Barefoot Insiders

A Step Back: BHAG

Several decades ago, James Collins and Jerry Porras coined BHAG: Big Hairy Audacious Goals. The term caught on; especially with visionaries. Perhaps daring to say “big and hairy” in a book written for corporates or matching audacious with young upstarts marked its success, but what if we stop, just for a second and think about it...

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I wish someone would have told me...

Fundraising is not a talent or intuition or a personality type.

Fundraising is a science with just a bit of art thrown in.

I’ve been thinking a lot about creativity. In my role as an in-house “creative director,” I lamented the complete lack of creativity from my agency. When they presented three of my team’s creativity ideas as their “new” package of direct mail, frankly that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

So Barefoot Creative became a reality.

BUT… creativity is not all about pictures, lines and fonts. Creativity is taking a challenge and looking at it from all sides and solving it. Creativity is about segments, testing, curiosity, best practises. It’s about divergent thinking – going against the crowd.

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Unraveling the myth of the donor journey

I read a blog today that caught my attention. The author, Liz Waldy (a seasoned UK fundraiser) suggested that donor journey plans need to be put to death.

Considering all the writing, seminars, webinars and talk about the ideal donor journey, the opinion piece caught my eye.

Overall, she says: supporters are human, do unexpected things and a pat plan does not work, so toss it. OK, I am being slightly reductive here.

But her main point is...

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Social Listening

This past year, Avon took on a new challenge: create the perfect mascara.

Not the perfect mascara from the mindset of designers, mascara gurus or make-up scientists. They went to real people. They did this by spending hours tracking social comments from mascara users: men, women, teens. I did a little “social listening” about mascra this morning. In just 10 minutes I discovered...

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Micro-donations

Micro-donations are loosely defined as small donations…. UNICEF’s Hallowe’en program (no longer running in the same way) is a great example. It raised over $188 million in the US… by simply asking people to toss in a bit of loose change into kid’s Hallowe’en bucket.

Check-out donations fall into that category. Canadian grocery chain Loblaws “facilitated” the donation of $22.4 million in 2010. That’s pretty awesome for micro-donations. Tim Hortons Camp Day generates just over $13 million. Again – there is a lot of power in a lot of people giving a little.

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Prime Days (con'td) - Slacktivism

Basically, slacktivism is supporting social causes through online or social mediums that require little or no effort. Like signing a petition or “liking” a charity post online. Studies show if donors or potential donors like a post, they are less likely to donate.

You see, the quick online survey or mindless “like” affirms their commitment to social good. It gives them a shot of Oxytocin. Known as the “cuddle” hormone, it creates a moment of personal joy and general feeling of well-being.

AmazonSmile is one of the best examples of slacktivism.

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