Greenpeace's bold fundraising strategies echo its aggressive, cutting-edge approach to protecting Mother Nature's greatest gifts.

By Abny Santicola

Greenpeace Gives Donors Interactive “Wow” Experience

At the end of 2005 and on into March 2006, Greenpeace launched an integrated campaign against frozen seafood company Gorton’s.The issue: The Japanese corporation that owns Gorton’s also owns part of a whaling fleet that has been targeted by various groups for the killing of endangered whale species. GP built up the story for supporters through the following steps:

ONE: The first part of the campaign was a year-end direct-mail appeal in November that launched the Ocean Defender’s campaign voyage. It focused on oceans and featured a letter signed by Frank Kamp, captain of the Greenpeace ship The Esperanza, which was on the trail of the Japanese whalers. The middle-donor, year-end mailing also featured this.

TWO: Second was a year-end December appeal that focused specifically on the Japanese whalers and included a petition action to Gorton’s.

THREE: The year-end telemarketing campaign in December focused on the whaling, and call-center staff were able to watch videos on whaling from the Web site while they made their calls.

FOUR: The organization used the whaling issue to do a telemarketing reinstatement effort, calling donors who’d lapsed as far back as seven years.

FIVE: Greenpeace built up an e-mail fundraising/action campaign after contact was made with the Japanese fleet. Two e-mails were sent by Kamp. The first, sent at the beginning of December when the voyage set off, told why he was there; the second was sent immediately after the Japanese ships were found. The e-mails featured thumbnail photos of the signatory.

SIX: In early January, another e-mail went out about Gorton’s. Greenpeace organized house parties around the day of action, where people made origami whales that were to be delivered to Gorton’s. There was a live video link-up to the ship on the day of action as well.

SEVEN: Next was a Valentine’s Day e-mail directed at Gorton’s and, offline, one of the house-party hosts delivered petitions to Gorton’s headquarters.

EIGHT: The member newsletter for March updated members on the whaling campaign and included a cut-out of an origami whale that it asked people to send back.

At the time of this writing, the origami whales were still arriving at Greenpeace. In early April, the organization planned to display them at the Cherry Blossom festival in Washington, D.C., before delivering them to Gorton’s.

In addition to drawing awareness to the organization’s whaling campaign and raising money for the cause, this multi-channel campaign moved the organization to create a more simplified online donation page that’s resulted in an increased proportion of monthly gifts online; enhanced its e-mails to increase interest and relevance; and offered supporters offline actions that aren’t just petitions. — A.S.

It sounds like something out of a movie. Hot on the trail of pirate fishermen illegally casting nets off the coast of West Africa in April, activists aboard Greenpeace vessel The Esperanza overtook the ship and occupied its mast and cranes for six days before Spanish officials intervened and declared its cargo illegal.

One of the mast clingers was Celeste Stewart, manager of Greenpeace’s mid-donor program, serving a three-month stint as assistant cook on The Esperanza. How many organizations do you know of whose development staff spend their downtime chasing pirate ships?

Not many. But this is what Greenpeace is all about — talking the talk and walking the walk.

It all started when a group of American and Canadian journalists and activists, inspired by the Quaker ideology of bearing witness to social problems, banded together and sailed a small vessel to protest the U.S. government’s testing of nuclear weapons beneath the island of Amchitka off the coast of Alaska in 1971. Their coalition — then called the Don’t Make a Wave Committee — sparked the beginnings of Greenpeace, an organization that 35 years later has 40 offices internationally and takes on some of the world’s most powerful political and corporate entities in the name of protecting the planet.

Protesting everything from nuclear testing to ocean dumping of toxic and radioactive waste, to whaling and the destruction of ancient forests has brought the organization up against governments and corporations worldwide — one reason why Greenpeace doesn’t solicit corporate or political funding. As explained in the organization’s 2004/2005 Annual Report, “Financial independence is core to our work and one of our greatest strengths. It gives us the ability to take on environmental destruction wherever and whenever it occurs.”

It’s no wonder then that Matthew Sherrington, director of development for Greenpeace USA, is known as a maverick. Reliance on individual gifts from its more than 2.7 million members worldwide has forced Sherrington’s team to the forefront of fundraising innovation. Concepts such as monthly giving and direct dialogue, alien to most U.S. nonprofits, are the organization’s lifeblood. And while its trek to the cutting edge of development hasn’t been without setbacks and challenges, Greenpeace has found success incorporating its action-oriented mission into its fundraising and DRM.

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