I don't think there's a better group to fund than the EFF. They're just about the only reliable lobbying group out there advocating for users, and considering how small they are, they're doing a hell of a lot of it.

You can call your representative or vote/elect/run for a position.

I admire the libertarian sentiment on HN but I think it would be greatly beneficial to everyone to have more thoughtful, smart and balanced people running our Governments.

Here's my bazillion-dollar question: How do you practically motivate those people to enter and stay in government? The insanity of the system is maddening, and even hard-fought positive progress is glacial compared to the private sector. I know smart, thoughtful people who considered government and finally decided they'd be far happier in the private sector.

Maciej (Pinboard / HN user 'idlewords') has been doing great work finding such people who are running and supporting them to get elected.

The progress is glacial because the private sector wants it to be and can afford to make it that way.

“Smart, thoughtful” people who are happier in the private sector is exactly who currently runs our governments. So your plan is already in action.

Start a local Electronic Frontier Alliance group and work in your local community to build additional support for issues you care about.

https://www.eff.org/fight

Large-scale change is hard, and I don't have good ideas for how to force it -- I'm just some random internet schmuck, not a clairvoyant genius. At a small scale, delete your FB account and install a tracking blocker. Going slightly larger, help your non-nerd friends to do the same. Network effects work both ways.

If you have time and money left over after that, the EFF isn't the worst place to spend them.