My next blog post will be about the budget! We all no budgets are hard to follow, nearly impossible it seems. So instead of focusing on the negative of budgets I am going to look a little more in depth the World Bicycle Relief. I love bicycling and I never knew until taking this class that this organization (website link provided) existed. The World Bicycle relief is a non profit organization. It provides bicycles to developing countries where distance is a barrier to opportunities in education, healthcare, and economic growth. While looking at the website and comparing it to the section in the reading that describes nonprofits, I would consider the organization a combination of a community foundation and a corporate foundation. The website is really easy to navigate, and the financials seem to be very clearly broken down. 57% of it’s donations are from individuals which I think is amazing! 37% of their donations is from it’s corporate supporters and 6% is from revenue they obtain from sales of stickers, bags, etc. with the WBR logo. The revenue is then put back in to the company.
This organization is an amazing example of effective social marketing. It has effective components of product,price and place and promotion. The product is obviously bicycles. Bicycles to us in developed country is a form of entertainment,exercise, and transportation, to the areas that this organization focuses on it is a form of reliable transportation. The transportation provides these individuals the ability to access healthcare, education, and economic opportunities. Having access to these 3 things will improve self efficacy and improve economic growth and sustainability. The product in this organization is very thought out. Here is an image below…
The Buffalo Bicycle is engineered for more tasks which is beneficial to rural communities. It can support big loads and passengers over long distances in remote areas. The short dipping top tube is preferred for both men and women. The center stand also simplifies loading for heavy and bulky cargo.
Next lets look at the price component of this campaign. The parts to repair the Buffalo Bicycle are available to the communities that the bikes are distributed. There is also a Field Mechanic Training program provided and to date over 1,000 field mechanics have been trained and that offers riders in these communities access to local maintenance and parts. The spare parts of the Buffalo Bicycles are expensive because to the bikes durability so WBR has added education on simple maintenance and better riding behavior to help the bikes last longer.
The place component of this campaign is the areas where foot travel is a huge deterrent to individuals reaching education, health care, and commerce opportunities. Individuals can ride a bike 4x the distance of someone walking, the capacity of carrying goods increases by 5x, and for every ten miles traveled a bicycle saves three hours. They have distributed bikes in Africa, South America, an Southeast Asia.
The promotion component is providing not only the bikes to the communities, but also the parts, training on maintenance and repair therefore making promotion more sustainable. The fundraising offices are in 5 different countries, and they have had great measurable impact on the communities they have reached. They have delivered more than 300,000 bicycles in 10 years! This is an organization that is effective and sustainable. I feel it’s design should be looked at for inspiration when learning about social marketing.
IN A PERFECT WORLD 