Fundraising & Water Moccasins
I received an email yesterday from Jeff Brooks, the mega-smart, mega-iconoclastic editor of the FutureFundraisingNow blog.
He wanted to know what grievances Tom and I had against an Australian fundraiser named Sean Triner ‘cause someone using the email address the_agitator@gmail.com was saying some very disparaging things about Sean on Jeff’s blog.
Frankly, neither Tom nor I would know Sean if he walked up and shot the pet kangaroo who’s here in the office and edits our copy. Obviously.
But what Jeff’s email triggered in me is a reminder to all of us that the internet is still pretty much the Wild West when it comes to veracity, anonymity, and the capacity for mischief.
And like the deadly and silent water moccasin, it’s mighty easy for an errant supporter or – heaven forbid – a competitor to start planting bad stuff about your organization.
This is a big problem in the commercial world. As a result, a big business in ‘reputation management’ has been spawned. You’d be wise to Google and find out more.
Let’s not be naïve. It can happen to us too. Although the article’s dated, I do recommend you download and read J.R. Hipple’s speech on the importance of paying attention to what can affect your reputation.
As for the_agitator@gmail.com, send him or her an email and tell ‘em to get a life or at least have the guts to use a real name.
Far more importantly, what steps are you taking to monitor and deal with digital water moccasins?
Roger
P.S. There are dozens/hundreds of articles online about the “ins” and “outs” of reputation management. Here’s one I found helpful for understanding what your organization is up against and what to do about it.
3 responses to “Fundraising & Water Moccasins”
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Hi Tom and Roger
My name is Sean Triner, and I too am a fundraiser.
Nowadays I also act as an volunteer for wildlife rescue service, WIRES here in Oz. I have to inform you that keeping ‘Roos as pets is illegal here, even if they do write good copy. You can shoot ’em for tucker though.
No idea what you and Jeff are on about someone having a blue about me but thanks Jeff for your defense and thanks Roger for your point about cowardly anon emails. Haven’t seen the email but I guess one day I will be forced to and almost certainly take it personal, but as we say in Oz, c’est la vie. I imagine it will most likely reflect most badly on the brave author.
If you want to know more about me someday we should catch up for a yarn. Big fan of your blog.
BTW I write a column for called ‘The Agitator’ for an Aus mag but I didn’t write the email either. I would have remembered.
Sean
Sean, thank you for the best laugh of the day – that was brilliantly done!
I’m also not an anonymous e-mailer, but I had to say that I love reading The Agitator, Jeff Brooks, and you, Sean Triner. Nice to see things all circle around like this – even if over a “brave” e-mailer.
How timely! I got a Google alert yesterday telling me about a website that is our website address with .net at the end instead of .org. I checked it out and it was just a bunch of nonsensical sentences (fortunately not a pornography website), but it reminded me that I should have just kept paying for those extra websites that I wasn’t going to use, despite my dreary communications budget.
Thanks for the laugh and the second reminder in two days to get that domain back!