‘The Good Force’ Creates Communication For Social Good
Lynn De Souza, Founder, Social Access Communications talks about the book put together by herself and her team ‘The Good Force: Gears of Communication. Wheels of Change’. In an interview with BW Businessworld, she describes the ways in which effective communication can be adapted to and the loopholes in setting up communications for social growth.
What gave rise to the 23-page white paper book?
We had to master a lot of learning based on our work in the not for profit sector in the last 4 years. Social Access has been around for the last 4 years and we have handled around 40 projects for not for profit organizations in various fields like water, environment, women, children, rural and communities. Later we realized that there is a lot of work that these people do on the ground. They manage to get funding but in order to scale up, they seek more funds. Whereas those people who communicate the story well still can’t overcome the outreach which far more rapid. Hence to define the importance of communication we created White Paper which is a research amongst several of our clients asking them the reason they use communication. The book is best described as communication for social good and the book was placed in the Marketing White Book 2017-18 so that there would be shared value for the marketing community.
How did you take up the initiative to compile ‘The Good Force: Gears of Communication. Wheels of Change’?
We eventually came up with our own model of communication where we concluded that the whole society needs to be involved in the social movement. To build social movements we need to be philanthropic but strategically which means we need to apply the kind of principles that we use in businesses and corporates. The book is not really about CSR where a certain percentage of a profit is used for social causes with terms and conditions. This book is more about us trying to educate and spread awareness to not for profit agencies to communicate better. Ultimately our model builds a triangle of what we call versatility, vitality and verifiability in the communication model. Hence what we call as “The Good Force” eventually empowers people to understand and market the need for social work in an effective way which would drive in followers along with the money eventually.
What are the ways in which strategic philanthropy can prevail?
Philanthropy at the basic level means lover of mankind and gets translated later into giving money, handout or a job. Strategic philanthropy tells us to go beyond and make sure that whoever you provide to can grow and benefit and then they could go out and provide for others as well. If I give you something in which will empower you to be so good that you are able to do more for more. When you empower people to work and earn for themselves instead of handing out any money to them that is how strategic philanthropy can prevail.
What are the ways in which one can understand marketing and make use of it in the social sector?
There is a measured approach towards communication. In marketing, we call it campaigns and a campaign has a proper start and end. The kind of people one reaches and covers, the kind of stories one tells, the kind of communication tools and mediums are a part of campaign management. Resource management is again very important to understand as it describes how the resources are managed properly. In marketing, we are very careful about how we use marketing for communication to get the best return. In the same way, strategic philanthropy in the social sector provides for the society but does not expect the return in the form of financial growth and executing it in a measured way. These are a few guidelines that must be followed to make use of marketing and executing it in the social sector.
What are the challenges in setting up communication for social progress?
The biggest challenge is funding because when funds first come in, they are used for the community, the beneficiary and the program itself and are not used for communication. This happens to be a problem because most NGO’s themselves don’t know the benefit they can get from communication. When the do decide to go ahead with communication they are left with a challenge of funds because any effective campaign costs a lot of money and is very expensive for Not For Profits. The two ways we can get around is one is people like us who do marketing at a very low rate and volunteer for it most of the times or the other way is to partner with brands. Where they partner with brands and get the cause mixed with the brand work which takes it to a movement.
Can you explain the movement building model which is mentioned in the book?
Movement building means that you have a cause but you don’t leave it with immediate beneficiaries through a process of sharing the successes or beliefs through media and communication and get more and more people aligned to your cause till it just becomes a wave and becomes a movement. Hence a movement building model is a model which takes an issue and addresses it at scale. The initiatives were taken to convert it into something as impactful as a movement.
How much will social movements progress in the coming 5 years?
One indication is the rise of an individual philanthropist. When a movement gathers steam, more and more individuals get into it. When you start waking up individuals with their own capacity then you know that the movement is gaining progress. In the rise of individual philanthropy in India has been phenomenal that there has been a lot of financial help coming in since the last 5 years summing up to INR 3,000 crore. I feel that in all other sectors India is progressing but in the next 5 years, tolerance is going to change in the country. There are a lot of movements that are going to come in which are going to make India happier and unite them as people.
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