AmEx Members Project – Tips for Doing It Right
If you watch any late night TV, you’ve probably seen the American Express commercials with Sheryl Crow, Ellen DeGeneres and others promoting the new Members Project. For every card member who registers at MembersProject.com, American Express will donate $1 toward a $5 million grant to a single project, selected in part by member voting.
How can this work for your organization? Even if you don’t win the money, you could conceivably put your ideas in front of some new donors.
Simply getting your project listed won’t be enough. They’ve been taking nominations for a month and when I just registered as a member a few minutes ago, there were already 5,649 projects listed. To stand out in the list, you’ll need to create a basic marketing campaign.
For starters, pick the right title. Some of the projects listed today have such vague titles that I doubt anyone will click on them. Tell us in 5-6 words what your result would be, or at least what action you would take. Looking at the projects listed just today, I’m willing to bet that “Water Well Project for Orphanage” and “Put CAN in Canvas – Free Planet of Plastic” will get more clicks than “Single Parent Family Development Project” and “Global Security Fund.”
Then you’ll have 1,000 characters of space to describe the project, which is roughly 125 words. Use that space to inspire. Explain what you’d do, but more importantly, explain the difference you’ll make in terms that appeal to hearts and minds. The guidelines clearly state that they are looking for achievable, innovative projects with broad, positive impact. Treat it like any other grant proposal and follow the guidelines! And why not include a short call to action to card members? “If you believe in this idea, please rate our project now and leave a comment.”
Be sure to spell-check and proofread your title and description before submitting it! You can’t edit it once you submit it. I see lots of typos in listings and I don’t think that bodes well for getting $5 million.
Next, you’ll need to generate some buzz about your project. Get all of your strong supporters who are card members to login, post a comment on your project, rate it, and send it to a friend (all easy to do on the site, once they locate your project). Talk about the project in all of your other communications with members, supporters, and donors. Use other viral techniques like blogs, MySpace, YouTube, etc. to generate interest in your project.
American Express will narrow the list down to 50 projects on July 3 and member voting will begin to start narrowing down the list, with the winner announced on August 7. I’ll keep you updated on the contest and see what communications lessons we can all learn from the finalists.
When I first came across AMEX’s Members Project, I was quite excited. Now, I’m frightened and upset.
There is a HUGE PROBLEM with American Express’ Members Project.
I just submitted a proposed project to this competition. Throughout their site they prominently display the following: “Your ideas. Your decision. Our money.” However, as I found out from a colleague after I submitted my project, tthe “Terms and Conditions” contradict their statement about “your ideas,” etc. In fact, once you submit a project all ideas and intellectual property are owned by American Express. They could take your project and do it without you.
I found this to be shockingly sleazy. My professional work is tied to my project, and this presents a huge problem, as I’m sure it does for anyone who has submitted a project.
I wrote to American Express to withdraw my project and they said they couldn’t do it, even though they clearly state in the Q & A’s that you can withdraw a project.
This whole situation does sit well with me (nor my legal representatives).
Best of luck to all. I hope all of you can enact your ideas without American Express.
We have entered Undergraduates Fighting Age Related Diseases in the American Express 2008 project.
The q & a states that they will let the organization behind the project run it if they can show some things like being fiscally responsible and having shown the ability to run a project like this in the past. We have done that so there are no worries there.
We have made the top 25 this year. Our only concern now is that people will realize what an impact we are really trying to make. Undergrads can harness all the lab space in all the universities around the country, thats alot. They are also going to be working on aging, and that is the corner stone of disease. Nobody else is doing either of these things right now.
Its innovative, nobody has ever done it before. Its positive, and most of all it will definently with out a grain of doubt have a broad deep wide reach greatly beneficial impact.
American Express will be proud to put their name on this.