BIG’s Blog: You CAN do this

To those of you who are regular readers of my blog, and even those of you who have attended one of our education Webinars … but … just … can’t … seem … to make the move to shift your Development business model, you can do this!

I know you think that your Development group is modern if you’ve updated your Web site, set up Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, and are even using some services like Tumblr.

But you’re not seeing online growth in donations that even come close to direct mail.

So you wonder . . . can we really do this?

Let me give you something to ponder. Suppose you started a charity from scratch in 2007. By the way, that was right before the great recession! Now, if I told you that a charity actually did start from scratch in 2007, and since that time they have raised $100 million dollars from 400,000 donors worldwide … not just in the U.S., would you believe me?

Oh, and they are only online.

Scott Harrison is the Founder and CEO of charity: water. I recently read an article about how he started charity: water and what he learned in the process.

The article was in Forbes, which is a business publication, so you would think that the interview would focus on marketing tactics of his success. Well, they did talk about some marketing, but what he spent the most time talking about might surprise you. Here's an excerpt of Scott Harrison talking about charity: water’s values…

“Our organizational values are probably not dissimilar to many other companies (Integrity, Respect, Excellence, Innovation, Generosity and Passion), but we created “ISMS” that help bring them alive. For example, there’s an Ism around never pirating software or using music without permission – another about telling the truth to a fault “no white lies” – and others around the importance of designing everything (even keynote presentations given to small groups internally), about embracing new technology, giving generously of our money to our cause and others (eating our own dog food), and even one about working together to create a profanity-free environment that respects all.

We’re passionate, optimistic and hopeful people, and I hope that’s communicated through the images, videos and stories we share with our supporters.”

Isn’t that something your organization can emulate? Maybe you are already there. The online and digital tactical details are a given and, frankly, if you need help with those, you can turn to our company or others. But what’s really important is the environment and generous culture . . . in other words, how the organization’s values are lived out every day.

And you thought it was about tactics!

Join us.

-Mike

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