TribalWorks

On Tuesday I attended the launch event for MWO Philanthropic Advisors.  MWO is founded by Michael O’Mahoney who is the former President of Sick Kids Foundation.  During his tenure at Sick Kids, he successfully doubled the size of its fundraising revenue.  Now through MWO, Micheal aims to help other non-profits maximize its fundraising revenues.

One area of development for MWO is the Fundraising Optimizer:

Questions which the Optimizer will answer include:

• Which fundraising program should our organization invest in to achieve our greatest fundraising results?
• How much should we invest?
• What will be the impact if we divert funds from other fundraising programs?
• What is the best combination of fundraising programs for our organization?

Tourisme Montreal is hiring five ambassadors to promote tourism in Montreal by writing blog posts, posting videos and connecting with people on social media sites.

Together with agency of record Sid Lee, Tourisme Montréal will be hiring five “brand ambassadors” who will blog, post videos online and use social networks to promote the city as a must-see destination.

From March to December 2009, they will be the “Montreal connectors” on topics like food, arts and culture, nightlife, shopping and the gay scene.

Each ambassador will have a dedicated page on Tourisme Montréal’s website to blog and videocast. They will also use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Yahoo Answers and other blogs to connect with possible tourists. They will report on what’s hot in the city each week.

“Our connectors will also have a dedicated cellphone which people can call anytime,” said Emmanuelle Legault, director of communications at Tourisme Montréal. “They will answer people’s questions and, if they can’t pick up, they will always have a message to let people know what’s happening in the city.”

The key thing to remember for any organization looking at going down this route is to be authentic.  This means:

• Get real people with real experiences with the product/service.  In this case, the ambassadors should each have a unique and real perspective of the city. 
• Tell it like it is - Don’t make things sound better than they are.  Most people appreciate honesty above all else.  Like any city, there are places in Montreal where you wouldn’t want tourists to go.
• Don’t try and sell.  This sounds counter to the purpose of the campaign; but in actuality, it will aid in convincing people to visit.  Social media is all about getting recommendations from those who you trust.  People can see right through a hard sell.  The goal of this campaign is to build connections with like-minded travellers and the ambassadors - then engaging in a real conversation.

One point we reiterate with people we meet is that Tribal Strategy is not Web 2.0 Strategy.  However, a strong Web 2.0 Strategy can be a component of Tribal Strategy.  Marketers can us the Tribal Approach with little or no online component.

An example that demonstrates this is the latest campaign by ABC Canada Literacy Foundation.  According to the Marketing Magazine article:

Launched last week, the national multimedia campaign poses a series of child-like questions designed to capture the attention of parents and encourage them to visit FamilyLiteracyDay.ca to discover the answers. All of the ads feature the tag line, “If you read with your kids, you’ll know more.”

Besides print, out-of-home, digital, online and radio spots, the platform also includes a series of thought-provoking ambient ads. For example, a manhole ponders the question “What’s down here?” while a poster mounted on the side of a hot dog stand asks readers “Why are hot dogs called hot dogs?”

The ambient ads, located in parks and on buildings in Toronto and Montreal, kicked off the campaign. The “Who’s this guy?” question is affixed to a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in Toronto, while a small vinyl cling ad reading “How high do birds fly?” was placed on the glass floor in the CN Tower’s observation deck.

These ambient ads placed in or around these locations provide a temporary gathering place for small tribes.  Be it a family or a gathering of school children.  One of the things I like most about these is that it compliments and enhances the experience of these locations rather than interrupts the audience.

I attended the Canadian Marketing Association Not-For-Profit Conference today.  The best speaker by far was Michael Johnston from Hewitt & Johnston Consulting.   Some of his key points which resonated with me  are: (my comments are below each point)

• Online & offline need to be in sync
  • Great point, too often a great campaign doesn’t deliver the results because the path to purchase (or in this case donation) is not clear or gets muddied by inconsistent communication across different media  In his words, ‘Campaigns should Hijack the Homepage’
• Donors want more control of giving
  • This is a trend we are seeing as well.  People don’t want to give to an organization - they want to give where they can see results and to people/causes they have a connection with.
  • The example he gave was Kiva, where a person in North American can give a loan to a single entrepreneur in the Third World.
• Virtual campaigns in isolation do not work as well as virtual combined with terrestrial
  • I think this is a key area where organizations forget that tribes exist both in Real Space and Virtual Space.  It is key to build a Tribal Strategy that looks at both.

In addition to Michael, Tara Wood from WWF Canada spoke about how she planned and executed the Earth Hour campaign in Canada- a campaign that had amazing results given the relatively small budget.  A great case study - one I am sure we’ll discuss another day.

On the whole, I would say this event was definitely worth the time.  It is good to see people starting to think around how donors organize as tribes.  For those who couldn’t make it, please contact us (info@accelteon.com) and I will be happy to discuss it in more detail.

EBay became one of the latest companies to join in on the movement to combine good business sense with social and environmental causes.  Their Worldofgood.com website features products that have social benefits.

EBay developed the site with World of Good Inc., a startup focused on “ethical supply chains” behind consumer products, and licensed the group’s name for the marketplace. World of Good will get a share of the revenue from the site, which had been operating for the past six months as an online community focused on the social impact of business.

The site will sell fixed-price goods that purportedly have some positive effect on people and the planet. The goal is to help consumers align their social values with their shopping decisions, WorldofGood.com general manager Robert Chatwani said.

The benefit of working with World of Good Inc. is that EBay is leveraging the goodwill generated and community following of the organization.  Will there be a big enough market?  The article goes on to state:

Already the market for products that emphasize social and environmental awareness is growing. Mr. Chatwani cited the Natural Marketing Institute’s estimate that the U.S. market for such goods was $209-billion (U.S.) in 2005, and the group projects that will rise to $420-billion in 2010.

And while there are plenty of places to buy such items already, eBay and its 84.5 million active users might dramatically increase awareness for artisans. WorldofGood.com items will also be cross-listed on eBay proper, blended into standard search results.

This has the potential to bring together two large communities (EBayers and the socially aware) which may result in a win-win situation for both.

A recent report done by the Loudoun Times (Loudoun County Virginia) looked at how various non-profits were handling decreases in funding. They interviewed about 20 different non-profits in the county.

Here is what some said about what they planned to do

Spend money to make money

The majority of organizations interviewed said they plan to host big fundraising events to raise the money needed to counter budget deficits.

“We’re going to have to do well at our [annual] gala, especially with the reduction of our county grant,” Whiting said. “That caught us a bit off guard.”

Golf tournaments, galas and concerts were listed as big money getters.

The organizations also say tapping new donors and broadening the range of those they solicit is at the top of their to-do list.

Creating a new strategy for fundraising is a must, they said. Whether it will be successful is a worry.

“Who knows what’s going to happen,” said Rohrer. “I think what we’re seeing is the tip of the iceberg. What we saw in the last six months will affect the next six.”

It is good that these non-profits see the need to develop a new strategy. Too often non-profits are dependent on grant money to sustain them and they are caught off guard when a macro-economic shift disrupts that stream of revenue. The best strategy for any non-profit is to have a healthy mix of revenue sources - including a strong donor base.

The Canadian Marketing Association is hosting a Not-For-Profit conference on Tuesday Oct 7, 2008 from 8:30 AM - Noon.

Here is the description from the CMA event website:

Our engaging line-up of speakers will discuss new and innovative online tools and how to integrate them into your current marketing strategy. Hear from some of Canada’s top charitable organizations including the Canadian Cancer Society and WWF Canada.

I think that this is a great event for non-profit managers to attend.  Online marketing tools are certainly a part of a complete Tribal Strategy.

I look forward to meeting some of you in person at the event.

A recent article posted on CRM News, highlights the importance for non-profits to not only adopt old CRM techniques, but also to embrace new media such as peer-to-peer and social networking tools.  A shift, Sarah Hoddinott - the article’s author, dubbed Fundraising 2.0. 

Although I agree with her premise, I do think it is important that non-profits take one step back and understand how everything fits together across different fundraising activities and media.  More importantly, the entire organization  needs to be able to perform at a high level given the changes in the marketplace for donor dollars.  This means, functions such as planning & budgeting, IT and HR need to be strategically aligned.

One of Accelteon’s goals is to help non-profit organizations, especially those that rely heavily on donors to succeed using our Tribal Approach.  We look forward to bringing you more insights on this topic.

Have a good weekend!