I’m really glad to have this talk available as a written transcript! I’ve seen versions of it presented in two other locations, but the Q&A adds a lot.
Anecdotes like this still confuse me:
When we wanted to translate the website into German, the thinking was we could go to a professional company and they’d charge us five grand to do it, or we could go to a lot of other human beings and say, “You’re a professional translator. Who do we talk to in your industry such that we could get four people who would translate two and a half thousand words each?” That’s 10,000 words. We can now put our website in a language and show people the courtesy in Germany of being able to read the website in their own language.
So I sent out 48 e-mails, not dear all because that doesn’t work, but Dear Claudia and Dear Claus and Dear Matthew and so on. And in 24 hours I had 44 positive responses out of 48 [...] And the same thing happened in every other language.
How in the world does anyone get a consistent 90% positive response rate, within 24 hours, from a group of working professionals asked to provide free services for a charity campaign?
If Mather gets these results consistently, he may be one of the best copywriters in the nonprofit sector, and I’d really like to know his secrets. Maybe I’ll ask him the next time he comes to EA Global.
I’m pleased to say it’s what happened—and across 10 languages. I don’t think there is any particular secret here—and I’m certainly not the best copywriter in the world—but a combination of: a good cause; a modest time commitment requested (a few hours); asking people with the right skills and with some time to allocate; giving enough time to do the work (several weeks) so as not to create any pressure, led to this large number of experts offering to help.
I am pleased to say that I was able to introduce a number of the translators we worked with to companies that supported AMF pro bono and they secured new paid for translation work. Perhaps a nice example of what often happens - ‘what goes around, comes around’.
I’m really glad to have this talk available as a written transcript! I’ve seen versions of it presented in two other locations, but the Q&A adds a lot.
Anecdotes like this still confuse me:
How in the world does anyone get a consistent 90% positive response rate, within 24 hours, from a group of working professionals asked to provide free services for a charity campaign?
If Mather gets these results consistently, he may be one of the best copywriters in the nonprofit sector, and I’d really like to know his secrets. Maybe I’ll ask him the next time he comes to EA Global.
Hi Aaron
I’m pleased to say it’s what happened—and across 10 languages. I don’t think there is any particular secret here—and I’m certainly not the best copywriter in the world—but a combination of: a good cause; a modest time commitment requested (a few hours); asking people with the right skills and with some time to allocate; giving enough time to do the work (several weeks) so as not to create any pressure, led to this large number of experts offering to help.
Warm regards, Rob
Speaking as the partner of a translator, there appear to be considerably higher rates of underemployment in that business compared to others.
I am pleased to say that I was able to introduce a number of the translators we worked with to companies that supported AMF pro bono and they secured new paid for translation work. Perhaps a nice example of what often happens - ‘what goes around, comes around’.