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If you thought organizing a charity campaign is easy, think again.

It ain’t as easy as what you saw on “Pay It Forwad”…

Initially, we were sure that everyone would be excited at a fun campaign like this one, and be willing to support and spread the word about it. All for a good cause, right?

It’s been a week since we launched Bald4Good. Already, we have over 260 supporters on our Facebook page, 7 heads on bounty, and counting. Considering the fact that we have invited over 3,000 people on Facebook and through email databases, 260+ supporters is indeed a small number.

Why aren’t all people jumping on the bandwagon quickly?

Bald4Good was planned as a zero-cost online campaign. That means no money will be spent on promotion or even gifts. What fuels it?

Connections! – To rely on word-of-mouth to help spread the message of the campaign. Be it friends, family, personalities, even current Promise Me participants can be valuable networking points for communication.

Social Media – Almost everyone is on Facebook and it has all the free facilities in place to run such a campaign. Better still, word-of-mouth here travels at the speed of light if done right.

The Message – It’s gotta be easy to understand and retold over and over again. The challenge is to simplify Bald4Good’s message without losing its core message; to raise funds for Hospis Malaysia.

Malaysian Generosity – We are a society of kind and caring people. Unfortunately, we have developed a sense of doubt and caution towards charity campaigns due to a number of con scams (especially over the Internet!) over the years. Nevertheless, if our message and credibility is good and concise, we will all step in and contribute anything we can immediately.

The Goal – After all, it is the end goal that motivates every campaign stakeholder to step up and give their all. In this case, the campaign has focused on providing the means to purchase much needed new equipment for Hospis Malaysia. Everyone no matter how much the contribution for this campaign is a hero!

The fact is, the slow initial pace is due to the fact that we did not spend any money on big and quick promotions. Simply put, why spend RM10 to get RM15 donations? Our belief is that no one should benefit monetarily from this campaign, except Hospis Malaysia.

Enough about obstacles, now for the jump!

So together with all our campaign friends, we have tapped every connection we have (including MNCs and celebrities) to help spread the word about the campaign and urge people to participate in it.

It still amazes us how powerful Facebook’s “SHARE” button is. It marks the thin line between knowing and not knowing. If everyone played an active role, this simple button could propel awareness of any campaign exponentially.

What we learnt over the past week is that passing the message around isn’t going to help much. It has to be followed up with a more personal touch. After sharing the Bald4Good page with our database and friends, not many paid attention to it. TMI TMI TMI!!! It is likely our message got lost in the clutter of information these days.

A personal message, email, instant chat message, SMS, or even a phone call goes a long way to make people believe in your cause. We tried a variety of approaches and people started to see the importance and urgency of the campaign; the sense of jeopardy and that the “world” is counting on them makes them take things more seriously.

If this were to be an online social engagement case study, Bald4Good is an experiment that proves that social media may be easy and quick, but it still lacks a degree of personality and weight; it does NOT replace the personal touch.

This is well demonstrated by other TLC Promise Me campaign participants too, where that little personal touch to reach out goes a long long way to garner support from their respective followers. Bravo to them!

Don’t stop…. believing!….

Honestly, we were beginning to feel that things were slowing down. Worst still, we were going to let Hospis Malaysia’s hopes down too.

But we continued with our chins to the moon. Even went as far as posting a request for support on a notable airline figure in the country. No response though… yet. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

But keep your eyes on this campaign. We have got some good donors and heads coming our way. We can’t say much now, but it will be revealed in due time on our Facebook Bald4Good page.

We are still not even half-way towards our goals for Hospis Malaysia… but we know that as long as we keep trying until the campaign ends on 21st August 2010, we will move closer to it.

Heck! Why settle for just reading this blog? Come on over and be a part of it too! Visit our page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bald4Good/138409206179251 and be an active piece of this big big big experiment!

We need you… The people at Hospis Malaysia need you… Step up and make this campaign your own channel of goodwill today!

*Time is ticking and we’re literally losing hair. *Although many of us have taken up challenges from TLC Promise Me:

a. There are some “wishes” that is really tough and might not be complete within the campaign month. L

b. There are many of us who wanted to pitch in for TLC PM but there weren’t enough “wishes” to go around.

Truth is, HOSPIS Malaysia is in need of a number of equipment and they aren’t cheap. Worst still, we were approached by TLC a few days after the launch of Promise Me with the sad news that “we still have some pledge left, tough pledges.”

* *

*Something else broke our hearts.* The wishes originally submitted by inmate at HOSPIS were shockingly beautiful and tragic. There was wish of living long enough to see his child enter school, as we were told by TLC. To us, it is a pledge we sincerely want to fulfil, but within our capacity as humans.

HOSPIS Malaysia instead suggested that together with TLC, we could raise funds to buy critically needed equipment. Several items were carefully chosen, that is vital to making the lives of inmates at HOSPIS a little easier. They come at a cost.

Of course, we could go around Klang Valley with our “kad derma” and get donations like we did back in school. But after the donations, would donors remember and feel the victory of being a part of wonderful charity drive?

So we thought, let’s get everyone on board a mini campaign. The catch is… we only had about 4 weeks from planning to execution and finale. The campaign’s criteria has to be simple:

1. Zero, if not minimal spend on execution; a totally Facebook-driven campaign.

2. Bank heavily on networking to spread the word, and Malaysian’s will to do good.

3. Create opportunities for exponential donation amounts.

4. Be cool enough to get big companies on board.

5. Leave a long lasting impression on everyone involved.

*We called every client and friend we had.* Showed them some ideas, but most of them liked one… BALD4GOOD. And God bless them, they pledged to help out too. (you can see them on the Bald4Good Facebook page)

Finally after some campaign strategy crafting, we took our idea to TLC. Nerve wrecking at first, but we breathe a sigh of relief that they loved Bald4Good… Time to get cracking!

*Test of faith & will power *As with almost every good intention, some challenges are inevitable. We were suddenly swarmed by our clients’ many deadlines, new projects, urgent pitches, staff on sick leave, and even one on a 2-week holiday!

As if being stretched thin was not bad enough, we spent a lot of time refining the campaign to make sure it was worthy of being part of TLC’s Promise Me initiative.

Finally, we launched B4G on 29th July at around 4pm. Many thanks to Autogridz (a great up and coming motoring lifestyle magazine) for kicking off B4G by inviting about 2,000+ of their awesome members.

Within the first 7 hours, we had 77 fans, 5 heads targeted for balding and RM650.00 in pledges. The fans and funds raised are climbing very rapidly.

Energizer and Schick have also pledged to invite their 3,500+ database to the cause, and donate some items for charity sale during our proposed event finale. More are in talks with us to follow suit. Amazing! J

*7 days to go and we need a miracle; YOUR HEAD!* The B4G campaign is open to everyone. You could be someone who wish could play a part in TLC’s Promise Me campaign. If you are, please visit the Bald4Good Facebook page and dare someone you know to go bald for charity.

If you are already a participant of Promise Me, we could use your help too! Chances are there are many people already supporting you, following your blog, and being your believers… Let’s all chip in together to make all the remaining Promise Me wishes come true.

*Speaking of philosophy* We had this idea in mind throughout the campaign…

*There are many people who have lost so much in life. Most likely their way of life will never be back to the way it was.*

*As a participant of Bald4Good, you only lose your hair; it will grow back eventually. But what you give when you go bald will be priceless.*

Please visit: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bald4Good/138409206179251