I'm going to be contrarian (big surprise!) and push back a little here.
Recently I've seen a couple blogs and website editorials discussing internet fundraising and advocacy and suggesting that fundraisers learn from the Obama campaign. I think people need to stop looking at Obama's online campaign and holding it up as the standard by which charities should base their own online efforts.
Crazy Confluence of Events
I don't dispute the amazing work that people did on Obama's online advocacy and fundraising efforts, but lets look at it in context shall we? A number of factors fed into the success of his campaign. Issues and situations that were unique to the time and place. Issues that aren't likely to ever occur for the vast majority of charities.
- This was politics! Politics more than almost anything will bring out the passion in people. I've never seen anything that arouses people's passion, anger, willingness to take a stand and need to voice their opinion more than politics. How many charities do you know that deal with topics that have the ability to inflame and inspire people simply by stating a position?
- This was American politics! The two party system and basic political environment in the USA is more heated and more passionate than most western cultures. The entire culture (at times) seems to be positioned in an "us vs. them" perspective. (this is my opinion - but i'm good with that)
- People were angry... very angry - and not just in the USA. Even most Republicans were salivating at the notion of getting rid of the sitting President.
- 9/11, Afghanistan, Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, Torture, Media like Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, Colbert, Jon Stewart, etc. You couldn't have created this confluence of events if the USA were a bacteria in petrie dish in a controlled laboratory.
- They had a lot of money. Yes some of it came from their online efforts - but even before that happened, they spent a lot of money on people, infrastructure, planning & execution before the online money started rolling in
- Oprah! (Honestly, do you think that didn't have a large impact?)
I don't doubt that charities can learn a few things from the Obama campaign, but lets put it in perspective. Had the American environment not been as enraged, passionate and literally starving for change; had this happened in Canada where you have multiple parties; had they not poured vast amounts of money and had tremendous resources at their disposal - they could have used all their best practices and had a very different outcome.
Learn from others, but DO based on you!
Too often we look at what others are doing that works and we try to mimic it - without asking whether it's even relevant to the organization we represent.
The organizations and people who succeed in their online, social networking, web 2.0 (insert whatever name applies here), are going to be the ones who try new things, who fearlessly charge forward and recognize that they are going to stumble or fall flat on their face a couple/few times. They will test and try and fumble and even fail... but they'll figure it out, find their niche and do it well.
They may learn something from Obama, but they'll learn something from all kinds of people and organizations. Mostly, they'll learn from testing, retesting and being ready to learn it all over again when they wake up tomorrow and the "next big thing" has hit like a twitterstorm.
So please - if you're going to quote Obama or attend a session from one of the Obama experts, be realistic. It is ridiculously unlikely that your organization is going to enjoy the kind of "stranger than fiction" confluence of events that set the stage for Obama's success.
Think big, think for yourself, and be prepared to suck sometimes.
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