Stop searching for your viral ad campaign

We have to stop chasing the “ice bucket challenge” and start paying attention to our own donors. I know this may seem less fun, less glamorous, less of a big deal to exclaim in a boardroom and it can certainly be more work. Too bad. It’s full of real commitment and real results.

If we want to raise more funds and have more contributors, we have to stop chasing that pipe-dream. We often cook up a campaign and suddenly we start selling our organization like it’s the new shampoo. You are not shampoo. Your clients are not shampoo.

We over-design.

We brand. We logo.

We create infographics. So many info-graphics!

We tell contributors what to think. We explain. Then over-explain.

We use all caps.

We create a social media plan.

It’s not that a logo or infographics are bad ideas, it’s that in all that chasing, we forget. We forget to focus on our mission. We forget the contributors who gave to us last week, last year, two years ago. Instead, let’s focus on those who already love our organization.

Let’s take, for example, Giving Tuesday. When organizations go from creating an ad for Giving Tuesday, to creating an appeal targeted to their amazing donors on Giving Tuesday, you are turning the focus to your donors- rather than pasting a Giving Tuesday logo on a post that everyone is using. I know an organization that changed the focus and went from $3,000 on Giving Tuesday to $10,000 the next year.

Ready to let the digital pipe-dream go, and embrace your contributors? Join the Fierce Ohio workshop, Big Results.

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