Kudos: The Humane Society of Silicon Valley abandons horse and carriage rides at Santana Row this year


Sometimes raising your voice can help influence

You may or may not remember that I was quite disappointed when the Humane Society of Silicon Valley because for the last two years they raised funds by having horse and carriage rides at Santana Row during the holiday season. The first year i wrote to let them know that, as a regular long-term (if small) donor, I was disappointed and wouldn't donate that year-end.

The next year when they revived the program I decided I had no choice but to ask them to remove me from their lists of people to contact at all. I blogged about it and reprinted the letter I sent them here.

To their credit they contacted me, and we had a long, in-depth discussion of my objections. They tried to explain why they thought it was appropriate, but I was unswayed by their arguments. I volunteered to help them think of different ways to market their organization to year-end givers the next year.

Instead, here we are nearly a year later, and the HSSV figured out out to stay afloat without a fundraising initiative that simply seemed to clash with their mission. And they reached out to me to tell me their decision, and that it was, in part, due to me comments.

I am obviously very pleased. And indeed I did go and donate again to the HSSV. I hope you will too.

The invited me to join a tour of their new facility some time soon, and I hope to do that and report back.

But once again: kudos to the Humane Society of Silicon Valley for responding to their community and for being open to criticism and willing to make changes based on it.

Posted: Sun - December 14, 2008 at 03:20 PM       EmailFeedback

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