Attention nonprofit marketers: Seth Godin is right again

Seth Godin has a great post today that all fundraisers should heed. He notes:

If you’ve got a small, fixable problem, people will rush to help, because people like to be on the winning side, take credit and do something that worked. If you’ve got a generational problem, something that is going to take herculean effort and even then probably won’t pan out, we’re going to move on in search of something smaller.

Not fair, but true.

Don’t believe him?

Read this:

An estimated 100 million people worldwide are homeless.

Then watch this.

Drew from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.

I’m overwhelmed by the first statement.  But I’m ready to do something for people like Drew.  And it’s not just me.  It’s the way the human mind and heart work. 

REMEMBER: We focus on what we can grasp, and we act on what we can change.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 09/02 at 02:28 PM


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    Comments


    In a world where we try to fix thing, do things, say the right things…I’ve got nothing after watching this video.  When you are younger you think “it could never happen to me”; then you get a few years under your belt and you realize “it could happen to me”.  Just look at what has happened over the past 24 months.  My heart goes out to all the Drew’s of the world…maybe its time to follow through with that nagging feeling that I should stop at the local rescue mission and help out once in a while…

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  09/02  at  03:15 PM

    Great post here, and thanks for the video!

    I couldn’t agree more with your and Seth’s post, and I also wrote about enormity.

    When we ask volunteers or donors to help us, are we asking them to help us with something they can actually do?

    Posted by Mark Horoszowski  on  09/02  at  06:04 PM

    Powerful video, Katya! And so true about the difficulty of engaging people when the task is so great. I think it’s important to break down the goals into actionable steps, bullet points and numbers in the headline. I tried to do this with my post about eldercare, ageism and other senior issues: http://altruisticmarketer.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/7-ways-your-company-can-help-change-the-face-of-aging/

    Keep up the great work, Katya. Even small efforts can have a big effect.

    Posted by LuAnne Speeter  on  09/07  at  12:00 PM

    I would agree that this is generally true, and explains why organizations such as Kiva have become so popular.

    But it seems there must be some circumstances in which enormity still works. Perhaps those are situations where you’re not seeking an immediate action, but rather to educate. Or perhaps it’s when you’re targeting a certain type of person or donor, or possibly with some causes and not others. 

    Enormity continues to thrive in nonprofit marketing campaigns, and I’d love to see the stats on how much impact they have. Even the recent 9/11 WWF ad controversy illustrates how agencies are still producing campaigns designed to make enormity as tangible as possible.

    So I’m wondering what everyone thinks: is enormity a concept to be absolutely avoided, or does it just need to be approached with prudence?

    Posted by Rob Maguire  on  09/09  at  12:48 AM

    Great points, Katya.  If it’s not achievable, people will runaway from the cause. Thanks for highlighting and translating Seth’s post.

    Posted by Geoff Livingston  on  09/10  at  10:34 AM

    Ritengo che questa sia una grande idea

    Posted by what does a drug swab test detect  on  09/28  at  10:58 AM
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