Tag: marketing

Is “fundraising” a dirty word?

~ Sasha ~ 22 Comments

Continuing yesterday’s thread, I think we might need a new job title.  “Fundraising” is stigmatized – it sounds transaction-y and narrow and kind of like something you don’t want to do.  (If there’s a job out there that no one can fill, then I probably don’t want it, right?)  “Development” is not so great either – too euphemistic.

One approach is to borrow known words from the for-profit sector.  Personally I have no problem with “sales” because I’ve gotten to know lots of incredible salespeople, and I’m not hung up on the “have-I-got-a-deal-for-you” used car salesman baggage (it is so outdated that it’s lost its power).  “Business Development” seems equally OK, since it implies a level of partnership and co-creation that actually captures a lot of what this work really is about.

Everything else seems a little too clever by half, things like:

  • Head of Resource Mobilization
  • Chief Rainmaker
  • Director of Strategic Alliances
  • Capital Raiser Extraordinaire
  • Head Storyteller
  • Philanthropic Adviser (taken)
  • Etc.

If you ask the best fundraisers (and salespeople) what they do they will say things like: “build partnerships,” “steward relationships,” “mobilize resources,” “make connections,” “build networks and tribes,” “tell stories,” and “translate across lines of difference.”  Of course you “raise funds,” but the word has no moxie and I’m skeptical that we’ll succeed in resuscitating it anytime soon.

Maybe this isn’t all that important, but if we know that there’s a need for a new model of “fundraiser,” one with a broader remit, a deeper connection to the mission of the organization, and a defined role of bringing the voice of top stakeholders into strategic decision-making…  well we’ve got a branding problem on our hands.

Any ideas?

Not flier-worthy

~ Sasha ~ Leave a comment

I was walking down the street today and passed a guy handing out fliers.  He handed them to the guy in front of me, looked me up and down (blazer, slacks and all) and didn’t give me a flier.

Good for him.

The flier probably doesn’t cost more than two cents.  So he’s not saving money.  But he’s decided who his customer is – who he wants to attend the opening or who he wants to buy whatever he’s selling – and he’s decided it isn’t me.

I don’t know if his criteria are right, but at least he knows that some people are in and some are out.

Are you making these kinds of choices, or do you just hand the flier to everyone out of desperation?

add to del.icio.us : Add to Blinkslist : add to furl : Digg it : add to ma.gnolia : Stumble It! : add to simpy : seed the vine : : : TailRank : post to facebook

Too much nonprofit marketing?

~ Sasha ~ 4 Comments

Zeenat Potia, who now works at and blogs for Oxfam America, started her career in book publishing.  In her first year in the book business, Zeenat would often be asked at parties whether she was an editor, and she’d say no, that she was in marketing.  But:

“I did not like casting myself as a marketer because their inevitable response would be a smug, quasi-judgmental “ah.”

The premise: the editors do the high-status, high-value work (finding manuscripts, editing them, working with the authors); the marketers are just peddlers.  And look where the book business is today.  What’s the right balance between editorial and sales & marketing?  I don’t know, but I’d guess that it’s in the ballpark of 50/50, not the 90/10 or 80/20 that I’d guess it is in the book business (at least from a status perspective, maybe from a time and effort and honing of craft perspective too).  The goal is to find great books and get them into the hands of readers, isn’t it?

Zeenat makes the right analogy to the nonprofit world: just swap out “editors / marketers” with “program staff / development staff” and you get the exact same equation.  “Program” is where the people who do the “real” work go, the ones with the PhDs who really know what’s going on and what works.  The development staff just run off and package the “real work.”  Ancillary and low status.

This is what gives space for Zeenat’s question.  Marketing is “just selling,” right?  So you should do just enough to be able to do the real work.  It’s possible to do too much marketing, right?

Probably, but I bet that there’s not a single iPhone owner (or craver) out of the 22 million owners in the United States who discusses whether Apple is wasting its money on “all that marketing.”   Same goes for Amazon.  And Virgin.  And probably even Wal-Mart. Same even went for GE in the heyday years of Jack Welch (the story was just different).

When done right, marketing helps us discover solutions to our problems, influences how people see the world, and helps them make decisions.  When done wrong, it’s peddling something someone doesn’t quite need and quickly regrets buying.

Let us not, as a sector, fall into the trap of listening to critics who say that we should minimize the dollars, effort, brain power, and ingenuity that goes into everything but the “real” work (programs).  In so doing, we risk forgetting that our role is BOTH to find solutions to the persistent problems of inequality and injustice and malnutrition and infant mortality and safe drinking water and AIDS and malaria…AND to figure out how to explain to the world that these problems matter, that we have the tools to solve them, and that if was have the tools to solve them, then we must all act.

It’s not easy.  But that’s marketing.

add to del.icio.us : Add to Blinkslist : add to furl : Digg it : add to ma.gnolia : Stumble It! : add to simpy : seed the vine : : : TailRank : post to facebook

You are at the top of my list

~ Sasha ~ 2 Comments

If you’re trying to get someone’s attention for the first time, it’s hard to stand out.  People are flooded with information, emails, RSS feeds, tweets…how do you make yourself heard or seen?

Why not try being unbelievably responsive?  If you meet someone for the first time and four days later send an email to say thanks and follow up, the timing of your note communicates, “The time I spent with you really wasn’t that important.  Those things we said we’d do?  Probably not going to happen.”

Even worse?  Waiting four days and sending a lackluster note.

Everyone is in constant triage mode.  But everyone, up to our BlackBerry-touting President of the United States, responds to some people right away and some people later on (or never).  So you have a chance each and every time to stand out from the crowd by being fast.  This says, “you are on the top of my list.”

This doesn’t apply to every email you receive – then you’re a slave to your Inbox.  But for the people who are most important to you (you’d know who they are, don’t you?), you’d better be writing back in 24 hours or less (immediately is good too).

Last Sunday I spoke on two panels at the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference.  I gave out almost an inch of business cards after my panels.  I promise you I will think very differently about how to respond to the people I heard from a day or two after the conference and the person who, two months from now, is going to write to say, “we met back in March and…”

add to del.icio.us : Add to Blinkslist : add to furl : Digg it : add to ma.gnolia : Stumble It! : add to simpy : seed the vine : : : TailRank : post to facebook

What are your customers (donors) really buying?

~ Sasha ~ 5 Comments

What are your customers buying?  Seems obvious.  People pay for the product.  Or maybe they pay for the story and the product, or just the story.

All true, but can you be more specific?

I find myself on the Amtrak to Boston and keep asking myself why I chose this antiquated, a little bit slow, a little bit overpriced form of transportation.

On a Saturday I could reliably drive from my house to Boston more quickly (by about an hour) and more inexpensively.  What I’m really paying for is the right to make a trade: I’m trading a car ride (three-and-a-half hours of driving alone, eyes on the road, fighting sleep) for 4+ hours of sitting comfortably, catching up on reading or work or just relaxing.  And I’m willing to pay the cost of the train ride to make that trade.

If I’m like most customers (I may not be), then Amtrak, within reason, isn’t selling me the ride to Boston.  That part of the product is clearly worse (slower, more expensive) than my other options.  I’m buying the time, the relaxation.  So Amtrak should be promoting the heck out of the fact that they have power outlets on this train (so I can plug in my laptop), and they should figure out how to get the Internet delivered too.  Because Bolt Bus has both of those, and even if it takes a little longer than the train (when there’s traffic), it costs a lot less, has more frequent service, and it’s delivering what people are actually interested in buying.  (I would have taken it but it was sold out for my return trip…go figure).

Drill a little deeper on what you’re selling and you’ll learn what people are really buying.  This in turn will tell you where to invest and where not to bother.

add to del.icio.us : Add to Blinkslist : add to furl : Digg it : add to ma.gnolia : Stumble It! : add to simpy : seed the vine : : : TailRank : post to facebook

I’m hiring

~ Sasha ~ 34 Comments

I’m looking for someone great to join my team at Acumen Fund.   I’m looking for a great marketer — a storyteller, a tribe-builder, someone who knows how to connect with people in a real and genuine way and help them to be part of something big…and who at the same time is ready to roll up their sleeves with data and numbers and analytics and web 2.0 tools.

We’re living through an amazing, challenging time.  We have a financial meltdown on one hand, and a new U.S. President brought to power on a wave of change from below on the other.  This is a tremendous opportunity.  The time is ripe to create a step change in terms of awareness, excitement, and membership in Acumen Fund’s community of supporters and advocates – from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands…and someday millions of people who believe that markets and entrepreneurship have a central role to play in the global fight on poverty.

I need someone to help us make this happen. You might be a great blogger or an old-school marketer with lots of new tricks up your sleeves.  But either way you bring off-the-charts passion, energy, commitment, and humility to this roll.

You can read the full job description on this Squidoo lens. The boiled-down version is: you’re probably either a super-duper marketer who knows how to use online tools, or you’re world-class with online tools and also have got some great marketing ideas. If you’re neither of these things, this job probably isn’t for you.

Please spread the word to people who might be interested.  I’m excited to see who will apply for this role.


One time, at Brand Camp

~ Sasha ~ Leave a comment

This may seem far afield to some, but I really believe we need to think broadly about “marketing” and, really, about storytelling.

A classmate of mine from business school, Tom Fishburne, just came out with a fun cartoon book called “This One Time at Brand Camp.”  Think of it as Dilbert for marketers.  Also, for anyone who has never worked in Corporate America, it’s a great inside view of how decisions really get made, which I think is insightful for understanding the inner workings of large corporations .

Lately I’ve particularly enjoyed Tom’s cartoons about eco and sustainability as they really capture the cynical, greenwashing mentality that’s become increasingly common for what seems like every product under the sun.

Enjoy.