Do the Word

In my efundraising DVD I share the paradoxical principle that the best blog posts you do ought to be on other blogger’s blogs. And in a post I did recently from Korea, I shared the Transformational Giving Insight From The East that you know that you’re in TG territory when it’s impossible to tell who gave and who received.

Kem Meyer’s Virtual Book Tour for her latest work, Less Clutter. Less Noise, is a peerless embodiment of both principles.

Here’s what Kem did:

1. Two weeks ago on her well-read blog she posted an invite for bloggers who had read the book to email her a question about the material in the book.
2. She selected questions from 26 bloggers, each from a local church.
3. She posted the names and blogsites of the bloggers whose sites she’d be stopping by on May 29 to answer the question that blogger had asked.
4. Each blogger selected received a copy of Kem’s book to give away to a reader of their own blog.
5. On May 29 she posted a unique answer to a unique question on each of the 26 blogs, summarizing the questions on her amazon.com blog.

Who was the giver and who was the recipient in this strategy?

Absolutely brilliant.

A shout out this morning to Tom Davis, CEO of Children’s Hope Chest. Tom’s first fiction book, Scared, goes on sale today. Tom’s previous books, Red Letters and Fields of the Fatherless, are both good reads for Transformational Giving practitioners.

Tom’s book coming out reminds me to encourage you to check out Children’s Hope Chest’s 5 for 50 site for a great example of an E (Engagement) level champion development strategy.

5 for 50 nicely lays out five lifestyle dimensions of champion involvement. It also embodies one of the hallmarks of E-level development, namely, that when a champion reaches the Engagement level it is virtually impossible for those around the champion to be unaware of his or her commitment to the cause. That’s certainly operative here.

One suggestion for improvement for this strategy as its laid out on the website:

After laying out the five lifestyle dimensions of involvement requested of the 5 for 50 champion, there is but one link, which leads to the donation page. The (clearly unintended) message that’s potentially conveyed to the champion?

The financial piece is the piece we care about the most.

Tom’s books demonstrate that nothing could be further from the truth for Children’s Hope Chest, which is why turning each of the 5 commitments into a drill-down link that offers further information and tools for each undertaking (and dropping out the separate/additional donate link) would more accurately convey the intent of the strategy while moving beyond challenging champions to equipping them via the site.

Regardless, a great Engagement strategy for growing existing champions.

(Side note: I would not recommend 5 for 50 as a Participation strategy for recruiting new champions. It’s not that it wouldn’t work–I’m sure the strategy draws its fair share of new champions–but rather that it’s better suited as a strategy for equipping champions to move from participation to engagement. You’ll note that one of the five commitments–inviting five people to join you on your journey–is a great embodiment of the Transformational Giving principle that new champion recruitment is the responsibility of existing champions, not the organization. And going on a journey with a committed friend is itself a great P-level step for a new champion. Great P-level steps, after all, are short-term, high touch, high yield, understandable with reference only to themselves, and synecdochic.  You can read more about creating effective P-level steps here.)

Continuing on with our theme this week about concrete steps you can take to move your development program from transactional to Transformational, consider this corporate relations gem from Time Magazine.

Corporate relations initatives are either nonexistent or strikingly transactional at most nonprofits. The most common initiative is the corporate sponsorship, which goes something like this:

‘So for a $5,000 banquet sponsorship our executive director will plaster your logo to his forehead, we’ll mention your name in the program, and our next pregnant staff member will name his or her child after your company. What do you say?’

Never mind that such an approach is thoroughly transactional and largely ineffective. Worse, it rarely if ever leads to ongoing involvement in the cause by the corporation. And it doesn’t even contemplate the possibility that we might have a responsibility and an opportunity to coach corporations in relation to the cause.

Consider the appealing alternative reported by Time Magazine:

Carrotmobs.

As the article describes, Carrotmobs are kind of like reverse boycotts. The Carrotmob solicits bids from stores asking what percentage of profits the store is willing to donate to a specified cause should the mob be able to generate business at such and such a level.

While Carrotmobs so far have by and large been focused on the environmental movement, there’s no reason why the concept can’t be applied to Kingdom causes. After all, think of the multiple opportunities for transformation:

• Businesses can be coached on profitable ways to impact the cause
• New participants can be recruited for your cause. As the article notes, ‘Carrotmobs also carry extra appeal during tough economic times. Participants don’t have to donate anything. They just shop for products they were planning to buy anyway, adjusting the time and place of purchase. By doing so, they help green a local business.’

Best of all, it’s a win-win-win proposition. Unlike a boycott, there’s no rancor and no losers.

• The business wins (increased sales).

• The nonprofit wins (businesses–not just the winner but every business approached about submitting a proposal–learn about the cause; in addition, new participants can easily be recruited by the nonprofit’s owner-level champions).

• The champions win (growing in relation to the cause).

Make sure to click through to the article so you can see an example of how owner-level champions and not organizations are tasked and equipped to recruit new participant-level champions for the cause. The story about Tony Montagnaro is worth the click in and of itself. Not only he is an owner recruiting participants, but he created a great SPP (Signature Participation Project) in the process. Not at all bad for a 19-year old who wouldn’t have even survived the wealth screening donor ranking rigamarole in most nonprofits!