Communicable

Watch this! Haiti Earthquake Aftermath Montage from Khalid Mohtaseb on Vimeo.

It’s hard to count all the fundraisers, donations, and silent auctions that went on and are still going on to help Haiti in its earthquake aftermath. As we analyze our collective response, I suggest we also take some time to reflect on the future of fundraising. Haiti gave us a glimpse of what it takes: open heart, creativity, skills, social networks, and desire to do more, do something.

In troubled times, our true colours are shining through, and they are beautiful. Here are just some of the ways I have seen people step up and offer a helping hand; there are no doubt many other efforts worth mentioning.

I put together a subjective list of activities that made my eyes sparkle, and think of the changes in the ways we donate and fundraise. Please feel free to add to the list!

• People still love to get together: I call it the Events rule. HaiHaiTO: Toronto for Haiti has to be a number one event in my list, because I helped organize it and it’s so close to my heart. This was a social media fundraiser for Haiti, organized on twitter by a bunch of rogue grass-roots social misfits that never met, but still “wanted to do more”, and with help of hundreds of people who cared. HaiHaiTO raised just over $11,000, which was matched by the Federal government, totaling more than $22,000 for the Canadian Red Cross’s Haiti relief efforts. HaiHaiTO was just one of many events that took over the city; there were events-fundraisers every single night.

• Professional services in exchange for donations make us stronger and more responsible. Toronto Works for Haiti blew my mind. The concept is simple: a multi-talented group of volunteers offered their professional services in exchange for donations to Haiti. I like the creativity of this approach, and the total win-win situation it created. People need photographers, translators, social media help and tutoring anyway, and now they had a chance of getting the services they needed and making a charitable donation all at the same time. And it gets better: the organizers ended up auctioning 30 artworks and 20 service packages offered by their network of businesses and volunteers, with the proceeds going toward Haitian rebuilding efforts. They raised over $5,000. I have also seen the idea of “professional services in exchange for donations” in action with Hairdressers for Haiti, a network of great hair salons in Toronto offering free haircuts in exchange for donations. Yoga and fitness studios followed suit by offering free classes and 2-3 hour “marathons” – Toronto Fitness for Haiti (a simple Facebook page) quickly became the centre of action for the Toronto’s fitness community, raising many thousands of dollars. Crisis Camp came to the rescue by bringing together IT professionals, software developers, and computer programmers to Haiti’s aid. There were more examples of this, and, honestly, for a while it seemed you could literally live your life for Haiti by just going on with your life, paying with donations for every shopping trip, workout, night out, and haircut, or working for Haiti with whatever skill you happened to have. Except you had an extra incentive to be smart and responsible, making the choices that hopefully foster a positive change. I just love the true involvement, commitment, and community networks this kind of action creates. We are all better for it.

• Donations via text messaging went mainstream. I have never seen so many ways to text and donate, here’s just a few that come to mind. You could text “Haiti” to 90999 to make a $10 donation to the Red Cross; text “Yele” to 501501 to donate $5 or $10 to Yéle Haiti; text ”Haiti” to 45678 to donate $5 to the Salvation Army, or text “Haiti” to 25383 to donate $5 to the International Rescue Committee; text “Give” to 20222 and donate $10 or more to World Vision. I’m sure there’s more. Text messaging as means of giving and raising funds has officially come of age and went mainstream.

• Images still worth a thousand words. However grim and controversial was the media coverage of the disaster, and especially visual coverage, I would argue it helped to convey the magnitude of what happened, and  inspired people to act. You just couldn’t sit there, see it all, and do nothing. Seeing is believing.

• Social networks are useful for disseminating information. I have heard many arguments whether Facebook, twitter, and other social networks can be used for fundraising, and even wrote about some of the successful examples of this. Primarily, I think it’s more and more important to view social networks as information disseminators. Yes you can establish real relationships and create or formalize your following in some way, but the ultimate value of belonging and being active on social networks, from fundraising point of view, is in sharing information. And, in doing so, facilitating action.

• Arts for Haiti. In difficult times,we turn to the arts for help. I have seen numerous artists step up and do what they do best – transform our collective feelings, hopes and fears into art. Arts were literally everywhere; from the big concerts to small concerts, from paintings, posters, and t-shirts, from songs to theatre to dance to storytelling and spoken word. Ask yourself: Would we really know each other in the slightest without the arts? Would we help each other still? Would we survive?

Haiti taught us all incredible lessons in humanity and fundraising. It is my opinion that this disaster, and our collective response to the disaster, map a way into the future of fundraising. If there is anything to learn, anything at all, about the future of fundraising, whether short-term or long-term, local or international, Haiti is it.

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