Creating action through design

I was interviewed last week for the Daily News about a viral media campaign that myself and a few parents launched the last week of school. While the $40,000 outcome was astounding and somewhat unexpected, I knew the content would be engaging enough to move the school’s community of  friends and family to action.  One of the challenges for any fundraising activity is finding the right way to motivate  people to action.  Action comes in many forms – donating money, volunteering time, offering needed services. Understanding what motivates a person to action, however, is not so obvious.

I recently read Tipping Desire into Action by  Devorah Klein, a human factors specialist at IDEO. She talks about the challenges we all face with achieving a goal.

“It’s not a lack of motivation that keeps people from making changes to reach important goals. It’s the lack of clearly designed paths to success.”

Thinking back on the success of 5days4arts.org campaign I now can see clearly these 5 steps she outlines in her article.

1. Help tip the scales
Low overhead in terms of cost and parent volunteers and committees allowed this campaign to be nimble and fast.

2. Stage information
Timing was everything for this campaign. There were 5 days left of school and there was urgency around the principal’s message about budget cuts. The opportunity to move people to action based on a collective urgency and the emotional last 5 days of school provided the perfect stage. Leveraging technology to do this quickly and simply provided the pathways for action.

3. Piggyback on existing routines
The campaign followed an annual appeal letter that was mailed to everyone’s home. The web component was an effective reminder to move people to action that forgotten to donate. Parents and friends leveraged their personal networks – like they do everyday – through email and Facebook.

4. Mix it up
Creating short, engaging videos of the school children participating in real programs allowed the community to clearly see what they could lose without the proper funding.

5. Mind the gap
We spoke with urgency about specific programs that needed funding. Whereas a general “Donate to the School” did not have the same tangible impact. We kept the perceived scale of the fundraising opportunity manageable and achievable.  Everyone involved wants to know that they made a difference.

Everyone can be a design thinker.

Welcome to The Sylvia Project.

I am designer, thinker and problem solver and will be using to this site to talk about projects that I am working on.