This weekend, I had the honor of doing a podcast interview with Matt Mullenweg, founding developer of WordPress. You’ll be able to hear it here on Thursday. While he’s only 26, the guy is deeply thoughtful and a huge proponent of open source development. The entire WordPress platform is provided under a General Public License (GPL), which ensures freedom and access to users and developers alike.
Open Means “Open” to Everyone – Good, Bad and Ugly
One of the most interesting conversation points addressed the challenge inherent in knowing that providing access and freedom necessarily attracts those who will use it irresponsibly or even abusively.
Here’s Matt’s take, excerpted from a blog post he did:
Though the freedom intrinsic in the GPL that has allowed people to abuse WordPress it has allowed even more people to do amazing things and over time the good far, far outweighs the bad. Most importantly I feel like WordPress would have never gotten off the ground if it hadn’t been open from the beginning.
Ultimately I know our software isn’t going to change anyone’s spots. Good people will do good things with it, and bad people will do bad things with it — regardless of any protections I put in place.
If you accept that bad people are going to be bad then the real question becomes how do you maximize the effect of the good instead of treating them just like the bad.
Matt shared that, although his philosophy on this is rock solid, it’s not always easy in practice.
The Implication for Cause Marketing
And it got me thinking about how we market our causes and prioritize our efforts to move not only our own programs forward, but to move the entire cause-related conversation forward. The idealist advocate in me cringes a little to think about allowing the “bad guys” to do what they will, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that Matt’s philosophy mirrors my own take on the evolution of cause marketing and the marketing of causes in general.
It goes something like this: there will be companies and agencies (that will remain nameless) that take advantage of this upswing in cause marketing and consumer interest in causes. They will seek out non-profit partners in an attempt to bolster their identity in pure self-interest without considering what’s best for the non-profit organization and/or their cause. There will be partnerships that are inauthentic, shallow and just plain ridiculous. They will embody “Causewashing” and push consumers to declare cause-fatigue. And, in the long run, they will fail.
They will fail because those of you out there doing it “right” (not to be confused with “perfectly”), in the spirit of mutual benefit, dedicated to transparency and authenticity, concerned for and dedicated to the causes you represent will knock them out of the ring. How? By tirelessly sharing what you learn with one another. By raising the bar of the entire cause-related field through communicating your lessons learned. Both Joe Waters and Estrella Rosenberg both do this amazingly well, constantly pushing out new ideas and freely sharing their knowledge, insight and challenges.
A Challenge To Support Open Sourced Cause Marketing
So, my fellow cause crusaders, here is your challenge. Help raise the tide of cause marketing and the entire cause-related realm by making a commitment to sharing your personal lessons learned. Share the good, the bad and the ugly by:
-Blogging
-Commenting
-Reading
-Thinking
-Tweeting
-Posting to Facebook
-Posting to LinkedIn
-Speaking
-Teaching
-Networking
-Staying in touch
Yes, it takes time. Yes, you’re busy. But your contribution will ensure that worthy causes and fantastic partnerships become an uncompromised standard and a force for good.
Here’s your chance to jump into the conversation and comment below. Who else do you turn to on a regular basis that does a fantastic job sharing their lessons learned? What other ways are there to share? What makes you nervous about sharing?
Image credit to mag3737.
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Count us in! We’re all for open source cause marketing. There’s never been a better time to share best practices — it can only inspire new ideas, authenticity and transparency in this space.
Great post Meg!
I so appreciate your comment, Laura, and I count you as one of the folks out there doing the good work to raise the bar AND blogging about it, so thanks for your contribution. Keep it up – always love to read your posts.
Great article Megan. Love the concept of open sourcing cause ideas because IMO, shared knowledge lifts everyone who uses it for good. Each cause will have its own “position” and, if their cause-marketing campaign is well executed, it will show their uniqueness rather than their “sameness” to other CM campaigns. Keep up the good work! Really enjoy your site.
Thanks for the comment, Andy, and I love your point that each cause has its own “position” that will allow its uniqueness to shine if it’s built on a solid cause marketing foundation. Agree!
Hi Megan, nice post! This is exactly why we never opt to charge for any of Cone’s cause-related research. It’s free to anyone who’s interested in exploring consumers and cause and is part of our commitment, as you explained, to help continually raise the bar in the industry.
Thanks for the comment, Sarah, and for pointing out the huge contribution that Cone makes to raising the bar around cause partnerships in providing excellent data (and a top-notch newsletter) that most of us walk around quoting multiple times in any given day or week.
Indeed, Cone is a pioneer in this realm and I, for one, am uber-grateful for the experienced participation we’ve all come to appreciate!
Thanks Megan, for such a high compliment! I really love the line you shared from Matt’s blog post: “How do you maximize the effect of the good…?”
That’s why I share so much of what I do in such great detail. The majority of causes and NPO’s out there are good people doing good things. I want to effect positive change in the world, period. It doesn’t matter whether my name is on it or not. If someone can learn from my mistakes or look at what’s been successful and model an effective campaign after it…well, that just adds to more positive things happening in the universe and I’m entirely for that.
Your call to action is a great one and it’s what ultimately drives the non-profit world. Collaboration, sharing. I glean a lot from the advice and examples that other people share, including you!
Thanks so much for the comment, Estrella! I’ve been so impressed with the degree of openness you bring to your blog and how much you share with us, your faithful readers.
The GPL under which WordPress is licensed stipulates that any derivative work built on the WordPress platform is also open…sort of a commitment to “pay it forward”. I feel the same about campaigns and strategies we might “borrow” from one another. If (when) I “borrow” your geocaching idea for a local non-profit organization, I’m committed to writing up what I learned so that we continue to progress and collectively evolve our ideas.
Megan,
So glad you wrote this. I’ll mirror what others have said and say this is a great contribution to the cause marketing community. There really should be sharing on a massive scale to allow create the greatest opportunity for good.
We have created a number of systems for the company we’re launching and we’ve already committed to sharing them on our blog. I’ve started to do so in bits and pieces, and more will come out once we launch.
I would like to pose the question though – what does being competitive mean in a cause marketing world? We really should debate that – because just as we want others to succeed in this for the greater good we also know that in capitalism, not everyone will. How do we come to terms with cause-related companies needing to compete with one another?
Ian