By Anne McPherson
Last week, I participated in the Do Good Bus tour – a community-service bus tour that accompanies Foster the People on the band’s “Foster the Future” tour. While on tour, the Do Good Bus takes 30 fans in each city to a mystery location to complete a community service project where they help a local cause in a fun and social environment. During each ride, the Bus strives to create awareness for local causes, create community among its passengers and encourage ongoing support for the causes it visits. All of the projects and service locations remain secret until the Do Good Bus arrives on the project site. On Thursday, the San Francisco volunteers worked with park rangers from Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy to help with habitat restoration.
(Photo courtesy of Do Good Bus/Adam Pieratt)
I had a great time at the volunteer event, meeting the Do Good team, and hearing more about the overall effort. Below I’ve outlined the reasons why I think the “Do Good” formula works:
1) By tying itself to one of most popular bands today, the Bus immediately draws in volunteers. Foster the People, an emerging “brand” in and of itself, supports the idea of giving back and is sincerely thankful for the volunteers throughout the country. The band will often meet with the volunteers (most of which are big fans) after the activity and also gives a shout-out to them during the concert – creating a sense of accessibility and inclusiveness. The power of celebrity draw is undeniable, but to have a group that supports the cause while making each fan feel immediately appreciated gives both the Do Good Bus and Foster the People credibility in their social responsibility efforts. The project is mutually beneficial for both Do Good Bus and Foster the People “brands.”
2) They target the right audience by mobilizing the millennial generation (those born between 1980 and 1995). While the volunteers ranged from teenagers to 40 somethings, the bulk of them fell in the millennial generation, and I think tapping into this group is one of the keys to their success. They (we) are cause-oriented, passionate, and activist-minded. Edelman’s 8095 Exchange shows that this generation is more apt to share trusted brands with their friends and family, and they are sharing those brand messages far and wide with the help of mobile technology and social networks. The Do Good message quickly reverberates online and offline through this group specifically.
3) In Nicholas Kristof’s book Half the Sky he said, “the most effective change agents aren’t foreigners but local women (and sometimes men) who galvanize a movement.” While Kristof was discussing women’s issues in the developing world, the message of local empowerment rings true. By executing a national campaign on many local levels, the Do Good Bus message is sustainable and may last longer than the tour itself. Also, by making the process participatory – allowing volunteers to nominate organizations in their local cities – applicants and volunteers feel an additional sense of ownership and accomplishment when the activity is complete. Volunteers participate in a few hours of service, meet new people from their community, and learn about the local organization. Hopefully, this combination will encourage them to get involved on a regular basis.
4) Lastly, and most importantly, the Bus is made up of a very enthusiastic, committed six-person staff. Occasionally, one or two of its friends will ride along for a city or two as a “hitchhiker.” As with any organization, campaign, or collective effort, the staff leading the charge remains at the core and have to be fully behind the mission of the project. The Do Gooders want to inspire people to give back. It’s a part of their ethos, and despite long hours and days on the road, their enthusiasm and commitment is apparent and contagious. As a lover of all things Lincoln, I was happy to see this quote on the Do Good Bus homepage, “When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.” They encourage volunteers to “do good” in any way possible – whether it was going back to the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy once a month or cheering up a co-worker who is down. While this may seem vague and intangible, it makes the concept accessible and encourages more people to carry out the message in their daily lives.
Keeping with the theme, I thought I’d share a relevant quote from the Nobel prize winning Archbishop Desmond Tutu to close:
“We are all agents of transfiguration. Go forth and transform your personal relationships, your community, your world, so it becomes hospitable to joy, to justice, to freedom, to peace.” – March 2011 at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, CA.
Visit the Do Good Bus Facebook page, Twitter handle, and Tumblr blog!
What a clever way of engaging people in local service. Thank you for sharing this. I hope it will continue.
Check out the amazing photo montage and video they put together re-capping the 11,000 miles and 25 causes: http://dogoodbus.com/fosterthepeople.html