Comments on: When 4 Out of 5 Doesn’t Work: Vision, Mission, Plan, Demand, & Demand http://spurspectives.com/when-4-out-of-5-doesn%e2%80%99t-work-vision-mission-plan-demand-demand/ Thoughts on the intersection of social media and 1:1 marketing Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:45:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Gabriela Fitz http://spurspectives.com/when-4-out-of-5-doesn%e2%80%99t-work-vision-mission-plan-demand-demand/#comment-5915 Gabriela Fitz Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:55:42 +0000 http://spurspectives.com/?p=154#comment-5915 You couldn't be more right! The rub of course is that what most often motivates people who do social change work is the community demands/needs, not the donor demands/needs. The trick is to maintain the right balance with the appropriate level of emphasis on the community's needs (which after all is where community benefit organizations should focus their efforts and expertise). Where it gets especially tough, and I speak here from experience, is when you are trying to solve a social problem that most donors don't even know exists. So for instance with the work that IssueLab does, talk to most nonprofits and they are keenly aware of how tough it is to get attention for their research. Talk to most donors and they'll ask "doesn't google take care of that?". Sadly most of these information consumers/donors don't even know what we're missing until we tell them. So, like all things in this "marketplace" of services and goods, the perception of need and demand needs to be cultivated. And now, we're talking about marketing! :) You couldn’t be more right! The rub of course is that what most often motivates people who do social change work is the community demands/needs, not the donor demands/needs. The trick is to maintain the right balance with the appropriate level of emphasis on the community’s needs (which after all is where community benefit organizations should focus their efforts and expertise).

Where it gets especially tough, and I speak here from experience, is when you are trying to solve a social problem that most donors don’t even know exists. So for instance with the work that IssueLab does, talk to most nonprofits and they are keenly aware of how tough it is to get attention for their research. Talk to most donors and they’ll ask “doesn’t google take care of that?”. Sadly most of these information consumers/donors don’t even know what we’re missing until we tell them.

So, like all things in this “marketplace” of services and goods, the perception of need and demand needs to be cultivated. And now, we’re talking about marketing! :)

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