“If the world was taking care of women, women would take care of the world.” Jane Roberts, Co-Founder, 34 Million Friends of UNPF.

The Grandmothers 4 Grandmothers Campaign is run through the Canadian charity, the Stephen Lewis Foundation. The Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign raises funds to help and support African grandmothers, many of whom have had to take on the care of their families and grandchildren due to the impact of the AIDS epidemic in their communities.

The beauty of this campaign is that it involves Canadian grandmothers in actively campaigning and fundraising for the help of their African counterparts.  The campaign is very successful, with groups of grandmothers meeting around the country, and so far they have raised $19.5 million dollars.

Why is this campaign so successful?

There are three key reasons.

1.  The campaign activates women and we know that women are generally more prepared to volunteer than men.

2.  The campaign targets people who are likely to have time on their side. Most grandmothers are retired and their children have children of their own. They are not in as much demand as they used to be, which means they can focus on their own goals and dreams.

3.  The campaign matches people in similar roles.  It is very easy to relate to someone who is like you, isn’t it?  Even though they live in a different country with different customs, if you are a grandmother, you know how African grandmothers feel when they look at the faces of their grandchildren. You can understand their despair when there is nothing they can do to feed or heal their loved ones.

Stephen Lewis, chair of the foundation and head of AIDS-Free World, says that the grandmothers “have become the most auspicious, most formidable, most loyal and most overwhelming” advocates against HIV/AIDS.

The lesson here is that there may be an untapped power in your supporters that you could activate simply by aligning them with people in similar life roles who need their help.

Take note of this clever campaign and perhaps you can reproduce the strategy within your NFP.