I care deeply rather than not at all

I just read this blog and thought I’d share it here.

It reminded me of the trials and tribulations I faced when helping manage face-to-face campaigns for the likes of Christian Aid and NSPCC. We used to get complaints. Some were about the street fundraisers allegedly drinking from beer cans, which were pretty straightforward to address. Others were more subjective affairs. It helped me to realise that:

– Some people will feel bad when they are presented with a need in the world and asked to donate.
– Some people will feel bad when they are presented with a wonderful solution and asked to donate.

I believe these people feel bad because they believe they are being judged as a person. They could donate but they chose not to, and so they are left wondering whether the fundraiser thinks they are a bad person. In extremes, they realise that actually they rarely donate. They always sneer at The Big Issue seller. And they let other parents handle the after school clubs. It’s these people who get pretty riled by their lunch break being interrupted by some “pushy backpacker”.

It’s fair enough really. Turning down another American Express credit card doesn’t really change how we see ourselves. Turning down a social invite from a friend in need can cause our impression of ourselves to drop. Turning down a stranger asking us to help find a cure for cancer…. well that apparently may take us a little closer to being brutal concentration camp Commandants, and frankly few of us like that self-image do we?

It is good to acknowledge all these tangled emotions and perceptions. After all it is because of them, not despite them, that people donate.

Treating Volunteers like poo makes you an arse

Volunteers. Love them or hate them?

Love them of course.

If you let them spend time in or on behalf of your organisation – then you have to love them. If you didn’t really want to use them but you did – tough. You still have to love them.

How do you do this.? Well I have been doing lots of thinking about this and reckon I have an awesome idea. It is called a Volunteer Relationship Management approach. It must be good because it has an acronym already – VRM.

Apparently you can already take courses in it.

Courses… really?

VRM for me is doing a review of my SRM (Supporter Relationship Management) approach and adapting it for Volunteers.

Meet them – make sure you get their details and assign tasks based on what they’re good at and their availability

Understand them – make sure you know why they’re interested in your organisation, and create the relevant feedback communication (guess what – it will probably be similar to the stroy you used in your latest SRM communication).

Value them – Make sure that the tasks are meaningful, appropriate, and that you explain the worth of their efforts to the organiation’s success…. and the beneficiaries. And say thank you. And personalise that thank you.

Remember them – send them an update reminding them what their efforst achieved. And stay in touch with opportunities of how they can help again.

Check out this report on volunteering to get some more evidence of why you should treat your volunteers nicely. More than one third (36%) of volunteers reported they had not had any recognition for their good work in the last month of their volunteering

I’m Mr Brightside

For the last eight years I have gotten used to people referring to the ‘dark side’.

Sometimes they mean ‘working for a corporate’. Often they mean ‘working for a supplier to the charity sector’.

Well… after twelve years or so of working for marketing agencies… eight in agencies that only worked with charities… I have joined a charity.

I am now working for the Inspire Foundation. I am the Director of Fundraising and Communications.

I hope you check out our website.

And I hope you try really hard to find the donate button.

But I doubt you will try hard enough… so of course feel free to leave me your details here and I’ll let you know when I’ve had it moved.

And please wish me luck or even ask me questions about what making the switch is like.

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

Good ideas aren’t always unique

Above is a picture of a stencil I created in December 2007. It was uploaded onto flickr around February 2008.
Below is picture of campaign developed for Road Safety in NSW, in May 2008.

Whereas I was angling for an imitation iPod ad, they have cleverly focused on replicating the chalk outlines of dead bodies using the headphone cable. I may get around to trying this out on a street pavement one of these days, as I am sure that the right placement will make the stencil image work strongly too. But really have to take my hat off to this simple, visually strong campaign.

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.

opinionaid’s art project phase 1

Tonight is the opening night of the exhibition “Here Come Trouble” part of the Second Annual Sydney Street Art Festival – ST2K

To create the strategic fusion of fundraising and art that opinionaid believes can exist… I first need to find out if my own art cuts the mustard.

Tonight is my first foray into publicly displaying art since college… so here’s goes nothing, “Here Comes Trouble”.

Wish me luck!