An Example of How To Pitch a Blogger: Global Giving UK and Philanthropy Predictions for 4th Quarter 2008

David Wilcox does an impromptu video of the GlobalGiving UK crew which launched yesterday.   The interview is with Sharath Jeevan and his colleagues Rachel Smith and Svetlana Gitman.   David shares why he decided to respond to the blogger outreach - a counterpoint to my advice about what not to do:

I went along because an email from Svetlana was a model of how an organization can reach out to bloggers.  After explaining Globalgiving Svetlana wrote:

I was wondering if you were interested in learning more about us and maybe featuring us on your blog or offering us ideas about how to improve our social media avenues? Steven Blyth, Steve Bridger, and Beth Kanter all spoke very highly about you and and recommended that I contact you directly. I was hoping you would be interested in learning more about us, featuring us on your blog or offering suggestions on how we can broaden our marketing approach through the incorporation of social media. I know you met our chief executive Sharath Jeevan, at an event a few months ago, and as a team we would like to stay in contact with you.

As David notes, the pitch was personal just like their giving model.  David also says that he was interested in the idea of person-to-person giving - and had written about it on his blog here where he talks about the book If the World Were a Village and how it brings global issues down to local level. 

But once you’ve understood better, how can you follow through and do something smallscale, personal and significant?" and suggests that Globalgiving offers one route. The old adage about fund raising is that people give to people. If your gift is global you may need some personable intermediaries.

What's so cool is that my favorite charity, the Sharing Foundation, is on this page too!  We're looking forward to welcoming donors from the UK.

David gives some links at the end that talk about this "personable intermediaries"

• Do we really need charities? - can we by-pass charitable bureaucracy?
• Kiva.org and the Social Capital markets II - other examples of “second wave philanthropy”
• Meet the patrons - benefits and risks of social networking in fundraising
• Projects Direct - Oxfam provides the opportunity for direct donations to communities

Tom Watson of CausedWired has another example of blogger outreach - he is offering free review copies of his forthcoming book titled "CauseWired" - he blogged the pitch and did one-on-one follow up with bloggers.

For more on what's happening with different giving platforms, see Social Actions 9/12/08 roundup and Lucy Bernholz's philathanthropy predictions for Nov/Dec 2008.  Will personable intermediaries and funding local issues be on the horizon for trends in 2008 year end or beyond?