Post by RusskyHoya on Jul 31, 2012 11:15:36 GMT -5
A lot of people want to be recognized as, and treated like, stakeholders in some way. Even a form email every once in awhile establishes some semblance of two-way communication. Responding to a request, even an impersonal email blast one, feels like more of a connection than tracking down the donate button and sending your money into the ether.
Political campaigns and donation-funded organizations spend bajillions of dollars on direct mail and email targeting. They don't do so because people can't figure out how to donate to a campaign or an organization - those links are usually pretty prominent on websites, as is their phone number. They do it because there's presumed to be some value to each 'contact.' You want to stay in constant contact with your base of supporters (hence the email marketing company name).
The University in general, and McDonough in particular, have historic and well-earned reputations for not being very good at keeping contact and distributing information. The IAC webpages - while pretty rudimentary compared to what the schools we consider our peers produce - are definitely a step in the right direction. But, ultimately, if you want to reach as many people as possible, you have to reach out widely. And a mass email doesn't exactly require a lot of effort. The fact that the loop has some gaps isn't a great sign, although it's not one that surprises me in the least (to be fair, the loop I'm responsible for has gaps too, but at least I know who our current donors are! Not that there's very many of them...).
Given Lee Reed's periodic fundraising update emails and this latest IAC one, I think the message has been received and is being acted on.
I think this particular case also has an expectations problem. For something like the IAC, I think a lot of people are expecting a big announcement, lots of fanfare, videos, testimonials, etc. Instead, there's a single page on the Campaign website and a single page on the GUHoyas site, a long with a couple of drawings. A little underwhelming for The Most Important Athletics Initiative in Sixty Years ZOMG.
On the other hand, I understand the quandary McDonough is in. With the MSF, they chose to largely maintain radio silence while working the big/most committed donors in the quiet phase. When that didn't pan out and trudged along year after year, the result was one big black hole, which from the outside looked like apathy or incompetence or both. Bad news all around.
So this time around, they decide to release some information, but it can't be more than a dribble, because you can't have the big public launch until you have the big-money donors secured. This is just how the advancement field works; the Campaign for Georgetown didn't publicly launch until over 50% of the total was already committed. I think it's kind of dumb, but it guarantees that no campaign ever fails, which is an understandable thing to want.
So... you need to secure the big-time donors, but they want to see concrete plans. To provide those, you have to get approval from several regulatory bodies, which brings it into the public realm. The wider base of supporters becomes impatient and demands to know why they aren't being solicited, while the attention of the fundraisers is fully on the big-time donors right now, without whom there can be do public launch, no wider campaign, and no IAC period.
Political campaigns and donation-funded organizations spend bajillions of dollars on direct mail and email targeting. They don't do so because people can't figure out how to donate to a campaign or an organization - those links are usually pretty prominent on websites, as is their phone number. They do it because there's presumed to be some value to each 'contact.' You want to stay in constant contact with your base of supporters (hence the email marketing company name).
The University in general, and McDonough in particular, have historic and well-earned reputations for not being very good at keeping contact and distributing information. The IAC webpages - while pretty rudimentary compared to what the schools we consider our peers produce - are definitely a step in the right direction. But, ultimately, if you want to reach as many people as possible, you have to reach out widely. And a mass email doesn't exactly require a lot of effort. The fact that the loop has some gaps isn't a great sign, although it's not one that surprises me in the least (to be fair, the loop I'm responsible for has gaps too, but at least I know who our current donors are! Not that there's very many of them...).
Given Lee Reed's periodic fundraising update emails and this latest IAC one, I think the message has been received and is being acted on.
I think this particular case also has an expectations problem. For something like the IAC, I think a lot of people are expecting a big announcement, lots of fanfare, videos, testimonials, etc. Instead, there's a single page on the Campaign website and a single page on the GUHoyas site, a long with a couple of drawings. A little underwhelming for The Most Important Athletics Initiative in Sixty Years ZOMG.
On the other hand, I understand the quandary McDonough is in. With the MSF, they chose to largely maintain radio silence while working the big/most committed donors in the quiet phase. When that didn't pan out and trudged along year after year, the result was one big black hole, which from the outside looked like apathy or incompetence or both. Bad news all around.
So this time around, they decide to release some information, but it can't be more than a dribble, because you can't have the big public launch until you have the big-money donors secured. This is just how the advancement field works; the Campaign for Georgetown didn't publicly launch until over 50% of the total was already committed. I think it's kind of dumb, but it guarantees that no campaign ever fails, which is an understandable thing to want.
So... you need to secure the big-time donors, but they want to see concrete plans. To provide those, you have to get approval from several regulatory bodies, which brings it into the public realm. The wider base of supporters becomes impatient and demands to know why they aren't being solicited, while the attention of the fundraisers is fully on the big-time donors right now, without whom there can be do public launch, no wider campaign, and no IAC period.