“Crowdfunding websites that let you contribute to specific projects are nothing new, but anewwarrior.greenpeace.org launched by Greenpeace to generate funds for their new Rainbow Warrior has lifted the bar to a new level in terms of on-site experience.”

And he is spot on. This site is brilliant. You can browse through the interactive 3D model and find thousands of items of equipment or fittings that you can pay for (i.e., sponsor) for due recognition — from a GPS system (at 4000 euros) to portholes, blankets, and curtain rods. Talk about creating a sense of ‘hands-on’ participation!

Being a fan of fundraising videos, of course I didn’t skip the intro video, which is powerful, ending with: “The Earth needs a new Warrior. It needs You.”

Take a look.

Tom

I’ve already posted on this one from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

My second pick was produced by Planned Parenthood, cleverly set to the Motown classic … Reach Out. You just want to help these appealing people help other people. [Might not be viewable in all countries ... probably a copyright issue.]

[Parenthetically, I note that Planned Parenthood, along with Habitat for Humanity and Feeding America, were picked from over 4,000 nominees by members of MoveOn, the online activist powerhouse, as their favorite three nonprofits deserving of year-end contributions. Itself an admirable year-end fundraising gesture by MoveOn.]

But my top pick was produced by the American Red Cross. Who said a venerable institution can’t be cheeky?! Here’s a write-up on the campaign from ClickZ (warning, some potentially offensive language included).

And how about an ‘Honorable Mention’ for the Salvation Army’s Online Red Kettle campaign, as reported by the LA Times. What a logical, natural complement to all those dedicated 25,000 on-the-street human bell ringers.

As for my least favorite … well really, it’s an overworked, over-saturated genre. I’m sure you’ll recognize it. Most likely, you’ve used it. The appeals come in a sequence like this …

• Just 30 days for your year-end gift to be matched $ for $
• Only three weeks left for your year-end gift to be matched $ for $
• Reminder … only two weeks left for your year-end gift to be matched $ for $
• Time’s running out … only ten days for your year-end gift to be matched $ for $
• This is the last week for your year-end gift to be matched $ for $
• Then, virtually a day-by-day countdown … 6 days, 5 days, 4 days etc.
• Finally, in one series I received, the coup de grace … only 10 hours for your year-end gift to be matched $ for $.

Remind me … what was that cause I’m so passionate about that I need ten reminders and a bribe?!

Now, I’m well aware that matching gift appeals, when judiciously employed (and verifiably genuine), perform strongly. But some of this online barrage borders on the ridiculous. For the last handful of gifts, how many donors are totally ticked off, or even unsubscribe?

Just watch online fundraisers kill this tactic.

Only thirty seconds left …

Tom

P.S. In case you missed out … our matching donor has decided to extend their offer till January 31st!

A few days ago I asked for advice on how to make a nonprofit sexy (since this is advice experts give us on marketing to Boomers). Maybe this isn’t a bad example from the American Jewish World Service!

Tom

Philippe Beaudette, the Wikimedia Foundation staff member overseeing the campaign says:

“Group collaboration is the future of fund raising. Organizations are going to have to work harder for donor dollars, and the ones that will be successful will be the ones that do not involve professional fund raisers. Professional fund raisers are sometimes limited by history and afraid to think outside the box. It is going to take new creative ideas, and the best way to get that is to have a huge number of people thinking.”

Whoa! Take that, professional fundraisers!

Is this a brilliant paradigm shift … or the most frightening example of creating by committee that you’ve ever heard? Roger and I are eager to hear the views of the professional fundraising community on this one!

BTW, the Chron reports that so far this year’s Wikipedia campaign is outpacing last year’s.

Tom

P.S. Before our US readers check out for Thanksgiving, don’t forget to register for our webinar next week on mobile fundraising. The first Agitator Mobile Webinar will be held on Thursday December 2^nd at 2pm eastern. Registration is free to Agitator readers.

I just read his latest e-article, Think Old, Not New. He was distressed (that’s an understatement) that one of his purchasers asked for a refund … on the grounds that the book told him nothing about how to write for the internet.

What does Denny really think?!

“That ignorance-is-bliss philosophy resulted in $3 trillion disappearing down the sewer in the dot-com bust, and legions of those smug, self-important kiddies wound up moving in with their parents and going back to school.”

Denny’s article makes the case for certain “eternal verities” of copywriting and direct marketing.

What do you think?

Is Denny’s disgruntled reader right … writing for the internet is intrinsically different. And is Denny just a behind-the-times grumpy old man?

Or is Denny on the money?

Tom

Read this story — Why I owe my career to a sea turtle — just published on SOFII about the “career-making” direct mail appeal Richard Armstrong conceived and wrote for the Center for Environmental Education decades ago.

Says the article:

“What made the sea turtle package work so well? Richard believes it received so much attention because it embraced a technique we don’t use as often as we should in direct mail copy-writing – drama. ‘ Reading the letter is as effortless as watching the television; like watching a mini soap opera playing out before you. Combining this with the fact this was a clear-cut problem with a very simple solution, explains why the donors naturally responded with such enthusiasm’.”

Drama! Do your direct mail appeals — or any of your fundraising appeals — have it?

Roger and I have employed the copywriting talents of Richard in the past. I first became aware of him in the early 80s via a project I was doing — the People’s Medical Society — with Bob Rodale at Rodale Press.

I discovered he was the real deal, even though some of his clients were a bit conservative for my taste. But anyone whose client list stretches from Greenpeace and Gay Men’s Health Crisis through mainstream Smithsonian Magazine and Newsweek to The Limbaugh Letter and National Review clearly has some talent going for him!

Check out Richard’s free e-sample book — My First 40 Years in Direct Mail — for some inspiration.

Tom

The nominees are (read the Mashable blurbs here):

• The Brooklyn Museum
• Sesame Street Workshop
• WildlifeDirect
• Kids Are Heroes
• Darius Goes West

Do you have a nominee that tops these?

Of course, it’s all well and good to have social net applications and tactics that look cool, but are they worth it?

Here, Jamie Turner at BKV Digital and Direct Response suggests an approach to measuring return on investment for social media efforts.

Effectively, what Jamie is saying is that it’s all relative. If you know that spending $1,000 on, say, direct mail typically yields your organization #Y donors whose lifetime value is $Z, you have at least a benchmark ROI to shoot for. So if you spend the same $1,000 on social media, do the leads you generate convert to donors who stack up favorably against that benchmark?

That’s a hardball direct response metric. And I know many social media enthusiasts will balk at that approach, saying social media is about “building relationships” which then somehow, someday yield monetary benefit down the line. That’s OK … to a point. But if your job is fundraising, at some point there needs to be a day of reckoning!

By comparison, how many direct mail letters would you send me, with no response, before you concluded I (or the list I was on) wasn’t worth the investment (not many, too expensive)? How many email appeals (probably more, much cheaper than mail)? How long would you keep adding non-performers like me to your organization’s “Friend” list (probably forever, if you never get around to calculating and allocating the costs of devising your social net presence, maintaining it, and accurately tracking actual conversions to giving).

With social media, it’s tempting to “re-define” and soften the objectives of your spending!

But in fundraising, there are friends in name, and there are friends in deed!

Tom

Then we received the following comments from fundraiser and blogger Chuck English (Fundraising Marketing That Works). After acknowledging some good stuff about Nancy’s competition, Chuck says:

“I think the contest raises some troubling questions.

“The video proclaims the tagline to be a “vital marketing tool” and that a “smart tagline is a powerful tool for connecting with your base.” Not only am I not buying it, I think it sends the wrong message to nonprofits. The vital marketing tool is the strategic plan from which a tagline emanates. A well-crafted and implemented plan with a lousy tagline will have better results than the converse any day. Amongst the tools that a nonprofit can use to connect with its base, a tagline is probably one of the least effective.

“The awards are distributed without knowing anything about how well they represent the mission, goals or stakeholders of an organization. The winner in the Fundraising category – Oregon Zoo’s “Bring Back the Roar” is smart but is it anything more than that? How did it fit into a broader plan? How did it relate to the target market? How did it contribute to results? On top of that a visit to the Zoo’s website shows no vestige of the tagline. So, while it may have been an award winner it clearly wasn’t a keeper (no pun intended).

“The video also declares that a tagline will allow you to “build your brand in 8 words or less.” Brands are not built on 8 word taglines. They are built on thoughtfully considering and developing the relationship that your stakeholders have with your organization. There are many successful brands that – believe it or not – have no tagline …

“Too many organizations already want to skip the strategic steps that will lead to effective marketing. They just want the good-looking logo, the pithy headline and maybe now the award-winning tagline. Ultimately, I worry that the Taggies celebrate the end while ignoring the means.”

My reaction?

I can’t really disagree with Chuck’s concerns. And as a savvy marketer, I suspect Nancy will not either.

That said, I like what she does with her tagline contest because I do see a well-conceived tagline (on the strategic basis Chuck recommends) as a very important ‘introduction’ to the nonprofit … an intro that if flubbed, many would-be friends will never get beyond.

So what I ask of a tagline is that it be: 1) suggestive/inviting (but not so obscure or ‘clever’ that it provides no clue!), and 2) true to the brand … which of course the consumer/donor can only validate (or not) as a step 2 in the “get to know you” process).

Further, as someone who has participated in numerous nonprofit branding exercises, I’d note that going through the process — in a disciplined manner — of trying to reduce your organization’s raison d’etre to a handful of words, that also differentiate, can an excellent way to force strategic marketing issues to the surface that might otherwise be taken for granted or left unexamined.

I realize that Chuck would like — more rationally — to start explicitly with strategy, but sometimes a back door in is useful!

Tom

Here are the winners, but check here for Nancy’s assessment of why these are great taglines, as well as an engaging video on the subject:

Oregon Zoo Foundation
Bring Back the Roar!

Massachusetts Dental Society
Your Mouth Can Say A Lot About You

Youth Service America
Serve a Semester. Change the World.

Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research: Kids Can Cure Fun Run, LA Cancer Challenge
Little Feet. Big Strides.

Coffee House Press
Where good books are brewing

Indiana State Council of the Emergency Nurses Association
E.R. You Watch It… We Live It!

Drums Not Guns
Instruments of Mass Percussion

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Clemson University
Because Curiosity Knows No Age Limit

Volunteer Blind Industries
Our Vision Does Not Require Sight

Save the Strays Animal Rescue
Finding good homes for great dogs

Religions for Peace
Different Faiths, Common Action.

Greater Menomonie Area Community Foundation
Connecting People Who Care…With Causes That Matter

United Hospice of Rockland, Inc.
When time matters most.

Canine Companions for Independence
Help is a four-legged word

Episcopal Relief & Development
Healing a hurting world

Edmonton Public Library
Spread the words.

Charity Navigator
Your Guide To Intelligent Giving

Well done winners! And Nancy too.

Roger & Tom

But here is one of the most concise and useful treatments I’ve seen regarding the blockages that can impede the creativity, at whatever level, of any of us … and how to avoid them.

The article, 8 Bad Habits That Crush Your Creativity And Stifle Your Success, appeared on Copyblogger. But while the blog aims at content creators, these bad habits will narrow your horizon whatever problem you’re trying to fix or challenge you’re trying to meet.

The bad habits …

1. Creating and evaluating at the same time
2. The Expert Syndrome
3. Fear of failure
4. Fear of ambiguity
5. Lack of confidence
6. Discouragement from other people
7. Being overwhelmed by information
8. Being trapped by false limits

No black magic here. All of us have encountered these constraints. Or imposed them on ourselves!

Which of these are you most susceptible to? For me it’s #1 … “premature evaluation”!

Tom

P.S. Thanks to Jeff Brooks at Future Fundraising Now for the pointer.