Two weeks ago we wrote about our Irene Relief Effort Project. It was a pie-in-the-sky scheme where we dreamed of raising large sums of money through thousands of small, $4 donations. The proceeds would all go directly toward rebuilding a family-run restaurant in Waitsfield, VT - one that employed many locals, nourished even more of them, and continually supported local farms and food artisans. Our hope is that by getting their business back on their feet it can spur all sorts of good in a small community, as this good food business continues to pay the good deed fo(u)rward.

Although it was not the raging success we had imagined, it wasn't a flop, either. With each great experiment comes an opportunity to learn. We asked for your opinions as to how we could make this effort more effective, and you impressed us with your ideas. We wanted to share the insight with everyone, should you ever want to embark on similar fundraising endeavors:

• Some folks may have opened the email and saved it to return to it when they were less busy.  In that case, I might send a follow-up email (or several), to remind people.
• I know one person that generally scrolls down to the bottom of the newsletter to see the jobs right away and sometimes goes back to read it, sometimes doesn't.  In that case, maybe you could use larger, more eye-grabbing words to get people's attention.  Maybe change the subject line as well? 
• Make your important call-outs bigger.  I skimmed right over the top part of last week's email, not realizing how important it is!
• It is hard for me to feel close to The Green Cup like you are. Build the story and show us images to give us a better idea.
• Not sure exactly how we could get The Green Cup to be one of the Philanthroper.com sponsored websites, but if we could, it could potentially raise a lot of money for them.
• A direct email campaign is destined to get a low response rate.  A rule of thumb is that .5% is a good response, so I think you did pretty well.
• People rarely give at the first request.  For most donations (large and small) people give on the fourth contact or later.  When I approached a large donor for a campaign, I wouldn't even mention money on the first three contacts.
• Many of your patrons are jobless and can't afford to donate? Continue to stress fund-free ways that one can help the cause.

We’re not sure if it’s cheating to feature our own employee on the blog…but we felt that nothing was more appropriate for our anniversary than celebrating the fact that Good Food Jobs has become more than an outlet for searching unique opportunities in food – it’s also creating them. Marketing our site – or ’spreading the word’ as we like to call it – has been one of the biggest components of what we do every day, and we learned pretty quickly that we needed more time to do it properly. Thankfully, Jen came into our lives and provided exactly the skills (and enthusiasm) that we were seeking, even as she continued her full-time day job. We wouldn’t have asked for it any other way, since she’s providing another example of the creative multi-tasking that is sometimes required to get one’s foot in the door to their good food dream job. Every week she helps connect us to business and organizations that match our mission, and her unpaid internship quickly turned into a part-time paid position. We can’t wait to find out what she’ll do next. Read More