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News

In order to promote responsible drinking this July 4th, we bring a story of true drunken stupidity to you this week so you can know what not to do. According to the Associated Press, a South Milwaukee man was accused of driving drunk last week after trying to use a golf cart to drive home nearly 40 miles away from the golf course where he had been drinking beer. The man told police that his relatives had left him behind at the golf club. I have wanted to leave drunk people at the golf course from time to time. So he got in a golf cart and headed home down Highway 167. When the sheriff caught up with him, the man said he had drunk about 10 beers, but did not consider himself intoxicated. I think that if you think for some reason that driving a golf cart home, clearly, you are either retarded or drunk…or both. So don’t do that this weekend.

In a side note a recommendation from a listener, Tasting Beer: An Insider’s Guide to the World’s Greatest Drink a book by Randy Mosher

Unibroue Maudite

• Back this week to Unibroue. We are halfway through the series and to be bevery honest, there isn’t alot more that we can say about the brewery.
• As a brief review, Unibroue is a Candaian brewery located in Quebec, Canada. The brewry is currently owned by Sapporo a Japanesse company.
• In November 1992 Maudite which is translated to “the damned one, was the first strong beer to be distributed in Quebec grocery stores.
• It weighs in at 8% abv and is classifed on the website as a Strong Red Ale, refermented in the bottle, which probably just means bottle conditioned.
• Because of the high alcohol content on this one, it can be cellared and the website says that it has a 5 year life span or more.
• Maudite has a typically Quebecois name that is reminiscent of the legend of the Chasse-Galerie (the legend of the Flying Canoe). Legend has it that a group of lumberjacks struck a deal with the devil to fly home in their canoes, guided by Satan himself, to make it home in time for Christmas. This is the scene that is depicted on the label as well.

Next Week

One more week, and one more Unibroue beer. We are going to be looking at La Fin Du Monde, which I believes translates into the end of the world. So tune in and enjoy.

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And for those fair readers who thought I was buried somewhere between New Castle and Poulsbo, rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, more on that at the bottom of the post.

This statistic comes from a comScore report, but was brought to my attention by The Agitator.

Additionally that comScore report found that the average time people are watching videos is 3-5 minutes, not that 1 and 1/2 to two minute range we advise the ministries we work with.

But before you fire up the camera for that long form video, remember averages are often skewed by large numbers at either end of the spectrum. In other words a few folks watching full length movies, say on Hulu.com, could skew that number up fairly easily.

Bottom line, video engages people exponentially longer than a web page alone. We used to say you had eight seconds to capture a user with a web page, now I usually say its down to two or three seconds. Which means that people, on average, will engage with a video for 80 times longer then they do with a web page alone.

So if three-quarters of the folks on the internet watch video and they engage with it nearly two orders of magnitude longer than just a web page – say it with me now – you need to be doing online video.

Personal Note I know I haven’t been writing as often, but things are busy both here at Masterworks and at home. Family and work come first, so posting to the blog comes fourth. Second is a two way tie between bicycling and sitting in airports. Good news, we’ve been working on some exciting stuff that we’ll announce in these pages soon!

News

Well, for the second week in a row we have a Pennsylvannia story. This one is from my home town of Pittsburgh, where the Pittsburgh Brewery will no longer be producing Iron City. All production will be moved to the old Latrobe brewery, owned by City Brewing. The brewery will go dark on June 22nd for the first time in 150 years. The brewery president said that the old Pittsburgh brewery cost too much to upgrade and and was not sustainable in the current economic climate.

Unibroue Chambly Noire

• Alright, well we are back for a second week at Unibroue, which we found out last week was a Canadian brewer that makes some rather potent beer.
• We talked a little bit about the brewery last week, but let’s go back into the background some more.
• In 1990, the founders of Unibroue, André Dion and Serge Racine obtained 75% interest in La Brasserie Massawippi Inc., a struggling brewery in Lennoxville, Quebec.
• At the end of 1991 the remaining shares of Massawippi were acquired and transferred to Unibroue Inc. Massawippi changed its name to Brasserie Broubec Inc. and amalgamated with Unibroue in 1993 to form the corporation that was around before it was bought by Sleeman.
• In spring 1992, Blanche de Chambly was unveiled after consultation with a Belgian brewer. La Maudite debuted in November of the same year, and Unibroue began to invade the palates of Quebecers. It would be another 18 months of research until their next beer, La Fin du Monde was ready for the market in February 1994.
• Another year passed, and Raftman debuted in March of 1995, followed by La Gaillarde in August. By now Unibroue was gaining respect and was exporting: even slow learning LCBO permanently stocked Maudite and Blanche de Chambly in the fall of 1995. Unibroue’s first seasonal, Quelque Chose, was unveiled in January 1996, and L’Eau Bénite debuted in June 1996.
• More on the history next week, but as for now, how about the beer for this week, Unibroue Chambly Noire.
• Chambly Noire weighs in at 6.2% abv, which is a step above last week, and is classified as a Belgian Dark Ale.
• Belgian Dark Ale’s are traditionally all over the board, but are darker in color and can contain some spiceness, as you can expect with some typical Belgians.

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As promised our Unibroue series begins with a small little thing Ephemere.

News

This weeks story comes from Harrisburg, the state capital, where the Pennsylvania Supreme Court says stores and restaurants with licenses allowing beer to be consumed on the premises cannot limit sales to take out. The court ruled 5-1 Monday against a Sheetz convenience store in Altoona, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. Louis Sheetz, the chain’s executive vice president for marketing, said he was surprised by the ruling and does not understand the court’s reasoning. “We are certainly not the first, and we certainly won’t be the last restaurant to sell six-packs,” he said. “The only possible difference is that they serve beer on the premises, and we do not.” Giant Eagle, a chain that has cafe areas inside its stores, has applied for beer licenses for seven stores in western Pennsylvania. Dick Roberts, Giant Eagle spokesman, said the chain is studying the court ruling, because it had planned to sell beer only for off-premises drinking.

Unibroue Ephemere Ale

• Well finally, no more Irish beers for a while. This week we turn our sites on a Canadian beer company, Unibroue, and the first in a series of beer that we are going to cover from that brewery.
• This was actually a listener suggested series from Ben in Chicago, so thanks Ben for the idea and feel free to keep them coming to everyone else as well.
• Unibroue is a brewery located in Chambly, Quebec and was founded by Quebec native Andre Dion in 1993.
• As with most breweries these days, it has been bought several times, first by Sleeman Brothers, Ltd in 2004 and then later by the Japaneses brewer Sapporo in 2006.
• Now I don’t want to cover too much of this company in the first week because quite frankly I am already a little worried about running out of material in the coming weeks, so lets focus some on the beer for the evening.
• Tonight’s beer, Ephemere, weighs in at 5.5% abv, and I believe is the lowest alcohol beer that Unibroue makes. There are a lot of high octane products from the brewery.
• It has been brewed since 2002 and is described as a while ale brewed with apple must on the website and ale brewed with apple juice, coriander, and curacao on the label.
• I had this one out of a 750 ml bottle that was corked and capped. The bottle claims that it is a bottle conditioned beer, and with the cork popping, that would seem to be true.
• The pour was light in color, very much like a wheat beer and very hazy, again like a wheat beer. It also had a nice big white fluffy head that seemed to go away rather quickly.
• The smell on this one was green apple, almost like a jolly rancher green apple it was that potent. It got me wondering if this was going to taste artificial.
• The flavor is not as potent as the smell may suggest, with a bit of bitterness up front and the apple aftertaste.
• There was a little bit of sourness here, but really not too much. Overall it was a pretty good beer for summertime. It really wasn’t too heavy and the apple gave it just enough to make it taste different than a wheat beer.

Next Week

Next week we are going to continue our Unibroue series with Chambly Noire, a dark Belgian beer.

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The second, and last, beer in our Irish Beer in Ireland series we look at Kilkeny Irish Cream Ale. Sorry about my audio quality, I forgot to turn my actual microphone.

News

Well talk about topical, we not only have a news story for you tonight, but it is a news story about Ireland. The oldest brewery in Ireland closed on May 30th. The Beamish and Crawford brewery was opened in Cork, a southern county in Ireland, around 1792. Production of Beamish is being transferred to the Heineken Lady’s Well brewery in Cork following a decision made last year. This means that Beamish and Murphy’s, once bitter rivals, will now be housed under the same roof. Heineken Ireland meanwhile has presented the Beamish archives – probably one of the most complete brewing archives in Ireland or Britain – to the Cork city archives. Beamish, as you may remember, was an Irish Stout that we covered back in our first Irish series and I actually like it better than Guiness.

Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale

• Tonights beer is Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale, named after a town located in the middle of the country, Kilkenny.
• A little bit about the background of this beer. Well, guess what, it is made by Diageo, the giant beverage company that also makes Guiness, Harp, and Smithwicks.
• We have talked long and hard about Diageo, so I am not really going to say much about the company.
• The beer is actually produced in Kilkenny in the same brewery that produces Smithwicks.
• The St. Francis Abbey Brewery occupies over 25 acres in the heart of Kilkenny City. The brewery has been part of local life for over 290 years and it is here that Smithwick’s Ale was first brewed in 1710.
• To give you a feeling of the size of the brewery, Budwieser is also produced there for the Irish domestic market.
• Tonights beer weighs in at 4.3% abv and is not available in the US. It is available over most of Europe and even Canada, but not here. Also, there are some rumors that the beer may start to be imported here in the future, so just keep your eyes open.
• Kilkenny is first a formost a nitro beer, alot like Guiness. This gives it a nice creamy mouthfeel and large head.
• The taste is rather well balanced, with some nice malty flavor and just a bit of bitterness from the hops. This is really kind of like Smithwicks, just a little bit better mouthfeel.
• Overall, I would give this one a try if you can get it.

Next Week

Well, that is just about it for the Irish beers, being that this is the second Irish beer series that we have done within the last 4 months. Next week a new series, one completely focused on Unibroue. So tune in.

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Jim’s back from Ireland and we begin to take on some of the beers he sampled over there, starting with Guinness.

News

A press release from MillerCoors today is announcing that they are recalling one of their products. MillerCoors has recalled a batch of Coors Light in the Southeastern United States after taste tests at the company’s Georgia brewery found the beer to be subpar. Yeah, go ahead, make your jokes here about Coors Light not really having any taste anyway. MillerCoors began pulling the beer from its distribution system and from retailers. “We sampled it and realized it wasn’t up to standards,” said Pete Marino, a spokesman for MillerCoors. He didn’t immediately know how much beer was recalled, or if the recall had been completed. But the batch involved only Coors Light brewed at the firm’s Albany, Ga., brewery.

St. James Gate Brewery, Dublin

• Before we go into Guinness, let me tell you a little bit about the experience that was the St. James Gate Brewery.
• While the old brewery building is no longer actually used as a production brewery, Diageo Guinness’s parent company, has done a fantastic job turning it into a self guided museum.
• One of the first things that you see when you walk in is the famous 9,000 year lease that Arthur Guinness signed in 1759 for 45 lbs per year. The lease is situated at the base of what is supposed to be a giant pint glass of Guiness, and by giant I mean 5 or 6 stories high.
• The museum takes you through the production of Guinness, and beer in general in a rather detailed and interactive experience.
• Once you get through the production levels, there are several exhibits that show you about Guinness advertising over the years and even a place where you can pour your own. Because pouring Guinness correctly is half of a good Guinness.
• At the top of the tour, and top of the building, is the Gravity Bar, where your ticket can be redeemed for one free pint of Guinness.
• Now, I am a little fuzzy on the vital stats of Guinness overseas, so I will say that is weighs in at 5.0% abv which may be a little lower than the US version.
• This beer in Ireland I thought was actually much better than Guinness in the US, and I enjoy a good Guinness in the US. It seemed to be a little bit more full bodied, almost a little bit thicker than its US cousin. It also had a slightly more bitter flavor from what I would guess is the increase in roasted malt.
• One thing that may be influence the taste is the water. Yes, brewers all run their water through filtration systems, but you can’t always get everything out.
• As our cab drive said while we were there, “You could wash your car with the stuff in America, the Guiness in Ireland is much better” and I kind of half to agree.

Next Week

Next week we will be keeping with the Ireland theme and talking about Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale, yet another beer that I had a chance to have in Ireland.

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Another bit of “filler” this week, but tastey, tastey filler. This week we look PENNdemonium.

News

Another in a long line of stupid beer related crimes tonight’s. Authorities are investigating a chainsaw attack. Leflore County Sheriff Bruce Curnutt says a group of men walked to a house in Monroe and said their car was out of gas. The residents drove them to their car but say they noticed a pack of beer was missing from the good Samaritan’s vehicle. A fight broke out and the officials say a man with the group that ran out of gas grabbed a chainsaw and cut another man’s arm.

PENNdemonium

• Penn Brewery was founded in 1986 by Tom and Marybeth Pastorius, however they had to contract out their brewing at first because of a PA law that stated that you weren’t allowed to be a microbrewery or brew-pub.
• Tom Pastorius, with technical and financial assistance from the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, began restoring the former Eberhardt and Ober Brewery located at 800 Vinial Street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Three of the original E & O brewery buildings remain, the stock house (c. 1880-84), and office building standing on a side cut into the rock of Troy Hill. Pastorius hired German Brew-master Alex Deml, who oversaw construction of the 20,000 barrel-a-year capacity brewing facility, which included custom built and authentic German imported micro-brewery equipment.
• The brewery and restaurant was scheduled to go out of business as of Feb 2009, but at the last minute a 5 year lease was signed, so I guess they are still there.
• Tonight’s beer, Penndemonium is a maibock beer, a springtime beer that appears to be a lighter bock beer but is pretty strong with the alcohol content. This one weighs in at 10% abv.
• This beer poured a lighter color than other maibocks, but the lack of head is in keeping with the style.
• This beer is unfiltered which means some yeasty goodness in the bottom of you’re glass
• Taste is a bit thin, almost light lager like, which is not good for this style.
• A bit malty but hardly any hops which is wrong for this style. Generally Maibocks are hopper than other bocks.
• The beer hides the alcohol taste very well, but that’s about the only thing it does well

Next Week

Next week we are going to go back to Ireland for beer, but with a little twist. Jim is actually going to Ireland and is going to taste some beers that are actually in Ireland.

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Another departure for YNB, this week we look at a Brew Pub Hofbrauhaus Pittsburgh. Jim and I are both traveling a lot so we are doing things a bit differently this week.

News

Well, this past weekend, for those of you who didn’t know, was the second race of the triple crown, the Preakness. This years attendance at the Preakness, which was won by a filly Rachel Alexandra, was down dramatically due to a ban on outside beer. The reason for the ban was because, shocklingly, drunk people can be rowdy and they decided that was enough of that. Just another reason to drink in moderation, just don’t give people a reason to take the beer away.

Hofbrauhaus Pittsburgh

• There are three Hofbrauhauses in the United States, one in Pittsburgh, one in Las Vegas, and one in Cincinnatti.
• Hofbrauhaus was founded in Germany and the first brewery was created in 1591.
• In 1828 a restaurant was added, so that the patrons could have both beer and food in one place.
• The Pittsburgh location is modeled after the old world style of the German locations, with four distinct areas. There is a open hall inside that is made up of benchs and a polka band, a quiet dinning room, an outdoor veranda, and an outdoor beer garden. The design includes lots of exposed wood beams and general German looks.
• The food is distinctly German, including various sausages and wursts, saukrauts, and schnitzels. I had a wurst platter that included three different types of wurst.
• Now, how about the beer. Well, they have four standards and one seasonal. The standards are all brewed on premise, while the seasonal may be brought in from Germany. The standards are a light lager, a standard lager, a Weizen, and a dunkel. The seasonals rotate by month.
• I had the dunkel beer, which is a dark lager and weighs in at 5.5% abv.
• The taste was distinctly maltly, with just a little bit of bitterness but a very easy drinker. And that is a good thing because the beers come in two sizes, half liter or liter. With those sizes, you really can’t have too heavy of a beer.
• Overall, I really enjoyed the experience. Not only was the beer and food excellent, but the atmosphere was fantastic as well. I strongly suggest going to one of them in the US if you are around one.

Next Week

Next week we will be doing a beer that both Jake and Jim have tried, it is Penndimonium from Penn Brewing Company in Pittsburgh.

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Another week with a non-standard show.

We didn’t get a show together this week before Jake heads off to Seattle, so you get to sit in on a little conversation about Duck-Rabbit Brewery.

Next week, a new show … I promise

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We are taking a break after our listener supported series for a clip show.

These shows are rated “R” so be aware if you listen in the car with your kids or if you are related to Jim or I.

We’ll be back next week with a whole new show!

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For our two year anniversary we take a look at our last in the listener supported series, Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

News

AB Inbev has stopped using the “Born On” date on labels on some of its beer brands. They stated that improvements in brewing and packaging reduces the amount of oxygen introduced into the beers and shelf life can be extended up to 180 days. Bud Ice, Michelob Porter, Honey Lager, and Pale Ale will all drop the date while some of the bigger ones such as Bud and Bud Light will keep them. It is interesting here because Bud made such a big deal of this for such a long time, and this change is probably only the first step.

Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

• These weeks beer comes from Chicago’s own Goose Island Brewing Company, which is another one of those companies that we have talked about quite a bit on the show, not only because they have a great distribution system, but because they tend to make solid beers.
• Founded in 1988 by John Hall, and has two brewpub locations in the city of Chicago and one production brewery as well.
• This is a family affair, with John Hall being the president, and his son Greg Hall the head brewmaster at Goose Island.
• Tonights beer, the Bourbon County Stout, weighs in at 13% abv, and is a stout that has been aged in oak bourbon barrels.
• According to the website, it was brewed in honor of the 1000th batch at the original Clybourn brewpub. They go on to describe it as a liquid as dark and dense as a black hole with thick foam the color of a bourbon barrel. The nose is an intense mix of charred oak, chocolate, vanilla, caramel and smoke. One sip has more flavor than your average case of beer. A great cigar beer.
• Pouring this beer I would tend to agree that it is just about as dark as a black hole. Pouring it in front of my girlfriend, she thought I was pouring motor oil from the bottle.
• The head didn’t really come through for me, there is come around the edges of the glass but thats it.
• The smell is sweet vanilla at first, which comes from the barrels, and some light chocolate and sweet bourbon aromas come through too. This is one of the more complex beers that I have smelled.
• The tastes is more of that same complexity. There is the sweet vanilla and bourbon, a little alcohol heat, some chocolate and burnt toffee on the aftertaste. This is a beer that is meant to be savored and explored as opposed to just tossed back like a cheap Coors like.
• Really this is an outstanding beer. However, it is not a cheap beer. The four back cost me around $24.

Next Week

next week I think we are going to do a clip show, because well it has been a while since we have done a clip show and we need to kind of reset our minds and pallet’s. The next series however will begin in two weeks, and we aren’t really sure what that will be at this point, so tune in and find out.

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“Masterworks has greatly impressed us with their rich and deeply accurate insight into our organization.  While assisting us in the refinement of our core constituent engagement strategies, they have helped us recognize our own organizational strengths, provided resources which have encouraged us to avoid unnecessary expenditures, identified opportunities to improve existing processes, and provided creativity in defining specific points of execution.”

“Masterworks sets a new standard for client service organizations in their own right.  Simply, they have deeply encouraged us to consider horizons we’d not considered before, not only because of their creativity, but also because of their clear single-purpose heartbeat for the Kingdom we now serve together.”

“Masterworks is so much more than a marketing agency, they are a true ministry partner! Their Kingdom focus allows them to come along side their clients to serve in ways that help clarify mission, expand vision and build effectiveness into systems and programs.

Masterworks’ strategic consulting services have inspired our ministry team and helped to deepen the impact of the Josh McDowell Ministry during challenging economic times. We are grateful for their passion and partnership in ministry.”

“Masterworks is giving us solid marketing strategy, both online and offline. It’s helping us remain strong in trying economic times. I also appreciate working with people who share a passion for our mission. Masterworks is truly a part of our team in every sense. We hired an agency, but we got a partner in ministry!”

In a blog post with the preview of that session, Holly Ross mentions a study by Jakob Nielson on nonprofit websites, usability and donations.

For those unfamiliar with Mr. Nielson, he is considered by some to be the web usability guru and by others to be highly overrated. Such is the life of an Internet celebrity.

The top-line take-away is that, for the most part the donation process wasn’t the issue. The issue was getting donors from the homepage to the place where they could donate and providing them with the information they needed in order to make that decision.

Specifically, how the donations will be used.

As always, clear, conscise writing wins the day here. People generally scan, not read, the web so making clear use of headings is the best way to direct people to the information they need.

We are in the process of a few website re-designs right now and hopefully in the next few months we’ll have some good examples to show, stay tuned!

Some of you may have seen this on Twitter and Facebook, but I figured I could make the “official” announcement here.

Essentially this allows you to add a “Click Here to Donate/Sign Up/Whatever” lower-third over your video. A “lower-third” is exactly what it sound like, a semi-transparent overlay of the lower 1/3 of  your video. Many online video sharing sites use this space for paid advertisements. You can see an example in the video referenced in the blog post.

This is a very good thing. Hosting video is a pain to set up and maintain. YouTube’s ease of use and social aspects have long made it a preferred solution. The only thing lacking was a clickable call to action actually in the video, now that’s gone.

This feature is new so the only real results are what we have from this one video. Charity: water was able to raise $10,000 in a single day on YouTube.  This number by itself sounds impressive. However, that video has 285,511 views or put another way charity: water got about $0.03 of revenue per view.

So while the new technology enables click-to-action, getting that many eyeballs is still the tough nut to crack. In this case YouTube featured this video on their homepage which is good for thousands if not tens of thousands of those views.

Will adding this to all your nonprofit’s videos create a significant ongoing revenue stream? Probably not. However, coupled with the right promotional strategy to drive people to your video it can provide an important way to move a constituents’ relationship from YouTube to your organization and from there cultivate that relationship for long-term value.

We talk about a number of services in the webinar, so get ready for a big ‘ol list of links:

• Twitter Search this links directly to the advanced search, which is much more useful
• TweetDeck this is a Twitter client that I’ve found useful, we’ve had some reports of some stability issues on Macs. So make sure to add your favorite Twitter client to the comments
• Twist graph the mentions of terms on Twitter
• Hoot Suite online tool to manage multiple Twitter profiles (good if you are “editing” Twitter for a company) and track clicks on shortened URLs in Twitter
• #apowerfulnoise the campaign page for Care’s sponsored hashtag effort
• Twestival homepage for one of the largest twitter centered fundraising efforts
• TipJoy the easiest way to directly raise money on Twitter

Questions? Comments things we missed, comment it up. Also if you want to follow me on Twitter my username is j8ke. Make sure to post your username in the comments!

You probably have heard people talk about Twitter and its potential and you have yet to connect the promise to the practice. In this webinar we will talk about four use cases for Twitter. These are not theoretical ways you could use Twitter, but specific examples of where using Twitter will bring value to your organization today.

After a quick overview of the service, we will focus on these use cases:

• Monitoring Conversations — people are talking about your brand and your issues, are you listening?
• One-way Publishing — send real-time updates to devoted supporters.
• Building Relationships — how to win friends and influence tweeps (Twitter peeps [people]).
• Fundraising — micro engagement and word-of-mouth marketing.

Details

Cost: FREE
Presented by: Jacob Smith, New Media Strategist, Masterworks
Dave Raley, Director of New Media, Masterworks
Who should attend: Advancement and marketing folks who want to find new ways to connect with donors and constituents. Anyone who has wondered about Twitter or other micro-blogging methods out there.

Please join us for by registering now.

As you can imagine losing your home as a child often interrupts your schooling. Even short-term interruptions set children significantly behind their peers.

So if you aren’t already, support local programs that help folks out in this time of great need. Whether that’s a rescue mission, a church or whatever.

If you need to find a rescue mission to support, check out AGRM’s list.

Also give a shout-out in the comments to the organizations you support/work for.

The always helpful Agitator strikes again.

In the post linked above, Tom talks about two studies. One showed people who touched a product were more likely to buy it and the other that a positive first time experience is strongly correlated to long term brand loyalty.

Tom, then goes on to ask what can nonprofits do to replicate the experience of touching a product.

One of the rescue mission’s we work with is already doing this.

Orlando Union Rescue Mission (OURM) hosts One Homeless Night where people are invited to sleep under an overpass for one night. I know that OURM isn’t the only one doing this, and if you know of others, feel free to link it up in the comments.

World Vision has World Vision Experience: AIDS which is a touring exhibit you walk through and get a better understanding of what its like to be a child in Africa.

I bring up these two examples because at first glance you might say, “We can’t make what we do something you can touch, its too personal/intense/complicated/unsafe” and you would be right.

However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t distill one piece of that experience into something that can be physically shared with others.

Just think about the experience of walking into a cathedral style church. A few weeks ago, my wife’s college roomate came to stay with us and when we sat down in church, she said to me, “It [the church] makes me feel small, but I guess that’s what it’s supposed to do.”

I think many would agree that God’s greatness is not something that can be neatly packaged, but church architecture has been providing an experience of that greatness for hundreds of years.

Does carrying two five gallon buckets of muddy water across a 1/2 mile course give you an understanding of what it’s like to live in a village where you have to walk ten times that far for water twice a day? Perhaps not, but I guarantee it helps you understand the importance of drilling clean water wells.

Does eating on a Food Stamps budget give you an understanding of what it’s like to live in poverty in the United States? Perhaps not, but I guarantee it gives you insight as to why many underprivileged people struggle with weight related health issues (hint: fat calories are cheap calories).

The key in both cases is letting go of a notion that we are somehow diminishing the people we serve by providing a small, imperfect window into their world.

When we choose not to take this risk we trade a small, imperfect window for no window at all; denying people the opportunity to expand their understanding and to be moved to action.

Comment on Masterworks’ Blog

When I posted that I was about to read/finished Outliers, I got a number of questions, so I thought I would post my thoughts.

After my first post an old friend, Andre mentioned something he called the “standard Gladwell caveat” when I asked what that was he replied:

Gladwell is a reporter, not a visionary. His books are starting points, not end points.

That had the unfortunate effect of framing my entire reading of the book. I say unfortunate, because I generally like to not put a frame around books I’m reading. However, after finishing this book and thinking about Blink, I have to agree with Andre.

Gladwell finds things that are out there and puts a story to them. Now to be sure the things he finds are things many of the rest of us, in some cases everybody else, has overlooked and that is the mark of a great reporter.

This book does a great job of dispelling the common wisdom of outliers. Specifically, that exceptional people are exceptional for some intrinsic reason that is special to just them. Instead, Gladwell argues that circumstance and consistent (not hard) work have much more to do with success than our mythologies would have us believe.

What the book is light on is prescription for how to maximize these favorable circumstances. With the one exception of Junior League Hockey in Canada. Since Joe is the only Canadian I know, this bit of advice is for him: have kids as close to January 1st as possible.

After I finished the book, Katharine asked if the book, “was worth reading.” From a content perspective, if you take the following on authority:

• When you are born has a lot to do with how successsful you are
• Where you are born has a lot to do with how sucessful you are
• You have to spend 10,000 hours at something in order to master it
• You only have to be “smart enough” past that point there are other skills that will determine success, even in very academic fields

That’s the short, short version of the book. The rest is evidence. However, I find Gladwell a very good writer. As someone who has to express myself for a living I find reading good and great writing is worth it regardless of the content.

That’s my longish answer to two shortish questions.

Think twitter is just for the kids? It can be a powerful way to deliver great donor experience.

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If you hang around here long enough you’ll see posts about Pew Internet and American Life studies. The project does some of the best primary research on internet use in the United States.

A recent study looked at how people in different generations use the different parts of the internet.

A few observations. Things that aren’t surprising:

• Younger people are over-represented on the internet
• Older people do less on the internet than younger people
• Email is still the killer app, but it is increasingly becoming something for “old people”

Things that were surprising:

• Less than 50 percent of every generation read blogs
• More than 70 percent of every generation makes travel reservations online
• 30-39 percent of every generation gets religious information online
• Less than 0-9 percent of every generation visits virtual worlds

So for those churches who built virtual buildings in Second Life, right ballpark, wrong bench.

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The Pew Internet and American Life project recently released a report detailing adult’s use of Social Networks. Hat tip to Read/Write Web for the heads up.

You can download the whole report at the link above, but here’s the important stuff:

• 35 percent of American adult internet users have a social network profile
• 75 percent of online adults 18-24 have a social network profile
• 50 percent of adults have a profile on MySpace
• 43 percent use social networks to “organize with other friends for an event, issue or cause”

You could interpret these numbers as more adults using social networks, however; I believe it has more to do with the fact that more people on social networks have become adults.

People who are eighteen this year were born in 1990, some people refer to them as “digital natives.” In other words they don’t know a world without a pervasive internet.

The fact that MySpace is still the dominant representative supports that theory. MySpace was the social networking site for a number of years when people in this age group were teens.

From a fundraising perspective, the percentage of older adults online is still relatively small. 30 percent of adults 35-44 and 19 percent of adults 45-54. These are the core donors of many nonprofits.

So if you are looking for funds now, social networks are probably not the best choice from a demographic standpoint.

However, if you are looking to engage the next and the next, next generation of donors – social networks are a safe bet.

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Most email broadcast software hides the marginal cost of sending email.

In other words, most organizations consider email a fixed cost, “we pay $xx for email whether we send 1 or 100,000.” This can lead to bad email behavior.

Direct mail has very clear marginal costs to send a piece of mail. Many look at the lack of marginal cost a selling point on email and are probably surprised I would be saying a per piece cost is a good thing.

The marginal cost of paper mail forces you to consider the potential net revenue every time you send out a mailing. When the apparent marginal costs drops to near zero, like in email, the returns necessary to justify an action also significantly drop.

This is often a good thing, since it allows you to engage your constituents in ways that aren’t economical on the direct mail side. But it can lead quickly to over communicating with your list.

So even if your email provider doesn’t charge a marginal cost to send email, your organization should begin to come up with an internal number. This number should take into account time for list management as well as costs associated with unsubscribes.

Every time a person unsubscribes from your email there is a real cost to your organization.

Right now this is more art than science, but making sure to capture all the costs of email is a good habit to get in to.
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So after much to-do Masterworks has actually launched a blog, we’re so 2005.

That means two things for Barnabas Notes:

1. I’ll probably be posting more because its part of my job
2. Those posts will probably link over to Masterworks’ blog

That also means I’ll be closing comments on some posts, to capture those comments on the MW blog.

I did port over many of my posts, but none of your comments, since when you commented here you weren’t thinking you would be shilling for anyone

So, if you want to comment on any posts again, feel free to do so.

I really dislike programming emails. It is a pain and I always feel like most people would just appreciate much more simple design.

So it struck me as odd that I’ve been possessed to redesign two emails I get on a regular basis. These are 100 percent bandit, they haven’t asked me to do this and I’m not even sure I’m going to point out this blog post.

The first is from my old college. Check out the before and you can see the header dominates the top of the email and someone thought red was an acceptable body font color.

The redesign is subtle and gives more space for promotion.

The second is from a local restaurant group. The before clearly shows them committing one of the cardinal sins, email-as-one-big-image. They do this a lot.

With this redesign I tried to keep it classy. They have a number of restaurant so I figured the color of the headlines would trade out with each restaurant having its own color.

Are there emails you get that you are loath to look at? Bandit that stuff up.

I’m a fan of Seth Godin, but this post got me going this morning on two levels.

First the less practical. The post is titled “If you could change your life.” Lives can always be changed. I happen to believe this change is often the wonderful collaboration of the Holy Spirit and us, but whatever your belief, we shape our lives through every choice we make.

Sure there a decision points where we take drastic turns and we call out those places and say our lives changed. However, the bigger life changes are those we take subtly day by day until later we look back and we see we’ve changed in a way we are proud of or one we are not proud of. With the latter often being the impetus for one of those drastic turns.

I know this isn’t what Mr. Godin meant to say, but I want to say it here as well – you don’t need this experience to change your life. I think you just need prayer and humble boldness. Others would say you just need a kick in the rear. Whatever it is, change (both for the good and for the bad) is always possible.

Second the more practical. To take advantage of this opportunity you have to quit your job or be without a job. Mr. Godin is looking for people who are trying to start something new.

This is a theme I’ve seen running through the five and a half years of agency life: when things aren’t going well and you feel like you might have a better way to do it, its time to start your own thing.

Or if you have a great idea it’s better to keep it to yourself and create the organization to use that great idea, than to find an organization already working in that space and develop it with them.

I’m not speaking from an ivory tower here, I’ve had these same thoughts. When you are butting your head against the process for the third time in a week and just don’t feel like your co-workers are going to “get it,” whatever it is, the siren song of your own shop is sweet, sweet music.

But at the end of the day is the world better off with yet another brand and identity consultancy with a name that starts with a number and a smarmy website? For the record I’ve smarm, but I’m not sure it’s what we need.

Or is the world better off with smart and creative people trying to make existing organizations better from the inside. Are the lessons you learn about working together with the “great unwashed” who don’t read Seth’s Blog or Signal vs. Noise and think the Cluetrain is a new emo group, valuable?

I struggle with that question a lot and would love to wake up the ex-pats and other lurkers here and hear their thoughts.