Yesterday, we talked about how changing user experiences create expectations in the nonprofit world (aka “If Amazon can X, why can’t you?”). Today, there’s a great case study of what happens when you let go of control of your message.
In 2004, a blogger who uses the nom de plume “Yarn Harlot” created a fundraising campaign for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) called Tricoteuses sans Frontières (Knitters Without Borders). She put up a page on her blog talking about the important work that MSF does and urged her followers to join Knitters Without Borders in support.
Whatever you thought they raised, it’s probably too low.
By the sixth anniversary of the campaign, Knitters Without Borders had raised over $1,000,000 to support MSF. When the earthquake hit Haiti in 2010 and destroyed the hospital in which MSF was working, she put up the Knit Signal (at right, so that you know I’m not making this up) and asked knitters to support the relief efforts.
Three things are remarkable about this story:
- There are more knitters than you knew there were. I live with a knitter, so I already knew.
The Knitters Without Borders logo is a parody of the MSF logo. Think for a moment if your communications team would allow a knitting blog to parody your logo to raise money for your cause. - Here’s a part of the piece about the Haitian earthquake:
“I spoke briefly on the phone this morning with the MSF office here in Toronto, and they confirmed several things.
Things are bad.
The MSF Hospital has sustained damage that means it isn’t functioning as a hospital right now. Staff have moved to the courtyard and set up tents and what materials they could retrieve from the building and are doing their best to help people as they can. Doctors who were providing maternity care are now running a trauma centre.
They, and their sister offices in other countries spent all night figuring out who could go and how to get them there, and staff is packing as we read this to get there as fast as they can. They’ll be taking inflatable surgery suites with them so they can use that instead of their damaged buildings.
They believe that some of their staff are among the casualties.
They recognize the power of Knitters Without Borders and the force that we can marshal in a pinch, and they are grateful that you’ve been able to help them in the past, and they would very much like your help now, and right away.”
First off, tell me that you don’t want to hire Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot, as a copywriter today. I know I do. I’ve read a couple of her books and I don’t even knit.
Second, note that she got these details from MSF headquarters. In the middle of dealing with an earthquake, they talked with a key influencer of a community. Not later on in the week, not when they got to it between finding out what staff members they lost. That day.
The lesson here is that people can do some of your fundraising for you, if you’ll let them. You need to:
- Give them tools and permission (the logo for Knitters Without Borders)
- Recognize their power (“They recognize the power of Knitters Without Borders and the force that we can marshal in a pinch”)
- Keep them in the loop (“I spoke briefly on the phone this morning with the MSF office here in Toronto”).
- Appreciate them (“they are grateful that you’ve been able to help them in the past, and they would very much like your help now, and right away.”)
What a great donor communication. And not from the organization in question.
MSF has done a great job since then of being transparent about the need, their role, and the role of their donors in Haiti (take a look here for an example).
But on their own, how many knitters would they have gotten to donate?
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