Social Sector

Volunteer for Tomorrow
http://www.generationon.org/

Thanks to my sister who brought this organization to my attention.  It is a great way to find projects in your community that provide an opportunity for volunteers of different ages to come together and contribute.  The website offers a variety of filtering options to select an opportunity that is appropriate for your age-range and perspective.  See what you can find at generationOn.

Deserving

What qualifies a champion as deserving?  When a sports team or individual competitor wins a game or tournament there is often an quick assessment about the quality of the victory.  Frequent descriptions include: unexpected, deserving, stolen, etc.  I often wonder what a deserving victor looks like?  Did the winner travel the appropriate path?  Did they win with style?  Does the team’s values match that of their fans?  Is it an assessment of ethics?


The social sector equivalent comes when a cause attempts to manifest its vision.  The community judge the worthiness of an enterprise’s strategic initiative.  Is the proposed action deserving of the stakeholders’ support?  Does it warrant financial support?  Are individuals willing to recommend it to colleagues and friends?  

Sometimes very needed and appropriate opportunities are not advanced because the community deems them to be undeserving or a lesser priority.  Other scenarios involve what appears to be a frivolous opportunity being advanced because a few people of influence can assemble sufficient resources to move forward without needing a large group of supporters.  


How do you prepare your community to brand your enterprise’s project as deserving?  What steps do you need to do in advance?  Is it contingent on the relationships you maintain?  What is the tipping point?

Why Black Friday Deals Work

The Book, Cheap offers a fascinating exploration of the psychological drivers that guide our consumer habits.  A discount actually activates parts of our brain that are responsible for pleasure- no wonder it is hard to pass-up a 60% off sign.  I am surprised that the social sector does not leverage more of the discount culture.  Instead the focus is usually on maximizing or matching a contribution.  Rarely do you see a membership program reduce its dues or a higher donor recognition level offered for a reduced donation.  I am not advocating for these changes but I am surprised the social sector’s business planning has not dipped into the sale’s bin.

Where is my watch?

As a kid I enjoyed running races.  I ran 5 kilometer events and sometimes 10K races that my Dad would run in also.  Of course, you begin to notice the shoes other runners wear or the running kits with the matching shorts and tops that were designed to make the runner look like a sponsored athlete- the ultimate dream of a twelve year-old was to receive free gear.  One item that caught my eye and I finally saved enough money to order was a watch specially designed for runners.  The best feature was that you could program the watch to sound a ‘beep’ to set your stride cadence which in theory would help you stay on pace to run your planned per mile time.  I think the watch even had a calculator to compute all the details of your time after you finished- the second most important part of running was having extraneous information to share with other competitors (especially before you were old enough to enjoy a post-race primitive beverage).  So into the envelope went my order form and payment.  Days passed, weeks, then months and the watch never arrived.  Eventually I think I forgot about it but I was devastated that my progression as an athlete was stalled by a missing piece of equipment.  

I told this story to my kids the other night and they wondered what happened.  I told them my mistake was that I sent cash and therefore somebody on the receiving end was thirty-seven dollars richer and my order form probably found the trash.  My kids wondered why I did not call the credit card company, check the website, put a bad review on the company’s Facebook page.  I had to explain the realities of paper forms, hard currency, limited accountability, and an off-line world.

It was a reminder that sometimes people try to invest with passion into our causes and enterprises.  We pocket the compliment or appeal for more information without a second thought.  What we fail to see is that this individual is ready to commit.  Ready to invest in a more meaningful manner.  They want the watch, they are ready to run with our logo on their gear.  Instead they are left disappointed and disillusioned by our lack of responsiveness.  Some will even use social media and word-of-mouth to share their frustration and others will simply pick another cause.  It is important to remember that sometimes an order for a watch means a lot more.

Like Oprah

Have you noticed how great experiences seem to be amplified from what you expected?  There is an energy or surprise that takes place.  Oprah is a great example.  It is not enough for her to invite the reclusive artists who rarely gives interviews but Oprah’s staff finds a way to arrange a reunion with another co-start that has not taken place for years.  It is not always about going over-the-top but providing the unexpected.  Adding value where the audience thought they had seen all they were going see.

Where can your enterprise amplify its conversations and relationships with your fans?

Nine Innings

Baseball is one of the few games that is not predetermined by distance or time.  There is no clock to expire while the ball is in play.  Their is no final yard to keep a faster finisher with all the momentum from sweeping past a fading competitor.  You are guaranteed a final at-bat and if you can mount a rally the game goes on until you have been provided a final chance.

As the social sector sweeps towards its favorite season of solicitation in the form of end-of-the-year giving, it is a reminder that not all decisions about philanthropic engagement need to be driven by a calendar or a deadline.  Sometimes the game needs to play out.  Sometimes you need to let everyone get a last-at-bat before you can call the final score.  A cause’s time line does not mean it needs to be a donor’s countdown to commitment.