Why trust is the currency of organising
Launch library · evergreen read
Every other resource an organiser might draw on, time, money, media attention, depends ultimately on trust, since people will not commit their own effort to a campaign led by someone, or some group, they do not genuinely believe has their interests genuinely at heart. Trust is the currency everything else is actually purchased with.
Trust is built slowly, through consistent follow through on small commitments over time, and it can be lost quickly, through a single broken promise or a moment where a community's interests appear to have been set aside for some other, more convenient priority. That asymmetry is worth respecting at every stage.
Because trust takes so long to build and so little to damage, experienced organisers treat it as something to be protected carefully, prioritising honesty and reliability even when a shortcut might seem to offer a faster route to an immediate, tempting goal. The shortcut rarely turns out to be worth its eventual cost.