Last night, I attended a multi-city happy hour hosted by Advertising Age. The event took place simultaneously in New York, San Francisco, Detroit, Boston, Bentonville, Atlanta, New Orleans and Chicago. It was pretty fun. I was introduced to some directors of human resources and some account executives of retail media companies. I also got to mingle with some of my friends from local design and marketing firms. To my surprise, they already knew about and were enthralled with the calendar project. So far, we’ve raised over $12,700 in just 48 days. Everyone wanted to know how we did it. What was our marketing strategy? What was our end goal? What measures were we using to gauge our success? What was our budget? What will make you feel like you did your job?
There are some details in the answers to those questions. We created a seed market. We took advantage of our social networks. We studied the best practices and tips offered by articles in Mashable and in The Social Media Examiner. We did a little of this and we did a little of that. As I was talking, I realized I shouldn’t be so forthcoming with the details of “how we did it.” On some level, that stuff becomes intellectual property and I shouldn’t be giving it all away. Remember The Joker’s advice in The Dark Knight? “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.”
People will pay good money for that kind of knowledge. People are hired into full-time positions to do what we did. People make a living off of work like this. With that in the back of my mind, I closed my mouth and invited people to read my blog and visit the calendar’s website. That information is free, but if you want particulars and a detailed road map of our strategy, then you’re going to have to offer me something in return.
To my surprise, people at that happy hour agreed with me. To my surprise, they invited me to meet with their board of directors. People invited me to consider job opportunities. To my surprise, a large number of the people at that gathering are very big supporters of It Gets Better. They shared with me their own story of how they, too, were bullied as teens. While others were making the rounds, trading business cards and resumes, a small band of us stood in a corner talking about doing a greater good and about a need for selfless-giving to be built into the very foundation of a new human condition. I bring a potato. You bring a carrot. Together we both eat better. I like to think this project of ours can illustrate this point. I like to think we’re making a difference.
Since its launch 48 days ago on September 27th, we have raised more than $12,700. We’ve shipped to over 430 different locations worldwide. We’ve sold more than 860 copies of the calendar. We’ve watched as our website has been hit more than 450,000 times. We raised five figures in donations without any professional marketing experience; without a formal plan; and without the assistance of external support. We did it ourselves. The most interesting figure for me, however, is zero. We didn’t have a budget. We didn’t have a single dime to pull this off. Not. One. Cent.
When we started the calendar project, I thought we might create a little conversation around the stereotype of librarians. I thought the project might raise a couple of thousand dollars for It Gets Better. I thought producing the calendar would be just plain fun. Things, however, have a way of taking on a life of their own. The calendar is one of these things.
I used to fantasize about being invited to sit with Jon on The Daily Show. Now, the reality is that people want to talk to me about fundraising strategies for non-profits. These are people who are less interested in librarianship and librarians and more interested in talking about the calendar project as a model for future fundraising projects. People also email me regularly asking to be part of next year’s calendar. (We don’t have any plans to do one. Sorry. Think this is a one-shot deal). Organizations, periodicals and newspapers from San Francisco, Austria, and the United Kingdom email me asking for press kits, review copies and permission to use our photos. People are genuinely interested in this project and for a variety of reasons not necessarily related to librarianship.
This makes me happy. As for our end goal? I don’t think we had one other than just getting the thing produced and sold. It took a long time and it crashed and burned a few times along the way so I’m just glad it’s out there. What would make me feel like we did our job? In a few days, we’ll be transferring more than $12K to It Gets Better. I won’t say “mission accomplished” because we haven’t even hit the holiday shopping season yet; but if the music were to stop now, we’d have a very big chair to sit on.
This, too, makes me happy.