(Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes)
How do you eat an elephant? Why, according to Eleanor Edwards of Give A Brick, one bite at a time!
Eleanor was faced with the problem of raising a fairly substantial amount of money (£100,000), substantial that is, for Cross Hands Christian Community Centre in Wales. Raising that kind of money is a bit like eating an elephant, where do you start?
Eleanor’s solution: Register a charity focused on raising money for building supplies, put it on the web… and leverage WordPress and Twitter to get the, well, word out: your £1 buys a brick.
Thus, Give A Brick, UK Registered Charity #1121744, was born.
The really cool thing, in my opinion (which counts ’cause I used work construction), is that each £1 donation pretty much buys a real, physical brick. That’s pretty cool in my book.
It turns out that Eleanor writes very well (Give A Brick is fun to read), and she is very actively – and effectively – promoting Give A Brick.
I had to find out more. Here’s an email micro-interview with Eleanor.
WiaW: Did you have any experience with fund raising before GAB?
The short answer is no. The exception being the sponsored silence I did when I was 16 ;)
WiaW: What was your biggest hurdle building GAB, and how did you overcome it?
The biggest hurdle is always my lack of technical training. Being self-taught, everything takes longer than it probably should. Sheer determination and scouring forums for advice is the only way to overcome lack of ability. Give up too easily and you miss out on what might have been.
WiaW: What is your biggest current challenge?
The current challenge is knowing how best to move things forward. In the last two months our Alexa rating has gone from 8.5 million to 270K. We’ve attracted 11 new donors and some of these have come back and given a second brick. But other than carrying on what we’re doing with daily blog posts and Twitter, I don’t know what to do next so that ‘everyone’ can know about us and feel compelled to GIve A Brick (£1)
WiaW: Do you have scheduled goals, and if so, are you meeting them?
The biggest goal right now is a longish term one. We need another 69,000 people to Give A Brick in order to complete our first project (a community centre for Cross Hands in South Wales) and I’d like that to happen by October 2010. We’re still a long way off meeting that one so any help your lovely readers want to give us would be received with thanks ;)
WiaW: You live in Wales as I understand… So you speak Welsh?
Nope, I don’t speak Welsh but my children do (especially the oldest two who are in school) as they go to a Welsh medium school. The ability to speak Welsh is an advantage in some industries here in South Wales and seeing as they’re not going to learn from my or hubby, we’re leaving this to school. The last time I spoke Welsh was when my eldest daughter (now 7) was 3. It was breakfast time and she was messing around. In ‘perfect’ Welsh, I asked her to sit down and eat her toast. Or so I thought! “Mummy. You just told me to sit ON my toast!”
WiaW: What did I miss that you would like readers to know?
Nothing really. Unless, are your readers your friends? If so, seeing as you’ve very kindly given a brick, you could tell them you did that and ask them to do the same and tell their friends. :)
I’m down for that. I bought a few bricks myself.
But even more than that, I’d like to through the discussion open for ideas Eleanor can use to be even more effective. I have a couple myself, which I’ll stick in the comments later.
Let’s see what you have to say first.
And one last thing, WordPress makes web stuff easy. I’ll tell you flat out, without WordPress driving Give A Brick, this would be a much more difficult task.
Just wanted to say thanks Dave for the great intro to Give A Brick. Give A Brick has always been about community and it will be great to see what your community comes up with.
Thanks for this wonderful opportunity :)
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..On judging a book by its cover and, what does yours say about you? =-.
Eleanor, I’m pretty sure you will get some traction from this. It might dribble in over time.
You might consider setting up an Analytic funnel. I’ll reset the links to whereever you want, then you can track conversions.
Thanks Dave. That’s a whole lot of language I can only begin to understand but I appreciate it. I’ve only really just scratched the surface with GA. It’s certainly something (another thing :roll:) to add to my list of things to learn.
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..On judging a book by its cover and, what does yours say about you? =-.
Reaching out to bloggers via guest posts, interviews and other web mentions is a great way to grow the amount of visitors to your site.
Maybe you could even interview a few people who have done something similar to what you’re trying to do?
The way I see it is this: The more points of entry you’ve got scattered around the web the more likely you’ll get those bricks moving!
Such a great concept – I wish you well Eleanor!
.-= Josh Kohlbach´s last blog ..Project Update: Up And Running With HubPages =-.
Interviews are a good idea in this area.
Actually, this was the first interview ever on WiaW.
Thanks Josh. Those are some great practical suggestions. I’ve done a couple of guest posts and have another couple in the pipeline but this is certainly one area that could be developed. I’m just not very good at asking folks to publish my stuff. If nothing else, the wonderful response today has taught me I need to get over that ;)
And interviews is something that we haven’t even begun to do so thank you again :D
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..On judging a book by its cover and, what does yours say about you? =-.
I’m sure you could find people willing to donate prizes for giveaways too.
.-= Carlos Velez´s last blog ..I Choose To Be Socially Successful =-.
That’s a good idea.
Eleanor, have you tried this?
Yes, but not online and not extensively offline. Because we are such a small team, competitions is one of the things on the list. We have a half promise of a child’s bike from a local bike shop. I’m saving that one for the Summer when I will chase it up for a lead into Christmas competition.
Do you think this would work online? I guess if folks can sell electronic products (which we of course know they do ;)) then there’s no reason why we couldn’t have an online giveaway.
Have you heard of something called a fire sale? I think that’s what it’s called anyway. Years ago in my IM days I remember massive IM gurus holding fire sales (or whatever the real word is!) and they generated loads of cash. Perhaps something like that is possible?
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..On judging a book by its cover and, what does yours say about you? =-.
Hi,
Just wanted to say Eleanor does a wonderful job for Give-A-Brick. Fundraising is an all consuming job, even on the net. So show your support people and Give A Brick! :)
.-= Maria´s last blog ..I Want To Be A Pro Blogger – Destined To Be A Hit! =-.
Hi Maria, totally agree, fund raising is really hard!
And Eleanor is doing a really great job.
Thanks guys. Don’t be misled though, its very good fun too ;) Much easier to ask folks to give you money when you’re a non-profit and doors open a little easier too. At least, that’s been my experience so far. Folks have been lovely :)
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..No man’s an island and why it’s a very good job =-.
Eleanor, I’m intrigued. I’m working on building a blog for a non-profit client and I think I’m going to take a look-see at what you’re doing (and how). The thing I find most compelling is how you’ve managed to take an abstract concept (giving) and make it tangible (bricks). Brilliant.
Dave – I like interviews. So glad to see this one with Eleanor.
Kelly, thanks. I’m planning to work my way through everyone in Carlos pre-writing challenge.
Thanks Kelly. Give A Brick was literally an inspired idea. It plopped in my head one sunny August afternoon and within three months we had registered charity status.
It helps that, as Dave so rightly said, lots of the money will actually buy actual bricks so it fits the theme of beautifully. As an aside, we also take donations of actual bricks (and roof tiles, concrete, sand etc.) so if you know any folks in South Wales who would prefer to help in that way, feel free to give them my number ;)
Other charities do it with goats, wells and school books. Whatever your charity’s area, I’m confident it can be made tangible.
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..Give A Brick community video =-.
Website In A Weekend popped into my head while I was sitting on a couch explaining how to install WordPress to my friend Sarah K (She’s on the Facebook fan page). She decided she wasn’t all that interested in this blog stuff, but if she changes her mind, it will be a great article!
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..CommentLuv – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly – Saturday Morning Surfing =-.
Great seeing you on here El :) For some reason it always makes me smile when my internet people visit each other! October though? Better step up my helping then.
.-= Heather´s last blog ..If you’re going to cheat with Turbosmooth… =-.
Community. It rocks.
Most definitely agreed.
.-= Heather´s last blog ..If you’re going to cheat with Turbosmooth… =-.
“my internet people” :D love it ;)
And it is great to be seen. This was my first ever interview and it was fun. You know how motivated I am by fun ;)
And yes, October. It’s been almost a year since we completed the first phase and I’d love to get the rest up by Christmas. That said, that’s only me and my wish list. I’m not the boss ;)
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..1 Minute Motivator: If your ship doesn’t come in =-.
It seemed to fit lol :) I could tell you enjoyed it too; definitely shows.
Hmm… well what are your plans? it’s quite a lot to get through by then, but not impossible.
.-= Heather´s last blog ..Confessions of a Student Blogger =-.
Plans? Well more of what we’re doing and a whole lot more :roll: I think maybe it’s time to get a ‘to-do’ list up on the blog and folks could give time in lieu of bricks in places where they have the skills to help out. What do you think?
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..From acts of random kindness to taking over the world, it must be our Winter round-up 2010 =-.
That’d work pretty well El :) Go ahead and do it, then I can go through and see what I can do.
.-= Heather´s last blog ..Confessions of a Student Blogger =-.
I’d one more step than prizes even: get some game mechanics involved.
You could also spotlight people who gave a certain amount with a link.
Maybe list everyone by name, more than say 20 quid, they get a link. At 100, they a writeup. At 1000, they get their own page as “Gold Donor” or whatnot.
Lot’s of ways to go with it.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Not-So-Secret Blog Alliances – Kelly Diels bares (almost) all =-.
Two more awesome ideas. Thank you :)
I’d love us to have an iPhone app and a Facebook app. (Think Cafe World does Give A Brick ;)) There’s so much you can do with the brick theme and it is something we’ve thought about. It’s just a case of attracting the attention of some kind hearted talented app builders.
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..Give A Brick community video =-.
Heh… iPhone app… yeah that’s on my hit list too.
Straight up: WiaW is going to pay my bills at some point so I can get onto the iPhone and web app development. Here in Silicon Valley, you have to fund yourself now!
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..A Simple Guide To WordPress Theme Installation =-.
Well if you ever need a little side project to practice on, you know where we are ;)
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..From acts of random kindness to taking over the world, it must be our Winter round-up 2010 =-.
Everywhere I go, there is Eleanor. And I have to say that it is always a pleasure to find her. It is so amazing to find that I am part of an international community that are doing many different things but have the same spirit of adventure. When I first found Eleanor I thought “how can I get interested in a charity blog in England (didn’t get the Wales part until later) but I can and it is all because of Eleanor.
It’s all about the connection.
Aww, thanks Ralph. You say the kindest things :oops:
I’ve always maintained that it is possible to make it about building relationships within community and yours (and Daves) comments prove my point.
I love that we’re bringing you a little slice of Wales along the way too. You still haven’t told me where to send those Welsh cakes ;)
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..From acts of random kindness to taking over the world, it must be our Winter round-up 2010 =-.
Eleanor, do you know about the “Give a Buck” charity here in Australia? It’s http://www.igiveabuck.org.au/ and they have the same elephant-eating philosophy you do. I also keep getting the two confused because of the similar names :)
You said you were hesitant about asking people to publish your stuff but how about asking for a swap where you write about them and they write about you, or you both do guest posts, or such? The other party doesn’t have to be another charity of course – there must be other bloggers in Wales or the UK who’d love to swap posts with you!
.-= Ricky Buchanan´s last blog ..Control Your Cable Box With Your Mac On The Cheap! =-.
Wow. Well done Eleanor. The book “How To Eat The Elephant One Bite At A Time” by Brian Klemmer is a brilliant resource for tackling and taking on projects where you feel totally out of your depth and have no idea where to begin.