Influencers and infrastructure with Union Gospel Mission Vancouver
| Leading early adoption in social media
Based in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, UGM helps address poverty, homelessness and addiction through a broad range of services. I was part of the team that helped raised money and reach donors through creative campaigns and digital experiences.
In a time when social media and web 2.0 technologies were not yet being adopted by organizations, I facilitated the organization’s debut on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and helped design and lead campaigns with local web influencers, including Miss604, John Chow, Matthew Good and more; and represented UGM at conferences for social innovation movement leaders, including Toronto’s Web of Change summit. I also introduced online donations and e-commerce to the organization, allowing online fundraising to generate $1M yearly.
The work in social media were tactical executions of a more holistic strategy: I also led the redesign and launch of the main website (ugm.ca) to facilitate better online giving and storytelling, while also leading the conversion of the legacy back-end donor management system. I also designed and managed the rebuild of the staff-facing Intranet, a key tool for improving the flow of communication between many satellite offices, mobile workers and front-line staff.
Some highlights and examples
In 2008, Miss604 (Rebecca Bollwitt) held a Blogathon for UGM, and raised a record-breaking $10,000. As part of her giveaway, she included a signed CD and recording studio visit with artist Matthew Good.
Elsewhere, one of the original "make money online" bloggers was big-hearted, Vancouver-based writer John Chow. John grew up on the Downtown Eastside, across the street from where UGM was then located. His video content ended up being raw, unfiltered and intensely helpful, and his blog posts activated a generous community of givers that helped bring mission-centered local givers out in drove:
Press play on John's vide below (at least for the first 30 seconds or so) to get a sense of this raw and unfiltered energy.
John was already a big UGM fan, but we made a connection and cooked up all sorts of cross-pollinating goodness:
- He posted about the relaunch of the new UGM.ca website, and even came to the launch party (yes, we had a launch party)
- He came on a tour (more than one), blogged about it, and did donation matching.
- John also reached out to his community connections and invited a whole cohort of bloggers to come be part of the experience, who joined in with posts like: Dot Com Foodies Hit The Soup Kitchen?!
" To celebrate the launch of their new site, UGM held a little website launch party. It was great to meet Kevan and the rest of the UGM staff again. The Union Gospel Mission is a charity that I support and donate to. I’ve always believed that the true measure of success is not how much you make, but how much you give."
Over the years, he continually raised massive amounts for the Mission. One year, it was $7,000. Another, it was $12,000.
And while I certainly can't take any credit for John's generosity, origin story, rise to wealth, or decisions to donate, I am proud to have helped facilitated the strong connection and creative partnerships that led to a long-term relationship for UGM.
Besides these influencer campaigns and behind-the-scenes infrastructure, I also collaborated with my colleagues to bring about other creative campaigns:
- Co-designing and running "Orange Day," and in-house Easter themed campaign
- Collaborating with local design firm Burnkit in a series of creative, head-turning print and video campaigns.
- Leading the naming, branding and design of UGM's mobile outreach vehicle, the "Mobile Mission"