Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Canucks and Aussies behave the same...?

Thats what I am expecting to see next week when Pareto Fundraising releases our first Canadian Benchmarking report.

The cooperative we have formed pools the data from nine leading Canadian charities: WWF Canada, Amnesty International Canada, Médecins Sans Frontières, the David Suzuki Foundation, Care Canada, Street Kids International, CBM (Christian Blind Mission), Canadian Feed the Children and the BC Cancer Foundation.

Firstly, hats off to these brilliant organizations for being early adopters to this exciting initiative.

The exercise will allow us to take a good look at what is happening with some of the leading charitable organization's in this country. Where growth is coming from, what's working and what isnt and what impact (if any) is the global economic downturn having on Canadian non profits. (For more info on that visit our Recession Watch blog).

Now if I had a dollar (or what's commonly referred to as a 'loonie' over here) for every time someone said to me "...but Canadian's are different..." then my retirement would come a few years early.

Rubbish!

Just like Brits, Aussies, Kiwis - Canadian's behave the same. I'm talking as donors right now. We have proved this in Hong Kong over the past year and a half after being told repeatedly that the Chinese culture was very different, that they wouldnt respond to fundraising techniques developed in the Western world etc. And guess what... they did! At ridiculous levels.

So I fully expect to see the same trends, behaviours and patterns from Canadian donors as we have seen at Pareto Fundraising in other markets.

Oh, and if you're interested in finding out more about this exciting project let me know.

Jonathon

2 comments:

Kimberley MacKenzie said...

Dear Jonathon,

I absolutely want to know more about this. As Canadian Ambassador for Sofii I worked with volunteer and friend Laurie Pringle to pull Canadian stats together for our country page - soon to be released on www.sofii.org.

Pareto North America's work in Canada could certainly be added. Your the data guy....input and involvement would be very welcome.
Kx
PS it is Remembrance day here today. Sit still and be quiet for one minute at 11:00. Think of those who have fought in the past and those who are defending a peaceful existence and democracy around the world today. That's one way to fit in!

Jonathon Grapsas said...

For sure Kimberley - I hope we can share some of this with the SOFII community and also during the upcoming AFP Congress where we will share some of the 'topline' findings..