BROWNE INNOVATION GROUP

Friday, November 15, 2013

BIG’s Blog: Pitbull vs. the Beach Boys, or how “Ft.” is changing the world*

Music can tell you a lot about how your donors of different generational cohorts think and see the world.  For many of our donors, the Beach Boys were the iconic band of their generation.  About how many of those Beach Boys hits were performed with another artist?

Pitbull is a popular entertainer (and philanthropist, he recently helped to open a new charter school in his old neighborhood.) If you have a newer car, one that tells you the title and artist of the song on the radio you will see Pitbull (ft. . . insert popular artist here).  

“Ft.” stands for “featuring,” or, put another way, a major artist appearing on another major artist’s record.  This happens with many of today’s hits.  It is collaboration, the fusion of two great artists that gives greater pleasure to the audience.  How cool would it have been to have the Beach Boys and the Beatles record a studio version of “California Girls / Back in the USSR?”  That is what today’s music leaders are doing.

That’s nice, but what does this have to do with fundraising?  Millennials will expect you to collaborate across organizations, let alone across your internal organization lines.  If you want to reach Millennials, think about whom you are partnering with, and how that makes the donor’s world better

The golden age of fundraising is not in the past, it is in the future, and collaboration will be a big part of it.

Join us.

-Dave

*The author is not endorsing any of the lyrics or themes of the above-mentioned artist.  Listen at your own risk.

SPECIAL GUEST POST BY:
Dave Targonski, CFRE
Director of Development and Stewardship
Office of College Relations
Belmont Abbey College


Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com

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