Learning from the South
August 7th, 2005 at 08:53am
Under Learning from the South+ fundraising
Just got confirmation that I’ll be participating in a Greenpeace regional fundraising skillshare in Brazil next week (Aug 14-19). I’ll be leading a couple of discussions on new trends in online fundraising and online engagement, and as well, I hope to convene an overview/discussion of new online engagment tools such as blogs, wikis, RSS, tagging, flickr, de.licio.us, etc. that may already be famliar to some people reading this blog, but which are just starting to emerge into the everyday practices of mainstream nonprofits.
I’m expecting there will be some interesting stuff to report back. Greenpeace’s recent No Whaling Virtual March (http://whales.greenpeace.org) was developed by Marcelo Inniara, the online engagement guru from Greenpeace Argentina. More than 60,000 people uploaded photos of themselves holding Stop Whaling signs and messages to be projected onto a billboard in Seoul, South Korea where the International Whaling Commission was debating a return to commericalized whaling. It’s a great example of the “show the network” school of online mobilizing, and I love just browsing through the photos that have been submitted. It really communicates the sense that 60,000+ signups is more than just a number — it’s a vast crowd of real, individual people.
Another interesting thing about the No Whale campaign is that a large percentage of the signups to the campaign — with uploaded photos and all — have come from non-western/developed countries. In fact, signups from some of the larger southern countries such as India (4300), Brazil (4500) easily surpassed more traditional online activist countries such as the United States (1400), Italy (1100), and France (2200). As well, a handful of signups came from very non-traditional activist countries such as China (93), Indonesia (65), and even Albania (4) and Iraq (2). Greenpeace is actively ‘globalizing’ and has opened offices in India, Thailand, Turkey and Lebanon in the past few years, so these signup point-of-origin numbers could be an indicator of success.
I look forward to hearing what this means for Greenpeace’s regional and global fundraising.
By irishg
March 18th, 2005 at 05:22am
Under Learning from the South+ fundraising
The New York Times reports that a number of Tsunami aid groups have stopped accepting money targetted for Tsunami relief. View full article here (free registration required).
Sensitized by recent charity scandals, agencies say they’re being careful not to accept more money than they can legitimately spend to help tsunami victims.
In fact, Doctors without Borders has reportly returned $500,000 dollars that they received for Tsunami relief, but which cannot be applied to their Tsunami-relief programs. (This follows an earlier announcement, reported on this blog, that Doctors without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres was contacting some Tsunami donors to ask permission to unrestrict their donations, allowing them to be used for projects other than Tsunami relief).
These announcements come at the same time that the Asian Development Bank said there was a shortfall of more than $4bn (£2.1bn) promised by foreign governments for post-Tsunami reconstruction.
The complex nature of disaster relief and reconstruction can cause concern in donors who are aware of the real, tnaigble needs of the Tsunami victims, and who can’t understand why the aid is so difficult to deliver. I recently watched a news report on CBC Television about how aid organizations in Banda Aceh, Indonesia are competing in turf wars for the opportunity to provide aid to local projects. It’s a serious problem if the story of the Tsunami relief starts to turn into one of competitiveness and egoism between relief agences rather than focusing on the great amount of good work being done each day.
By irishg
March 6th, 2005 at 08:29pm
Under Learning from the South+ What's working
Colleague Jodi Tonita at One/Northwest reminded me about the Global Rich List site, which takes the ‘guilty conscience’ approach to motivate donations to a whole new level. The site invites visitors to type in their annual incomes and discover where they place in terms of global wealth. The result for most first-world web surfers is well within in the top 10% of the scale, and the site then invites the visitor to make a donation, now that they realize they are so wealthy…
The Global Rich List site was built by UK web developers Poke, who describe their thinking as follows:
We are obsessed with wealth. But we gauge how rich we are by looking upwards at those who have more than us. This makes us feel poor.
We wanted to do something which would help people understand, in real terms, where they stand globally. And make us realise that in fact most of us (who are able to view this web page) are in the privileged minority.
We want people to feel rich. And give some of their ‘extra’ money to a worthwhile charity.
It’s an innovative approach, and well executed, but I’m not sure that guilt is the best motivator for giving. Donor relationships develop best when they are based on a more positive motivation –that the donor is part of making something good happen, rather than jst assauging a feeling of guilt.
Still, more than six-thousand pounds have been donated via the Global Rich List site, so it seems to be touching a chord with some visitors..
At any rate, here’s my own personal confession:
By irishg
March 1st, 2005 at 12:15am
Under Learning from the South+ What's working+ fundraising
The BBC website reports that in an effort to provide income for local Thais who lost their livelihoods in the Asian Tsunami, a volunteer group has started selling local handicrafts, such as baskets, on eBay.
The baskets are selling for several times more than they might if they were sold by more traditional methods - by hawkers on the beach, for instance.
“These are simple products but there are over 100 million buyers on eBay who want to help in some way,” Robert Holme, one of the American volunteers helping to run the project, said.
Read the full story here.
By irishg
February 22nd, 2005 at 01:20pm
Under Learning from the South+ fundraising
In the aftermath of the Tsunami, after the media has left Asia, and the reconstruction has begun, what next? When such a monumentous level of community and global consciousness has been obtained how can international charities keep that donor spirit alive and engaged? While our focus has been to think of these new found supporters as donors, I suggest stewarding them for a parallel purpose, as potential volunteers.
Take for instance an example from Japan. A deadly earthquake shattered Kobe, Japan about ten years ago. Leaving in the dust and debris a society that was left having to cope with delays in relief operations. The citizens themselves distraught, but still, were willing to take action.
According to an article by Takehiko Kambayash, on the World Volunteer Web site:
Spurred by delays in official relief operations following the Jan. 17, 1995, earthquake, Japanese citizens flocked to help out. Over the next year, about 1.38 million people gave their time to getting the city get back on its feet - an unprecedented outpouring for a country where, unlike the US, there is no tradition of volunteerism.
Volunteer and citizens’ groups also began to spring up throughout Japan. Now, experts say, volunteerism has woven itself into more people’s lives.
“The changes that volunteerism has brought to our society is enormous,” says Takeshi Jitsuyoshi, who helped in Kobe after the disaster. The wave of volunteerism, he adds, “has slowly given rise to a quiet revolution in the country.”
If a society with no concept of volunteering was able to flourish with the volunteering spirit from the rubble of a disaster, thinking on those lines, it should be possible to engage volunteers after the Tsunami disaster. Whether this could be initiated directly in the countries affected, or even outside of that area, where people have stretched their dollars to help out, perhaps they will be willing to stretch out their hand to help as well? Keeping your supporters active will ultimately help to build your donor base.
When approaching your new donors to renew their gifts it is important to also offer them the opportunity to volunteer.
By Jennifer Doyle
