Jaime Stein represents a new breed of non-profit campaign contributors – one whose efforts can be easily hidden by traditional fundraising measurements.
A 2013 Case Study in Non-profit fundraising [or should we call it contribution raising?]
@JaimeStein is deeply involved in #Climb4Cord; a fundraising event where a select group of executives climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds for the Canadian Blood Services ambitious project to raise funds for a national public umbilical cord blood bank. This event just happened in August 2013 and the whole team raised an impressive $350K.
By traditional measurement, Jaime was listed as the third top fundraiser (last time I checked) – a wonderful achievement given the aggressive goals and fundraising achievements of his colleagues in #ClimbforCord. [let’s give pause to recognize all of them who signed up to climb the side of a massive mountain and committed to raising >$1K]
I first became aware of @JaimeStein ‘s efforts – as he announced his 6 – 8 month long training program and invited friends to sign up in a Google Calendar for one of his weekly training hikes in Toronto #KiliHikeTO. I had the pleasure of walking with @JaimeStein on April 11 <- his blog captures this.
I count Jaime among the new breed of social wunderkind – who are as active outside of their emploi as they are inside it. Folks who expertly leverage social media or technology partnership to advance their personal ambitions ( like the impressive @sneiditee @hessiejones @mmonaa @helenandrolia @natandmarie or @greenwooddavis ). Among his many efforts, Jaime participated in #BeerHikeTO evenings with friends, secured awareness, commitment and generous donation from ING Direct and worked with good folks from Roadpost to secure satellite technology ( DeLorme inReach satellite communicators) to test and send progress of his trek back through social media channels. [Jaime’s blog post on the very cool technology here]. He no doubt contributed to the over 3100 mentions on twitter, 27 blog posts and over 192 news articles covering the climb. [sysomos for #climb4cord, #beerhikeTO, #kilihikeTO in the last 12 months]. The folks tweet sharing Jaime’s climb messages included some great Canadian twitspokespeople – the @CEO_INGDIRECT, @DaveoHoots, @CTVCanadaAM, Erica @YummyMummyClub.
Jaime created tremendous awareness and consideration for #Climb4Cord – of course, he was the lead for social media efforts for the climb – but still contributions well beyond revenue. I think someone like Jaime is needed on every major non-profit fundraising (contribution) drive. The trick will be to identify the ‘influencer’ properly (recommended reading of @DannyBrown @SamFiorella ‘sInfluence Marketing book as a great start)
But in reviewing the donation website, I was stuck that Jaime’s other efforts were not affecting his ‘rank’ as a fundraiser – and yet – by blogging, running Twitter events, inviting Canadians to joining his personal training – he was likely creating far more impact than revenue. Most fundraising goals are clearly expressed in dollars — and yet, for a non-profit that also relies on generating awareness of a new cord blood bank and encouraging personal cord (and blood) donations, non-revenue metrics must be valued as much as generating revenue. I’m certain Jaime’s efforts are not lost on Canadian Blood Services – they have come across influence marketing in its truest form. Jaime is personally connected to the cause and happens to be a brilliant marketer (in social and otherwise). It may just be the website and measurement had not yet caught up to fundraiser like Jaime. Yet, I am left wondering if there are other non-profits who have yet to measure efforts like Jaime’s – who is ushering in new levels campaign contribution.
Let me know your thoughts.
