When’s a good time for a press advert?

This wonderful ad was spotted in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

There beneath the inevitable article about Obama… was an advert for the hair removal product ‘Veet’, and the simple line “Goodbye Bush”.

I share this because it reminded me that sometimes it pays to think about when your audience will be zoned into your cause, and so it often pays to have a “quick-fire” strategy already mapped out for taking advantages of these moments of high interest.

This doesn’t need to be limited to charities delaing with crises or disasters.

A health charity may feel it appropriate to advertise when a celebrity dies – it doesn’t have to be done without sympathy. A doggie rescue charity may keep an eye out for a famous celebrity losing his or her dog. An environmental charity may use a newspaper heading to spark a new campaign.

Think about your potential spikes in interest, and then develop a strategy for ensuring you can respond quickly and creatively.

You can look more closely here at this inspiring reminder of the importance of timing here…

Should you give your ‘regular givers’ a name?

I’m often asked whether charities should spend time developing product or campaign names. I believe that the answer is often to consider whether it is a trick question or not!

The question above is of course, a trick question.

If you are going to remember, recognise, and value the support of ‘regular givers’ you are going to need to acknowledge their act of regular giving, and probably their status as a ‘regular giver’.

So… rather than use a piece of unfriendly, generic jargon such as ‘regular giver’ to personalize your communication.. why not spend a little time developing a unique name for them.

Here are some examples… if you would like more details of why I have grouped them the way I have, ask me for my opinionaid!

Group 1: Futuremakers, Full Stop supporter
Group 2: Field Partners, Discovery Partners, Frontline Member, Friend of PAWS, Golden Hearts supporter
Group 3: Human Rights Defenders, Frontline Member, Child Sponsor, Heart Saver, Kennel Sponsor

A role for brands

It is the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock this year.

I came across this clever copy on a piece of merchandise being sold to commemorate the event.

Setting aside my amusement at the idea of selling merchandise for Woodstock, I felt that the copy was really well written. But more than that I realized it sums up eloquently the role of a charity brand.

A charity brand should support the accomplishment of the charity’s aims.

This means that it shouldn’t interfere. Nor should it consume too much resource. But I believe that if a brand helps achieve anything positive for the organisation – even a more motivated and effective workforce…. then the brand has helped support the accomplishment of the charity’s goals.

This is hard to measure of course… which is why I believe charity branding exercises get such a bashing… but that doesn’t mean that branding shouldn’t be considered an important part of the mix.

A beautiful example of good charity branding I believe is Macmillan in the UK. The branding work they undertook remained true to the brand values the nurses themselves had already created.

Ever since, they’ve stepped out of the shadows of cancer and received the recognition they deserve.

A lesson from bears

I am attempting to read several books at the same time. I get over excited when I get books for Christmas, try and start them all, and then find myself wrangling over which deserves gets my full attention.

It always gets me thinking about the direct mail letters that charities send out. People like to read… so how do we ensure that they feel compelled to give the letter more of their attention than the cereal packet, paper or blog?

I had only moved maybe twenty feet when she saw me, let out a most electrifying vocalization that I could only call a ‘roar’, and she bolted after me. I can still see her clearing the log in as much detail as if it were yesterday. I began to run for the heavy timber but after a few steps, realized it was futile. The choice was then to get knocked down or lie down myself and play dead.

Do I have your attention?

Using first-hand testimonials is a great way to capture attention. And better still by italicizing it, you draw the reader’s eye to it.

‘Bear Attacks… their causes and avoidance’ by Stephen Herrero grabbed me that way.

Can art help charities?

This piece of art was hung in a gallery in Germany in 2006. Amnesty International reported that over 7,000 visitors saw the sculpture in just two weeks.

The clickrates on amnesty-international.de during the promotion were 16% higher than in the previous months, and they received 50% more applications for memberships right after the promotion.

I think it is a wonderful example of engaging an audience with the benficiaries of Amnesty’s work – something that is really hard to do. (See under “Who am I?” for another example)

But as a fundraiser I can see from the metrics that the strategy was to generate PR rather than generate a direct response.

This art (and many other great pieces) can generate attention and interest in a cause… I am interested in whether it can then be stratgecially partnered with elements that generate the act of giving.

Getting over guilt

Advertising here in Australia is sometimes a little blunt. Last century there was “If you drink and drive you’re a bloody idiot”, this year there is an interesting advert which shows women wiggling their little fingers at boy racers as they speed off down the street.

Australians love being direct. I love that.

So it surprises me that there are still some circles that love discussing whether their fundraising makes people feel guilty. After all, every day people are presented with advertising messages where products and services are positioned as the solution to people’s problems:
“If your home is smelly, buy our room deodorant.”
“If your children need answers for their school projects, buy our broadband.”

For charities this approach has been replicated. Step 1 – present someone or something who is in need. Step 2 – present message of “if you want to help that person or thing, donate to us”. For many, this approach is criticised because it encourages the development of a new problem for people:
“If you want to stop feeling bad about these people in need, donate to us.” Or even “Give us the money or the dog gets it”.

What are we worrying about? Complaints? Do you think anyone complains that TV adverts make them feel like they have a dirty house, or that their kids aren’t as well cared for as the Ramsey’s next door? Of course they do. What drives this criticism is a desire to reject the given marketing approach. People do not want to feel bad. So whilst for some the answer is to donate to charity, for others the solution is to criticise the organisation for trying to emotionally blackmail them.

The ethics of this approach has been debated since Dr. Barnardo told how he would have to turn homeless children away if people didn’t donate. I think it is getting boring now. Let’s get direct with people, and get over their guilt.

Where are the underdogs online?

I recently came across globalgiving.com a website that connects people with “grassroot charities” all around the world.

You register, you pick a cause or even location that you’d like to help, and sure enough a few projects are presented to you.

The power of being able to choose who to help is alluring, and is of course, symptomatic of the new age of the internet… or as I have heard it called to it the “new Consumerscape”.

For grassroots charities this seems like a marvellous portal of giving.

Research in the UK last year conducted by Bluefrog confirmed that many supporters have a “portfolio” of charities whom they support, and that this usually contained an underdog. We like to give to charities who we consider few other people are helping out.

I therefore found it strange that global giving felt the need to scaremonger about the administrative costs of charities.

If you’re a small charity, play the underdog card as much as you can. Send out home-spun communications, add yourselves to sites such as these. But don’t take pot shots at the big boys, or waste your breathe talking about low admin. The secret to good fundraising is helping connect people who care with the beneficiaries of your work.

If you are showing supporters what their money will buy and how that will make a difference – they will give.

Will charities use social network sites strategically?

I recently attended a conference in the UK called “Digital Communications for Charities”. The lure of new digital channels is always powerful, I believe because many fundraisers and marketers have creative personalities that crave making something unique.

But, I consider a moral obligation of all charities to be disciplined about how they use their limited resources to mobilize support for their causes, and so was a bit disappointed to hear so many charities were seemingly satisfied with having “friends on Facebook” whilst being unconcerned about how this helped them achieve their organizational goals. Few seemed to know what they would do with these “friends”, whether they were in fact “new mates”, or whether they would ever make any money from them.

Like many others I started using “Facebook” last year. I think it is important to consider why people are using it, before jumping into creating a profile for your organization.

Few use it to make new friends. It mainly supports relationships that already existed. However, as well as providing a(nother) new channel for general communication of the “how’s it going?” kind, the many “applications” and “groups” that are pushed to users via their own contacts do provide ways to strengthen relationships. Be that through shared entertaining experiences, giving or receiving compliments, or expressing shared opinions.

This later attribute has already proven useful for organizations to consider. Would being a member of your group provide the means for people to express their shared values?

But what does this membership achieve? And will it ever lead to financial return?

Since I believe this is something charities should be considering, I’ve created a strategic framework which you can upload strategic-framework-for-new-tech-relationships.pdf.

I encourage you to use it as a discussion tool, and welcome any feedback or comments.