3 questions to answer before you invent something for “social good”

So you want to design some kind of inter-webby digitally-mobile twit-enabled project for “social good”? Clever, you! Maybe you’ll get to meet Bono at SXSW. Or maybe, you’ll fade into obscurity because nobody uses what you invented.

Here’s three questions to answer before you invent something for “social good”.

1) Am I inventing something that already exists?

There are many old and new websites, portals and apps to empower charities and/or donors to do stuff better, faster, more digitally, like, more “socially” or whatever. You might like to research them.

Did you invent another crowdsourcing/sharing/giving/collaborative/Googley platform without being aware of the existing ones? Do you know their limitations & strengths? You can’t expect to revolutionize a sector if you don’t already know who the players are.

Improving on a concept that is already working and needs updating is always a good idea.

Inventing things that already exist is your ticket to an excited announcement post on Mashable.com and an abandoned project five months later.

If you would do a competitive analysis on a start-up business, consider doing one for your social enterprise.

2) Am I solving a problem that doesn’t exist?

When you don’t work in the charitable sector you may have some goofy ideas about what charities need or what they should be doing.

Sometimes I get pitches from folks with good intentions who want me to know about their new idea to save the world so much more efficiently than the pitiable, low-tech luddites who are already trying to save the world.

Some concepts include back-handed insults about the sector. Here’s where I usually tune out:

“Charities spend too much money on administration, if they only did [insert idea] they’d reduce wasteful spending.” Yeah, wasteful money spent on heat & living wages. Tsk.

Is your local children’s hospital going to be interested in managing a mobile marketing program to solicit new volunteers if the hospital in question actually has a year-long wait list for volunteer opportunities? One phone call could have uncovered that fact. Does anybody need a Facebook app to collect canned goods, tshirts or shoes for the developing world? Actually, they don’t.

3) Am I talking to the right person?

If you’re pitching a web project to communications staff without engaging a champion in the nonprofit’s IT department, you may run into problems. Many orgs live or die by their data management strategies.

Likewise, if you’re pitching a web project to technical staff without involving marketing, good luck after implementation.

“If you build it they will come” has never worked for anyone other than Kevin Costner.

Some nonprofits are liberal in thinking, but more conservative in action. Don’t be surprised if public outreach staff give the impression that the sky’s the limit for ideas and possibilities. The org’s real decision makers may be more down-to-earth.

Make sure you are speaking to people who are empowered to follow-through and your project will have a greater chance of success.

One last mini-tip…!

Are you a corporation planning to launch one of the “vote for a project” contests like Pepsi Refresh? That’s fine, but please don’t spam us with press releases describing your concept as innovative. You’re about 30 press releases behind all the other companies.