A couple quick notes about Mr. Donovan.
After posting my blog, Mr. Donovan and I exchanged a couple emails. The first thing I'd like to note is a correction. Mr. Donovan is an investigative reporter for The Star, however, he was not the writer of each of those stories. Mr. Donovan did state that he fully supports the work of the writer of those stories, Mr. David Bruser.
He Seemed Like Such a Nice Man!
Mr. Donovan was very kind and polite in his emails to me. I didn't request his permission to share the contents of the emails, so I'll keep to generalizations about the exchange. Mr. Donovan pointed out that The Star writes many positive stories about charities. I revisited the website and using The Stars' search engine, I found precious few of those positive stories. If this is incorrect, they need to invest in a better seach engine.
Still, my comments weren't about The Star. My comments were about Mr. Donovans' charity investigations and the stories that result from those investigations. I do not object to his investigations - nor do I object to writing fair stories about those investigations. On the contrary, I think it's incredibly important that charities conduct themselves in an honest, reliable and transparent manner - and that the public is informed when they fail to do so. I think the work Mr. Donovan does is very important!
BAD, AWFUL, HORRID, good, nice, helpful
My concern is that there is precious little positive to balance out the negative as he portrays it. With over 82,000 charities in Canada, it's not surprising that you will find some instances of poor practices and a very few who abuse or scam people. It's imperative that these organizations be uncovered and corrected - and if appropriate, closed down. However, out of those 82,000 charities so very many are doing good things, great things... remarkable things! We hear precious little about those organizations.
People who work in marketing, sales and/or the media, know that negative sells. Negativity is the "easy route". In sales the mantra was: "People will move away from pain more quickly and easily than they will move toward pleasure". Our goal was ALWAYS identify their pain... then show them how we could provide pleasure by removing that pain and voila' - sale closed! This is why politicians rely so heavily on negative ads. They work! Not only do they work in the short-term, people also tend to remember negative stories and ads for a very long time. It takes a lot more work and skill to sell positive, good news stories. It's a far greater challenge. Personally - I thrive on challenge. Do you Mr. Donovan?
If Mr. Donovan took the passion, drive and talent he has and applied it with the same degree of zeal that he puts into his negative stories... could he sell positive? I think he could. He may have to do more revisions and choose his words more carefully to fully maximize the storys' impact, but he could do it. It is important that he continues to investigate and expose the few bad apples that exist. But he can choose to sing more than one tune.
Sing Out Loud.. Sing Out Strong!
I believe Mr. Donovan sincerely wants to make the charitable sector better. I believe he genuinely wants people to have faith in charities. However, his approach needs to be refined. Nobody benefits if his current approach results in people becoming so distrustful of charities that they cease contributing to all charities.
So Mr. Donovan - sing loud and sing proud. Be the canary in the coal mine! But please, sing sweetly now and then. Sing praises that inspire, motivate and compel people to act. You have the power to educate, inform, and involve people across the country! Not only do your stories have the ability to help the charitable sector improve their policies and practices - your stories.. YOU.. have the power to help make the world a better place.
It may be a little harder, Mr. Donovan. But I promise you - it's worth the extra effort.
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