Read this article by DAN PALLOTTA at the Harvard Business Review blogs, which uses the great fundraising story below to question the notion of ‘thinking outside the box.’ The [fundraising] events themselves were the result of a meditation on a particular kind of box — that box being charities’ always asking people to do the [...]
We are the 99% | personal storytelling with photos
The #occupywallstreet movement gathers force with an inspiring campaign that encourages people to upload a photo of themselves holding a text message expressing their financial predicament. Each face is a person. Each person is a story. Most of the stories make you feel thankful your situation isn’t as bad. It’s amazing how many people turn [...]
Now who tells the story of changing the world?
Yes, it’s a Whole Foods video. Why? For many years fundraisers have known that charities have a natural affinity to the internet that commercial brands do not share. Charities have natural advantages. With internet media, charities are the leaders. This video is one tiny indication that charities are slowly losing their advantage, as commercial brands [...]
A storytelling charity?
Stories can be such powerful fundraising tools. From a charity’s founding story to the story that the aid worker brings back from the field, or the story from the person whose life has been turned around because people have given to a homelessness charity. So far so good, but until now I’d never come across [...]
Failure? Success!
A while ago I talked about charities not wishing to be seen to have failed. Well here’s an American charity called Charity:Water who aren’t afraid to say they failed, because they went back and tried again. And succeeded! What a great message to their donors…
More videos please
Being the father of a little girl I love US charity The Girl Effect, and as a marketer I love the brilliant use of compelling video in their fundraising. Check them out if you haven’t already, its lovely stuff. I came across them recently via their entry on SOFII – worth a read. But this [...]
Making the real world look as good as cinema
That’s Dan Chung’s motto. Dan Chung is a news photographer who shoots moving images with an HDSLR. Dan was recently at the centre of a bit of controversy over the use of what appears to be a dolly shot in the context of great devastation and human loss. A dolly shot is typically one where [...]
‘It just never occurred to me…’
Wow. Yesterday I had a meeting with someone thinking of setting up a new charity. For the past few years Oliver had been travelling to India and bringing fresh water to rural communities by helping them dig new sustainable wells. Not only had he encouraged a small, non-well building Indian charity to partner with him [...]
Charity films | Imagination, empathy and giving
charity:water helps us imagine New York City’s water supplies are like much of the developing world. If you want water, you pick up your jerry can and walk for miles to get it out of the Central Park reservoir. And the water is dirty. I have to enthusiastically say, I do love the creative approach [...]
Smart protests
We know the power of public demonstration. Together we can be loud enough to not only influence those in power, but to take that power away. The launch of Sukey (a crowd-sourced mobile information tool to help protesters share news as it happens and keep each other safe) has come at an interesting time. Smart [...]
