In a free market, people get to decide what to do with their time and money. If they don't pay any money for what you have to sell, you will lose your shirt.
So, the next step is to go non-profit. Get people to send you money for some sort of cause. That's legitimate. But once you go into the world of non-profit funding, you become a beggar.
"BUT IT'S FOR THE CAUSE!"
The excuse beggars use is this: they represent The Cause.
The Cause can be anything. But this is basic to The Cause: It doesn't make a profit on the free market. People will not pay money for whatever The Cause offers. The benefits of The Cause are not worth paying for.
This forces promoters of The Cause to approach believers in The Cause to put up money to promote The Cause. The true believers are asked to write a check or donate time for the sake of The Cause.
But there is always this catch: the promoter is identifying his personal dream or scheme with The Cause. Maybe he earns a salary promoting The Cause. That raises questions about his commitment to The Cause. This is why I worked for free for my Institute for Christian Economics, 1976-2001. I never wanted anyone to charge me with hustling money in the name of Christ. It worked. They didn't. All it cost me was 30,000 donated hours. It was an expensive strategy for me personally, but it was worth it.
Maybe the promoter has some odd-ball angle. He is promoting his unique version of The Cause, which may not be widely shared. That was certainly true of the Institute for Christian Economics. Economists are not interested in theology, and theologians are not interested in economic theory.
Maybe the promoter has a theory of how to promote The Cause. His approach costs a huge amount of money. He insists that this will have a huge payoff for The Cause. I call this the Big Splash illusion. If the promoter needs a lot of money for his Big Splash project, you can be sure that he has had no experience in this area. Anyone with experience knows the following:
1. Very few splashes are big.
2. They cost a lot of money to arrange.
3. If they worked, there would be more of them.
4. If there were more of them, most of them would soon look small.
5. Attempted Big Splashes almost always lose money.
The founders of the world's major religions rarely made a Big Splash in their lifetimes. Mohammed did. He was extremely rare. He was also a great military strategist. He did not beg. His military opponents did if they wanted to survive.
About a dozen people showed up a Karl Marx's funeral.
Charles Darwin made a very big splash, but he wasn't a Big Splash kind of guy. He was a recluse. No one funded him -- he married an heriess of the Wedgwood china firm. No one raised money on his behalf. He made his big splash with a book that his publisher did not want to publish. His publisher printed only 1,250 copies: a tiny splash scenario. The entire print run sold out in one day. It has never gone out of print. It "went viral." Who knew?
You can make a Big Splash in a puddle, but puddles are not what fundraisers for would-be Big Splashes talk about. Donors do not give big bucks for Big Splashes in puddles.
PRAYING FOR A MIRACLE
For fundamentalist Christians, nothing beats a movie as a Big Splash. They are blinded by Chariots of Fire (1980), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1981. They forget that it was produced by an atheist. It was about a Christian sprinter and a Jewish sprinter in 1924. It starred a homosexual as the Christian and a Roman Catholic as the Jew. It was a British picture.
The promoters used pastors to generate ticket sales. They had a road show aimed at pastors. They showed the movie, which was a truly great movie. Then they sold batches of tickets to churches. This marketing strategy worked. I have never seen this work since.
Here are the three central facts. First, it was a great movie. Second, it was not scripted by a fundamentalist Christian. Therefore, it was not sappy and preachy. Third, it surprised Hollywood when it won the Oscar. It was not produced in Hollywood.
Christians cannot raise the money for movies. So, they produce low-budget documentaries.
The Big Splash promoters try to get their documentaries into theaters. Problem: no one will pay to see a documentary in a theater. Anyone can watch a documentary free on YouTube. We go to movies to be entertained, not educated. We can get all the education we want for free on YouTube.
But Big Splash Christians with no experience and with money burning a hole in their wallets do not understand this. They do not want to be told this. So, they never ask. They plunge ahead.
They empty half of their bank accounts to produce their documentary. They deplete the other half by renting movie time in theaters for one night -- usually a Tuesday, when no one goes to the movies, and rental space is cheap. Then they get out the word to their friends by email: "Go see my fabulous, world-changing documentary." No one does. They know it will be a one-night stand. It will be on YouTube for free in a couple of months. It will get maybe 40,000 hits. Maybe.
They spend a small fortune making the thing. Then they spend another fortune renting theater time. Then nothing happens. Their money is gone. A handful of people go to see it, hoping for a miracle. No miracle. Just another long, poorly edited documentary. Some talking heads. Some drawings or photos. Maybe some videos or rocks in a desert. A voice-over claiming far more than the on-screen evidence proves. Then the close: The End.
Then they put it on YouTube for free.
"MY MONEY'S GONE! HELP ME GET IT BACK!"
I have seen this before.
Someone with a big dream and a big bank account now finds himself with a documentary and a depleted bank account. The day of reckoning is fast approaching. He has shot his wad on a business plan that is guaranteed to fail. He never asked anyone with expertise about it. He was sure it would work. Now reality is closing in.
I received a note from a man about his documentary project. He described it. It is scheduled for a one-night showing.
If you'd like to learn more about the film, see a trailer, and possibly even buy tickets (there is limited availability), you can do so here: [URL]
Our national press release went out earlier this week, so I thought now might be a good time to mention it to you. Please feel free to forward this email to anyone you think might be interested.
In closing, I would greatly appreciate it if you would ask the Lord to bless our endeavors, and that He would be glorified through what we do.
He had never contacted me before he created this project. I have never heard of him or from him.
This project is hopeless. But it was too late for me to help him. I politely ignored the email.
This did no good. He sent another two days later.
I wanted to make sure you received this email I sent earlier this week. I know sometimes if they aren't directly addressed, they can fall into spam folders. . . .
Then came the sales pitch.
Don't throw away your opportunity, Dr. North. You know that I am right. What we are doing is very important. You need to be a part of it.
No, I really don't. I have seen projects like these too many times. They always go plot.
If you are interested in seeing a preview version, I'd be happy to send you one. And if it was something you thought worthwhile, would you be willing to tell your followers about it? We could certainly use help getting word out about the film.
Now he wanted two hours of my donated time. He also wanted free promotion.
This time, I responded. "Create a web page that has links to Google Maps of all the theaters where it will be shown."
This drew a response. He has a page where they can search by zip code. Fair enough. Then he added this:
I know you have a lot of different ways to engage people. What do you think would be best?
So, he wants free advice, too. I gave him some.
Pray. You have a prayer. Just barely.You will lose your shirt. I would have told you why had you asked earlier.
People never ask me for advice after they spend the money. They ask me how to get it back.
I got this response:
Thank you, Dr. North. I won't email you again.
So, my response worked. Problem solved.
The significant information in a documentary -- not much is new -- can be put into a 20-page PDF. It can be posted online in 90 seconds. Then use the money for marketing. The PDF can have footnotes -- evidence. It can offer a book. Books change minds. Documentaries don't.
But what if the poor guy -- now a poorer guy -- was determined to produce a documentary? He should have put the documentary on YouTube for free from the start. Then he should have used the marketing money to get views. This would then generate book sales.
If the documentary is good, it will get views for decades. If it stinks, then it will not work in theaters. The venue will not improve it.
My advice from the beginning would have been to turn the information into an online course for home schools. Help families teach their kids.
Teach teenagers how to produce documentaries.
No deal. Too long term. He wanted to make a Big Splash.
My prediction: plop.
CONCLUSIONS
There are several.
1. Don't go for a Big Splash.
2. If you decide to do it anyway, research previous Big Splashes (if any).
2. If you find half a dozen, pay for advice from experts in the Big Splash's targeted lake.
3. If they warn against it, save your money for small splashes in several ponds.
Specific conclusion:
Never produce a documentary that has to earn a dime. Plan only for posting it on YouTube. There will be a Big Splash only if viral marketing takes over. Don't count on this. It's unpredictable.
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