I’ll admit it. I didn’t even know what the word “meme” meant. I’d seen it tossed around many times on Twitter and taken some contextual clues, but hadn’t decided to thoroughly investigate until I got an email last week from Peter Deitz, the founder of Social Actions. While we haven’t met in person, we’ve interacted a few times online and by phone and he’s exactly the type of person that makes real social change possible: passionate, knowledgeable and a natural connector of both people and ideas. In short, he rocks. Yes, exactly like you ;)

So when I got Peter’s email asking me to participate in a meme about peer-to-peer social change success stories, I decided to give the word a closer look. Here’s what I found in Wikipedia:

“A meme consists of any idea or behavior that can pass from one person to another by learning or imitation. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, gestures, practices, fashions, habits, songs, and dances. Memes propagate themselves and can move through the cultural sociosphere in a manner similar to the contagious behavior of a virus.”

In this case, a meme is a rapid-fire way for a broad group of social change professionals to share their ideas and success stories; hopefully, the result is that the ideas continue to contagiously spread propagating good like a windblown dandelion (hat tip to @kikijean for the metaphor). In some ways, peer-to-peer social change is, in itself, a meme. When my friends do something good, and let me know via email, Facebook, the phone, MySpace, Twitter, text message, etc., I might learn from them or succumb to peer pressure and imitate the same behavior.

Anyway, Peter wanted us to share our success with peer-to-peer social change, and, since last week was the first anniversary of the date we received our 501c3 determination letter from the IRS, I thought this was an appropriate time to do a quick inventory of just how much has been accomplished over the last year. Plus, this week has been the pits. After suffering Fay’s flood damage, my car’s been in the shop three times this week for over $6000 in repairs, we found out our video wasn’t selected by Post-It as a finalist, and my internet connection was down for several days – all not good. So I needed this little pick-me-up. Forgive me, for today, if I focus on the positive; certainly I could do another several pages on the lessons we’ve learned to date, the mistakes we’ve made and the things we’d do differently next time. Today, Peter asked for success stories, so that’s precisely what I’m dishin’.

As many of you know, when Epic Change started last year, we had little more than an idea, a project partner in Tanzania and two friends just crazy enough to leave perfectly reputable day jobs to reveal their inner idealists and start a nonprofit. We both invested $5000 from savings, but it wouldn’t be nearly enough to purchase land, let alone build a school, so we needed help – and we asked for it from, quite literally, everyone we’d ever known (and didn’t yet!) – via email, phone calls, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Care2, Idealist.org, VolunteerMatch, YouTube, Google AdWords, our own WordPress blog and the blogger grapevine. We used other tools like Network for Good, PayPal, Google Checkout and Facebook Causes to enable online donations. I took donations at my aerobics classes, my niece held a lemon-aid stand in our neighborhood, our friends held house parties, garage sales and clothes drives. We didn’t have any funds for services, so we asked for pro bono help from people we knew. What started a year ago with a small investment from each of us has now turned into:

• Over $45,000 raised from over 350 donors across the globe;
• Our first $35,000 loan issued to a village school in Tanzania that serves over 200 local children;
• An acre of land that was purchased, and four classrooms that were built, in less than 100 days using loan proceeds, enabling the school to avoid closure after their rented facilities had been sold by the land owner;
• Loan repayment receipts to date of nearly $2500 to date through performances and preliminary post card and greeting card sales;
• An award from the Case Foundation for our successful participation in America’s Giving Challenge;
• Partnerships with two peer startup nonprofits who have agreed to undertake solar installation at the school and the creation of an Epic Change team for the 2009 Miami marathon;
• A website that was visited over 10,000 times last month, a blog that gets over 500 views each month, a mailing list with 600 subscribers, over 300 Twitter followers and YouTube videos that have been viewed nearly 10,000 times;
• Posts in 20 blogs, including TriplePundit, GoBigAlways, What Gives? and ZDNet, and a few great print articles too; and
• Pro bono legal and PR services and free web design, graphic design, video editing and professional photography which has enabled us to pay $0 in salaries, and less than $2000 in total overhead expenses, including a mandatory $800 IRS filing fee.

Other than averting the potential crisis of the closure of a great school that serves over 200 amazing kids, perhaps our most significant accomplishment is that we’ve been able to start to foster a rare online community that includes discussion between the donors who fund Epic Change loans, and the recipients of those loans in Tanzania.

I’ll admit – maybe I’d hoped for even more audacious outcomes in the first 365 days, but as I’ve learned from my corporate experience in change management, human change is not a rapid phenomenon. It takes patience, persistence, passion and a plan. As an organization that started with little more than a good idea and the determination to see it through, we’ve come a long way…but we’ve certainly got miles to go before we sleep.

Peer-to-peer social change is possible. When you do good, your friends are not only watching, but you just might start your own meme.

For those of you who’ve been involved in our efforts – whether you’ve passed along one of our videos to friends, shared our blog or made a donation, how does it feel to participate in a peer-to-peer social change effort? Is it different from other nonprofit or charity efforts in which you’ve participated? How? Do you think our strategies have been effective? Why or why not?

For those of you who haven’t yet participated in Epic Change, there’s no time like the present. Besides, all the cool kids are doin’ it – spread the meme.

PS: Peter, I live in Florida, but I may just be in San Francisco for another conference during the October NetTuesday. I’d love to participate in the discussion there if I’m in town.