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Digital tools for activists ๐Ÿ› 

Work more efficiently as activist with these digital tools
Last update: Oct 26, 2022
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In this article you will find a list of digital tools that will come in handy for you as activist. Taking into account the limited resources of movements, we have selected a wide variety of affordable apps. We also have provided some open source alternatives, if you prefer to avoid evil big business out of privacy concerns.

Wow! There are lots of tools highlighted here. If you need help figuring out what kind of tools to use to help your movement work more effectively, reach out to us: [email protected]

โœจ Highlighted tool: Rebel Tools, the all-on-one toolset for campaigners โœจ

Ladybug using a smartphone - Generated using OpenAI

Communication tools

The following tools can be used to communicate within your movement, and reach out to potential new members. For example, check out our comparison of chat apps, where we provide some suggestions for how to set up internal communication channels if your group starts getting bigger.

We also have guides on how to use social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter effectively. And if you need pictures to post on your socials, make sure to bookmark our collection of free photos, illustrations and videos.

Productivity apps

  • ๐Ÿ—‚ Productivity suites: All-in-one packages for productivity tools.
  • โšก Movement organising: All-in-one solutions for membership management, hosting events, sharing petitions.
  • ๐Ÿ™‹โ€โ™€๏ธ Decision making: Platforms that help you make democratic decisions, including everyone in the conversation.
  • โœ… Project management: Tools that help you keep track of projects and to-do's while working in teams.
  • ๐Ÿ“‚ File storage: Solutions for storing and sharing documents.
  • ๐Ÿ“ Documents: Modern text editors for collaborating online
  • ๐ŸŽค Presentations: Apps to make presentation slides.
  • ๐Ÿ’กBrainstorming: Creative tools for collecting ideas online.
  • โ“ Forms: Tools to collect responses using surveys and signup forms.
  • ๐Ÿค– Workflow automation: Connect all your tools and automate repetitive tasks.

Creative media

  • ๐ŸŽจ Graphic design: Creating visually attractive imagery is a great way to illustrate your message. In this article you will find a list of photography and vector editing applications.
  • ๐ŸŽฌ Making videos: By publishing promotional videos for your actions on social media and recording your protests, even people who are outside your direct circle will be able to get to know your movement. In this article we discuss various ways in which you can share videos with your fellow rebels, including Youtube and Vimeo, but also open source self-hosted alternatives.
  • ๐ŸŽค Podcasts: Publish your audio recordings with one of these tools. Podcasts are a great way to convey your message in a personal way.

Acting

Digital challenges

Our honest approach

We only recommend tools that we actually like to use. We are not being payed to promote any services. We ask everyone who adds items to our collection to stay objective and review the tools with a critical mindset. Any spam or promotional contributions will be removed. However, if you have developed a useful tool for activists yourself, feel free to share it with us!

As most activist organisations do not have access to large funds, we prefer free and open source services over payed ones.

In addition, we like to see that the products that we use reflect the positive impact we are trying to make on this world. In other words: we do not only assess the quality of the tools that we review, but we also try to look at the people and organisations behind the tools.

Improve this page

You can contribute: This handbook is written by people like you. Feel free to create an account and add the tools that you find useful! Find out more about how to contribute.

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