Social Ch@nge

click here to see our full cartoon, made on stripgenerator.com!

Cartoons are such potent generators of social change, and so under fire in terms of media freedom, that Cartooning For Peace has become a regular side event to the United Nations World Press Freedom day.

This group started in response to the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed Controversy, when a Danish newspaper printed 12 cartoons that were intended to criticize extreme censorship in Islam. The cartoons used the Islamic prophet Mohammed, and ignited fierce controversy about censorship, and the role of cartoons in promoting peace, among one or two other thorny issues.

When they are published with change as their goal (as opposed to say, selling papers) cartoons are efficient tools for political change. For example, in 1985 G.B. Trudeau’s comic strip Doonesbury brought so much attention to the fact that Florida minorities needed a passcard to get around, that the law was repealed under ‘The Doonesbury Act‘.  More recently, comics have been used for everything from talking about war to explaining how to protect yourself from voter fraud in the current US Election (by the way, if you’re looking for interesting approaches to fundraising, that link to Steal Back Your Vote is worth a look).

Someone once explained to me humor is when you bend the rules. Breaking social rules is rarely funny. Bending them is hilarious, because if you bend far enough, you’ll see yourself from the outside. Are you inspired to use cartoons in your next non-profit appeal? Here are two immediate resources:

First, a practical how-to article on using cartoons in direct-mail fundraising.

And then once you’re warmed up? Off to Strip Generator with you, the online comic strip blog platform. You point, you click, you publish. We’ll laugh with you. You wear a bullet proof vest.