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“Whose side are you on?”
That’s a fraught question, given the ferocity of Israel-Gaza and election disagreements, but it’s what charity:water recently asked its supporters in a digital campaign. Like hosts at Thanksgiving dinners, most fundraisers shy away from issues that split their donor families, but the international relief group took on the country’s most bitter divisions. Sort of.
Supporters who clicked through found an interactive quiz that asked them to vote on critical issues. Like whether pineapple belongs on pizza. Do socks go with sandals? And how do you hang toilet paper, over or under? Social media followers were asked to choose between coffee and tea and the Twilight movie characters Edward and Jacob.
The campaign aimed to offer a bit of levity during the election year’s often contentious times. “We wanted to get some engagement with people who might enjoy having a little fun during a time that otherwise feels quite heavy,” says chief revenue officer Ben Greene. “Could we do something that puts a smile on people’s faces?”
The group, an international development organization that builds wells and clean-water systems, used the moment to underscore its belief that its work transcends differences. “No matter which side you’ve taken in the battle of opinions,” the quiz concluded, “equitable access to clean water is one thing we can all agree on.”
“We think about our mission as a unifier,” Greene says. “We are about getting clean water to people who need it. And there are a lot of people who can get behind that.”
That seems like an appealing message for any service nonprofit that helps people improve their lives, but most groups balk at anything that even glancingly touches on today’s hot-button issues. “I give them credit for doing this,” says Mark Rovner, founder of Sea Change Strategies, a fundraising consultancy. “It is sort of gutsy.”
During the 2016 election, Best Friends, an animal-welfare organization, ran a “cheeky” campaign asking supporters to vote for cats versus dogs, but they haven’t tried anything similar since. “Given that our culture and brand focus on positivity, we choose to stay the course even during election years,” director of membership Barbara Camick wrote in an email. Some donors say they appreciate the group’s communications “as a respite from the political drama.”
Charity:water launched the quiz on World Water Day. In years past, it marked that day with what Greene describes as “on the nose” campaigns that highlighted the impact of its work. Last year, its digital campaign featured a giant calendar and promoted donations as a way to “buy back time” for people who otherwise had to spend hours walking to a water source.
This year’s campaign was aimed at engagement more than revenue. It promoted the organization’s lowest-ever monthly-giving subscription — $3.33, or enough to give at least one person access to clean water for a year. The effort didn’t generate remarkable revenue, Greene says, but the share of people who signed up as monthly donors topped last year’s World Water Day effort by 50 percent. Also: The click rate on the email with the interactive quiz ran three times higher than average.
The campaign is not a one-off. Greene says the organization’s fundraisers will return to the theme throughout the year: “Clean water is something we can all agree on.”
“These days, it seems so easy to hear opinions of what people are against,” CEO Scott Harrison wrote to supporters on World Water Day. “But there’s also something powerful about being for something good.”
Harrison also offered his take on the quiz: “I don’t know why you’d ruin pizza with fruit.”
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