Providing an Experience

The always helpful Agitator strikes again.

In the post linked above, Tom talks about two studies. One showed people who touched a product were more likely to buy it and the other that a positive first time experience is strongly correlated to long term brand loyalty.

Tom then goes on to ask what nonprofits can do to replicate the experience of touching a product.

One of the rescue missions we work with is already doing this.

Orlando Union Rescue Mission (OURM) hosts One Homeless Night where people are invited to sleep under an overpass for one night. I know that OURM isn’t the only one doing this, and if you know of others, feel free to link it up in the comments.

World Vision has World Vision Experience: AIDS which is a touring exhibit you walk through and get a better understanding of what it’s like to be a child in Africa.

I bring up these two examples because at first glance you might say, “We can’t make what we do something you can touch, its too personal/intense/complicated/unsafe” and you would be right.

However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t distill one piece of that experience into something that can be physically shared with others.

Just think about the experience of walking into a cathedral-style church. A few weeks ago, my wife’s college roommate came to stay with us and when we sat down in church, she said to me, “It [the church] makes me feel small, but I guess that’s what it’s supposed to do.”

I think many would agree that God’s greatness is not something that can be neatly packaged, but church architecture has been providing an experience of that greatness for hundreds of years.

Does carrying two five-gallon buckets of muddy water across a 1/2 mile course give you an understanding of what it’s like to live in a village where you have to walk ten times that far for water twice a day? Perhaps not, but I guarantee it helps you understand the importance of drilling clean water wells.

Does eating on a food stamp budget give you an understanding of what it’s like to live in poverty in the United States? Perhaps not, but I guarantee it gives you insight as to why many underprivileged people struggle with weight-related health issues (hint: fat calories are cheap calories).

The key in both cases is letting go of a notion that we are somehow diminishing the people we serve by providing a small, imperfect window into their world.

When we choose not to take this risk we trade a small, imperfect window for no window at all; denying people the opportunity to expand their understanding and to be moved to action.