Over the last dozen years the Taproot Foundation recruited over 25,000 professionals to donate 100 hours of their time to do pro bono marketing, IT, HR and other consulting for local nonprofits. The vast majority of these professionals were not looking to volunteer. The experience for many however was life changing.
The business professionals who sign up primarily come from partnerships with the big job sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder. They put postings on their job boards between paid marketing, IT and other positions. Professionals, with no intention of volunteering, stumbled across them and it inspired them to act.
There is one business that has this down cold. Two years ago my family was stopped in their tracks while walking down the street in Brooklyn. In a store window was a six-week-old Boston Terrier. He was wrestling with another puppy in two inches of shredded newspaper.
We couldn’t have been less in the market for a puppy and would be horrified if we heard a friend bought a dog from a pet store, but $1,300 later Nucky came home with us. He has made our lives insane but also been a source of endless joy and companionship for the kids. It is hard to imagine life without him now.
When you are creating a new product or service, you can’t wait for people to come to you. You need to find them when they are in the right mindset and present them with something too compelling to resist.
How can you make your product or service like a puppy in the window?
Photo credit: Title image from ProBoards and second image by Ingrid Leiva of my dog Nucky at the bar with her in Park Slope.
Featured on:Social Impact
Posted by:Aaron Hurst
