Thank You For Stealing

July 1, 2008

 

The maxim very successful fundraisers live by was set forth by George Bernard Shaw 80 years ago: "The mediocre borrow, genius steals."

In short, when you see a winning concept, campaign, technique, whatever, just steal it. Adapt it. Run with it.
Which brings me to today’s plea: All of us need to be sending more samples of good and great campaign or one-off efforts to SOFII the marvelous fundraising attic (aka: swipe file) where you can find all kinds of useful, informative and stealable stuff.
SOFFI just posted its June additions yesterday. For example:
§ActionAid’s controversial Bollocks to Poverty campaign.
§ Inspirational direct mail from a seven-year-old schoolgirl.
§ How Giving Scotland turned a crisis into a triumph.
§ A simple but brilliant idea for involving business people in the fight against heart disease.
§ Croatia’s campaign for mobility and independence for blind people.
§ A small organisation’s low-cost solution to recognising donors.
§ Hannah’s make and bake cake and biscuit sale.
§ The launch of a high level monthly giving product designed to upgrade donors in their thousands.
§ How a beautiful flower, the Edelweiss, became an involvement device and a symbol of hope for a hospice in Romania.
§ Make–A-Wish and upgrade your donors.

§ Twenty years before Barack Obama, the tale of an African American’s bid for the White House. Common Cause takes on the excesses of the American legislature. [Hey, this is copy I wrote 20+ years ago, long before "mid-level donor programs" were even a glimmer in whatever consultants’ eyes and it’s still good, he says, in all modesty :) ]

Seriously, so much great thinking, great creative and great innovation occurs every day in our trade, but we need to be far more energetic in sharing it with the rest of our world.

So please, vow to take 15 minutes, find one or two samples and get it up on SOFII’s site.

Thank you for stealing.

Roger

Posted by rcraver | Filed Under Uncategorized, advocacy, cause marketing, charities, communications, copywriting, creativity, direct mail, direct marketing, drtv, email marketing, fun | Leave a Comment 

What Does It Take To Be Remarkable?

June 2, 2008

I just read an article about an individual who died suddenly, mid-way through his life expectancy.

His death was eulogized from The Economist to the Hindustan Times. On the sixth day of every month (he died last September 6), an online community gathers to reflect about him. His significant other received some six thousand messages of condolence via email.

He must have been truly remarkable … how many of us will generate 6000 sympathetic emails when we die?

My passing (or Roger’s) might generate one thousand or so, mostly asking … “Why aren’t we getting our Agitator posts anymore?”

No, few of us will be as remarkable as this fellow.

His name was Alex … he was a parrot! Alex was the most linguistically accomplished parrot of all time.

And therein lies the conundrum. Alex’s “remarkableness” evidenced itself over thirty years of nurturing by his scientist-caretaker, Irene Pepperberg. The question remains, does same same potential lie within all parrots, or was Alex one-of-a-kind?

Can we all be remarkable? Or just a few special ones?

Sorry to bother you with this distraction on a Monday morning. But if I’m distracted, you might as well be too.

Tom

P.S. You can read Alex’s story and its fascinating implications in the May 12 issue of The New Yorker.

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under Don't Miss these Posts, fun | 2 Comments 

How Trustworthy Are You?

May 4, 2008

Nothing much gets done when trust is absent. Certainly no fundraising.

So how trustworthy are you?

Here’s a self-evaluation survey concocted by Charles Green, co-author of The Trusted Advisor, and a blogger on the role of trust in marketing, sales and business in general. If you take the quiz you’ll find your trustworthiness ranked against other respondents, and get some advice from Mr. Green on shoring up the weak links in your "trust equation."

It would be interesting to see a "trust quotient" developed for institutions!

Any perfect 15’s out there?

Tom

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under Don't Miss these Posts, accountability, fun | 2 Comments 

Isn’t Creativity Delightful?

April 22, 2008

Tell me this video , 20Things to Do with Leftover Matzoh, isn’t wonderful!

Every nonprofit needs a way to "officially" recognize creativity … including plain ‘ol thinking outside the box.

Thanks to BL Ochman for pointing me to this.

Tom

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under Pushing the Creative Envelope, creativity, fun, nonprofit management | Leave a Comment 

Is That A Note On Your Chair?

March 17, 2008

When was the last time someone left a handwritten note on your chair?

When was the last time you left such a note for a colleague?

Try it today. See if you think it produces any different experience or outcome.

Maybe email or — horrors — instant messaging (while we’re at it, when was the last time you saw "IM" spelled out?!) is just fine.

Tom

P.S. Maybe just an invite for some green beer today!

P.P.S. I haven’t received a note on my chair from a colleague in over three years. But that’s another story!

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under General Post, fun | Leave a Comment 

Test Your News IQ - 2008

March 14, 2008

Just for Friday fun, take the latest Pew News IQ quiz.

To score high, you’ll need to know about war casualities and stock market performance. But the biggest stumper is a political question.

Average American scored 50%.

Good luck!

Roger & Tom

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under General Post, fun | Leave a Comment 

Beware Of Greeks Bearing Gifts!

December 27, 2007

From our Agitator backlist … Happy Holidays!

Richard Conniff in his “Basic Instincts” blog/column at the New York Times propounds the Rule of the Decent Interval.

It holds that the value of a good deed decreases in direct proportion to how badly you need the resulting good will.

Conniff illustrates his rule with several recent examples, like Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, of “charity” prompted by urgent needs to evade — or at least soften — legal reprisal. Charity as protection money.

It's a marvelous piece, enriched with great Catholic school nostalgia as well as with excellent comments from readers.

The erudite commentator ACW reminds us that, according to Dante, the first terrace of Purgatory — even before the first stairs of atonement for specific sins — is reserved for the deathbed confessors.

Personally, I'm more of a long range planner. In my Catholic school days, the promise from the nuns was that if you attended First Friday Mass for nine consecutive months, you were guaranteed a pass to heaven. Sort of a religious “Get out of jail free” card.

Highly motivated, I made my nine Masses by the fourth grade … opening the door to a worry-free life of sin and debauchery!

However, with all the modernizing in the Catholic Church since my youth, I can't vouch that the offer still stands for you johnny-come-lately's.

You might still need to buy yourself salvation with a hefty dose of philanthropy … it's never too late.

Tom

Posted by admin | Filed Under General Post, fun | Leave a Comment 

Snorting Oxytocin

November 29, 2007

Attention major gift fundraisers!!

Next time you're about to pop the question to a prospect (the fundraising ask, that is), squirt a dose of oxytocin up their nose. You might get two-and-a half times the gift amount that you otherwise would have!

Now exactly how you get the relationship to the point where you can squirt a hormone up their nose is another matter. Hey, by the time you're making a serious ask you should have developed such a relationship! Or you can just spring it on them … if you get your squirt in, they'll feel good about you no matter what.

The basis of this advice?

Research reported in the marvelous blog, Neuromarketing.

It turns out that oxytocin, a naturally occurring compound in the brain, acts as a sort of social cement. And when enhanced doses are introduced in controlled experiments, it produces quite measurable increases in pro-social feelings, such as enhanced trust.

In one experiment, participants play a “trust game” where some are invited to “invest” simulated money with others. Those dosed with oxytocin were over twice as likely to “invest” the maximum amount as those who weren't administered the drug.

Apparently a lot of research is going on around oxytocin, as well as around the ethics of its use.

So get yours now before the FDA clamps down!

Forget donors, I know a lot of fundraisers who would do better if they self-administered some of this stuff.

Tom

Many thanks to Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog for this pointer. (Jeff, I'm a nut about brain research and I hadn't noticed this site!). Jeff makes a serious point here about the deep emotional roots of giving.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Don't Miss these Posts, fun, fundraising, research | Leave a Comment 

Tell Us How To Improve!

October 19, 2007

Earlier this month, The Agitator passed an exciting milestone … we signed up subscriber #1,000. And the pace of sign-ups (we're now at 1,049) and visits to our blog is quickening.

As a group, our subs read almost 11,000 posts in the last thirty days. And, depending on which web analytics program we believe (!), another 2,000 to 6,000 unique visitors browse the site each month.

Since we started The Agitator, over 7,000 of our white papers and other resources have been downloaded by readers.

We're thrilled that The Agitator appears to be providing useful content to nonprofit fundraisers and communicators.

And we're prepared to put even more effort into providing a better and more valuable resource for our readers.

We ask only that you take a few moments to complete this reader survey, in which you can critique The Agitator and indicate the kind of topics and coverage you would find most useful in the future.

Only 12 questions to answer, taking just a few minutes.

We thank you for reading The Agitator. And special thanks to the many of you who have contributed ideas, content and comments.

We look forward to hearing from you.

And as dyed-in-the-wool direct marketers, we must emphasize …

TAKE THIS SURVEY NOW!

And don't forget to answer the question about your raise.

Roger & Tom

P.S. The two of us will be “retreating” the week of November 12. Please get your responses in by then. We'll be sharing the results with you.

Posted by admin | Filed Under You Deserve a Raise, fun, research | Leave a Comment 

Test Your News IQ

September 25, 2007

Have some fun today taking Pew Research Center's annual news IQ.

Warning … the average number of correct responses among all Americans was 7 out of 12. Raise the bar to 8 if you're a college grad. The toughest question — though we're sure Agitator readers will do better! — was answered correctly by fewer than one-in-three Americans.

Roger & Tom

Posted by admin | Filed Under General Post, fun | Leave a Comment 

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