ACLU Urges Rebate Recipients to Stimulate Freedom in High-Impact Fundraising Video

I received an email from the ACLU online team last Friday, showcasing this masterful video from  Colorado blogger Kenevan McConnan urging stimulus rebate recipients to pass through their checks to the ACLU. It's simple, a bit surprising and direct. It really works.

Here's how the video triumphs in positioning supporting the ACLU as supporting Constitutional freedoms:

• McConnan is anything but the kneejerk liberal you may expect to be supporting the ACLU. He's a regular guy hunter (aka sportsman), which broadens viewers understanding of whom ACLU protects. He....
• Lists how he considered spending the rebate to stimulate the economy (on hiking boots or binoculars, neither of which were made in the United States)
• Shares his conclusion that shopping isn't the best way to stimulate the economy
• Articulates why he's donating his rebate to the ACLU:
  • Wouldn't have done so before Bush took office
  • But the current administration isn't respecting the Constitution
  • As a result, he's lost his confidence in many civil rights, including the right of an accused to go before a judge, understand what he is accused of and receive a speedy trial.
  • ACLU are the "only guys out there consistently fighting for the rights guaranteed in the constitution."

This pitch, so intimately connected to the source of the rebates, beats those I've seen from other nonprofits hands down. It's a real stimulus. Any out there to match it?

P.S. On the "could have done better" side, the ACLU didn't make it easy for me to forward its email to a friend via a link or button. It's so easy to expand reach that way.

But there's worse: When I called the media contact listed on the ACLU Web site to reach the online team, he told me the team members were busy (all seven of them who signed the email, really?), refused to provide direct phone or email contacts and tried to pacify me by promising to pass on my message.  From an organization that's all about freedom of information, that's bad communication.

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Comments

[Jordan Viator]

I completely agree with you that this pitch is direct, clear and powerful. In fact, I was a bit startled at how direct the message was, but after listening to the short 2 minute pitch, I was ready to sign over my stimulus check, too!
Thanks for sharing, Nancy.