Moceanic: It’s about love, depth, and how together we are going to change the world by changing the way we do fundraising.

I’m really grateful to you for reading my articles.

It’s your comments, feedback, and participation that gave me an idea so big I can’t keep it inside!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

That idea: Moceanic. You may have already heard how this new company is going to change the way smart fundraisers get even smarter. But you probably haven’t heard the funny made-up word, Moceanic.

Well, fundraising is all about telling stories. So let me tell you a story. This story has no fundraising use for you – but I hope you enjoy it!

Once upon a time…

I’d been traveling.  A lot.  Then I had to make a sudden two-week trip to Europe.  Then three weeks in North America, with only four days between these trips back home in Australia.

All this without Christiana, my partner, who usually travels with me.

It was a really hard couple of months. There’d been a death in the family, and we were emotionally raw. Missing each other.

On the way home I had ten hours layover in Los Angeles, so I went to Santa Monica beach, not far from the airport. Even if you’ve never been to LA, you know Santa Monica beach, with its gaudy pier and preening sunbathers.  The sun was setting over the Pacific.

I got out my phone and FaceTimed Christiana in Australia. I asked her to go to the beach near our home and call me back.

A few minutes later, Christiana called me. It was noon where she was, more than 11,000 kilometres away. I looked at the setting sun and knew it was right over her head. So I faced that direction.

We stood, our toes in the Pacific and waved to each other across an ocean so vast it staggers the imagination.

But we were standing in the same ocean, united by its life-giving water. With the help of technology, it was as if we face each other across a puddle in the garden.

This is what Christiana could see looking North East…

And this is what I could see looking South West. Christiana is directly under the sun but 11,535km past the Ferris wheel (7,168 miles).

Twenty-one hours later I’d flown over the vast blue and was home.

With that image — the ocean that both divides and connects us, that sustains life on our planet and calms the soul of every human being who has stood on a beach and watched the waves that have travelled so far churn at their feet — with all that still huge in our minds — Christiana and I talked about the future.

Walking in the shallows, we talked about the webinars we had put on that year.

More than 1,000 people signed up for my ‘Three Secrets to Fundraising from Facebook’ webinar. In a couple of months, just over 3,200 people signed up to receive articles and information on learning from fundraising.

And fundraising experts Tom Ahern, Jeff Brooks, Rebecca Davies, Fiona McPhee and Roger Craver joined Kathy Allen and me in producing our first ‘series’ all about mid value donor fundraising. This attracted more than 250 people from 15 countries.

And the feedback was great.

We realised there is a need. A hunger for quality, focused experience-based content.  Aimed at fundraisers around the world who really get it and who are ready to go new places with their fundraising.

So we went for it.  We hired someone to help with marketing and someone to manage all the stuff I am no good at (lots of things). Christiana is setting up the tech and working on the content production.

Now we needed a name.

You know how brainstorming is. You come up with a lot of ideas. Some of them really cool. Others just plain bad. If you promise not to tell anyone else, here are a few we thought of:

Exitus Fundraising (Latin for outcome), CuddleComms (in brainstorming, there’s no such thing as a bad idea!), International Fundraising Academy (boring, sorry Roger), Hypatia Fundraising (she was an ancient-times mathematician), MAD Fundraising…

One day, walking along the beach again (we do that every day), Christiana asked me to identify words that described the ‘feeling’ of this new business I wanted to create.

I said, “Depth, change, practical, global, movement, inclusive, friendly, ethical, exciting, fun, easy, uniting.”  Perhaps the name had to have something to do with the ocean. But how?

That night we went to see Star Wars: Rogue One.  (It was awesome.)  As we walked out Christiana said, out of the blue, “Moceanic.”

Instant smiles.  Yep.  That’s it.

Moceanic was born.

How to pronounce it? I’ll let you decide. It depends on your accent.

I hope Moceanic will be part of your life, your calling, and your profession in the coming years.

Thank you for reading.

Sean

P.S. I told a little fib.  There is a fundraising application from this story after all. We are going to use Facebook to begin to create more of a community around fundraising learning.  You can help by checking out our new Facebook page… Moceanic on Facebook and liking it, please!  Oh, and any comments are GREAT!  Thank you so much.

P.P.S. Do you know other people who are in the community of smart fundraisers like yourself? Forward this email to them, or tell them about Moceanic. Our greatness will come from all of us together, our toes in the ocean, connecting across the horizon!