Each week in our #GivingTuesday series, we highlight an organization that you can give to. By “giving,” we usually mean “giving money.”
This week is different. This week’s featured group asks for giving expertise and time.
Whether you call it a makerspace, hackerspace, a backspace, or a hacklab, around the country libraries and communities are pulling together resources to make it easy for people to create. The flexible term allows for activities as varied as soldering circuits or welding metal and computer programming or wood carving. These community workshops are popping up across the country, bringing together skills and tools for people who might not have access to them otherwise.
Some Makerspaces are even offering affordable access to 3-D printers.
Find one near you or start your own
The folks at Makerspace are pulling together a worldwide directory of Makerspaces. While their list is impressive, getting a directory for a grassroots movements is never easy. So if one isn’t listed near you, be sure to do a Google search. Many, like the group in Maine, are blogging about their process as they look to start these spaces.
In true creative fashion, the Makerspace site offers a free Makerspace Playbook to guide you through the process of starting one in your community!
Learn more
We often hear both about the “digital divide” and about the low number of people going into traditional trades. Makerspaces seem a perfect bridge between the two.
As a fundraising coach, I’m surprised to not see any way to give money through the Makerspace site! Apparently that option is left up to the local groups. (To give to the Maine Makerspace, go to http://mainemakerspace.com/contribute/.)
You can learn more about Makerspaces at http://makerspace.com/home-page.
And before you go, check out this great video of Mythbuster’s Adam Savage talking about “Why We Make” at last year’s Maker Faire.
Tell Social Media Explorer about My Donation for Aggregated Reporting Purposes Here
Read more about Social Media Explorer’s #GivingTuesday program.
SME Paid Under