The Fine Art Of Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
Cindy reflects on what ‘support’ really means
Four months ago, I answered Olivia James’ question, “Why Can’t People In Your Network Fund MakeLoveNotPorn?” Consider this ‘Part 2’ of that response - because this week, that’s precisely what I’m asking my network to do, and I have some thoughts arising that you may find useful yourself.
Back in the UK in the early 90s, I was running the Coca-Cola account at the ad agency I used to work for, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, and I got to work with their global Chief Marketing Officer at the time, the brilliant Vinita Bali. In the course of our work together on the brand, Vinita made an observation I’ve never forgotten.
We were working on Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of football/soccer in the UK, and Vinita and I attended a soccer match together (it was so long ago I‘m afraid I can’t remember the occasion or who was playing).
The next day, in our meeting to review the experience in the context of Coke’s sponsorship, Vinita identified a form of behavior - or, more accurately, non-behavior - that she termed ‘virtual consumption’.
She observed that it was entirely possible to attend a soccer match sponsored by Coke, where you would be surrounded in the stadium and on the field by Coke billboards and signage; receive a Coke-branded program; get free giveaways of Coke-branded caps and scarves; watch Coke ads on the electronic screens at half-time; enjoy musical entertainment at half-time sponsored by Coke; have an absolutely wonderful time, and leave, without having at any point during the entire experience actually purchased and drunk a can or bottle of Coca-Cola.
Our task, Vinita said, was to change that.
This week, we launched our first ever equity crowdfunding campaign for MakeLoveNotPorn on WeFunder. First ever, because until now no crowdfunding platform would allow us near it. It’s thanks to the wonderful Jameela Jamil (of The Good Place and She-Hulk fame), our lead investor for this community round, that WeFunder embraced us. Jameela knows how critically important it is to fund female founders, as she explains here, and has rallied her iWeigh community around us.
We’re targeting just over $1million, which will enable us to hire, scale and, importantly, finally build MakeLoveNotPorn Academy, our badly-needed 0-18 and beyond sex education expansion, that will help children, young people, parents, teachers and adults get the comprehensive, age-appropriate sex education everyone is desperate for.
The minimum investment is $100; the maximum can be whatever you want it to be 🙂
We’ve emailed our MLNP community of members and MakeLoveNotPornstars to encourage as many as possible to invest; I’ve posted extensively about our launch across all my social channels; and, to Olivia’s original question, I’m reaching out to my personal networks via email. I sent out my first email blast yesterday, and I’m currently prepping one focused specifically on friends in the advertising industry.
I want to give a big shoutout to my friend Laurel Touby.
Twenty minutes after I hit ‘send’ on that first personal network email, Laurel responded with a big contribution:
But what made me love her even more, was the comment she left when I posted her contribution on social media to inspire others:
Laurel is referencing my version of Vinita Bali’s ‘virtual consumption’ - ‘virtual support’.
Right now, I badly need ‘actual support’.
I need everybody who appreciates everything I do; who has benefited in any way from my advice, my observations, my shares; who is grateful to me for anything I have contributed that has in any way helped them or inspired them; to put their money where their mouth is. Because if every single person who’s expressed that to me in some form or other contributed $100, we’d be funded in a flash.
As my bestie Kate Bristow put it:
I hasten to add that I am referencing only those people who can afford to do so. But as Olivia rightly surmised with her original question, I have a lot of people in my network who can most definitely afford to do so.
It’s only been two days since we launched our campaign, so there is plenty of time for this still to happen. I hope it will.
But it’s worth reflecting - when the chips are down, what kind of support are you getting? Is it the kind of support you really need? And where - and who - is the kind of support you really need coming from?
You might be surprised. Both by where it’s coming from, and where it’s not.
And obviously, I would love every one of you who has kindly subscribed to Dear Cindy, to contribute whatever you can, and to spread the word about our campaign to your networks and encourage everyone in them to do the same 🙂 Some of you have already been kind enough to do so! If every one of you who’s subscribed were able to micro-invest $100, it would make a big dent in our goal 🙏
See you next week! Got a question for me? Respond directly or email dearcindy@substack.com. Your support directly goes into supporting my work and business MakeLoveNotPorn.
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