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What Downton Abbey Can Teach You about Promoting New Ideas

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Downton Abbey radio

How did Lady Rose get a radio into Downton Abbey?

Are you trying to get your organization to adopt new ideas? Take a tip from Lady Rose, at Downton Abbey.

Lady Rose is a bright young thing, and all the bright young things in 1924 want the newest invention: the radio. But Lord Grantham, the master of the house, will have none of it. Until he hears that His Royal Majesty George V will address the nation…on the radio.

Notice the rapt attention on all the faces in the photo above. But none of them is more attentive than that old stick-in-the-mud Lord Grantham. At the end of the king’s speech, he offhandedly orders the radio to be placed in the parlor. Permanently. And he thinks it is his own idea.

What can we learn from this episode?

Lady Rose could not get her uncle to accept the radio as long as he thought it was only good for jazz music and other horrid novelties. That’s what she liked about it–but it would do no good to use jazz as a selling point with Lord Grantham. Jazz would only make him detest the radio all the more.

Instead, Lady Rose had to sell him on the idea that the radio would give him something HE wanted.

Lord Grantham supports the monarchy. When he hears his sovereign’s voice on the radio, he and everyone else in the room stand up, just as if the king had entered the room in person. The radio is not an instrument of the devil any more. It becomes the way to make the king–the most important symbol of British tradition–present in their own home.

So…

Is your Board chair resisting your great new idea?

Do your donors remain inexplicably cool to your programs?

Are you trying to sell products you think are exciting only to find your customers don’t agree?

Take a note from Lady Rose. Forget about what you want. Find out what your Board chair, or your donors, or your customers, want. Show them a way to get it that involves doing what you would like to do.

You’ll get that radio into the parlor in no time.

G’day! A Nonprofit Tale of Two Nations

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Does your nonprofit organization want to be known and respected?  Why, and by whom?

The answer may vary by country–and how you answer determines how you should communicate with your supporters.

I recently spoke with Chris Gandy, a colleague and the founder of the Australian consulting firm Cause and Effective.  In Australia, it is common for not-for-profits to compete to receive funding from the government.  Few of these organizations obtain a significant portion of their budget by fundraising from the public.

That means that content marketing in Australia is aimed at a very specific audience.  The people that our friends Down Under want to impress with their organizations’ expertise are what we in the U.S. would call bureaucrats.  This audience expects subject-matter knowledge, well-substantiated claims, and detailed evidence that taxpayer money will be spent appropriately.

In the U.S., government is still the biggest source of funds for nonprofits, but its share is declining.  Over the last dozen years, I have seen nonprofits increasingly market themselves to donors, community-minded businesses, and philanthropic foundations.

These givers ask first, “What difference do you make?”, and only then, “How much do you know?”  And the rule of thumb in the U.S. is to win hearts first.  Once people want to support you, they will look for reasons to do it–and by providing those reasons, you clinch the deal.

Of course, bureaucrats have hearts, and donors have heads.  But getting the balance between the two right is crucial.

At your nonprofit organization, are you more American or Australian?  Which is more important to you: your prestige in your field, or your brand loyalty among your supporters?

G’day! A Nonprofit Tale of Two Nations

by Leave a Comment

Does your nonprofit organization want to be known and respected?  Why, and by whom?

The answer may vary by country–and how you answer determines how you should communicate with your supporters.

I recently spoke with Chris Gandy, a colleague and the founder of the Australian consulting firm Cause and Effective.  In Australia, it is common for not-for-profits to compete to receive funding from the government.  Few of these organizations obtain a significant portion of their budget by fundraising from the public.

That means that content marketing in Australia is aimed at a very specific audience.  The people that our friends Down Under want to impress with their organizations’ expertise are what we in the U.S. would call bureaucrats.  This audience expects subject-matter knowledge, well-substantiated claims, and detailed evidence that taxpayer money will be spent appropriately.

In the U.S., government is still the biggest source of funds for nonprofits, but its share is declining.  Over the last dozen years, I have seen nonprofits increasingly market themselves to donors, community-minded businesses, and philanthropic foundations.

These givers ask first, “What difference do you make?”, and only then, “How much do you know?”  And the rule of thumb in the U.S. is to win hearts first.  Once people want to support you, they will look for reasons to do it–and by providing those reasons, you clinch the deal.

Of course, bureaucrats have hearts, and donors have heads.  But getting the balance between the two right is crucial.

At your nonprofit organization, are you more American or Australian?  Which is more important to you: your prestige in your field, or your brand loyalty among your supporters?

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