We make it rain.

I’ve been getting this question constantly. Let us discuss it. The next thing we do will depend on the answers to a couple questions: What have we proven? What resources do we have?

We’ve done our first campaign, and it was a success. We proved that the concept worked, and that both businesses and consumers are excited about participating (by the way, I’ve had a restaurant, a winery, and a sporting goods store all email me to request to participate in campaigns…). One option is to go right into another campaign. Maybe we should grow our mob by doing another campaign, but this time in Palo Alto/Berkeley/New York/Boston/Rexburg, Idaho (we’ve had a special request for Rexburg)…. We could do another round of corner stores, or take it up to big grocers. Or we could make the jump from rewarding retail stores to rewarding brands/products. It sort of depends on what else people think we need to prove. Do people think that this only worked in SF because it’s SF? I don’t think that, but maybe some of us do? Do we need to prove that it will work with products and brands in a campaign where everyone isn’t all in the same place at the same time?

Honestly, my preference would be to hold off on doing another campaign for the moment, and try to take care of funding, incorporation, hiring, 501c3, making a new website, etc. I would be a more effective leader if I was doing it full-time, and I didn’t have another job. We could take this up a notch, and quickly start getting bigger environmental results than we can get by focusing on small businesses. The climate crisis is, after all, direly urgent. But what resources do we have?

Maybe I’m blinded by optimism, but I sort of want some wealthy person to just come along a couple hundred thousand dollars and say, "here, let’s hire a few people and take this up a notch." If that happens in the near future, that would be perfect. If that doesn’t come along, then I need to decide whether to keep hustling to do little campaigns, or whether to buy a book on grant-writing and plan on spending most of the year trying to figure out the usual channels for getting funds. So for now I’ll keep playing it by ear, but if you have ideas or resources, please do share in the comments…

I think Carrotmob should think about doing something for Bay To Breakers. I mean, it’s the most fun day of the year. Brainstorm with me after the jump….

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It’s been about a week, and things are going well! Here’s a little rundown of some the buzz that’s been coming out about us so far…this includes before and after the event, from news outlets, blogs, and everything in between: Wired.com, Smart Mobs, LA Times, GOOD Magazine’s blog, BoingBoing.net, Team Jaded, Treehugger, Civic Actions, Earthfirst.com and a little mention in the SF Chronicle. There are a bunch of other blog posts out there, but I’ll just leave you with one more for now.

Remember when I said I would finish that video by this weekend? It ain’t gonna happen. I only need another day or two, but you’re going to have to wait well over a week. Why? Because in order to pay rent I must make money, which requires me to fly to Virginia Beach tomorrow morning to set up a Go Game for a healthcare company, followed by a game for 300 people at the U of Michigan biz school. I get back Friday night. So the video has to wait, but in the meantime I am happy to unveil the official photo album from the first Carrotmob campaign! It’s great.

The SF Food Bank reports that we gave 366 pounds of food! (With current exchange rates that translates to $730.83 American dollars of food. Ha.) Before we thought we had brought in more than 10k to the store, but that number was based on a rushed, and incorrect calculation by the store. Our actual total, including the Yahoo money, was $9276.50. Number crunching so far indicates that this will result in enough money for the store to replace all their lighting systems, as well as all their refrigeration gaskets. Yes! They may do more. More on this later. Here’s a simplified categorized rundown of what we spent:

$3151 Grocery food items
$2268 Liquor
$1608 Wine
$999 Beer
$240 Deli items and Milk
$187 Candy
$94 Juice
$45 Soft Drinks
$42 Water
$41 Medicine
$36 Cigarettes
$31 Fruit
$22 Ice Cream
$3  A cigar and a lighter
$0.46  A newspaper