Sending the [instant] message

It’s hard to believe, but there was a time not so long ago when there was no internet. No World Wide Web. No e-mail. No instant messaging.

How did we survive?

Just fine, thanks, though I have no desire to return to those pre-internet days. It’s so much easier to communicate today, whether keeping in touch with friends or receiving information about a favourite cause.

Interestingly, Mennonites were on the ground floor of the internet revolution. Back in 1994, when the World Wide Web was in its infancy, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) created its first website. At the time, there were about 100,000 websites globally. I was directing communications at MCC Canada when a student named Ryan Rempel offered to help make a website for the agency. Together, we built a very simple presence for MCC on the web.

The web was still a novelty then and some people wondered if it would ever be all that useful. I remember how excited we were when we reached 100,000 hits.

Today, the web is one of MCC’s main ways of communicating with supporters and the site can get that many hits in a month, or less than a month if there’s a major disaster in the world.

Currently, the web hosts over a billion sites. It’s a major source of information, inspiration and entertainment. We use it for research, business, shopping. We communicate with friends, neighbours and people around the globe.

The internet has dramatically changed the way we work, play and stay in touch with one another. It’s hard to imagine life without it.

The growth of the internet is just one of the changes I’ve experienced during more than 20 years in communications work. Some resulted from new technologies, others from new habits. But all have affected the way we communicate with each other, and the way conferences and church agencies communicate with us.

The speed of communication

There was a time when a weekly or even a biweekly publication was frequent enough to get us news and views from our church-related organizations.

Not anymore. With 24-hour news channels and the web, we can get news instantly, any time we want. Getting a Mennonite Brethren perspective on an event weeks after it happens just doesn’t cut it. When news breaks at lightning speed, it’s hard to wait until the next issue of the Herald to hear what others in our denomination think about it. We want to know now!

This puts considerable pressure on church and agency leaders to come up with opinions on events, especially if they don’t have as much information as they might like. This can be especially difficult for relief agencies. People see a disaster on the morning news; by noon they want to know what an agency like MCC will do to help.

The answer, usually, is that agencies don’t know. It takes time to assess a situation and plan a thoughtful response. This can be hard for people to understand; any fool watching TV can see what needs to be done! Relief agencies feel pressure to come up with projects for clamouring donors immediately, even if they think the best course of action is to wait a few days to make sure they do the right thing.

The way we process information

Mennonites have traditionally valued process. We like to talk about things. We like to reflect on and pray together about issues before arriving at conclusions. We call this being the church.

But Mennonites don’t gather for church as much as they used to. It wasn’t too long ago that most churches still held Sunday evening services. Go back a little further and there were Wednesday night Bible studies and annual mission conferences. These meetings provided conferences and agencies with opportunities to share with people, and to get good feedback about programs.

But most people today go to church only on Sunday mornings. Churches have one hour each week to help their members worship, hear God’s Word and keep up to date with happenings in the congregation. They are extremely reluctant to give up a Sunday morning to outside agencies. If an agency is fortunate enough to get a Sunday morning visit, they will have to wait one or two years for another turn.

Without this direct access to churches, agencies have to rely on more individual contact with members – through things like direct mail or e-mail. This isn’t a bad thing; for too long agencies failed to consider the unique needs and desires of the people from whom they wanted money.

But it also means groups have fewer opportunities to hear from and give feedback to agencies together. Visiting with a group elicits a different kind of feedback, shaped by discussion and the insights of various participants.

The quality of materials

When I began working in communications for MCC in 1983, More With Less wasn’t just the name of a cookbook, it was our guiding philosophy. It meant keeping costs down. We knew supporters wanted the bulk of their donations spent to feed hungry people, not produce glossy full-colour publications.

Those days are gone. There is fierce competition today, not just for donations but also for attention. The brochure tables in church foyers are filled with colourful, creatively-designed publications calling to be picked up. Items in black and white will be overlooked, even if they have stories of compelling need or celebration.

I’m not against well-designed, professional-looking materials, but they do cost more to make. More donated dollars have to be spent attracting attention. The smaller agencies are hit hardest by this change. They cannot compete with huge parachurch agencies, whose pockets for advertising and promotion are incredibly deep.

The way agencies raise funds

Twenty years ago, there were few Mennonite fundraisers. Conferences or agencies simply had to tell about the needs and money would pour in. Back then, many Mennonites still supported Mennonite agencies because they were Mennonite – they belonged to us. One or two letters a year were sufficient and hard sells were not required (or even appreciated).

Today, people have dozens of choices when it comes to giving to relief agencies, mission groups, schools, camps or other programs. Agencies have to work hard to sell themselves to get support.

That means fundraisers. Almost every group today has one (or more).

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Explaining why someone should give money is a good exercise for any group – it keeps it from getting lazy or running programs that should be stopped. “Just because” isn’t a good reason for me to give an agency money. Neither is just being Mennonite. Results matter; nobody wants to throw their money away.

But fundraising isn’t cheap. It costs money to hire fundraisers, maintain development departments and buy sophisticated donor tracking software. Agencies used to be proud if they spent only five to ten percent on overhead. Today, 15 to 20 percent is considered acceptable. Most of the increase is for fundraising and promotion.

These are some of the changes I’ve seen. They aren’t all bad. It’s good that conferences and agencies pay attention to the individual needs of their supporters. It’s good that groups have to work harder to sell their programs. It’s good that we can get information whenever we need it. But each of these changes has affected the way we communicate.

What to do about it?

I could call a Sunday night meeting, but who’d attend? Maybe I’ll just send out an e-mail.

John Longhurst is director of communications and marketing for Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, and author of Making the News: A Media Relations Manual for Non-Profit Organziations (Novalis).