Brag about your donors, not about yourself

This, in my opinion, is not a Stupid Nonprofit Ad. I know -- that's no fun. But it's worth looking at for a couple of reasons.

It's a sort of "guerrilla" awareness campaign done by The Salvation Army of Northern New England that scrawls the message we spend money on people, not on advertising and leads people to salvationarmydonate.org.

Here's what's good about it: Most donors love it when we spend less on marketing. So a campaign that centers around cheapness -- excuse me, efficiency -- is likely to be motivating. Here's how they explain it:

Recently, local businesses in Portland, Maine, helped us launch an ad campaign that cost absolutely nothing. That's right. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Sure, a big, expensive campaign could have gotten our name out there. But at what cost? See, it's thinking like this that helps us give 83 cents of every dollar donated directly to the people who need it most.... Now more than ever, it's important to make every dollar count. It's nice to know The Salvation Army of Northern New England is committed to "Doing The Most Good" with your donations.

They almost got it right.

But they made one near-fatal flaw: They made this whole thing about themselves.

It should have been about their donors.

(The salvationarmydonate.org page is also self-referential, basically a portfolio of the campaign with a donate button at the bottom. A potential donor who's at that page is there because the campaign worked; they don't need to know more about the campaign. They need a page where they can take action.)

Bragging about yourself is not attractive. And it misses the point. Donors don't give because you're smart, or efficient, or clever. They give because they are excellent people. Your excellence is part of the price of admission into their world. But it's not what motivates them to give.

This campaign would sing like Callas if they made a simple and fairly subtle change:

... it's thinking like this that helps us put 83 cents of every dollar you give to help the people who need it most.... Now more than ever, it's important for you to make every dollar count. That's why The Salvation Army of Northern New England is committed to "Doing The Most Good" with your donations.

It's about donors, not us. That's what matters. That's what works. That's what we should always do.

(This didn't make the Stupid Nonprofit Ads list. But here are many that did!)

Technorati Tag: advertising

Comments

[Amy DeLouise]

You are so right about making sure the donor sees themselves in the story. It also helps if the people they want to connect to via their dollars are in the story, too. Thanks for a great post!

[Fundraising Detective]

Hi Jeff,

I agree that's not a stupid non-profit ad, but I came across the following one in my newspaper on the way home:

http://www.tommys.org/admin/view.image?id=1045

It's headline was "A Puddle's Rights" - can you guess what its promoting?

You can also check the video out here:

http://www.tommys.org/Page.aspx?pid=541

It's bad on so many levels (from the impossible to read font, the tiny logo, the illegibile website etc, etc) that I thought you might like to add it to your "Stupid Nonprofit ads" list.

Finally, I thought you'd be pleased to know that it's from your friends at Leo Burnett again!

Cheers,

Craig

[Karen Zapp]

Jeff,

Great point you make on the importance of taking the vital extra step to make the copy donor-centered. When knee deep in creating the campaign it’s too easy to lose sight of this. As the campaign is developed everyone needs to remain vigilant and critical that the creative starts with and maintains a donor focus. Continually reexamine the work.
– Karen Zapp, Copywriter, http://www.PKscribe.com