Content Remains the Monarch 👑
Week 2: Brought to you by Good Dog Strategies
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Accessing the creator space
I publish this newsletter on Substack. I support a few writers on Patreon. And I spend about three hours a day on OnlyFans. I’m kidding about that last one, but these are three platforms catered to content creators that actually help those creators monetize their work.
These creator-centric platforms are killing it. In addition to the chart above that uses data from the Knight Foundation, here are a few examples, per Apptopia and as reported by Axios…
Substack has more than 250,000 paid subscribers and its top 10 publishers together earn more than $10 million a year.
Patreon is now valued at $1.2 billion and might go public in 2021.
Twitch, which was already big, doubled its user base during the pandemic.
For nonprofits, I think there is an opportunity within this burgeoning creator space. The contrast with the big social platforms is clear: Facebook will provide you impressions, reach and a high number of low-commitment engagements from people who happen to see your ad or post. Creators will provide you access to the inboxes of smaller yet highly engaged audiences or will give you airtime during a live, interactive broadcast to folks who are incredibly passionate about a certain topic. It’s quantity versus quality in the starkest terms.
For the next paid fundraising or marketing push I manage for a nonprofit, I plan to include a creator component to the campaign, such as sponsoring a newsletter (hint hint, subscribers) or connecting with streamers who might be interested in supporting the cause. For instance…
If you have a 5K coming up as part of your peer-to-peer fundraising strategy, why not sponsor a week of The Lap Count to reach thousands of passionate runners? (Note: Giving Season is modeled after The Lap Count)
At this point, almost every organization has Twitch livestreamers among its audience. Why not reach out and share this comprehensive Google Doc that gives creators all the details they need to run an effective charity stream?
Creator platforms don’t always play nice with common peer-to-peer apps or payment processors. Why not be open to new things and create a page on Tiltify, which syncs well with Twitch and is the currently only way to get listed as an approved charity on TikTok?
Scaling strengths
A group of African leaders in science and public health have written a letter to U.S.-based funders calling on them to make their policies and practices more just and inclusive for their target populations, says Quartz Africa. This caught my eye because I have had the privilege recently to work with a few organizations operating in the international development space and these organizations are often intensely focused on honoring and including the communities with which they’re working in their program and service delivery.
In fact, the organizations talk frequently about the immense value of a strengths-based approach to international development as opposed to the needs-based approaches of years past. Their philosophy essentially boils down to a question - how can we design a program that focuses on what gives the recipients vitality rather than on what problems, issues or needs they face? The results between these two approaches diverge dramatically, with quantitative and empirical data from asset-centered methods far outpacing needs-centered methods, all leading to more participatory, generative and impactful programs.
As someone who has worked in marketing and fundraising for a majority of my career, I now realize that I have taken a sort of strengths-based approach in driving growth outcomes. Campaigns start out broad with a number of tactics and budget spread across channels. Over time, the tactics or channels that aren’t performing are closed down and budget is shifted to the most efficient activities. When the next campaign arrives, we don’t dwell on what hasn’t worked - we focus entirely on how we can continue to nurture and scale the strengths of the program.
I am now seeing strengths-based angles to every area of nonprofit operations, from talent development to strategic planning to financial management. It’s good to see the conversation still happening at the highest levels and on large government-funded initiatives, but I’m going to make it a habit of having the same conversations about my own work, projects and relationships.
Another ‘new normal’ proof point
As we all know, life and work after the pandemic is not going back to the way it was, at least not for a long time. We talked about some of the lessons learned about the remote workplace last week along with some 2020 vs 2019 online marketing and fundraising data points that highlighted some shifts in the sector. Now, how about a survey?
According to data collected CAF America, over 83% of nonprofit organizations made significant changes to their strategies, programs or operations during the pandemic. Whether it was scaling up, scaling down or completely redefining the organization, very few simply stood put.
That is a seismic shift in the space. Some other highlights:
Of the new strategies that nonprofits plan to keep around post-pandemic, partnerships with other organizations was near the top of the list. We know that the nonprofit sector has started to mirror the private sector more and more closely over the years, but value-add partnerships are actually something nonprofits haven’t leveraged nearly as often as their for-profit counterparts and could represent a market inefficiency that opportunistic organizations could benefit from.
Costs are going up for 60% of nonprofits. I found this a bit surprising with the downsizing and the rampant divestiture of office space, but I guess it makes sense with 83% of the industry is restructuring in some way. It will take time to regain some economies of scale.
When organizations were asked which aspect of organizational management would need to be strengthened post-pandemic, the top response was fundraising and donor relationship management with communications, a key component of good fundraising, coming in second. In my experience, a precious few organizations really make a good connection between their marketing and “sales” functions by building a strong and thoughtful donor pipeline. But, at the same time, there is huge upside for nonprofits that do make these types of investments.
Two more quick follow-ups from last week
I wrote about the GameStop madness last week and how a few loud voices on the internet drove the company’s value sky high and drove millions in donations to select nonprofits after the traders had reaped their rewards.
Well, it turns out the dynamic isn’t limited to stocks. An invitation for a 17th-birthday party for Adrian Lopez, a high school student from southern California, apparently went viral on TikTok, drawing thousands of strangers to fire pits at Huntington Beach, CA.
“It was meant to be for my school,” said Adrian to the New York Times. LOL.
Profit! Profit!
I also wrote last week about how some companies - namely, Little Caesars - offer customers the ability to run fundraisers using their products. However, based on the prices they charge for those products, the companies are likely making a healthy profit margin off items fundraisers have helped sell to their friends and family.
After emailing Little Caesars, I got the expected response: “We don’t share information about our profit margins.” But guess what? I’ll source a deserving nonprofit from this newsletter’s subscriber base and will start a pizza fundraiser for said nonprofit if Little Caesars announces they’ll sell their pizza kits at cost. (I’ll email back and tag the company on social when I post this later this week).
Pick-me-ups, if needed
Graduation season is wrapping up and whenever I see the pictures of young people in caps and gowns, I am always reminded of David Foster Wallace’s epic commencement speech delivered at Kenyon College in 2005.
In similar fashion, whenever I see advertisements for ESPN’s Espy Awards held annually during the summer months, I always think of Jim Valvano’s moving address given just months before his death in 1993. The speech spurred hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to cancer research and untold progress toward curing the terrible disease.
If you have a minute, watch both and enjoy. Have a week, folks.