SweetTweets: shows you your most popular tweets of all time (or since you started tweeted based on RT’dness)

First tweet: an app that can show you your first tweets to any user you follow (even if it is “yah i love coffee too lulz #coffee4evah”)

HashSmoker: an app that erases any new tweet stream you establish using any hastag (very popular with college kids)

Tweetaggedon: an app that blows up your account and erase every tweet you ever tweeted.

tweezer: an app that allows you to identify people who clearly should not be in your tweetstream and you can get rid of them – thx to @unmarketing

T’Creep: an app that allows every tweet from any person be forwarded to your phone, email, tweetdeck, twitter, hootsuite, for ever. Even if they set up a new account under a new name.

Twit-pid: an app that checks the stupidity of your tweet before you post it – so you don’t tweet something really dumb…

Twidder: an simple little app that 87 people use, thinking that it is twitter – and they don’t understand what the big deal is…

Twenius: an app that makes all of you tweets use really big and impressive words that no one understands but still respect.

Twhine: an app that removes any whiny words out of your tweets.

Twootfour: an app created by a Canadian (of course) that allows you to tweet no more than 24 times in one day

Twunchuation: an app that makes sure you say “you’re” instead of your, etc. #neverlooklikeanidiotagain

Tweathalizer: an app you have to blow in before you are allowed to tweet… (to make sure you aren’t loaded – duh).

tweetular: an app that makes it look like hundreds of ppl are RT’ing you and @’ing you…

FTW: an iphone or blackberry app that does crappy little fireworks on your display when you achieve something random #likegetacoffee

last one: tweener: an app that lets you quickly RT everything everyone says a half second after it’s tweeted

Any other brilliant ideas? Please share!

My daughter Sadie spent a few precious minutes (as long as she ever sits still) on the lap of her great grandfather recently. They shared their love of the natural world looking at the bright orange Oriole and the vibrant Indigo Bunting, and whenever she saved a bug from the pool she proudly brought it to him. He beamed.

My other great grandfather, my dad’s dad, (whose name was Gage but we called him Charles) died before Mason was born. And I came to wonder what would happen if Mason sat on his lap with our iPad. Once he got past the magic of the touch screen, I think he would find the real magic in the language of action that technology has given us.

“Favourite” is a verb to my kids. “Mason, can you favourite this video?” asks Sadie when it’s not her turn. “Favourite” is an action.

“Follow” is also active. In my grandfather’s mind, a follower would likely just be someone other than the leader. But following in our language now is half of a relationship. An active, engaging relationship based on mutual interest and an ongoing conversation that happens when you want, where you want.

If Mason talked about his apps, or something viral, Charles would likely would think he was contagious.

As a man who raised four energetic boys, I think my grandfather would plug in to our language of action, and the technology of interaction.

Mason is a digital native – he never knew a world without an infinite amount of information at his fingertips. Would my grandfather have the same struggles with what I am calling “digital imperialist parenting”? Just as history has shown us empires that insist they know better than the indigenous peoples – do I know more about technology than Mason just because I am his mummy?

After about half an hour of tv/iPad/computer my internal alarm goes off and I think “you need to get outside and run around”. But when what the kids are engaging with is actually expanding their horizons, does it make sense to unplug?

So Google Earth is OK but YouTube parodies about poop and farts aren’t?

After I put the kids to bed last night, I revisited this site done by Arcade Fire: www.thewildernessdowntown.com

And I imagined Charles sitting with Mason on his lap, watching Mason enter our address. They would share a few precious minutes together, and Charles would point out where they play ball hockey together on our driveway, and where they hold hands when they cross the street on the way home from school.

Our language changes us. And we change our language. But love and action (and interaction) endure.

Dear Ms. Nit-Picker,

This is an open letter to charity staff members who edit fundraising appeals. With special focus on those of you who aren’t direct response fundraisers or have a clue about fundraising strategy. Just like with my Dear Mr. Fancypants blog, here are some of my inner monologues on the subject.

Ms. Nit-Picker: “Agent Jen, I’m changing this thank you message to ‘The ABC Foundation is deeply grateful to its donors’.”

Well done, Ms. Nit-Picker. You’ve taken a genuine person-to-person thank you and made it a vacant grammatically correct org-speak.

Ms. Nit-Picker: “Agent Jen, here is some background information so you can write our year-end appeal.”

Wow, Ms. Nit-Picker. Your ‘Implications for Proposed Brand Strategy’ 52 page document would be great for starting a fire, and your ‘Diagram of Core Supporter Filters’ shows me that you’re real smart. I’m a little more interested in what you’re raising money for and inspiring your donors to act. But hey, is that just me?

Ms. Nit-Picker: “Agent Jen, I don’t like how this sounds. It’s too emotional. Last year’s appeal was approved by all levels of management. Can you lift phrasing from this instead?”

Sure, Ms. Nit-Picker. Why tell your donors anything new? Doesn’t really feel like you’re taking much of an innovative approach to what you’re doing anyway.

Ms. Nit-Picker: “Agent Jen, I don’t like the call to action as ‘Yes! You can count on me this holiday season!’. Can we work in language from our new 2-paragraph mission statement?

Seriously? No.

Ms. Nit-Picker: “Agent Jen, we want to get more online gifts. Can we focus on a process that gets them to give online?”

#sigh…

You, our readers, and you, our clients have given us a lot to think about – and work on – in the first half of 2011.

Some highlights for us have been:
- Creating custom essential reviews for charities who want to know how they sound and look across every donor touch point, and then what to tweak, fix or overhaul.
- Our Second Harvest truck package… Who knew so many donors would fall in love with a truck?
- An afternoon in a sunny board room where we got to converse with the top minds of an organization, spend a little time navel gazing but ultimately giving donors a clearer reason to give.
- Working and plugging into the knowledge of so many of the worlds best fundraisers… David Love, Gwen Chapman, Jonathon Grapsas, Tom Ahern, Damian O’Brien, Sean Triner.
- Many road trips and hours riding with my partner Jen, in and out of Toronto for conferences, meetings, events.
- Working and plugging into the minds of some of the best clients you could dream of who only have one thing in mind… How can we care about our donors more? How lucky are we?
- Helping our good friend Jono create and hang out his own shingle in his home country of Australia. We know Jono and know flat earth direct is gonna to be a complete success.

When I sit back and reflect, which I don’t do enough of, I realize how incredibly lucky I am to do what I do, with the people I do it with.

But part of that reflection means also looking ahead. And now is the time for that, especially before we enter in the fall (traditionally the busiest time of the year).

My view from the deck.

So I’m taking a break. A real break. My first since Christmas – to head up north to a lovely little cottage on a quiet lake in northern Ontario.

Taking a break to stare out the window at the falling rain, to spend time with my quickly growing daughters and lovely wife.

Taking a break to listen to the silence and be far away from the daily comings and goings of everything.

But, I’m taking advantage of that time to do some navel gazing of my own and some thinking about you too.

How can we be better? How can we continue to do the best work (and what is our best) for our current and new clients?
How do we manage growth without “growing”?
What sort of things do we excel at and what sort of things do we suck at?
And so the list goes.

I had a light bulb go on in my head this week while in a meeting. A client said to us, ‘you folks are obviously champions for the donors‘ and it reminded me, that like the advice we give to you week after week and meeting after meeting, that as long as we keep your needs front and center… that so long as we remain as client focused as we possibly can, we will keep moving in the right direction whatever that might be.

So, with that, I’m shutting down the computers, and turning the lights off here at AOG HQ and packing up the van.

Thanks for an amazing, inspiring and collaborative first six months and we can not wait to see what challenges you have for us in the next six.

Hope you find time for your own break.

On Facebook.

Me and 21 million (almost 22 million) of his closest friends received this post in our feed this week:

Rather than setting a goal of millions of dollars for this campaign’s first big deadline on Thursday, we’re setting a goal of 450,000 grassroots donors. So far, 404,954 people have stepped up to own a piece of this campaign. Will you join them?

And the teaser below reads: “We believe that the true strength of our campaign is the number of everyday people owning a piece of it…”

When we talk to our clients about donor acquisition, we always talk in donors first, then dollars. If you are building your movement, inspiring people to join your cause, you will think of them as people, not as payments.

Check out the site here: http://www.barackobama.com/get-involved

This same donor was recently in the office and asked casually if Ruby would ever write him back. Needless to say, we were enchanted with Jack and Ruby’s correspondence, so this week, Ruby writes back!

Successful projects rock. And while it does feel a bit like beeping our own horn, when we celebrate our success here at Agents of Good, it is all the more awesome because in our work, it also means that the world is a little bit of a better place.

And in the case of this project, more fresh food will be rescued from being thrown in the garbage and delivered to hungry people in Toronto. Second Harvest is an amazing and inspiring charity that we have the pleasure of working with. Our Spring Campaign was focused on buying a new truck for their fleet, and it has been a smashing success.

We raised twice as much money as the Spring Appeal last year. Average gift is up 40%. Beep! Beep!

Here’s just some of what we love about this campaign:

1. Surprise and Delight. The letter comes from the truck, and he starts his letter saying “I have a dream…” You KNOW you want to keep reading!



2. The illustrated truck is just so darn cute. You KNOW you’re going to open that envelope!
3. Engaging and involving the donor – the donor uses the keys (sticker) and moves it on to the coupon.



4. The matching gift. Donors “only” have to pay for half. A matching gift (secured with passion and energy by Second Harvest) secures the other half.
5. The last option on the gift array is for $65,000 and a note “I’ll buy the other half of the truck”. Yes, we were secretly hoping someone would send in a cheque or $65,000. But even though they didn’t, we wanted it to make every donor think about giving a little more. It worked.
6. It’s genuine. The match did come in at the 11^th hour, and we used the P.S. and the buckslip.
7. It flowed. We did a reminder pack, with a message of encouragement from the matching donor.
8. It rocked. And we stopped. We had planned to do a follow-up blast. But by the time it was due to deploy, we knew it exceeded the goal. So we did a thank-you email and letter instead. From the truck, of course.

Beep Beep!

Because the content sucks.

I watched the debate. Boring, entitled white guy backpedals and blames the other guy. I follow the candidates on Twitter. Broadcast, broadcast, broadcast.

But now the election is coming into my mailbox. You’re on my turf now.

I could write for days about the vacant, forgettable and uninspiring “leaflets” I’m getting from the candidates. They literally go straight to the kitchen table so Sadie can colour on them and then at least they are worth talking about.

But today, dear readers, I’m writing to tell you about the voter information card to save you the agony I experienced today. I received the Elections Canada mail saying “Have you received your voter information card from Elections Canada?” It looks like the voter card, which I’ve received for years now, but it actually is not a voter card. It is a reminder that if you don’t have your voter card you should contact Elections Canada. It has a large image OF the voter card on it, but instead of saying Jennifer Mary Love (no, Danger is not my middle name) it says YOUR NAME, YOUR ADDRESS. Huh?

So, being me, I go online. Find the number of my local elections office and call. It’s a 1-800 number, which puzzles me, since I’m pretty sure I’m calling someone in my community. Nevertheless, I get through.

After some voice-activated prompting and button pushing, I get through to a guy. I describe the confusing and weird mail in my hands. I explain that I am on the voters list, at this address, so I want to make sure I can exercise my democratic rights on May 2. He says, yes, I am on the voter’s list, and that my voter card will come to me, but that “it seems” they mixed up the order of the voter cards and the “have you received your voter cards” and I should be receiving my voter card next week. Helpfully, if it doesn’t arrive,  he reminds me, I can just call back.

Seriously?

Imagine sending out the reminder before the appeal? Or the tax receipt before the gift? It boggles my mind to think of how many monkeys fell asleep on their desks for this to happen.

If only there was something I could do to change the way I feel about my government. All I need is my voter card.

#sigh

John and Jen are two incredible fundraising and marketing professionals who I have the honour of working with at Second Harvest. They have kicked our direct mail program and website development into hyperdrive, and I really can’t recommend them enough. Plus, they are awesome and opinionated people. Here is their website: http://www.agentsofgood.org/ and here is their terrific blog: http://blog.agentsofgood.org/

1. Nothing beats a good story. Nothing.
2. At the end of the day, it is our relationships that define us.
3. Sorry Marshall, the medium is not the message. Your channel of communication needs to be appropriate, but content is king.
4. Agents are everywhere, but not everyone can be an Agent.
5. People are moved to act because of stories and feelings, not facts and statistics.
6. People want to believe their support matters.
7. People are disgusted when they are betrayed or mislead by a charity. And they are suspicious forever.
8. We are truly and deeply inspired by the number of passionate people who want to be part of something special and unique. We all want to be part of a tribe that speaks to us.
9. Like all Agents projects, this list isn’t about us, it’s about you.
10. The three most important words in fundraising? You. You. And you.

And here you are reading my blog about it.

You’re going to hear my venting. But if you can hang on through the rage, you’ll also hopefully think about how you talk to your donors/communities of supporters.

Phone rings.

Me: “hello?”

Pause. Clicking. Some kind of murmuring.

Me: “hello!?”

Murmur louder. Then YELLING: “MRS. LOVE?!?!?!?!”

Me: “Hi. You’re loud. But I can hear you now.”

Caller: “Sorry. The machine doesn’t always tell us when we have someone on the line.”

Me: “Uh. OK.”

Caller: “Anyway Mrs. Love, I’m calling to thank you for being a loyal customer and ask you if you have any questions about our service.”

Pause.

Should I? Should I tell this woman how “the machine” makes me feel unimportant, and that if she wants Mrs. Love she should call my mother, or my paternal grandmother (who just died). I’m Ms. Love and proud of it. The only thing that’s worse is when people call and ask for Mrs. (my husband’s name). Should I tell her that her manner is unpleasant, and that I can hear hundreds of other people just like her yammering in the background. I decide not to.

Me: “I don’t really have any questions.”

Caller: “Well, I also should let you know that we have great promotions to sign up for other services with us.”

Me: “Like what?”

Caller: “Like internet, cable TV, digital cable, home phone and wireless.”

Me: “Uh. I already have all those things with you.”

Pause.

Caller: “Oh, well then you aren’t eligible for anything. Thank you for being a loyal customer.”

Hangs up.

Seriously?

I have ALL your services. I thought that’s why I got the loyal customer call.

But no. I got the loyal customer call because one person, from one division of this massive company, had the bright idea to call all the customers and ask them to sign up for other services from the same mega company.

What they didn’t spend 30 seconds doing was to segment this list. Figure out who has one service and offer them a second. Figure out who has two services and offer them a third.

And, in the worst case, you call someone who is a loyal customer, give them bad service and then have nothing to offer.

#FAIL.

And you know what hurts most? It’s my birthday. And they know that. Because when I do call them I have to give my birthday (including year…those assholes) so they can “confirm me”.

Here’s how, if the Agents of Good ran the world, the call would go.

Phone rings.

Me: “Hello”.

Caller: “Hey, Jen! I’m calling from ABC Company and I’m just calling to say thank you. You are a loyal customer of ours, and we are reaching out to say thanks. Do you have any questions about your service, anything I can help with at all? No? Well, that’s awesome. Oh, hey. I see it’s your birthday! WOOT! Happy Birthday. Have an awesome day.”