Is Your Fundraising News-Driven?
For some nonprofits, fundraising can be quite sensitive to the headlines … a natural disaster here, a Supreme Court nomination there.
I once had a client castigate me, rightfully, for "sitting on" an urgent appeal opportunity until Monday, triggered by an event that occurred the previous Saturday (this is pre-Internet, I’ll say in meekest of defense).
So, at least for some groups, it’s important to know what’s dominating the news (that’s relevant to their donors and prospects), what’s the context, and what’s the "spin" on it … and knowing all that really fast.
But tracking the "news" is getting tougher and tougher as definitions, models and methods of journalism are fundamentally changing … also really fast.
Let me describe one of the best pieces I’ve seen on the subject.
The original exchange was Spiegel interviewing Chris Anderson, editor of Wired. Anderson is clearly a visionary, out-of-the-box thinker … far enough out that he really provoked Henry Blodget, editor of The Business Insider, who proceeded to dissect Anderson’s avoidance of words like "news" and "journalism" … words Anderson regards as defunct.
I caught up with this by noticing the Blodget article. Start with his Chris Anderson’s Unbelievably Annoying Interview … and I’ll bet you’ll want to follow his link to the full Spiegel interview.
Follow all that?!
Anyway, whatever you call it, "news" is becoming something new. And that would include "news" about your organization, as well as who "reports" it and your degree of control over it (get used to it, you have none). And even tracking your "coverage" — let alone influencing or responding to it — is becoming quite a challenge.
Of course, googling, blogs, RSS feeds, online social networks, etc are at the heart of this "news" revolution.
In posts to come, we’ll be sharing some ideas on how to cope with all of this in relation to your fundraising.
Tom
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