Capacity Building through Marketing and Celebrity Endorsements

Water.org took a unique approach to marketing with this YouTube add. Instead of using a traditional public service announcement via TV commercial, they resorted to hosting a fictitious press release with Matt Damon.  The use of celebrity endorsements by non-profits is nothing new, but this ad struck me as unique in that it adds humor to a very serious issue in order to gain awareness.  But did the ad work? According to Damon, "Statistics like 'every 20 seconds a child dies from a preventable water-borne illness’ are shocking and true. But people aren’t shocked by statistics. And they don’t want to share them with their friends.” After launching this video, the visits to water.org's website doubled its record high, with over 90,000 visitors taking some sort of action, whether it was signing up for water.org's newsletter or making a gift to the website.  The conversion rate of viewers to those who took action is predicted to be around 35%, an astonishing rate compared to most viral PSA programs.  Furthermore, the aggregate social reach of this program is expected to exceed $16 million people. 

But can Water.Org support this level of capacity, and where do they go from here?  According to McKinsey & Company, there are 7 elements of nonprofit capacity including:  Aspirations, Strategy, Organizational Skills, Human Resources, Systems and Infrastructure, Organizational Structure, and Culture.  Currently Water.org has an operating budget of around $9 million annually and 37 full time staff. It was founded in 1990 in Kansas City, and now operates in 8 countries.  This non-profit is relatively small considering the its level of awareness.  The culture of the organization gives the perception that it is much larger and young in character.  The reason for this being the Matt Damon press release is targeting a younger demographic, one that may not typically donate to such causes or be aware of the need for clean water across the world.  By targeting this market segment via celebrity endorsements, water.org is diversifying its donor capital by appealing to younger audiences. 

Significant capacity building by non-profits is often times more difficult to achieve than for-profits due to financial and operational constraints.  Water.org is seeking new ways to reduce this financial constraint through expanding its donor base.  Furthermore, employing volunteers to help further the firm's cause reduces the operational constraint as well.  The mission of water.org is incredibly daunting, in that it seeks to help over 2 billion people in the world.  However, innovative approaches such as this ad will help the organization to remain competitive and solvent, characteristics that many non-proits struggle to achieve.

sources:

http://water.org/about/

http://www.fastcocreate.com/1682644/matt-damon-and-waterorg-on-building-a-winning-youtube-campaign-toilet-striking

http://www.vppartners.org/learning/reports/capacity/assessment.pdf