|
[Printer Friendly Version]
Chaperoning: The Alternative to List Rental and Spam
by Michael C. Gilbert, Apr. 2002
In my recent article about nonprofit spam, I briefly described an alternative to selling or renting email lists between organizations. I called it Chaperoning and I described it like this:
Instead of the World Wildlife Fund buying Columbia House's list and spamming it, they could ask Columbia House itself, which already has a relationship with its members, to send them a piece of email in which they suggest that they consider signing up for the WWF newsletter. If it seems unlikely that Columbia House would do this, then it's because they probably believe that their relationship with their members would suffer. Chaperoning enforces integrity on both parties.
I presented this concept in a little more detail at the recent NTEN conference, at a panel about Online Fundraising. I was impressed with the thinking in the room and at the tremendous interest in the concept. This article is a response to that interest.
A Fictional Example of Chaperoning
Dear Michael,
We're very thankful for your support of KCTS and of public
broadcasting and we value our relationship with you very
highly. Because of this, we do not share your name or contact
information with other organizations, no matter how much
we want you to know about them.
There is an organization I want to introduce you to, but I want
to put that decision in your hands. A few weeks ago, after a
special broadcast on the subject, you expressed interest in
more information about electronic privacy. There is an
organization that we admire, the Electronic Privacy Information
Center, that is doing some great work on the subject.
You can sign up to get EPIC's free email newsletter here:
http://thisurlclicksthroughtoanEPICsubscriptionform
I hope you'll take the time to learn more about them. We
know they respect your privacy as much as we do, so you'll
be able to unsubscribe at any time.
Sincerely,
Karen Aboutu
KCTS Television
Why Chaperoning is Better than Renting Lists
Most people who receive email because they are on a rented mailing list will perceive that email as spam, whether or not at some point in the past they technically agreed to have their information shared with other organizations. My previous article explains in some detail the damage that spam does to the sector and to the relationships on which nonprofit organizations depend. Chaperoning, on the other hand, leaves people feeling cared for and respected. It deepens the sense of commitment of the recipient to both organizations involved.
In addition to the respect incurred by the organization sending the email, that organization also benefits by not diluting the power of its list. It has complete control over how to husband that resource. If, for example, the organization has a "budget" of 100 pieces of email a year that it sends to its subscribers, the chaperoning email comes out of that budget and doesn't dilute the attention of the subscribers with unsolicited email from other sources.
Please note that there is absolutely no reason that an organization shouldn't charge for chaperoning another organization with its list. Indeed, I would not be surprised if this weren't a much more valuable offer than mere list rental.
The organization that is new to the recipient also benefits. Instead of being seen as a spammer, it is seen as a trusted partner to the organization that is recommending them. Although they might not have complete control of the message, the resulting list is likely to be far more committed than one that just doesn't bother to unsubscribe from a bunch of spam.
Opportunities for Chaperoning
There are many opportunities for successful chaperoning.
Certainly some nonprofit organizations are competitive with each other for public perception of leadership around a particular issue and for the financial support of those people. I honestly believe that, even in such situations, chaperoning has the potential to increase critical thinking around coalition building and the unique contributions of various organizations to a single issue. I call this Coalition Based Chaperoning.
Less involved are the opportunities for chaperoning in situations where there are already well established relationships between the organizations, such as with the public broadcasting example above. Organizations that already have fruitful partnerships will find it particularly easy to share the support of their stakeholders in creative and interesting ways. I call this Partnership Based Chaperoning.
Even less complex is what I call Demographically Based Chaperoning. Organizations that share neither a core area of work nor a partnership might nevertheless have substantial overlap in the kind of people who support them. An example brought up in my workshop was when celebrities introduce their fans to an organization.
Chaperoning is just "tell a friend" writ large. As such, it has all the same potential for scaling up successful relationship building online. I would go so far as to hope that, perhaps, if it is successful as an alternative to list rental and spam online, it might even migrate to the world of direct mail and telemarketing. If that happens, I know that millions of people will breathe a sigh of relief. Some of them might even start answering the phone again.
If you found this article interesting or helpful,
please consider making a donation to Nonprofit Online News.
It will probably feel good!
|
RSS