John Coventry from GoFundMe shares his insights and experience of launching and using innovative new platforms to make real world change and take a look at future trends.

1. CROWDFUNDING AND
THE POWER OF
THE PETITION
John will share his insights and experience of launching
and using innovative new platforms to make real world
change and take a look at future trends.
John Coventry

2. Learning to let go
(and what panda breeding
teaches us about modern
campaigning)

3. Coming up
● A few campaigns….
● What on earth is happening?
● Panda Theory (or, more sensibly, the opportunity for
organisations)
● The hard choices, important ingredients and things you
can do now
● Questions

9. What do these have in common?
● Transfer of power
● Clear, tangible example of a much greater injustice (little
Big Thing)
● Powerful story
● Smashing cynicism and apathy
● Not owned by an institution (but maybe supported by one)
● Fast, agile, not constrained by process or structure

10. Why is this hapenning?

11. Trust exorcised

13. Just think about the internet for a sec...
I

14. Consumption has changed (sorta)

15. Consumption and engagement has changed

16. The power of the feedback loop
● People are good at chatting -
individuals with a story to tell have
mastered the art of feeding back and
updating supporters (maybe better than
organisations have!?)
● It’s arguably more impactful on a donor
to give £10 to campaign that raises
£500 for a specific aim than to put that
tenner into a huge general fund
campaign
● These things are habit forming (and the
basis of many successful consumer
internet products)
● In our world these are about impact,
identity, tribalism

17. There’s good and bad bits to this...
● It’s massively exciting and inspiring
● It’s bringing in new activists and a newly
engaged audience to a huge range of
causes
● People are jumping between causes
● Donating as an act of solidarity is
starting to become a thing
●

18. Panda theory (or, more
sensibly, how can
organisations win in this
context)

20. Some facts about Pandas….
● Pandas only ovulate once a year
● Ultrasounds don’t work on pandas
● You only get the pregnancy signals four or five years after mating
● Ultimately - all a keeper can do is make the conditions right for success and
hope all the effort you put into getting those conditions right work out in the
end

21. Panda theory = it’s really hard
to predict the outcome, so
focus on getting the
conditions right for success

22. Getting the conditions right - questions to ask
● Are we set up to take advantage of the opportunities?
● Are we confident enough in our messaging, policy and positioning to let others advocate for us
(rather than us advocating for them)
● If it doesn’t go exactly right (or worse) sometimes, what will we think about that?
● Are we, honestly, able to draw enough on a big enough group of supporters to make this work?

27. The hard choices to be made
● The end of the Big Campaign and the growth of the Narrative and Spikes?
● It’s hard to not be in total control
● Your brand is at risk, people are inherently unpredictable, that’s why they’re
great
● It doesn’t always work
● People shout, and cry and swear on the radio - but every single time they’ve
been successful, it’s because they’ve been so real
● Lose the polish - people want immediately moving content, less fussed about
sheen and shine

28. Some of the important ingredients
● Pace is everything. News cycles move fast and are both driven by online
AND take the internet with them.
● Get up and out, even if it’s imperfect. It’s the internet, you can respond to
challenges and fix them while you’re flying
● The person out front and the clarity of the demand are crucial. Get these
right and add the pace to it and you’re almost made
● Get to where the public and where the journalists are - many people, even
good people, thought banknotes was pointless at the time. Ended up
inspiring a huge number of campaigns on a range of representation issues
● Fail well, learn lots, trust your colleagues

30. What can you do now?
● If you’re not already, start playing around with the tools and thinking through
the systems
● Become an advocate for distributed campaigning and fundraising within the
organisation
● How can this fit into your long term plan and pieces of it (influencers;
lobbying; fundraising and wider marcomms)
● Are there any little wins out there you can use as proof of concept?