop genocide (see Samantha Power's "A Problem From Hell"), recruited some former policy makers, and created GI-Net.

Contact Information:
Mark  Hanis
Executive Director
Genocide Intervention Network
(NGO)
1333 H Street, NW; Washington, DC 20005
United States
Tel: 202-481-8220
Email: hanis@GenocideIntervention.net
Website: www.GenocideIntervention.net