Weathering the Storm (literally)

It has been raining all day here in San Francisco. The Bougainvillea in our parking lot, background to many team pictures, fell victim to the winds. The NPC Team is sad to see it go. Check out the before and after:

What is a "Progressive"?

Given that we have "progressive" in our name, you can probably imagine how often we get asked this question. Center for American Progress recently launched a new ad campaign: "Progressive. And Proud of It."




To watch more, go here.

News Media and Public Disconnect

Read this NY Times article highlighting a recently published study on news media coverage of the presidential primaries by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. The study found that the news media is extremely focused on the strategies and tactics of the primaries, despite the public's desire to hear about issues and candidates’ backgrounds.

It’s interesting, although not surprising, that even in this age of 2.0, the information we want is not always the information we get.

The Art of Being Read

This post by Seth Godin about simple writing is something we’ve been trying to do at NPC. I think we’ve made good progress seeing as our tagline went from “Wiring the progressive movement to turn progressive potential into political reality” to “Your political giving advisors.”

“Information R/evolution”

Watch this amazing video on how technology is changing our most basic assumptions about access to information.



Thanks to Dave Pollard for always finding thought-provoking concepts.

An Uninterrupted Customer Experience

I read this NY Times article over the weekend. Many concepts struck me, but this quote left the biggest impression:

"We want to find a way to enhance the experience and services, rather than looking for a way to interrupt people from getting to where they want to go,” said Stefan Olander, global director for brand connections at Nike. “How can we provide a service that the consumer goes, ‘Wow, you really made this easier for me’?"

That is exactly what we are trying to create with our products at NPC. Think about how people are often "interrupted" to make a political contribution. They receive an urgent email, a desperate call from an organization, or hear from a friend scrambling to raise money for an event they agreed to host.

Everyone has access to political information now, but rather than helping people make better decisions, it has paralyzed them, and frustrated them.

Here at NPC we want to create a customer experience that allows individuals to be proactive, instead of reactive, in their political giving.

An Interesting Analogy: Fundraising and One-Night Stands?

Our customers have often expressed to us their frustrations with giving to organizations. These frustrations range from not being properly thanked to not receiving expected updates. But before today, we have never heard these experiences being compared to a one-night stand. Take a look at this amusing post: What fundraising and one-night stands have in common.