The Opposite of Best Practices
Also known as The Worst Practices.
Earlier today I received a curious email from a guy named Larry Arnn, the President of ultraconservative Hillsdale College. First, set aside the fact that this email actually originated from Mike Pence’s political office and that I never - ever - signed up for that mailing list.
Second, the email starts with a story about Nike pulling the Betsy Ross flag from a sneaker design at the request of Nike-sponsored athlete and activist, Colin Kaepernick. As it happens, the Ross version of the flag has been adopted by some white nationalists and other groups that object to America’s growing racial diversity, so naturally Kap took issue with their decision and, after reflecting on the insensitivity of the design choice, Nike pulled the shoe.
But in a flourish of illogical prose, Arnn tries to explain that Nike‘s decision (mind you this was made in 2019!) is another example of “the Left’s hijacking of history education”.
Third, the email goes on to encourage educators to “nurture an informed patriotism among the young if our liberty is to be preserved,” which I think means that he wants to prevent people like Kap from protesting a symbol that represents white supremacism and colonialism and has been adopted by the Three Percenters, Proud Boys, and Oath Keepers, AND WOULD ALSO curtail Nike’s business’s right to COMMERCE and FREE SPEECH.
(Memo to big Lar’, those are important CLAUSES in the US Constitution.)
Finally - and this is the most embarrassing part - Hillsdale College follows this ultraconservative race-baiting nonsense with a request for a $76 DONATION - after which they would send me a “3' x 5' Betsy Ross Flag to thank you for your support.” Arnn then reminded me that “Supplies are limited, so please make your best tax-deductible gift right away”.
🤣🤣As a 20+ year professional fundraiser, it’s safe to say that this email represents the opposite of best practices. In fact, even without it’s personally offensive content (Hey Hillsdale, I am a huge Kap fan), it’s probably the worst appeal I have ever seen or received, and for the following reasons:
👉🏻It’s hostile from the jump.
👉🏻It doesn’t include my name in the greeting.
👉🏻It makes an illogical case for support (Give us money because…uh, freedom…and so we can stop…uh…speech from people we disagree with. Yay America!)
👉🏻And just when I’m about to hit delete: they hit me with the consumerism.
So the next time you or your organization decide to send out an appeal for a deeply held personal belief, tick the following boxes 1st:
make sure you’re sending it to the right people,
make sure that your message makes sense, and
please - PLEASE - don’t sell me anything.
Here’s another danger when swapping lists with other organizations and doing list cleaning where you inadvertently combine contact records that shouldn’t be combined. I continually get emails and texts for some guy named Brian who apparently has my same last name and likes similar causes. As the lists of these similar causes get swapped around, I get more and more messages from causes and political candidates that are inoffensive to me, but I don’t want to support.
Net result: I delete every single message from all of these organizations, including the ones I used to support, simply because I am being inundated with them. That means the original organization to which I donated has lost me as a donor.
If you swap a list,
1) demand that your organization will send out the email, snail mail or text for another organization using YOUR mail house or digital service. Never give your list to another organization directly. If you do, you have no assurance that they will only use it once, even if they agree to that in writing.
2) Engage in a list swap only once or twice a year.
3) make sure you have the ability to refuse to send out the proposed content if you sense people in your database may not like what they receive.