“Why Should I Care?”: 3 Lessons for the Aspiring Social Entrepreneur by Trey Wallace

“Why should I care?” 

“This problem doesn’t affect me.” 

“I already support other causes.” 

Accepting that the causes to which we commit ourselves are not universal passions is tough. Over the past few years as I’ve poured my heart into my work with the Reclaimed Project in Sub Saharan Africa, I’ve had to come to terms with a difficult reality: not everyone cares about the cause as much as I do. Despite how obvious it may seem that humanity should share an obligation toward your particular cause, articulating the value of donating toward your organization to a potential supporter can seem impossible. 

Additionally, the traditional, charity-focused model of human-rights and humanitarian work is becoming increasingly less viable—according to a study done by Texas A&M University, charitable donations have dropped by 10% since the year 2000. Therefore, it is now crucial to consider what supporting your cause reciprocates to your audience. In doing so, a social entrepreneurship model actively pursues a target audience and lures supporters with economics and personal gains rather than relying on occasional donations for operation. 

Last week, a variety of social entrepreneurs visited our HIA fellowship group. I particularly enjoyed this part of the fellowship, as it focused on very practical tools and methods to overcome the challenges of developing social campaigns. Through our discussions and workshops, I developed three conclusions about social entrepreneurship to remember. 

Never expect your audience to care “just because everyone should care” 

In an exercise designed to better understand the importance of this concept, we practiced constructing a particular persona for a social campaign to reach. This forced us to consider what our target audience wants most—allowing us to challenge our assumptions about what the “average” user wants. Through our discussions of these assumptions, we recognized our tendencies to design for customers like ourselves. We concluded that it is better to design for a diverse set of individual personas than it is to design a product that we think “everyone” would want. 

The Value Proposition, a product/campaign planning tool that ensures customer-centricity. 

Make it easy to donate

Marek Dorobisz, highly-accomplished marketing guru and Creative Director for Media Impact, shared with us a variety of fundraising campaigns that focused on simplicity. His session was a jarring wake up call, forcing each of us to think pragmatically about the technical aspects of marketing and fundraising. “Many people make excuses for not donating to a cause,” Marek shared, “’I can’t afford it right now,’ ‘I don’t have any cash with me,’ ‘I already donate to other organizations. However, campaigns that ask for only €1 donations, accept card payments, and offer a brief interactive experience such as an animation or game give people no excuse not to donate.” 

Design your project with feedback data in mind. 

It is imperative that an organization is able to prove the effectiveness of its campaigns. However, it is often difficult to track the performance of “awareness” campaigns and social movements. Our output phase groups were required to tackle this challenge—assigning metrics of success to each of the initiatives. With sufficient planning however, activists may include concrete tracking measures that will provide feedback data. 

My HIA Friends Developing Feedback Data Strategies for Output Phase Projects 

With these lessons in mind, each group critiqued each other’s output project propositions. It was insightful to see how each group’s original ideas were refined with the application of these social entrepreneurship concepts to become more practical. These concepts allowed us to move from theory to practice with a better understanding of the nitty-gritty aspects of reaching our target audience. This week was a phenomenal educational opportunity for us fellows and it is transformative methodologies like these that define a summer with Humanity in Action. I can’t wait to see how each group’s output phase project comes to life in our last days here in Warsaw.

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Teddy (Trey) Wallace is a senior at Mississippi State University majoring in Industrial and Systems Engineering. A passionate humanitarian, Teddy studies analytics for healthcare applications--an interest he developed through his work with a large hospital in his home town. In addition to his technical interests, Teddy works as a humanitarian photographer, providing creative works for a multitude of nonprofit organizations throughout Sub Saharan Africa. After graduating, Teddy plans to achieve a masters in public health or healthcare administration and pursue a career in nonprofit management.