Alec

McNayr

Got an email with the subject line “Will the beautiful women of the world please stand up” the other day. It was from the innovate non-profit charity:water and thought it was an excellent use of storytelling.

View the story here.

I work with the non-profit Generosity Water (we’re friendly with charity:water), and we often talk about the value of turning negative causes into positive proclamations.  I just think this is a great step in creating media that brings value and dignity to a situation, and doesn’t ask us to dwell deeply on the ugly issue.

Now, if I were in charge of social media at charity:water, I’d make a parody video of Single Ladies
called “Beautiful Women,” but that’s just me….

Katie sent me a video from a non-profit/cause called Advent Conspiracy.  Their purpose: to give less at Christmas (less gifts, less stress) in order to give more (time, fun, donations, etc.).  They’re encouraging churches to redirect Christmas funds to build water wells around the world, a cause already close to my heart.

Now, on to the video.  What a powerful, yet simply done message.  The tempo, flow, imagery, and music all come together to really get the point across.  This group targets church members around the United States and their YouTube video already has about 90,000 views.  Not bad for trying to reach a niche audience.

Church Relevance posted a list of its “Top 90 Church Web Sites.”  (90?  Really?)

It’s an interesting case to examine 90 locally-focused organizations, each with similar structure, mission, and goals, and how they organize their content, craft their brand, and reach out to both potential visitors and existing members.

From the list: Northstar Church (Frisco, TX)

I bought my first computer in 1996. I was getting ready for college and I bought it with money I had received from my grandparents for my high school graduation.

The computer had a whopping 16MB of RAM and a giant 15-inch monitor. It barely ran Windows 95. Get this: it had a 500MB hard drive. There was barely enough room to load Microsoft Office, much less all the documents I had to create for class. What did I pay for this beauty? $1100.

Cut to today: I just bought an 8GB USB flash drive for $30. Sixteen times the memory for 3% of the cost.

Here’s what that means to me (and to you). I think nothing of storing and managing hundreds of gigabytes of photos, videos, music, and media. And because I have lots of photos, I expect others to have the same. There is no excuse for a brand (organization, product, service, etc.) to not have a lot of great multimedia to engage me.

What does your organization offer the casual web surfer? Videos? Hi-res photos for download? No? You are risking missing your customers’ expectations.

Case in point: look at charity:water. It’s a non-profit that sells $20 bottles of water to raise funds to build water wells around the world. And then they deliver videos, photos, and a full experience back to their donors. The instant feedback loop draws you in, doesn’t it? It’s easy to see that your donation makes a direct difference in someone’s life.

Does your brand generate enough media to fill an 8GB flash drive?

Are you worried if it doesn’t?

Don’t hide your brand experience behind the walls of your computer. Give it away as a gift to loyal customers who are excited about you.

Amazon has an “affiliate marketing” program, where they pay others for driving traffic (and sales) to their site. If I read a book review on Seth Godin’s site, let’s say, and click on a link on his blog to buy the book, Amazon pays him a portion of the sale. Probably no more than a dollar or two, but if you get enough clickthroughs, it could become a nice passive revenue stream.

The problem is getting enough a) clickthrough opportunities (a lot of content), and b) audience (a lot of viewers).

Non-profit software developer Participatory Culture Foundation (creators of Miro, a video player) has an awesome idea for generating revenues: their fans give them credit for all Amazon sales, regardless of where they clicked through from.

Check it out at iheartmiro.org. They simply ask you to download a FireFox plug-in that makes sure that every purchase you make at Amazon is attributed to them.

This is an ingenious move for an organization with a large number of passionate fans. This would be a perfect tactic for any non-profit with a nationwide base. I wonder if anyone else out there is doing something this slick.

Jennifer Connelly and Hotel Rwanda director Terry George donated their time (along with 75 other people) to produce this 60-second PSA for non-profit charity:water.

The spot will air on American Idol tonight on their Idol Gives Back episode. The producer himself donated the air time (at a price tag of $1 million).

Sometimes, universal forces conspire for good.