Michael Alberg-Seberich

Today I would like to introduce you to a special donor. His name is Domore. Domore grows up in a family that is concerned about world affairs and how each individual can contribute to making this world a better place. Domore follows the news; he is worried by all the humanitarian catastrophes happening on this planet; he thinks about what he could do to create positive change for half of his life. Finally he develops a plan. And Domore does all this in less than 1.5 minutes.

Domore is one of the movies that students at Bergh’s School of Communication in Stockholm developed during a joint project with Active Philanthropy. This film underlines how powerful storytelling can be in the world of philanthropy. Domore is an example of how a giving strategy evolves gradually over one’s lifetime. It also shows that giving plans are often triggered through one specific incident or catastrophe. In Germany, for example, the Oder flood in 1997 resulted in a tremendous rise in civic and financial giving. On a global scale we experienced this after the tsunami in south-east Asia in 2004, and we saw the same in the US after hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005. Many donors also experience their very own personal trigger moment.

After his epiphany, Domore writes his own giving plan. This plan – it is a fictional movie, of course – is not the one you might think of right away. But it still is a plan, which means a donor has analysed a situation, considered the options and then decided to act. This is the starting point for most engaged, strategic approaches in philanthropy. It is the starting point for giving with more impact.

As a charitable organisation it is part of our mission to experiment and spread such communication tools about engaged giving. It would be great if Domore could also help others in the global philanthropy community to communicate the value of a strategic plan. Even though Domore’s solution to the challenges of this world has rather a Western slant, and may be different to the one many people would come up with.

Michael Alberg-Seberich is managing partner at Active Philanthropy

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