As a 26 year old registered organ donor, I am aware of the desperation and need for organ donors within South Africa and our community.
What I see, every day is an ignorance. In essence, people are aware of death and that death can happen at any given time. What they are ignorant of, is how much that a single death of an organ donor, can change several lives.
I applaud your initiative and appeal for funds to raise both awareness and the number of organ donors, however I find it lacking.
Sending out an email to registered donors asking to add a debit order of R100.00 and in return will receive a silicone armband, no offense, is not going to illicit much of a response. Neither will spamming it on facebook, in fact, you’re more likely to lose persons who were originally interested in your page and the cause.
Let me explain why:-
Financially, times are tough. Price of petrol is rising endlessly which creates a chain reaction whereby, the price of food goes up, inflation goes up, rent and bonds go up and as we all know, our salary’s do not go up. South African’s are using credit facilities quite literally to keep afloat. I know this, because that’s what I do, and so do many countless others.
R100.00 nowadays, is quite literally precious.
No one wants to add a R100.00 debit order for which they know they cannot entirely commit to.
Secondly,
You provide a very empathetic email about how the lives that were changed and that you need to create awareness and need funds to do so. Yet I have never seen any real marketing. The internet is a now a marvelous thing, riddled with social media – facebook, myspace, youtube, twitter etc. A way to contact and interact with millions of people in the blink of an eye, of the 48 million plus of South Africa’s population and with the 1.2 million users of South African facebook users, you have a mere 15 000 people who like your page.
Social Media in today’s society especially in respect of NPO’s is a godsend. It no longer requires word of mouth of good deed’s or stories that save a life, it merely requires the click of a button.
This brings me to my next point.
I read your email and could hear the desperation in your plea and voice. But I felt no empathy at all. You are an “independent” third party. Where is the human connection? Where are the life changing stories of thanks from those people themselves? Where are their photos and videos?
I understand that, it is possible that some people may choose not to share their story but surely you want to promote the cause to the nth degree. I went on your website and noted that the last blog of someone’s story was updated in September 2013, an astounding 5 months ago. Am I to believe that the last transplant that occurred in South Africa happened 5 months ago?
When I read your email, I just read “give me R100.00”, not a R100.00, a R100.00 a month. That is R1200.00 for a silicone armband. This does not impress me. My mom and my boyfriend are organ donor’s. I asked my mom if she received the email, she said yes. I then enquired whether she would sign up for the debit order. She laughed and said she cannot afford R100 extra a month. My boyfriend doesn’t even read your emails, he just deletes them.
If I commit to a R100.00 debit order, I want to see where the funds are going. I went through your facebook page and your website. Your facebook page leaves something to be desired, there is no interaction to speak of. Where are date’s, photo’s, and proof of these educational programme’s, conferences, and events. Where are your motivational and inspirational words, photo’s or meme’s? People want to be inspired into helping, they need to feel a connection to the cause and they want to be involved. As an NGO, you should be seeking to help create that bridge, between what you need and what people want to give.
I noted with interest that the facebook page, despite a constant spam of “Please tell 7 people” and “commit to a R100 debit order”, the posts for this year so far have only focused on the Cape Town area. I am unsure as to whether simply because it is the place where you have the most interest or funds or control etc. But why is there no involvement in any of the other provinces (just by the way, I am from Durban).
Everything I see on your facebook and website, is passive. A perfect example is on your website where you state that the ODF is “invited” to, the ODF is invited to host an awareness stand at various events. The word “invited” implies being passive. It means that someone else held an event and invited you to join the party so to speak.
I am involved in a number of charity drives, events and organizations and there is nothing passive about it, we do not wait to be invited to anything. We approach people constantly, and we ourselves host charity drives, whether its volunteer work or trying to raise money and we get the community involved. It is entirely possible that I am reading too much into the way your website is written and this is of course my personal opinion on the matter.
In any event, I have given your ear a good chewing, so to speak.
Here are my suggestions.
1. Start taking an active approach. (I know funds are limited, but find interested volunteers, I promise you there are a lot out there who are willing to give of their time for free – it is a good cause, you just need to show them that)
2. Start holding charity drives / drives in different area’s and provinces (lets get away from the constant fix on Cape Town) and maybe get some friendly competition going between drives in the provinces.
There must be other ways of raising money besides imploring people to add a R100 debit order for a silicone bracelet. Find them, use them.
3. Marketing Strategy – you need to change it!
This facebook spam has got to go (please get a new facebook administrator). Get interesting, human interest stories of organ donors or donor receivers, hospital staff, doctors, nurses involved etc.
Get the medical community involved, by talking about how the ODF and how its education programs have changed them and their knowledge and maybe even their professional standing on organ donation. What about the cultural element in rural area’s, does this affect organ donation, how do you bridge the gap.
Get the legal community involved, by talking about the legislation and its impact.
Get personal opinions from everyone, what can we do to get more involvement.
4. Transparency.
Where are your funds coming from, how much do you have, how much do you need, and where is it going. As an NGO, people are donating their hard earned money to you. They want to know where it is going. Yes, you mention in your site, it goes to admin staff and the help line, into making information pamphlets etc and you mention some figures in the chartered flights etc.
Those are words, empty words, show photos of these 100 000 pamphlets getting distributed to trauma centres and rural clinics, give us a list of which trauma centres etc. What or who is to say that you don’t just spend the money on a massive salary for yourself. Do you see where I’m going with this?
5. Get active on your website.
Your blog is once again, passive. You allow users to join, write and post but lets be honest, not everyone wants to go that extra mile. What about emails, letters and photos of “happily ever after” stories that I know you and your organization must receive. Why aren’t these being posted by the administrators onto the blog?
As per number 2, drives and charity drives. It seems like the Foundation targets a minority of people i.e. already registered donors, and then you ask them for money. You should be branching out, the youth can be contacted via rotary clubs. We have many here in Durban. You can host events at any given time, we have financial and charity drives often at Markets and at Nightclubs, one in specific I can mention is The Winston.
The Winston is a pub / club that Durban live bands play at for the Durban alternative scene. Last year, we held a charity drive for a friend and member of the alternative scene who has cancer. A bunch of bands played for free and entrance at the door was a donation to the fund. It was hugely successful.
There are numerous markets every single month in and around Durban. Durban has the “I Heart Durban” Market, the Hillcrest market, the Shongweni market (the list goes on). Where you could have a stand or drive. For goodness sake, you can buy a bunch of roses and sell them at a higher price and use those finances. Selling the silicone armbands at these markets for R25.00 or R50.00 will definitely work, holding raffles etc. and having those information pamphlets at these stands and a sign up register for organ donors. In honesty there are millions of ways for you to raise money and sign up more donors and I just don’t see you taking that extra step or approach.
This brings my email to a conclusion.
I hope this email reaches you and you find it helpful.
Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any queries in respect of the above.
Kind Regards
To view the Organ Donor Foundation of South Africa's Website, please follow the link below:
https://www.odf.org.za/
