tuesdays are crazy days. meetings from an early morning coffee to service programming to staff meeting and lunch. so normally on tuesdays, my life exists from my phone and not my computer.
just in case you were wondering. i’m sure you were.
so here are a couple of random facts for you on this fine autumn tuesday:
-nine years ago i read my last fiction book until friday, when i finally read the shack (and since some of you may ask, i loved it. especially after spending some time with the author at catalyst.)
most recently, i’ve been reading nashville author chris coppernoll’s a beautiful fall, which honestly, i wasn’t sure what to expect since i haven’t really read any fiction lately. i have to admit…the book is amazing, and i think fiction is growing on me as a new escape.
-what do donald miller, brian mclaren, jon acuff, shaun groves and i have in common? read here. it may or may not involve jock straps.
-so far we have almost raised enough money for close to 3000 pairs of shoes through the 50000shoes.com campaign. that is HUGE! financially, that’s almost $7,500, which, in less than 48 hours is ah-maz-ing.
can i be honest? it’s also super scary. that is FORTY SEVEN THOUSAND shoes away from the goal. and yes, i realize we have 47 days left but i’m already getting a little nervous. interestingly enough, there have only been a few hundred transactions…so most people are giving more than $5…meaning there are a lot of people who haven’t donated yet…which is confusing yet shows there’s a ton of potential!
this is where i want to eat your brains.
how do you think we can build some sustainability into this campaign? turn one-time $5 donors into multiple donations? increase influence and awareness?
i’d love to hear your thoughts.
Comments
26 responses to “tuesday and i want to eat your brains”
one thought we are going with…advertise the heck out of it on paydays. It means that we rejuvinate people to give on the day they hold the most coin in their pocket… and keep pushing the multiple times idea.
I’m thinking about posting multiple blog entries over the next few weeks that at least carry the banner. I don’t want to bombard my friends’ email inboxes with a barrage of messages about this, but I suppose one or two emails a week couldn’t be too much of a nuisance.
Also, if your church has small groups (Life Groups, Cell Groups, Home Groups, Community Groups, what have you), and you just happen to be a group leader/host, why not push for your group to donate a designated amount together?
What about pooling resources together as a family? I can think of a couple families in our church who put together $5000 and donated it to our church’s GLOCAL campaign last summer. (Local Church. Global Influence. GLocal.) $5000 is enough to build one well in sub-Saharan Africa for a village without access to clean drinking water.
What if your family/group/church decided to come together to knock out a specific number of shoes? Or even individually? Maybe something like 40 pairs of shoes. It may seem insignificant, but remember that God could care less about your money; He wants your heart. “Where your [money] is, there your heart will be also.” So if you’re heart is truly with “the least of these,” your money will follow suit.
I’ll state the obvious…”matching” challenges…where a blog owner challengers his readers, saying he’ll give X number of shoes as soon as his readers give X number of shoes.
I also like the “What’s In It For Me” games…
1. Each bloggy person can come up with their own challenge that pertains to the subject matter of their site. Or a challenge based on Maslov’s Heirarchy of Needs, i.e., Number of Comments Received. So I could challenge my readers and say “For every comment left on XYZ post between __ and __ I will buy __ pairs of shoes.” (up to a certain amt, for those whose pocketbooks do not run that deep)
2. For those sites that sell products, the person could say, “For every ____ you buy between __ and __, I’ll donate X pair of shoes.”
I’m also picturing some kind of photo album (facebook?) where people (who’ve donated?) can post crazy pictures of them with shoes.
Also. The phrase YOUR SHOES DON’T MATCH keeps coming to my mind. But I’m a DORK like that. (I’m just going off the play on words there.)
I don’t know if you’re a Mr. Linky person or not, but it might be fun to have some Matching Challenge days, where blog people could post and link up.
This isn’t in answer to your question, but how about a day counter on the 50,000 Shoes site? I mean, when is the 50 days actually up? You’d have no idea by looking at the site. I think it’d help sustain that urgency to see how many days are left.
I sent you my thoughts via email but here is one of the ideas again a litle more thought out… I think a fun Thanksgiving repush called “Thank Shoe” would be neat. It’s still within the 50 days but maybe people could donate $5 on behalf of someone else and a “Thank Shoe” ecard gets sent to the person whom you donated on the behalf of.
Example: I donate $5 on behalf of Anne. Anne gets a “Thank Shoe” e-card with a message that says something to the effect of “Anne, in the spirit of Thanksgiving I wanted to say thanks to you by doing something worthwhile in your name so I donated a pair of shoes to those in need as part of the 50000shoes.com campaign.”
Anne gets ecard (cause I put in her email) and there is a link that encouarges Anne to do the same, to pass it on and donate a pair of shoes on behalf of someone else. It’s viral. It’s fun. It’s 3-way giving. Could build in a way to allow for donations on behalf of multiple people.
—–>another note<——–
The 50000shoes.com site might could use a little more apparent info on who the donations actually go to. That might help in conversion. Seems like you are saying lots of people are coming to the site but maybe the conversion could be higher.
thanks so much Anne for playing along! We are honored to have featured you on the site.
3 more quick and rando things:
1-here’s a direct link to our Sports Survey page where you can find surveys from D Miller, B McLaren, J Acuff, M Batterson, T Jones, and of course Anne Jackson!
http://prayersforblowouts.com/pfb-sports-surveys/
2-I think as the 50 days comes to a close, like maybe on day 47, you can challenge everyone who’s already given to come back and by 2 more pairs of shoes. A concentrated last-ditch push might be enough to get over the top.
3- I have a debate going on my blog. Do you soap or shampoo first? I say the only normal way is to soap first, but apparently I’m in the minority? you all are crazy. to vote soap or shampoo first, go here:
http://bryanallain.com/blog/archives/2008/11/11/how-i-roll-personal-hygiene-edition/
thanks,
bryan
Hey Anne…
I love the idea of small groups, children’s ministries, youth ministries getting on board with this. I’m involved with kids and know that kids love helping…love it. So…I’m going to pass this along to families even outside of Nashville because its so doable (did i spell that right?)!
Way to go girl. It will get done!!
story of shoeless shoe jackson?
how about “good Ole Shoe” from movie Wag The Dog?
Not really a suggestion, but wanting to let you know I sit on the confused side with you. In the last week, I have asked all my family, friends, blog readers, and approached other bloggers about spending 20 minutes in prayer on Thanksgiving. I’ve had several fill up times, but most others have been silent and it costs nothing. Weird.
oppps-to add to my previous post—maybe do some stories about children without shoes. Help us understand more.
Get it into church newsletters. With a Thanksgiving emphasis, a Christmas emphasis, a “Jesus said to take care of the poor” emphasis, whatever.
This doesn’t really have a lot to do with your end of it, but some companies I work for have had it set up where you can sign up to donate X-amount from your paycheck to a employee disaster relief fund. So every paycheck it just comes out and you don’t even miss it. Maybe if the shoe site had an option to automatically donate $5 every month that’d be cool. I’d probably even be willing to do that. What’s $5 a month?
well, i just finished up my flyer for our big “bring shoes & money” event at the crag at cool springs. i’d love for us to make this a regular thing…drop off a pair of shoes for s4s, get a discount on shoes. i mean, really, what’s a few bucks on my end for a simple pair of shoes for someone half a world away?
by the way, if you’re looking for something awesome to do next thursday, drop by The Crag between 6 & 9 for a charity event benefitting soles4souls. i promise you’ll have a good time for a good cause!!!!!
Anne – we need some stories to post. People respond to stories about kids without shoes, better than the idea “kids need shoes”
I’m going to post about it every Monday for the 50 days. Monday’s my highest traffic day. Also, I’m gonna make a donation every Monday. Monday’s my payday. Hopefully, keeping it in front of people, and leading by example, will turn some hearts.
Also. I’m praying about it pretty heavily.
Travis
(Sorry, Anne – can’t resist)
What if we all pledged to donate $50 every time the Mavs lose? We’d hit the goal in a week, tops.
Nice blog title post there – definitely peaked my interest!
Great idea to post it weekly.
Some stories would be so helpful. I think that having people understand what a pair of shoes means in the life of someone would be great. I know a couple of friends have said they like to put all of their money toward the world hunger issue right now. I don’t even think they realized how a pair for shoes can make a significant difference in someone having the dignity and staying healthy to help provide for a family.
Show me the difference that these shoes are making in real lives and I will continue to buy into what they are doing.
Here’s an idea. Contact the folks at http://www.worshiphousemedia.com and http://www.sermonspice.com and ask them to donate $1 of every video sale over the next 30 days to SfS. They can even challenge their producers to match it.
Im a fundraiser by day (aka. my career) and it’s all about making a connection with people and tapping into ALLOWING them to give to areas they truly connect with. If you want sustained income, its really about staying in touch with your donors.
Emails are great, but personal connection is the best type! It would take a lot of man power, but for everyone that donated, a special letter with a follow up phone call would be a good start. I think events get the word out and allow people to bring new “recruits” as far as finding something to give to.
Shoes are a wonderful thing, but people want options!! World Vision just put out a magazine that highlighted 100 different ways you could give
1. Goats+2 chickens = $100
2. Pig = $200
ETC.
I can give shoes and more shoes and more shoes, but if I really wanted to give 20,000 pairs of shoes then there should be giving levels. For example: have hierarchy or giving levels (all non-profits have these)
1. Soul4Soles Soldier = $50,000 = 20,000 pairs of shoes for an entire village
2. Souls4Soles Lifetime Giver = Pledge amount of $5,000 yearly
3. Walking Partners = $500 per year ($40 per month)
4. A Year of Shoes(24 pairs) = $60
5. Happy Feet = 2 pairs (one time gift)
YOU GET THE IDEA!
Making the personal connection is the key ingredient for sustained giving. IF you can make a personal connection and keep it, you have a lifetime giver!
keeping anything fresh for more than a week is a difficult thing, but keeping something fresh that is a 50-day charity drive is an even tougher.
change the banner and sidebars a certain time during the campaign. but change them so they will automatically change on each person’s blog, etc. ie. make them a different color, or have the new images show many to date have been donated, etc.
statistics are boring to most people. testimonies of how this organization is actually helping people would be cool. a true, warm-blooded person’s story. not just a statistic.
keep the need in front of people without constantly asking for money by showing the to-date progress. show what others are doing and have done. people love watching progress.
celebrate each small goal.
wow. typo typo typo typo. i am trying again:
keeping anything fresh for more than a week is a difficult thing, but keeping something fresh that is a 50-day charity drive is a even tougher ask.
try changeing the banner and sidebars at certain times during the campaign. but change them so they will automatically change on each person?s blog, etc. ie. you could make them a different color, or have the new images show how many to date have been donated, etc.
statistics are boring to most people. testimonies of how this organization is actually helping people would be cool. a true, warm-blooded person?s story. not just a statistic.
keep the need in front of people without constantly asking for money by showing the to-date progress. show what others are doing and have done. people love watching progress.
celebrate each small goal.
What about making it possible to buy shoes using PayPal? I couldn’t find that option when I went to donate.
Hi..
I think it would help to put a PayPal link on the site. If I come to the site and want to donate, I have to have a Credit Card. Many people do not have one at all and many will not have a credit card handy when they are surfing the web. So, you are counting on them coming back to the site at a later time to give. This most likely never happens.
PayPal gives you the opportunity to donate immediately. Overall, with a PayPal link, there is no excuse for not donating as soon as they come to the donate page.
Yeah, keeping people aware and in the know is essential. I have found that donors want to know what is happening and how their donation is making a difference. Beyond that, I got nothing…but this shoe thing ROCKS!!!!!!