Activism: How can someone living in a developing country become a full-time activist?

I have no experience with activism, but I will provide a few my thoughts from a business perspective. Being an activist is hard work requiring lots of persistence. One key to funding is aligning your activist goals with both the high priority social needs in your developing country (assuming your goals are oriented with positive social changes) and the goals of global philanthropy non profit organizations (for e.g. Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, Rockfeller Foundation, etc.). In particular, the Gates Foundation is becoming a major global force in philanthropic activities. I would not put too much effort in pursuing funding from government philanthropic organizations at this time, given their dire financial constraints. You will need to do your homework to understand the major goals of the funding organization and then put together a well structured proposal outlining: what you want to do; how you will do it; what results will be achieved; and why those results are important to the philanthropic organization.

Funding Methods: http://Kickstarter.com Grants Donors Friends & family Government Already existing nonprofits (as an employee or agent) Teaching activism. Build a cooperative or association with membership fees.  The value has to be incredibly clear to the members.  Ask around to see if you can justify this and also calculate how many members you would need.  If its protective in nature, people pay decent money for police and info in the forms of newspapers, books, education, and events.  Helping people protect themselves is a real service to them.  Its an exercise in self-defense. (7 and 8 can obviously go together and perhaps even complement each other) Additional Career & Fundraising Enhancing Activities Look at how other activist organizations are funding their employees.  Most are probably volunteers, but I imagine the leaders are paid.  The biggest reason to do this is to see what types of activities, resources, strategies they are using to replicate and adjust in your own activism.  This in turn will help provide you with the knowledge and foresight to make better decisions as well as to in turn provide benefits more effectively (which in turn could boost your ability to justify your need for funding by clearly explaining your social impact and your tactical and success modeled methodology). Volunteer to learn, build credibility, and build your network Realize both of these parts funding and career leverage work together.  Yours in the cause...

One more idea: I have seen a lot of university researchers / professors in developing countries use their position and research to advocate for something close to their heart. It's a long term strategy, as you would have to get into research and establish yourself in a secure position, but if you feel drawn to doing research, this might be an option. You have a basic income from the university, can add to this by working on projects with international organizations, your impact comes from a mix of publications on the issues you care about, teaching students about them and being an expert for international organizations and your government. Whether this strategy would work for you depends both, on you and on the kind of system you would be working in. Obviously, if you are paid by the state you could not promote positions that are too extreme in oppositon to the government.

why don't you think about crowdfunding? the biggest site for americans is http://www.kickstarter.com/ the quora question here also has non-us alternatives:

I guess these are all very good tips. I would add that you should find what you are good at and offer that expertise. If the Humanitarian Aid or Activism Field has use for you, you can get your foot in the door and figure out how to help while having some experience.  Knowing you and your computer skills, I'd say your advantages are in the Information Society Sector. Leverage that because a lot of NGOs need it.

I have no experience in this sort of thing, but... Depending on what you want to achieve, maybe the answer is to find a wealthy patron from the local area or elsewhere in the country in question, or a philanthropic business, that can sponsor you to achieve your goals. As other have suggested, offshore sponsorship may be the answer. To persuade people to fund your activities, you will need to have a clear and well documented mission, assemble a skilled team of people and develop a support network that will help you to achieve your goals. Make sure that your own needs are covered by the funding you are seeking. When you have that in place, approach powerful and well connect people and businesses who have the resources and connections  to make things happen.

What you describe is what social entrepreneurs around the world do :-) See http://Ashoka.org (not sure on etiquette here, so am also leaving my response the initially phrased question below). ------------ Activism starts with an issue you are passionate about, not with the place you want to go. So start by asking yourself what issue you feel called to make an impact on. Do some research on organizations that are working in that field - follow them for a while and understand the kind of work they do. Large parts of the economy in developing countries are fueled and operated by an international development aid industry - ie people who are professional activists, community organizers, technical experts, etc. There are also social entrepreneurs all over the developing world who are leading grassroots innovations in social and economic development, and always need qualified people to help. My suggestion if you are just getting started would be to seek out one or more short term volunteer opportunities around an issue that you feel passionate about, and start getting a taste for how your skills fit the needs of what people are already doing in that field. When looking to go abroad for longer periods of time, you will find there are plenty of experience building opportunities available that you can undertake on a volunteer basis during the course of a normal 3 month tourist visa - once you start imagining being in one country for longer than 3 months, the requirements for residency get a bit more complicated.

Contributions and donations from people mostly make funding for activists. I would give you example of PV Rajagopal of India. He is full time activist who works for reform of poor and landless people of India. He is currently organizing a satyagraha in which more than 50,000 people are marching to New Delhi (capital of India) from different villages, covering 350 KM on foot. As per this interview, he raises money from contributions (http://www.livemint.com/Politics/jMQ3mvi7cmP0oQLIDmKxBJ/The-long-march-of-PV-Rajagopal.html)

I agree with what almost everyone has said here that committing to become an activist is costly in terms of time, energy and money. I can only speak from a Zimbabwean and South African context and agree that while there is a great need for motivated people, it's essential that one does their homework before embarking on this path. Understand the domestic political and social environment and identify and area where you believe you could make a tangible difference. Conduct research on existing initiatives and adopt their best practices, learn from their negative experiences Identify start-costs - personnel and infrastructure Look into different forms of funding e.g. crowdfunding and find out about tax incentives in place to encourage people to donate and incorporate this into your appeal Work on and refine your in-country strategy so as to maximise your input. Ideas are great, well-thought out and structured action is better You might also want to contact Sebastian Lindstrom, founder of Light for Children and get his insight on working in developing countries http://oneleap.to/seblindstrom Hope this helps!