The Nag

Changing the world one lazy-assed mouse click at a time

For most of us the big issues we face – climate change, poverty, global inequity – seem too far out of reach to connect with as individuals. The idea that any one of us can do anything about these challenges seems improbable. But perhaps if enough of us were to tackle one issue at a time in our day to day lives, we might make a difference.

At the turn of the millennium Cyndi Rhoades recognised a growing need for new and creative approaches to engaging audiences in social and environmental issues. In 2002 she approached the New Economics Foundation with the idea of ‘Anti-Apathy’ – a series of ‘issues meets entertainment’ evening events aimed at connecting new audiences with global issues in a refreshing way.

As the events grew in popularity, Anti-Apathy became an independent charity based at The Hub in London, Islington. Since then, their successes have included Worn Again with Galahad Clark in 2004 – a design-led social business which makes and markets fashion products from recycled materials like bicycle tyres and prison blankets – and the RE:Fashion Awards, the world’s first awards celebrating designers, NGOs, manufacturers and retailers who have taken great strides in tackling poverty, healing the environment and changing consumer attitudes across the fashion industry.

“The Nag is Anti-Apathy’s ‘world-saving made simple’ online creation. It helps people do one thing a month to make the world a better place, one lazy mouse click at a time. For example, by switching to green energy or by nagging your favourite clothes shop to make your clothes guilt-free,” says Cyndi.

She was able to secure a grant of £15,000 from J.A.Clark Charitable Trust of Glastonbury, which supports projects orientated towards social change in areas of health, education, peace, preservation of the earth and the arts, and an additional loan of £10,000 from Fair Finance to start work on the Nag.

It took a year to develop and build the website. The Nag team identified key lifestyle themes such as, food, fashion and finance, and explored what nags would be effective in bringing about change. Users were to be sent a new nag every month which would take them step by step through a simple action, with the aim of galvanising individuals to act collectively around the big problems we all face – by making it so easy that it becomes irresistible.

At this time the UK was suffering a severe drought, so the first issue tested was about conserving water. A micro-site called ‘the Hippo Effect’ helped people to order a free hippo, a water saving device placed in a toilet cistern to help save on average 10 litres of water every day. Within three months over 5,000 had been ordered through The Nag – a clear proof of concept.

Since then, other monthly nags have included the ‘Rag Nag’, which helps people send a letter to their favourite high street clothing shop asking them to make ‘guilt-free’ clothes, and the ‘Make Trains Cheaper than Planes’ nag where participants are invited to download a draft letter and send it to the Minster of Transport. Within two weeks over a thousand people had done so, and the number keeps on growing. Users can see how many people have taken each action and key facts like the amount of CO2 saved, and for each key theme the site also features a map of the UK on which a participant can mark their location and see the impact that lots of little actions can make when we all do them together.

Another theme, green energy, was identified as a possible revenue stream for the project. Affiliate relationships were set up with renewable energy companies which offer between £12 and £15 for each person who switched to green energy. “This wasn’t as effective as we had hoped. People can be very sticky. We only get a few switches a month, not the 100 and more that we were looking for to help finance the project.

Just when things began to look rather grim for paying back the £10,000 loan, Briony met a most unlikely saviour at a music festival – a Buddhist poker player. This man liked the idea of The Nag so much that he offered to donate 10% of his winnings over the next three months. “During one match, he was seven hundred thousand up which made our promised 10% look like a sizeable payoff … only to be lost in three unlucky hands!”Despite the decreased pot of gold, there was just enough to pay off the remainder of the loan and enable the site to be launched in May 2007.

The required budget for the next year was £50,000. Cyndi and Briony obtained another grant of £15,000 from Tedworth Trust, one of the Sainsbury family’s charitable trusts, which supports projects for sustainable living. They also secured a grant of £10,000 from Polden Puckham, a Quaker organisation which support projects that change values and attitudes, promote equity and social justice, and develop radical alternatives to current economic and social structures. In addition The Nag’s parent, Anti-Apathy, had support from UnLtd, a charity which supports social entrepreneurs. “UnLtd offered £5,000 as part of their Level 1 Award scheme, to see if the idea of The Nag had legs.”

And it did. In 2008 The Nag won the ‘Yahoo! Finds of the Year’ award for best ethical web site and came 2nd in the category ‘Best Online Campaign’ in the Green Web Awards for creative approaches to social and environmental issues.

This success has propelled The Nag into a second phase. Cyndi has recently engaged a new project director to assemble a team of freelance designers, writers and web technicians to work flexibly according to need and budget.

“The first phase of The Nag was about inviting people to take action on one thing a month and imagine the collective impact as more and more people do that same action. Eight thousand people have registered … but that’s not enough and we’ve seen that the sign-up rate tends to drop off after one or two actions.”

So the goal for 2009 is to increase the number of active users. Cyndi observes that The Nag must evolve in order to keep interest and grow. “We need to take things to a new level. We now have a much better understanding around what’s worked and what hasn’t. The second phase is about harnessing the wisdom of crowds … about enabling people to work collectively to find a solution. Then we can transfer the power of The Nag from the makers to the users and see how people work together to make things happen.”

Cyndi knows that the problems we face will require more than just switching to green energy. “We hope that the growing and diverse community of users on our database will help to formulate some of these solutions as we launch the next phase of The Nag. Understanding what makes people act and engage in these issues on a grand scale is the Holy Grail. We’ll keep cracking away until we’ve found it.”