Thankyou partners with Avenir Creative House to launch open video about how the donor giving system is broken, and they helped break it

Today, social enterprise Thankyou has launched a new video titled Donor Dysfunction: ‘The giving system is broken, and we helped break it’, revealing how systems designed to end global poverty can actually cause more harm than good.

The video, created in partnership with Avenir Creative House, transforms a 6,000 written piece on Thankyou’s 2020 giving model overhaul into an educational, captivating 7-minute visual storytelling piece to both inform and educate its audience on the issue of Donor Dysfunction.

Avenir Creative House co-founder and creative director Jay Argaet references the notable quote from Cesar A Cruz, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable,” as a creative driving force behind the direction and execution of the video campaign, hoping to awaken the uncomfortable conversations around donor dysfunction for everyone.

Adds Argaet: “The issue of Donor Dysfunction is complex and critical – it was important to bring Thankyou’s honest reflection in a clear and simple format to not only tell Thankyou’s story but to bring awareness and inspire others around the issues of donor-controlled funding.”

The Donor Dysfunction video references data taken from the first-ever 5-year study on ‘what goes wrong’ in impact-focused projects, which found that funder-created obstacles account for 46% of the obstacles organisations face – an issue known as ‘donor dysfunction’^[1]. This figure sits considerably above other more obvious issues — fraud and theft, and violence and conflict account for a mere 4% each^[2].

Says Daniel Flynn., co-founder of Thankyou: “As we began to ask questions and learn from others, we realised we’d been unknowingly part of the problem. So, we’ve spent the last few years listening to our partners, the community, and experienced and effective foundations and conducted our own research. We discovered the pioneers and those who lead this space and became aware of the areas that we’d got it so wrong in. And once we saw it, we realised we had to change our entire impact model.

“’We believe that unrestricted funding is the only way to support innovative pathways and approaches to achieve the scale of social impact this world needs to see. So we’re going all in on it. We also think it’s important to communicate this change to our community and educate people in a simple way on these really important, complex issues. As donors, we need to be equipped with the knowledge to make good decisions about how we donate to create real, lasting impact. We look forward to seeing who will join the movement in years to come and seeing donors support a revolutionary call to change, for revolutionary outcomes.”

The Donor Dysfunction video isn’t the first time Thankyou and Argaet have partnered together, previously working together in 2020 to bring to life Thankyou’s No Small Plan campaign, which accumulated 826 media features globally, and over 2.6 billion campaign impressions.

Says Argaet: “We are continually inspired by Thankyou’s relentless pursuit of the end of extreme poverty. We believe in the power of creativity to inspire – and we hope this video piece will help bring simplicity to a complex issue.”

Since Thankyou was founded in 2008, the social enterprise has raised and given $17M AUD, with $8M given in 2020 via unrestricted funding to 16 impactful partners around the world.

Watch Thankyou’s ‘Donor Dysfunction’ video here.

[1] “Roadblock Analysis Report” By Open Road Alliance, 10 April 2018 https://openroadalliance.org/resource/ora-roadblock-analysis-report

[2] “Roadblock Analysis Report” By Open Road Alliance, 10 April 2018 https://openroadalliance.org/resource/ora-roadblock-analysis-report