The Key Folks was Integration.

I know I promised this post to Laurie last month. Since I couldn't resist commenting on LinkedIn I may as well share here.

The question posted on the AFP group was: What did you learn from Obama's campaign? This is my answer:

It is fascinating how this conversation keeps going. I can't wait for the book that someone is no doubt writing as I type this.

One key point I think we are neglecting to mention is that Obama's campaign was integrated. It seemed like all communication avenues, all messages, all donations worked together and pointed in one direction - Yes you can! It wasn't about him at all it was about hope for the American people. This is a very external or donor centre perspective.

I still want to know what the campaigns fundraising costs were and how many people he had on staff? No doubt there was amazing resource mobilization.

In our three person shop the take away is - integrate all your communications. For example: send out a letter, tell folks you did it on your facebook page, send it out by email, find some excuse to get some media attention to remind people of your work, then phone them to make sure they received it. INTEGRATED strategies. Jonathon Grapsas talks about this too.

The beautiful thing about working in a small organization is that it is relatively easy for us (well me!) to do this. I imagine in a larger organization it would take a lot of negotiation between departments and many many meetings.

Oh one other thing - We talk about this campaign as being 90% grassroots driven - Remember. There was extraordinary wealth behind this campaign. The wealthy supporters influenced the outcome significantly. Major Donors can do more than write big cheques for us. Let's remember that!

Thank you for spending time here.

The Nice Things People Do

Hello,

Well this was one crazy week. Up and down the 400, a few snowstorms, power outages, new staff to train, donors and prospects to charm; I read some horrible news about sex crimes in the congo that had tears streaming into my keyboard, the bathroom flooded -while I was reading about the congo (which made the 130 year old plaster below very soggy!) and sadly I had a parting of ways with a friend.

THEN guess what happens - out of the blue and totally unsolicited someone offers to do something really nice for me this afternoon.

Before I tell you what that was you need to know that I am a luddite. The clock in my car is 70 minutes fast because I don't want to learn how to program it. This past year I just figured out text messaging and how to program contacts in my cell phone. I started a blog because I have things I want to say and talk about. NOT because I'm keen to learn how to manage and manipulate a website - that is what my 12 year old is for!

So today after some casual comments about the template of my blog, my friend John Lepp offered to fix the header. You may have noticed. This blog now has an "obama-ish" feeling about it! Thank you John, I'll try to live up to this great new look with some solid content.

Now don't all five you go rushing and asking John to do this for you. He is very busy and very expensive! (but worth every penny of course)

Today he shared his skills with someone who could use them and didn't even ask for them - no strings attached. John you are a very cool person!

Thank you for spending some time here.