Be Our Guest: Sam Davidson

Sam Davidson from Cool People Care is the latest Be Our Guest participant. Sam is a Samford University alum who previously worked with the Oasis Center in Nashville. Part of his role with the Oasis Center was teaching leadership to high school students through hands-on community service. This experience, coupled with his time working in the for-profit sector led him to found Cool People Care, a media and lifestyle company that seeks to pair people who want to save the world with local opportunities to do so. Since forming in 2006, CPC has helped over 2,500 non-profits advertise their opportunities to our loyal audience of socially-motivated young people.

I thank Sam for founding CPC and for taking part in the Be Our Guest series. Enjoy his answers and provide your thoughts on his comments and question for the group.

What is the biggest challenge your fundraising efforts currently face?

Many nonprofits want a quick strike. They want to be able to say something quickly online, whether it's through social media or email, and reap huge donations. Very few understand that it takes time because people want a relationship. (DTM note: Amen Sam!)

What are you doing to overcome these challenges?

We're helping nonprofits craft social media and digital branding strategies in order to reach a younger audience with their message. We teach and then implement these plans so that nonprofits can see themselves as having a story to tell via specific tools, especially if they want to reach Gen Y.

What is the most successful change/program implementation you have made in your current role?

Cool People Care has seen a lot of success with our own campaigns - our daily reach is well over 10,000 people at the moment. All of our nonprofit partners reap the benefits of this reach as we actively promote their work through our channels.

Where do you see social-media’s best application for fundraising?

Social media is best for storytelling. People - particularly young people - won't give you money if they don't know you. Because it's low-cost, social media is a great place to start telling a story, attract a new audience, and then over time, develop a relationship with this audience.

CPC on: Twitter / Facebook / MySpace / YouTube / LinkedIn

What book / blog / twitter feed would you suggest fundraisers pay attention to?

Beth Kanter's blog, Rosetta Thurman's blog and Kivi Leroux Miller's book, The Nonprofit Marketing Guide.

What question would you find most useful for readers to answer?

What's the first nonprofit you donated to? (DTM: I remember donating time to Daffodil Days as a little kid, because the pic ended up in the local newspaper. The first for money was likely something like Penn State's Dance Marathon.)

Editor's side note:

CPC organized some great efforts to help people in Nashville after the recent floods. One of my favorites was the "We Are Nashville" campaign and associated t-shirts, etc. Click here for more.

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