Breaking Down the Silos: Organize Around Audiences, Not Departments
The increased awareness and buzz in the marketplace will naturally happen because of a self-reinforcing loop: The more supporters and names you generate, the more people will talk! Then add corporate partners and/or licensing, and it’s just another level of targeting.
In the case of our aliens, we may focus on common package goods items shared by both; pursue a partnership with Kodak or Toyota or some other product that has equal purchaser distribution between human and alien kind. If your negotiations allow for utilization of outbound e-mail to corporate partners’ purchasers (and it should!) or mention on their websites then you are poised for another conversation with the development person to ask, “How do we catch these new people?”
So, I'm a fundraiser having a mid-life crisis. And that's perfectly fine with me.
I am taking time to look around, lift my head and find REAL people who really want to change the world. And people smart enough to do it. Join me in this fun journey. I have no idea where we will end up - and that is the beauty of it. I'm nonprofit passionate, a hopeful world changer, and always ready to share what I know, learn what I don't, admit when I can't, and ask the hard questions.
While you're looking around for other areas of inspiration, check out The Moth Project at themoth.org (the podcasts are AMAZING), TED talks (doesn't matter which ones - find topics that interest you) and Volunteer Voices (again - love the podcast) written by volunteers from the Peace Corps. Don't see the immediate connection to being a better fundraiser? Just listen, you'll hear the message ...
