Compassion International’s President Gets It
I ran across this video on Compassion’s website today, and I am impressed with what looks like a genuine concern for the country and people of Haiti. I saw their president emotionally choke up as he talked about the reality of sponsored children being injured or killed in the earthquake. This is not like some organizations’ leadership who polish and prepare for weeks what amounts to an uninspiring message that amounts to simply asking for more money.
Details I Noticed
After watching the video I noticed that:
- he did not focus his message on fundraising, but rather informing
- he was appropriately emotional because of his ties to Haiti
- he emoted and felt the same concern that the children’s sponsors would be having
- he shared hope because of the Church serving those around it — like Christians are supposed to
- he asked the sponsors to prepare themselves for bad news and promised them that as quickly as they could get news out of Haiti about each child, they would inform the sponsors
- he asked the sponsors and viewers of the video to pray
- he made a minor appeal for generosity toward Haiti and suggested they could trust Compassion’s 40 years of efforts there
In summary, I think Compassion’s president, Wess Stafford, modeled to non-profits how to be effective at “transparency,” which is the new buzz word going around the online fundraising folks who are embracing social media. In our instant info world, donors and interested followers and advocates of a non-profit demand that their organization be honest and transparent in everything — even having to bear bad news and show a little heart break in the process.
I think we all (people) could learn a little from Dr. Stafford’s example. I need to live with more compassion.
