The 30 second challenge

Time is a barrier to giving. Which is why anything that helps speed up giving helps increase response. Premium micro-donations are proof of point.

Donating on-line can be fairly torturous. It takes time. It's utterly infuriating. Well not unless you're our friends at PayPal. These guys know what they're doing. It took less than 30 seconds for me to donate to the Flood Appeal today – and that included Gift Aid.

Give it a go.

And thanks PayPal and Mission Fish for getting involved.

One major donor you'd want to hold onto...

Sticking with our recent Big Brother theme...

Story here

Self Moderation in Action...

Tim weighs in. Ouch.God bless the minority of good souls like this.And God, if you fancy smiting a few people...

Bloody Hell...

Hmmmm. Further to my post of 29 minutes ago, it seems that 360,000 fans translates to a torrent of madness.

So far, the UNICEF appeal has 71 likes and 218 comments.

A few are like this...
But most are like this...
For once I really don't know what to write. Go and see it for yourself.

James

Big Thanks to Big Brother...

Huge thankyou to the BB Facebook team. Let's see what 360,000 fans translates to...

How Big Exactly?

Rich posted a similar thing a while back that showed how big the gulf oil slick was. So here's the Pakistan Flood if it had started in our office. You can make your own here.

I wonder how you make a Google map of how huge it has to get before the rest of the world gives a s**t.

James

Sort it out!

Today's Front Page News:

Oxfam - Northern Pakistan has been affected by the worst floods in living memory
UNICEF - This emergency is bigger than the Tsunami, Haiti, and the last Pakistan earthquake put together
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - In the past I have visited the scenes of many natural disasters around the world, but nothing like this

Daily Mail - End of the Road for Clampers
Daily Express - Your Pension Pot Crashes
The Independent - Thanks for the Memories
The Mirror - The Kelly Files...No more lies
The Telegraph - Questions over Blair donation to British Legion
The Guardian - Taliban call for joint inquiry on civilian deaths

If you haven't. Please do...

Nothing says urgent like a stamp!

Not so long ago, James mentioned how bizarre the idea of using 'bespoke' stamps was to create a feeling of urgency. As if every charity in town has these ready-made stamps lying around just waiting for the next emergency! The funny thing is, I can't think of a better way to do the job...

Above is a year's worth of stamps. Click for a closer look!

Richard

Some random thoughts on interviews and designers

Last week proved to be an exceptionally busy one here, not least due to an emergency appeal for Christian Aid and street activity for British Red Cross in response to the Pakistan floods. As well these though, we were interviewing designers and design interns. A strange situation for me to be in, as not so long ago ago it was me being interviewed.

Anyway, having met 6 potential co-workers and sifting through 188 (yes, I did just count them) emails full of CVs and portfolios here are some random observations:

1. There are a LOT of designers looking for work – some very good, a lot not.

2. If you want to work for a company, please spell their name correctly.

3. In fact, spell check your whole email. And do write an email. 'Hi, here's some work' doesn't really convey your enthusiasm.

4. As much as I would have liked to, it's impossible to reply to everyone individually. There are just not enough hours in the day.

5. NOBODY has any direct mail in their portfolios. (This wasn't a surprise.)

6. Do make sure your work is in some way relevant to what we do though. I saw a lot of VERY nice illustrations, but we're all about raising money here!

Hm, that all sounds a little negative... it wasn't meant to!

I know nobody ever leaves comments on here, but if anyone has anything interesting to share/add/argue about interviews or whatever, do feel free to post them (not you mum)!

Richard

iStock Cares...

...so much so in fact, that for my $300 of new credit I got to give $3 to Medecins Sans Frontiers. Huzzah. Pub time - have excellent weekends if anyone is reading...

Richard

Charity Gets Daring

Grown-up and sophisticated it ain't. But make it past the ugliness of the website, and there's a nifty idea in MyDunkTank.

It works like this. Some wacky type wants to raise money for charity. They post a shortlist of dares on the DunkTank site. And their friends donate to the dare they'd most like to see done - doubtless with sniggers aplenty.

Of course, people have always loved doing silly things for charity. It's just that in the 21st century, DunkTank is the perfect place to publicise them - in all their head-shaving, fancy-dressing, baked-bean-bathing glory.

Hannah

It's nice to be asked

Greenpeace have invited me to a party in Sipson at the end of August. That’s the place where the third runway for Heathrow Airport was to have been built if it weren’t for our successful campaigning (and the coalition Government).

Inviting supporters to do stuff and be involved is great. Asking them to actually come to a party or meet a beneficiary is normally a privilege reserved for people with 'major donor' status. I’ve always thought that this is nuts.

There’s always the irrational fear that if you invite thousands of 'regular givers' to visit your centre or project, all of them will say yes and swamp you. Some will, but most won’t. So I don’t understand why we don't ask donors to participate more.

I can't make the party in Sipson, and I bet most recipients won't either. But it made me, and I imagine many other supporters, happy to be invited.

And the people that do go to the party? Donors for life, I guess.

Mark