This February I am stoked to be one of the feature writers of the month for Annah Stretton’s “Her Magazine”. The magazine is a great read, so you should pick a copy (not to mention its got me in it!) but here’s my article which is also published on their website. Enjoy!

I’m a girl of many talents and interests, one of those being photography. As well as this, I’m also full of lots of bright ideas!

I think there is a heap of ways social media can be used to do some exciting stuff in the photography arena, whether you’re a professional or just passionate about it like me … so a couple of friends and I are soon going to start plotting these and putting them to action.

So you can keep up with any progressions we make and be included in the chatter, spark yourself up a column in your Twitter manager for #nzphotopeeps, which will be the hashtag we use when making any conversation or organising events. You won’t want to miss out! If you would like to be part of the first lil catchup we’re doing to plot wicked ideas, let me know.

In case you missed it, I recently created a list of NZ photo peeps on Twitter here. Follow it and if you’re not on there, just let me know. If you don’t have Twitter, that’s cool, let me know so I can mail/message/pigeon you the news, but you will have to get on there eventually to participate in what we hope to organise. Exciting stuff a ‘appening, stay tuned!

(ps. Photo above thanks to the cool people at the ImageMe Photo Frenzy Day on the weekend)

I thought I would share one of my favourite quotes, from the book “Lovemarks” by Kevin Roberts.

“The power of the edge is one of today’s most compelling ideas”… ”When species change, it almost always occurs first at the fringes. Here the population is most sparse and the orthodoxies of the centre are the weakest. Here you can flourish isolated from formula and rules, free from the corrosive belif that everything great has always been done“.

I keep coming back time and time again to this idea, it serves as a great reminder to keep innovating and creating, to dream the impossible and make it happen! Hope this inspires you too

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Inaugural Global Women Conference in Auckland. To be honest I wasn’t really too sure what to expect, with 160 women all in the same room for the whole day! However, I’d have to say the day was a flying success and will definitely attend again, if they’ll have me.

Speakers for the day included: Mai Chen, Theresa Gattung, Katrina Troughton, Jenny Morel, Bridget Liddell, Justine Munro, Mary Devine and Rt Hon Dame Jenny Shipley. A pretty stellar line up of presentators, that’s for sure.

What I liked most about the day, was that the speakers (many of them members of the Global Women Board) took the time to be around most of the day and made themselves very available to chat with. A refreshing change from the usual “fly in, fly out” approach of speakers at most conferences. As well as this, there was a hugely varied amount of topics (from China, to Australia, to Wine, to Wool!), breaks with amazing nibbles and different session styles, which were both fascinating and mind expanding.

There were many points and quotes which struck me over the day but I thought I would share my favourites:

Mai Chen said in her intro, an old quote, “If you do not change your direction, you will get where you are going”. Ponder that one.

Helen Anderson mentioned in her piece “Let’s not forget, we’re all on the same team here, Team NZ!”.

Katrina Troughton mentioned in her speech (in regards to IBM’s HR policies, although I think it has wider applications than just that):
- “If you want something to change, you have to work to change it
- If you can bring a community together, they gain strength
- Create the right environment and the results can be surprising”

Karen Fistonich’s from Villa Maria’s piece about Family Of Twelve – twelve NZ wineries (technically each others competition) who have joined forces. Working together, as opposed to in competition, has meant they are gaining greater market share for their NZ wines overseas, more promotional opportunities, cutting costs, gaining a support network and all round having a great time along the way!

Annah Stretton’s rules for success I particularly liked…
- Use 80/20 rule in business (originally from Michael Hill, which she likes to use) – spend 80% of your time doing 20% of the work, but the right 20% which will progress you forward
- D.I.E – Always act with Dignity, Integrity and Effeciency
- Trust yourself, trust your gut – we all should do it more (women especially)
- Hire the best people. Unless they tick 9 out of 10 boxes, don’t do it. It’s just short term gain for long term pain.
- Aim high with your choice of mentor. They can only say no, it’s not cancer!
- Pay it forward

From Mai Chen’s session on how to find your Niche…

- Learn the power of less. Do one thing. Do it well.
- Know what your strengths are. If you don’t know, ask others, they often have a lot more insight than you.
- Know what it is you don’t want to do.
- Hire people to do what you can’t do well.
- Working your butt off (in business) is a given, but make sure it’s doing the right thing.
- Leisure time is important. If you’re the star, the goose that will lay the golden egg (so to speak), don’t kill the goose!
- Don’t sit back and wait for opportunity to come to you. It doesn’t work that way.

Near the end of the day, before Rt Hon Dame Jenny Shipley’s fascinating talk about doing business in China, I was given the opportunity to speak to the audience about DonateNZ for a couple of minutes. See the video of what I talked about here:

Feedback on my presentation was great, so I’d like to thank the Global Women team for the opportunity to present to such a stellar audience. And for having such a great event. Look forward to the next one (aparantly early next year some time!

For more on the event in the NZ Herald here or find more information about the Global Women Network and conference here.

It is with little surprise that I hear on the news this morning that 3 of the biggest Pokie machine funders (Lion, Perry and Infinity) are being banned from making grants to trotting clubs, due to them pouring so much money into them recently ( from half a million, leapt up to $5.5 million). Read more on this breaking news on the TVNZ website here.

As this story has only just broken, I imagine this will shortly be followed by an onslaught of other media coverage and it should do – In my opinion, the distribution of pokie machine funds in NZ has long been questionable and it is about time this was brought to the general public’s attention.

It is worthwhile noting that up until the figures got so very high in this case, these foundations were within their rights to make grants to horse racing. Something about this disturbs me to the very core; that money from gambling which is supposedly earmarked for doing good in the community, is being sent back into the wealthy, racing industry (which thus promotes further gambling)!

Since incorporating DonateNZ as a charity (Donate Charitable Trust) we’ve applied for grants from the funders in question and been denied, being told in most occasions “There was not enough funds in the pool to make the grant”. As would have many other charity and community groups around the country. After hearing this latest piece of news, it is little wonder why us, and hundreds of other good causes have been missing out.

It’s about time the government stepped in to sort out the distribution of funds from pokie machines. Changes were made in the past to sort out what, in my opinion, appeared to be a very corrupt system – where the bar owners chose where the funds went, thus in most cases channelling most support into sports teams, schools or charities which they, their family, personal contacts or customers, were involved in. Now we supposedly have a system where ‘impartial’ Foundations have the right to dictate which good causes to send the funding to. However, is it naïve to think that these Foundations are completely impartial and have the community’s best interests at heart, when you see them sending such a huge amount of their funding pool back into the gambling industry?

What do you think about this issue? Do you think the government should step in? As long as pokie machine exists, the funds from such need to be distributed, where do you think they should go?

* (Another recent interesting article about pokie machine funds and horse racing scandals here)

I’m all for doing new things, especially those in the name of a good cause, so when the opportunity came by to run around the Viaduct in a Santa suit for charity, I thought, why not! Thus, on December 9th, me and anyone I can convince into coming will be ho-ho-ho’ing our way around the Auckland Viaduct in the Santa run for Cure Kids. Come and play too! This is a great event for corporate teams to get involved in as a bit of a laugh! At the very least, do come down and be enjoy the spectacle as support crew, it’s not often you’ll catch me in a Santa suit! More info and registrations for the event here.

This year I chose to pitch in the Icehouse Fast Pitch competition, where you had 60 seconds to present an “Elevator Pitch” for your business or idea. After checking it out last year in the audience, I bit the bullet and entered this year to get the experience public speaking, put myself out of my comfort zone and hopefully get DonateNZ in front of some people who may be in the position to help us out. In addition to this, recording the pitch for Youtube means it could be shared to a wider audience other than just those who were there.

The competition process was rolled out over about a month, first with an intro night, semi finals and lastly the final which was held last night at Auckland Uni. I was pretty stoked to get into the finals, being firstly the only charity in the final 10 and also surprisingly the only female!

I was pretty pleased with how my presentation went – I went under time with minutes to spare and only managed to deviate from my original pitch by omitting two sentences. Review of the video wasn’t too painful except I did notice I waved my arms a little like a conductor, must remember to tone that down a little next time!

Thanks to those of you who helped me prepare my pitch and those who came along to support on the night. Unfortunately I wasn’t a winner, however I do congratulate the very deserving winners who had massively fundable, attractive, business propositions and presented very professionally. The winners were:

• BNZ Best Intellectual Property and Overall Winner- Chris White of Podscape Holdings Ltd
• Ernst & Young Best Funding Opportunity – Ashley Schroder of World Wide Access Ltd
• Gen-i Best Presentation – Neil Petrie
• Microsoft People’s Choice – Brad Lovett of Green Loos

You’d think a one minute presentation of an idea, which is realistically comprised of no more than 12 sentences, sounds easy, but in practice it’s really not! You’d be surprised how much effort and analysis goes into crafting the pitches.

A general plan of a good 1 minute pitch was outlined by Todd Wackrow, winner of last years competition, in the first intro session:

1. Establish Customer Pain
2. Present solution
3. Whats your Competition
4. Establish credibility
5. Whats Business model
6. What we want

I found this particularly hard, as there are several pain points and solutions with DonateNZ. We deal with two completely separate audiences, meeting them in the middle with a solution, but each’s pain points and requirements is very different. It became obvious very soon that it was not going to be possible to cover these all in a minute or under. I chose to tackle this problem by looking at the audience I was presenting to and adapted this to the most relevant pitch for them –>

General audience summary, Fast Pitch Finals:
A. General public with a business interest
B. Judges (representatives from large corporates) and Business mentors
C. Angel investors

Hence the main parts of DonateNZ I chose to emphasise were:
A. What we can do for everyone (helping them find homes for things they no longer need anymore) – emphasis both personally and at work
B. Seeking Corporate sponsor – emphasise benefits of partnering with us

The general breakdown of my pitch went like this:

• Introduce self from charity (to clearly distinguish from a business idea vs a not-for-profit) 1 sentence
• Pain point for the average person or business 1 sentence
• Illustrate further examples 1 sentence
• Introduce us as solution 1 sentence
• Explain how it works 2 sentences
• Establish credibility and illustrate successes 2 sentences
• Outline what we want (who we’re looking for in this pitch) 1 sentence
• Outline what we bring to the table 2 sentences
• Final line 1 sentence

Here is the transcript of the pitch I presented:

_________

Hi, I’m Claire Sawyers, from the charity, DonateNZ.

How many times have you moved office or house and been left with valuable things, you just didn’t need any more? Computers, furniture, appliances, you name it.

DonateNZ is the solution to your predicament, and a great way to help the community at the same time.

Through our website donatenz.com, connect what you have to give, with a good cause who will pick it up and put it to use.

Our automated online system acts as the middle man, think TradeMe, without the cash.

We’re not just a great idea, we’re a reality and the 1^st of our kind worldwide.

Since we began we’ve facilitated thousands of exchanges and have over 1000 charities on board. Their spread is nationwide, servicing over 2 million Kiwis.

We’re looking for a corporate sponsor to help us grow in NZ and beyond.

Partnering with us will enhance your sustainability policy and give continuous exposure to our charity audience and the people they serve. Choose us as your charitable initiative.

_________

Here’s the video on Youtube, so you all can see it.

For anyone who has a business or charity idea, I strongly encourage you to enter this competition next year. Besides the obvious prizes if you win, it is great for experience in public speaking, business mentoring and networking. As well as this, anything that puts yourself outside your comfort zone has got to be good for ya!

See more handy info on how to do elevator pitches, with links to helpful sites, in a previous blog I wrote here.

Did you know that a large amount of the clothing bins placed throughout this country are run by a private business, SaveMart? “But I thought the clothes go to charity?” I hear you say. Not entirely true… Only some of the profit this business makes go to NZ charities at the end of the day.

Let’s debate the in’s and out’s of this for a short while:

A. PROFITABILITY

Renting, running and staffing 10 charity stores selling used clothing is a costly endevour. For this reason, many charities have chosen to partner with Save Mart, handing over their bins, closing their op-shops and letting them run the whole process. A representative from Save Mart I spoke to recently confirmed this and advised me that through their professionally run shops, the charities in question make more funds for their organisation now, than when they ever did collecting and running shops themselves. Save Mart makes more money selling the clothes than a lot of smaller shops ever could, due to a larger customer base, more experience pricing and moving items.

B. ABUSE

- It’s inevitable, you put a bin on the side of the road and some goons will put rubbish in it. Clothing bins are a magnet for messiness and councils regularly deal with complaints in regards to clothing bins, much like this incident in the South Auckland region.
- A large amount of people tend to use the bins their own personal ‘ rag recycling’ drop off point, meaning a large amount of the clothing gained from these bins is unsaleable.
- Bins are regularly targetted by thieves, hence why the company does not publish lists of where the bins are located, in an attempt to at least make it a bit more of a mission for these criminals to find their next target.
Save Mart has to deal with the associated costs of maintaining the cleanliness and maintenance of the above, a factor not many people consider. I don’t envy them!

C. TRANSPARENCY

When you are putting clothes into the recycling bin or into the bags left at your doorstep, who do you think they are going to? Do you think they are being directly given to someone who can use them, or are you aware they are being onsold? Are you ok with them being onsold? Do you even care?

A large amount of people are shocked when they hear that 100% of the profits of these clothing sales do not go to a charity. Some might say that the clothes going into these bins essentially line another business’s pocket, in addition to sustaining their corporate social responsibility project, all under the guise of collecting for charity.

Do you think these kind of businesses need to be more transparent about this at the drop off site and in their marketing materials, or are people responsible for doing their own due diligence when they put things in there?

D. SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS

Potential transparency issues aside, one might say that this business is a great example of sustainable business. They provide a valid recycling service to the community, support charities and also deliver clothing at low cost to those who might never be able to afford it.

E. WHO CARES?

Since beginning DonateNZ, I have found most people follow a similar pattern in regards to the things they don’t need. It goes like this…

A. ”Hoard for as long as possible (“I might need it one day”)
B. “Eeek I need to get rid of it by X date (I’m moving/need the room/cleaning up”)
C. Take it away ASAP, don’t care who it is just take it”.

This means, that a large amount of people don’t even care who their used clothes go to – they know that at some point a charity benefits and that is enough for them. One might say the convenience of having a quick, easy solution (whatever it is), far outweighs any requirement to know the “who, whats and whys” of who is collecting them.

However there are a large amount of people out there who do care and always have. The number of people who feel in this manner are increasing as the concern for the environment and its sustainability grows. These people my be a little perturbed to hear the fact stated at the beginning of this blog.

TO SUMMARISE….

I’ve deliberately tried to maintain a neutral stance in this matter, it’s up to you to make your own decision based on this information. Do you…

- Support Save Mart, who does make profit both for itself and the charities it supports, – by putting clothes into their bins, which are conveniently located throughout the country?

- Or do you donate to smaller stores, such as hospice shops, who sell them with 100% of profit going back to the organisation, but struggle to do so ever due to huge running costs?

- Or consider passing your clothes through DonateNZ to a charity who can give them to someone who can use them, as opposed to reselling them. We have wishes for clothing made by community organisations, which are regularly updated by charities. See the latest ones here. By matching up what you have with someone that needs it, you can save that person tens, hundreds, even thousands of dollars as it means they do not have to go out and buy it. With technologies around like DonateNZ, this kind of smart exchanging is a reality now. It takes being a little more proactive with your old things, but is a lot more beneficial all round in the long run.

It’s your choice overall, you have the facts now, just promise me you do donate them, rather than dumping them!

Recently, I requested to be removed from a charity’s mailing list and was sworn at and abused… I feel at this point that it may not be a good idea to name and shame them, as it may cause more harassment and bad mouthing towards my organisation from them. I will detail what happened below and let me know, what would you do in this situation?

So last night, I received a Tsunami appeal from a small, relatively unknown organisation, wanting me to put funds into their bank account for the Tsunami appeal. As I receive a HUGE amount of email through all DonateNZ email addresses, I prefer to keep my personal address limited to personal mail only. I also follow this particular organisation on Twitter and receive their mail that way, therefore I asked to be removed from the email list.

This morning I received a call from a Trustee of the organisation, who within a second of me saying hello began to yell at me for my response, completely letting loose and swearing at me, calling me a communist and a horrible “f***ng” person for not supporting Samoa, in addition to a tirade of other of profanities. I was completely taken aback and completely surprised by her reaction. She continued to yell for about 2 minutes without letting me speak, until she hung up on me. I was absolutely flabbergasted and a second later, very upset. I mean, I work all day every day working to promote good causes and help out wherever I can, you just don’t expect to be treated like that ever, nonetheless for asking to be unsubscribed from a mailing list. About 5 minutes later, she rang back to the office and I was too upset pick up the phone, so Jane, our Trustee did. She proceeded to start abusing and swearing at Jane also and then hung up on her also.

Following on from the phone call, she emailed my email address another 9 times with various insults and accusations, as well as posting on Twitter warning people against our organisation, as well as sending an email warning her board members about us. There was no reasoning with her, it just became a complete personal attack. She has been warned that if public defamatory continue I will take both public and legal action, but I hope it does not come to this. I am shocked and appauled that a simple unsubscribe request would evoke such a reaction from someone, it’s just completely flabbergasted me.

This is a pretty out-there example of fail charity customer service and human behavior. It is sad really, as she has now not only lost her organisation my support personally but also DonateNZ’s as well. Thankfully, the emails seem to have ceased now, so I hope this is the last I hear from that particular organisation.

Have you ever had an incident like this when you tried to unsubscribe from an mail list? What would you do if they started slagging your business or organisation publicly when you did?

On Saturday I volunteered my time helping at the Big Clothes Schwop which was held at the Langham in Auckland. What’s a clothes schwop you ask? It’s pretty simple, you bring along the new/lightly used designer clothing you no longer want and for each that is accepted you get one token to take something from the masses of things people bring in home with you. See the news piece filmed on the day here.

I absolutely LOVE this concept. Inevitably you buy things and for one reason or another they don’t work out. What then? I usually sell them on TradeMe, however it is a lot of effort, especially if you are not experienced at it. As well as this, you’ll never get the same amount you bought them for either. What could be better than swapping something you’re not wearing, for something “new to you” that you will love and actually wear!

In terms of volunteering at the event, I would highly recommend doing this… While I was on my feet literally all day ferrying clothes from one place to another, to be honest, I don’t know who got the better deal out of the day, me or them! With the tokens I got for the clothes I schwopped, we got first pick of the clothing before everyone else, so I walked away with several dresses, tops and jackets that I absolutely love. As well as this, I met lots of cool people, including the lovely ladies behind the schwop; Inga, Sarah and Chrissy.

Inga, Sarah and Chrissy from the Big Schwop

This business is in its infancy, but I really look forward to seeing how it grows. I plan on helping them wherever I can, including helping at the upcoming event in Wellington on the 31st of October. If you’re in or around Wellington on that date, do come along, it’s well worth your while.

See the Big Schwop website here http://www.thebigschwop.co.nz

As I work in a retail/office environment, repetitive radio drove us mad after a short while and we decided to sort our situation out by expanding our music collection and creating playlists. So now we rarely have to listen to the same thing twice! I’m always on the lookout for cool new albums, which are upbeat, solid from start to finish and also what I would call “parent and shop friendly”. That means, your Dad/Mum isn’t going to jump up and turn it off (they might even enjoy it) and any shop customer who comes into the florist is going to feel relatively at ease and comfortable with whats on (keeping in mind we have a wide variances of happy to sad people coming in regularly).

I’ve put together a list on Listmania of all the albums I love for this purpose, that you should know about. A real mix of genres, maybe there might be a new find in there for you! View the list here. Feel free to share anything you think I should listen to as well

Comments from multiple funders we have spoken to reflect the fact that they don’t believe funding our website development costs to be as needy a cause as assisting other charities to provide their services. I was warned by Volunteering Auckland’s Cheryll Martin about this fact before we started applying to funding organizations; that I will find it ten times as hard to find funding as opposed to any other organisation; as we are both essentially support organisations to the charity sector, as opposed to being on the front lines.

Consider this… A funder has applications for funds in front of them, both totaling $30K:

• One from DonateNZ to fund website development to fix the current problems and build areas specifically requested by its users OR
• Fund 10 sick kids wishes to go to Disneyland

Which would you choose? Would the tug of your heartstrings win?

I’m not arguing against sending sick kids to Disneyland, or knocking any of the valuable causes who we compete with for funding, as they are the very reason I began the website; to help them. However, I am pointing at the differences in the long term benefit gained from the funds. After that trip is over, the funds are gone. If we were to receive the funds, by making our service perform properly (which I am sorry to say, is not, presently) the DonateNZ site could be filling hundreds of Wishes for charities weekly. This would relieve the pressure on the community funding sector, as well as the charity themselves.

We’ve been told by funders, that if we were to run some public event or something more “forwards facing” they would consider us more seriously. We’ve considered this. However it does not fit with our core vision and goals which will take the site to be where it needs to be. Do you think we should change who we are to fit into their criteria? I certainly don’t. Could this be a classic case of cutting of ones nose to spite ones face? Maybe. I know one thing for certain, in order for this site to be a success we need to base our decisions on assessing solid feedback from members, successes and market demand; not from what a handful of people who have money who want us to fit through their hoops.

I’ve been told by funders, that we appear too professional and “not needy enough” and perhaps that is true. It is tough however, as I don’t think we will ever seem needy enough; as it’s the thousands of organisations we represent (and the people they serve) who are. By giving them a voice, via our website, we can make a brighter future for them by allowing their community to see who they are and how they can help. Our role is a distinctly strategic move to provide a service to support the charitable sector and make it more self sufficient, as well as making every New Zealander an active participant in those organisation’s future. Think you know better, or want to help or just comment? Do share

It is perhaps this stiff upper lip, “we can do anything”, “we don’t need any help” Kiwi attitude which has gotten us to this place we are at now.  As, taking a birds eye view of the situation, we must sound either incredibly crazy or incredibly stupid.  One would assume that we have lots of money to throw around, however I assure you that’s not the case.  We are not crazy, or stupid.  We’re not hippies with an entirely unrealistic dream and we certainly aren’t rich.  My parents and I are simply 3 Kiwi’s who got sick of sitting around complaining about the state of the nation and decided to put a great community idea into action.  That idea was that with an easier method of communicating, we could all contribute a lot more to our community.  Thus began DonateNZ, the website where you can connect what you no longer need with an organisation who can use it.

DonateNZ began with a business model in 2006.  It was not created to make a lot of money, we simply hoped I would be able to earn a living from doing it.  In addition to this, business is all my family has known and when we began exploring the option of being a charity, funding would have taken anywhere up to a year to secure.  “Far too long!” we said, “NZ needs this service now, let’s do it!” we cried.

So after my first meeting with the bank manager, we secured our first loan of $150k against my families business (Roses Are Red) to get DonateNZ started.  Our business model was to earn $100+gst from every Recipient member who signed up and that we said, would make the service sustainable.  We were away!  However, fate was not on our side.  After getting away to a flying start and a couple of months into business, our web developers dropped the ball.  And by “dropped the ball” I mean they kicked it right through the china shop, refusing to pay for damages and then fleeing the scene.   Every business has to deal with website issues, it’s rife in this industry.  However, in our web based business’s infancy, we were essentially crippled.  Services were broken and traffic was exiting as fast as it was coming in.  All and all, we were not able to do anything we were promising in our sales pitch, nor were we any closer to coming up with a solution. (It is noted, despite this and solely due to the overwhelming popularity and support of the DonateNZ idea, we still managed to win “Best Government or Community Site” with that site at the Netguide Awards – beating the IRD and ARC!).

We were screwed, literally.  Alas, we continued to fight with these jokers to fix their mistakes, but it didn’t happen.  We came to a turning point, near the end of 2007.  Either stop now and cut our losses or get another site made.  We could have got out then and returned to our cave and licked our wounds, but we didn’t.  It may have been because we were too stubborn and proud to admit defeat but I truly believe it was because we knew in our heart we were doing a great thing – something that every New Zealander wanted and needed.  So by hook or crook we were going to make it happen.  All the chips were on the table.

We went out there to find a website developer and unfortunately no one would work over the existing site, so we were forced to rebuild a new website from the ground up.  So, off we went to the bank manager again……  The next $150K loan (over the family house this time), financed a whole new website and the next year of running costs.  Our new website built by Terabyte was launched in August 2008 and that’s the awesome version you see now.  It’s not quite finished though, as more work and user driven improvements are needed and you guessed it, more money is needed to make that work possible.  While people think that charities should and do get everything for free, this simply isn’t possible.

As we reached the end of the second $150K loan, we came to the realisation (maybe a little late) that we are not able to do this all ourselves.  We could keep trying, but at the end of the day, my Mum simply can’t work any more hours in the day to provide funds and DonateNZ will not be the best it can be without help from the rest of the country who in the end are the total beneficiaries of the site.  That’s what it’s all about, an awesome service for all New Zealanders, is it not?

Thus, we incorporated the Donate Charitable Trust.  Given the changes with the charities register, it took another 7 months from the date of our registration to get our application processed.  When our registration came through, we began to “sort out and close the business books” so to speak.  It wasn’t fun, trust me.  There is no rule book on how to turn from a business into a charity but the objectives have stayed the same throughout, but the paperwork, oh my!

As well as incorporating a charitable trust, we also made the decision to make the service completely free to community organisations, from the 1/4/09.  While a risky move, this has seen the number increase by 500% in the past 6 months as well as prompted a higher success rate of donations and wishes being filled.  All round, this has resulted in allowing the site to serve its  purpose better, as well as allowing us to leverage more promotion and partnership angles given a larger database.

Now, DonateNZ (run by the Donate Charitable Trust) is able to seek funding from local government, gaming trusts, private foundations and others who wish to donate.  We are IRD tax exempt and have our “charitable wings” so to speak.  But how on earth could we get funding?  I started by checking myself into everyone funding application course I could find (rather like rehab!) and  I came out of this starry eyed, thinking in order to obtain any of the millions of funding dollars which are out there, you just needed to fill the forms in properly.  Alas, it’s not that easy.  Funding it seems, is not going to happen overnight, or even in a few months.  I’m hoping, like Pantene says, that it will happen!   We are now onto our 21^st funding application, none of which have been approved thus far.  In our case, based on off the record comments from funders, our problem seems to be that we do not seem high-priority.  Websites (despite how much good they do), I suspect, never will be.  We were told we don’t seem needy enough and we are also too professional!  Both things that I have never regretted until now, when the fate of DonateNZ literally hangs in the balance.  I take some comfort in the fact it isn’t just us however, organisations from right across every sector are struggling to secure funding.

Not content to just sit back and wait for funding to come our way, in June of this year the Trust started planning its own fundraiser; a raffle whereby all our members sold tickets and received 50% of the sale price.  Having secured a massive prize pool, ordered 75,000 tickets and just awaiting what we thought to be a formality; our raffle license, we were discouraged to hear that this raffle is prohibited by the Gambling Act rules.  It seems you are not able to pay a commission to members selling tickets, therefore making it impossible in any way to have a large number of organizations participating and get reimbursed proportionately for their efforts.  A fact which has essentially blown the whole campaign out of the water and we are back to square one.

We want to become an organisation which is able to sustain itself and at the end of the day, the largest stakeholder, our customers, should be contributing something if the service is working for them.  Therefore, we want to build into the website a system which prompts people to donate when they have used the site a certain amount.  Again, in order to make this money, money needs to be spent on development to put the procedures in place.

So, as you can see, we are somewhat in a limbo. We do not have funds. What we have is a extremely large mortgage, good will, running costs (kept to as minimal as possible) still being covered by Roses Are Red and an even larger commitment to make DonateNZ work.  I shall continue sending funding application after funding application and I will take every denial letter in my stride.  I will think outside the box and approach ever possible angle for funding I can think of and is suggested to me.  I know each day we win small victories and that these will add up and eventually we will succeed in securing sustainable funding for our venture.  We know we’re doing the right thing and that every person and organisation in New Zealand can and will benefit from the system we have built.  I just hope at some point that New Zealand will get on board and return the support we have given it, so we don’t go belly-up from doing this.

So that’s it, that’s the full story laid bare for better or for worse.  Feel free to share your opinions, thoughts and feedback.  As you can imagine, I’d especially love to hear from anyone who wishes to help us, in whatever capacity that may be. Or if you feel significantly moved enough to make a donation, please do so here.

Claire Sawyers
Creator, CEO and only staff member

Donate Charitable Trust (aka Donate NZ)
www.donatenz.com

Twitter is AMAZING for business, I’ve gotton so much out of it and made contacts I would never usually.  I can’t rate it highly enough.

• Essentially it allows me to have an ear to the ground in my industry, finding out when people are talking about me, my competition, or relevant information to share with my own audience.
• Being on there that has reduced the amount of time I spend searching for content for my website and newsletter, it just essentially gets delivered to me Whereas before I had no idea of some things were going on.
• As well as that, there are multiple members of the press who are now aware of the DonateNZ movement, as well as politicians and other influential public figures.

For personal use, you’re doing it wrong if you think its about saying what you’re up to every second of the day. Unless you’re famous or make it really funny, no one wants to hear that.

If you actually want to make Twitter work on a personal level (this could result in new work opportunities, giveaways, promotions, traffic to a cause or blog you support, allow you to meet people round the world, who knows!) make yourself interesting by:

• Sharing cool stuff you’ve found or enjoy (link to it)
• Be conversational (but keep it to 1-2 responses, Twitter is a meeting point not the place to have a conversation)
• Follow people who you think are interesting and RT (essentially forward on) the things you like of theirs to your audience and they’ll do the same for you.
• Keep it PC, don’t put anything you wouldn’t want your boss or grandma reading.

Once you get into it, make life easierby using an application like Tweetdeck so you can read everything properly.  It’s goddamn near impossible to get good results using the online page, once you get a lot of people following or follow a lot of people.

It breaks out:

• Whats being said publicly by ppl you’re following
• Who’s talking about you publicly (tracked by your username)
• Who’s talking to you (privately)

It also has this handy function where you can search keywords, so you can essentially monitor whats going on in regards to anything.  If you think you’re an expert on or are particularly interested in a topic, follow keywords related to that.  Makes for lots of interesting reading and conversations.

I don’t know how long it’ll be around and successful for, but I plan to use it as much as possible while it is as the benefits are very easily achievable and worthwhile.  Hope this helps some of you get it!

(btw if you want to follow me on Twitter I’m @clairednz @donatenz & @RosesAreRedNZ)

I don’t profess to be an expert by any means, I’m still learning every day. However, I’ve compiled the key points I’ve learnt since starting my site, in the hope I may save something else valuable time and effort!

• Don’t chase white rabbits
  This is a quote from one of my idols, Sam Morgan, which I love. Once in business in the web world, it’s very easy to diversify and introduce products and services to your audience. But at what cost? Does the value you will achieve from these endevours outway the cost to introduce them? Think very long and hard before chasing the rabbits. My rule of thumb is, that if it’s essentially another whole business worth of time and effort, unless the reward is high, then another business should be doing them.

• Cater for the majority, not the minority

  When creating and managing a website, there will be people out there who will speak up loudly about the features and things they want. While they might make the most noise, consider your silent majority who do not respond. Test, scope, survey, contact – do everything you can to ensure you have the right solution before spending valuable time and money to create something only a small minority might utilise.

• Start small and let solutions and products evolve

  Keep it simple, stupid. When creating a site, don’t overcomplicate things. Know what your job is and do it well. If you set your roots well in the process of what you do, you can grow on it and you (hopefully many) customers will guide what they want next.

• Wherever possible, follow conventional methods

  While there is always a place in this world for innovation, wherever possible, follow conventional methods to ensure the quickest uptake by your population. Without a doubt, it will always take time for users to find, understand, make a decision to be involved in/purchase your product or service and then (hopefully) use your service. The easier you can make it for these people by using a format they understand, the quicker you will acquire customers.

• When usability testing, find strangers

  (All confidentiality issues aside) It’s easy to flick off a test to your buddy who always has time for you. I say, don’t do it. If this person has an understanding of who you are and what you do, their perception is never going to reflect that of a truly new observer. The sooner you can get those kind of people in there, do it. Their advice is invaluable. Nowadays you don’t even need to coerce random strangers or databases from the street to do these tests, social network via Twitter is one quick and easy way.

• First impressions are key

  A homepage is typically the first page people will hit. You’ve got about 30 seconds before they switch off and exit your site. Make sure you establish exactly what it is you do, what you can do for them (WIIFM factor) and how they can be involved. Once you’ve got these things nailed, they’ll be willing to invest more time finding further information. I always try to keep in mind
  that the most effective website in the world is Google and that’s just a search box. Less is more.

• Do you really need all that information?

  Registering on the site is a key feature many websites trip up on. If it’s too hard, all the work to that point to acquire that customer goes down the drain. Consider what essential information you need in order to go about your core business process and make those fields compulsory and highlighted clearly as such. Leave as much of the rest out as you can. Being interrogated without cause just pisses consumers off and will make them leave without doing so. Again, less is more.

• Fields which will consistently trip people up – beware!
  Through my experience with building websites, I find the following fields will consistently trip people up. Wherever possible redefine these or provide as much info as possible as to what you’re asking:
  

  Title – despite the fact that on DonateNZ we run a listing based system where people make listings for things they want to give away, in much the same way as TradeMe, the “Title” field continually results in entries such as “Mr or Mrs” or “Insert persons name here”
  

  Captcha (security) – If this is required, fight, fight with your web designer to get the simplest form possible. Big letters, 3-4 numbers, anything else and you’re opening yourself up to losing a sale/registration when they’re about to cross the finishing line
  

  Email address vs website address – Again, despite being one of those things you’d think people know, it’s not the case. 1 in 5 registrations on DonateNZ result in website address fields being populated with an email address. Some people just do not know the difference yet.

• People (in general) are apathetic
  While it is my own personal mission in life to let other websites know where there system falls down, most other people do not have the time. You can pretty much trust that if one person takes the time to tell you about a problem, then ten have noticed, gotton frustrated and left because of it. Act swiftly and promptly to rectify any problems before you any further losses.

  and lastly:

• People (in general) are stupid
  We love our customers to bits. However, after years of observing, I’ve come to the conclusion, that sometimes there is only so much you can do. It’s much like our drive through at the family business at Roses Are Red. We’ll put a line of road cones to block one side and inevitably once a week, someone will drive right over them. While I shall keep pondering an alternative to the road cone, sometimes there is only so much you can do! *shrug* Can’t win em all!

I welcome any comments, suggestions or general rants about life in general, as per usual

However let’s face it, these kinds of concerns for our planet’s future have been around for many years.   Think about it, do you remember “Captain Planet”?  For some reason until a few short years ago, making it a topic of regular conversation had always been the domain of hippies and greenies.  What’s changed?

What’s changed is that modern technology, the internet, social networking has skyrocketed up the popularity ladder and information in general has become easily accessible to all in the last few years.  One can not even begin to comprehend how much this has changed our society – and these effects only grow stronger by the day.  It’s massive!  What is seen and heard is disseminated by those who can get their message across most effectively to the widest audience (money, smarts & power is required for this, not necessarily in that order).

In the past, there were systems in place to verify and authenticate information. But now, who questions the message? We’re in new territory here.  There’s no rule book or case study (as soon as they’re written they’re obsolete), there’s no moderator, seemingly there’s no right or wrong answers any more.

This is concerning across the board.  More specifically, it is especially concerning in regards to our environment.  I read a piece by John Ward recently  “We need a green oracle we can trust”.   Isn’t it crazy; it has become so noisy and there are SO many experts, we now don’t know who to listen to.  Or even when we do listen, whether who we are listening to is right.  Who do you believe?

Who we can not trust.
I believe most of our worldwide concern for the environment is driven solely by the marketing world.  Sustainability & the environment is the current “flavour de jour”, the way for corporates to gain leverage in a saturated market.  Is it possible that instead of a green “revolution” , we have a green “bandwagon”?  We must be weary of this kind of temporary fix, as with every corporation, company, man and his dog jumping on the wagon, it is at some point, bound to topple us all off the cart.  In a market which is so very close to being saturated by green, how long will your businesses commitment to the sustainable practices continue once marketing companies’ recommendations change?   If green is the new black, then what’s the new green?

I question, is sustainability itself, sustainable?

It’s uncanny and unnerving that in an unexpected turn, my excitement at the recent greenieness has come with a huge, overwhelming sense of worry and caution.  I feel this in two areas  -

1. As mentioned above, how long will can and will these commitments to sustainability last?
   
2. As to what we are doing now, is it even the right thing for the planet?

In regards to the latter, if the feelings, hype and actions initiated by the green “bandwagon” aren’t backed by solid science, working practices and proof of results (not just in isolation), it could be catastrophic.  A couple of simple examples of this to illustrate my point … the swapping of planting crop areas from food supplies, to bio fuel crops, thus resulting in food shortages.  Or, carbon exchange programmes which seem to justify and encourage irresponsible environmental behavior, rather than seek to correct the source of the initial problem (classic bandaiding tactics).

Do you feel “green guilt” creeping up on you some days?   The more in my face the green bandwagon becomes, the more I feel these feelings growing in me.  Beating myself up over silly things; for forgetting to turn off a light switch, taking the car to work or heaven forbid, even considering international travel.  Taken to an extreme degree, its much like the feeling of having done something naughty, like committing a minor crime.  One worries that if my green sinning is not kept in check, it may eventually result in catastrophic circumstances.  (Along those lines, here’s an interesting read – The Green Religion).

Arrrrrrgh! When all I ever have tried to do and be is a friend to the environment, how did I suddenly end up it’s worst enemy?

Let’s take it back to basics here.  In all this white noise, doesn’t it all come back to common sense?   Take stock for a moment and remember and old phrase courtesy of Newton “For everything that goes up, it must come down”.    Think on my (slightly less eloquent) version of it.  ”Let’s not delude ourselves.  Nothing is free in this world.  For everything gained or saved, there is a cost to someone else”.   The trick is, to make sure the cost is in the right place and not a boomerang coming back to haunt you or our future generations.

Common sense practices I endeavour to live by :

• Plant stuff (just don’t mow down a forest to do it)
• Re-use before recycling (it takes a lot less energy than having to reconstitute an item. If you can’t reuse it, DonateNZ is a perfect site to find someone else who can)
• Recycle wherever possible (keeps it out of the landfill)
• Let the earth take back as much of its own as it can (it’s disposal techniques are much more effective than ours ever could be)
• Eat well, exercise regularly and live healthily (all round it’ll cost everyone lots less in the long run)
• Reduce your personal impact (use as little as possible, wherever possible)
• Keep back to nature wherever possible (packaging = bad)
• Don’t be an island (a more socially active person is a happier and healthier one)
• Give back wherever possible (do unto others as you would have done to you)And lastly…
• If the state of the world is as bad as they would have us believe, then just what you do is not enough, it’s barely negating your own impact.
  Wherever possible, go out of your way to do something that not only changes your habits, but influences positively a number of people (best case scenario – a population!).
  “One teardrop didn’t make a waterfall but a gang of him and his mates sure helped”  (that’s one of my own)

As usual, all comments and thoughts welcomed.

To date I’ve not had the money or the inclination to test my suspicions.  Until I won a quarter page ad in the NZ Herald from the Auckland Bizzone Show!   Huge thanks go to them for this.

Here’s the ad which ran on page 3 in the Herald Business Section, last Tuesday 14^th of July.  Please excuse the typo which manage to elude both us and the NZ Herald proofing team.

Had we paid for this, it would have been $6230+gst.  Wowsers!

One week after publication, I’d have to make the call that my assumptions were correct.

• Hits and calls from the day of and 1 day after publication – no significant increase. One or two people commented they saw it.
  Compared with…
• Hits and calls from the day of and 1 day after being mentioned in online Herald piece here– 20 times more than usual.

In conclusion, while we were super appreciative for the feature and understand that it would have helped raise our brand and website awareness to some degree, it definately isn’t the right advertising medium for us.

Has your website had success with printed media?  Do you think we could have done differently?  I’d love to hear your feedback.

Why they’re awesome :

• Wide Variance of areas – Outdoor area, outdoor covered area, indoor bar, function rooms and restaurant. Pool table and huge bar service area.
• Super Food- It’s reasonably priced, delicious and comes out super quick, even when they are busy.  If you’re feeling opulent, go for a seafood platter.  They also do a great dessert platter.  I’m campaigning for them to bring back the American Cinnamon Donuts with Caramel Sauce and Icecream they removed from the menu!And the real win factor for me…
• Their Great loyalty programme – By becoming a VIP member, when you swipe your incentive card, you get $1 back on the bar for each $7 you spend.  Plus a $25 voucher emailed to you on your birthday!

If you’re in the Mt Wellington area, check it out (map), you won’t be dissapointed.  I’m going to be there tonight, enjoying my FREE birthday meal then popping to the movies which are 2 secs walk away.

Enjoy!

What I feel Twitters strong points are:

- Business & Networking :  The ability to be connecting with other businesses around the world instantaneously; pooling knowledge and making connections.  Despite being a relative newbie to the Twitter world, already it has given me so many amazing results, including increased traffic to the website, donations to my charity and making connections that realistically, would never have happened in any other way.

- Eavesdropping :  Together with Google Alerts, you can hear everything someone is saying about you, your business and your competitor anywhere online.  Catch problems in real time and fix them before they become an issue.  Grab traffic before a person even gets to look at your competitiors.  Be told any time someone links to you.  It’s amazing.

- Shared knowledge : This is where the personal side of Twitter can really come into play, I feel.  It’s not those “I had an UpnGo for breakfast” redundant kind of statements.  But think about it, we’ve got literally millions of people, how can we extract interesting and practical information from them.

Hence, I ponder into some new hashtag suggestions:

#musicgems+pop (or any genre following the +) - Avid music fans, if you’re like me, you’re always looking for new musical finds.  Share them with the world.  The more that’s shared a nice long list which grows for the worlds musical enlightenment.
One I’d share: “Soho Dolls, Jem, Imogen Heap, Frou Frou #musicgems+pop”

#rtydk – Random things you didn’t know – Everyone has knowledge in regards to certain topics, that people barely know about.  Share a random fact you think everyone should know.
One I’d share from my experience in the floristy industry: “100% of your $25 Interflora delivery fee goes to Interflora. Then the delivery cost comes out of the rest of the money you spend #rtydk”

#onlineshopsnz – Spotlight a cool NZ shop which deserves some exposure.
One I’d share: “http://www.zestproducts.co.nz #onlineshopnz”

#salestipsnz – Heard an industry secret about a massive sale happening? Found a good bargain hunting website? Share share!
One I’d share: “Bargain hunters should know about http://www.mysale.co.nz & http://www.shopsavvy.co.nz #salestipsnz”

And just for fun...

#zeropower – Seen Zeroes? What’s your zero super power?
One I’d share: “I can pick up anything with my feet! #zeropower”

Just some thoughts, feel free to implement!

Donating

Most people just have a clearout then chuck them in the clothing bin. First off, you should know that only a small percentage (roughly 5%) of the profits from the Textile Recycling Centre (i.e. most of the clothing bins and pink bags throughout the country) goes to charity. Personally, I don’t agree with this. People think they are donating it all to charity, however, this is not the case. If you’re going to donate them, why not use www.donatenz.com to locate an organisation that can use them. Or alternatively, locate an op shop who will sell them, such as the Salvation Army Family Stores, Red Cross or Hospice Shops (all in the Yellow Pages). These are run by not-for-profit organisations rather than a business, meaning more of the proceeds make it to benefit a good cause.

It’s tough times and we’re all struggling to save that last little dollar so resale may be on your mind. My advice – TradeMe all the way!

Selling

I have pursued most options in terms of professional clothing resale in New Zealand. Designer Boutique was the biggest waste of my time. I sent in 10 gently loved, designer items (i.e. not Glassons, we’re talking Carly Harris and Top Shop here), as they requested. Within a week I got a notification stating they were accepting 3 of these. The other 7 had to be collected within a week or else they would be given to charity. Grumbling, I obliged. In regards to the other three, after 6 weeks (their sale term) 2 sold and one was left at the store, again I had to pick it up in a week or else it would be donated to charity. Lucky I happened to have rung up to check on the status of my items that day, which was the last day before donation, otherwise that would have been the last I saw of that skirt. After 3 weeks I received the sum of $15 in my bank account for the 2 sales. What a waste of time! Following this, I put the 7items on TradeMe, and less costs, I made over $150 with them.

Aside from the Designer Boutique, I have tried the following and learned the following:

• Most resellers will take a minumum of 50% commission of the sale of your goods
• Double Exposure : must be very high fashion in very good condition to even look at it
• Second to None : Had more success selling things here and better service, still could have got more on TradeMe myself
• Ball dress resellers : must be in pristine condition otherwise price is sliced (if they will even accept it)

All and all, when you take it to these places, you end up feeling like a beggar trying to pawn their wears in desperation as they discern your items with the most critical of eyes. Often this is followed with a “We don’t sell clothes like that in here”. Yes, I understand their position (I’ll take my once worn Carly Harris top elsewhere then, hrrmph!)  but overall it’s not the most pleasant experience.

Personally, I recommend you want to sell them, do it on TradeMe! You’re selling to a market of thousands of people New Zealand wide and best part, you can do it all from your own home, minus the rejection and don’t have to share the profit with anyone!

Yes it can be laborious at first, but trust me, it gets easier and is well worth your time. I regularly help fund any new additions to my wardrobe, with the sales of things I no longer wear.

For some handy tips, I’ve listed how I sell clothes on TradeMe:

1. Snap photo (lying flat works well for clothes, lay down a light coloured sheet if possible?)
2. Write down details of it on refill (label, size, colour, material)
3. Upload photos to computer. Bulk resize to 1000×1000 using Windows Power Tool located here if you’re on XP
4. List on TradeMe using standard format, an example below:
   “Label = X, Size = X, Material = X
   Please see my other listings for other $1 reserve auctions
   Any queries just ask”
5. Standardise postage rate to $3.50, which covers pretty much any small package and is a fair rate.
6. Add on gallery (get 85% more bids) and list
7. Click “Sell similar item” and adjust category and details to new item

To save yourself a whole bunch of time, always make sure automated emails are turned on and accept payment only via bank transfer and pay now. Don’t do pick ups. Simple as!

Pricing wise, it’s all a numbers game. If you are not in a hurry to sell your clothes, set the price you want. Be prepared to relist several times and to drop your price each time.

Personally, I prefer to do batches every few months of $1 reserve auctions. It can be nerve wracking, yes, but overall, if you do it right, you should receive the same prices in way less time and effort. The best way I have found to make these work for you is to list everything (yes, everything!) on this and ensure you mention this in the standard text of every listing, prompting people to check out your other stuff. Then people will browse through the whole lot, rather than just the one item.

Tips for the more advanced….

• There is a program called Auctionitis you can use. I found it took longer than what I did though, it’s great for commercial sellers who list the same thing over and over.
• I use a bulk mailing program (there’s free ones out there like Mail Chimp) to contact people who have bought from me before to let them know I have listed new stuff. It seems to work, as I have heaps of repeat buyers and lots of thank yous!

Swapping

It’s a new fad worldwide… Clothes Swaps – Schwops – whatever you call it, it is fun and a great chance to catch up with friends and score some new threads in the process.

The way we run our clothes swaps, is about 4 times a year, about ten girls get together with the clothes they no longer wear. Each person holds up their stuff and things are divvied out. Then a big try on ensues. Items contested go to the one who suits it best! And everyone is happy at the end of the day. We do two things with the clothes which aren’t claimed to new homes:

• Sell 2-3 good items on TradeMe to pay for nibble at the next swap!
• Donate all others through DonateNZ to schools, playcentres and charities who can use them.

You don’t have to do it the same way we did. There are lots happening around the world. Big public ones are the best as there is a huge range of stuff! Keep an ear out for them happening in your local area. Here’s an article FashioNZ published about how to have one.

Whew, this took a while to write. I hope you find it useful and helps you towards a fabulous new wardrobe, minus the strain on your wallet, the economy and the environment ! Next week I will be publishing my tips on how to shop for clothes on TradeMe, stay tuned…