26 March 2008
Today saw a number of fruitful sessions in which we explored and developed the fundraising lessons learned on Day One. After a moving devotion speech in which Peter Gape related the story of why he is with Habitat, the participants split into smaller workshop groups. Here is a brief summary of two such sessions.
Corporate Donors by Joseph Scaria
In the current climate, which rewards good corporate citizens, it is an integral part of the corporate culture to give. Big businesses have developed very advanced donation or sponsorship policies so we must be “ridiculously shameless” in our asking!
It is also a sign of the times that a great number of consumers have said they would switch brands to that of a producer who supports good causes, and many employees also feel stronger loyalty to employers who are socially conscious. Exploit that.
Understanding your corporate targets has to be on the level of mindreading. For that you must research, know their business and goals. Pitch to them that we have the same mission. Challenge the corporation to match the contribution of other donors. (Competition is healthy.)
New Media Fundraising by Usha Menon & Joeri Gianotten
Usha started this workshop rolling with a discussion of fundraising through a website and by email. Email can and also should be sued to keep in touch with existing donors and thank them for their past and future support.
Joeri then took over to explain how social networking sites can be exploited to catch the attention of the youth. We were all surprised by the Youtube videos he found, made by Global Village volunteers and other people not from Habitat. Joeri also introduced his company, www.ammado.com, a kind of Facebook for Non Profit Organisations. A number of us resolved to set up profiles on this well-organised site.
The group then split into smaller cells to discuss how these New Media concepts can be put into practice. Between Esther (Vietnam), Payal (India) and me (Malaysia), we came up with a killer idea for a Habitat Carnival website. An Asia Pacific sub-committee is being set up for this and we shall keep you updated on this blog.
The funniest and truest line of these two days, for me, came from Donald Taylor: “If you need something done, ask someone who’s busy to do it.”
And, on that note, I had to dash off to catch a flight back to Kuching, missing the last (half) day of the workshop because of a Court date. It was unusual to be the only volunteer in the whole group (i.e. the only one with a day job to get back to), but the entire experience was fantastic and enlightening. Stay tuned to this blog to see how some of these may be put into practice!
And now I need to sleep.