Gift Certificate to Celebrities

[Guest]

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[Julia]

I wonder if Oprah would use a certificate...

I was thinking she should be next. And I think I will send her the a paper one, with a hand written note in a card. What do you think?

I just sent email to 'ask ro' asking her where I could send her a gift certificate.

[Joe]

I'm picturing the paper Kiva gift certificate with Oprah's name on it, along with a short handwritten note carefully attached to a printout of the KivaSheet.pdf that Kate posted. All folded up and nicely tucked into a big light green greeting card type of envelope.

Did you get a reply from O'Donnell yet?

[Julia]

No replies yet 
I'll go see if its on her site.

[optimistic.bob]

Julia,
Your idea prompted me to think more locally about how to leverage a certificate. I sent one to a local pastor who has a large flock and one to a local newscaster to see if they would generate some interest.

[Julia]

That's a great idea optimistic.bob!   It makes me think, there must be lots of people in the community to give it to, as both a thanks and an advertisment strategy.

Like policemen and firemen.  I think I might send gift certificates to my local stations.

[AGullen]

These are all really great ideas guys! I can't imagine what the influx of lenders would be if Oprah or the like ran a segment on Kiva. I'd imagine the website might even have problems keeping up with the load. Thats a good problem to have though I'd suppose. I'm debating talking to some of my professors to get some kind of extra credit option going (I study economics) to students who decide to open an account and donate... I think there is a huge potential at universities for the spread of Kiva.

[Joe]

"Local" celebrities might be a good option as well. For example, in my area there is a popular morning show after the national morning news. Like Regis and Kelly with a local twist. In fact the one here airs after the Regis show. Anyway, I think the chances at getting a segment about Kiva done on the local shows may be higher than some of the national shows. Not that we shouldn't keep trying the national ones. I think I'll drop the hosts of my local morning show some gift certificates soon and see how it goes.

[AGullen]

Thats a good point, the locals probably would be easier to get to run a segment than a national program. But that is how these grassroot-word-of-mouth things get going. I think once a few smaller stations run something, that the door will be opened for larger slots.

[Joe]

I think it's also good to target local news anchors and reporters, both on TV and in print. Keep an eye out for anyone doing various reports on human interest, charities, etc and send the person behind it an e-mail/snail mail about Kiva (the marketing kits from Kiva work well) and/or gift certificate.

[Julia]

I couldn't find her address to send a gift certificate.  But I did find a form to pitch a show idea, so I did that instead.  Lets hope it interests her enough to check out the site.  I'm pretty sure that once she see it, she will be hooked...