Grandmother Judith Cohen has a question for the grandchildren of the world: “Would it kill you to call?”
In a video promoting the American Friends of the Hebrew University, she bemoans how young people use their phones for “emailing, texting, snapping” but never to call their bubbes, the Yiddish word for grandma.
“That’s why every bubbe needs my new app,” Cohen says. The fictional app sends a guilt-tripping text to children and grandchildren who go seven days without calling their bubbes. “So you took my bar mitzvah money, but now I’m useless to you?” reads one text.
The American Friends of the Hebrew University, which raises money for the Jerusalem institution, wanted the video to attract new supporters age 50 and younger who could add to their aging donor base. They cast actor Barbara Malley as a bubbe who could speak to the American Jewish experience in a humorous way.
“Everybody has a bubbe,” said Eileen Hume, chief marketing officer. “That funny, loving, sometimes overbearing, sometimes infuriating, grandmotherly figure was one that seemed to resonate.”
The idea worked: The first video, released in 2017, went viral, getting 1.6 million views on Facebook and earning a nomination in 2018 for a Shorty Award for best comedy video for digital or social media. Some older viewers even asked if they could download the app.
The ad agency Oberland focused the video on branding more than fundraising, including only a brief appeal for donations. “Bubbe may not have the most advanced tech, but the Hebrew University does,” the video concludes. “Help drive tech innovation by giving to AFHU.” But rather than linking to a donation form, the video directs viewers to the group’s homepage.
Since that first video, the American Friends of the Hebrew University has produced 11 more, generally releasing them before the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. In these videos, bubbe showcases her other tech inventions, such as an app called “Mensch on Wheels,” which sets up young women with “bubbe-approved Jewish boys.”
In a series of videos this fall, the group introduced a second bubbe and a scientist. The scientist describes research at the Hebrew University in academic terms, which the bubbes rephrase. “One of them’s got a Ph.D., but who knows better than bubbe,” trills the jingle to the video series. As the scientist dryly explains how Hebrew University researchers are developing sustainable agriculture techniques, the bubbes explain: “If it doesn’t rain, the only thing you’re going to have for dinner is a big bowl of bupkes.”
The videos close by directing viewers to specific web pages that give details on university research and link to a donation page titled “Make Bubbe Proud.”
The emphasis on brand-building has worked for AFHU, as the first video reached a far wider audience than the charity’s typical direct appeals to major donors ever could. So far, the bubbe videos have collectively been displayed on social media 11 million times, Hume says. The videos were meant to introduce the work of the Hebrew University to new supporters, and Drew Train, co-founder and president of Oberland, says they have raised the school’s profile among this audience.
The American Friends of the Hebrew University’s decision to prioritize awareness over fundraising was not intuitive, as the charity typically relies on major gifts. “This was by far and away a radical departure from any kind of communication or outreach or fundraising efforts that the organization has ever undertaken in the past,” said Hume.
Even so, AFHU didn’t completely abandon its previous tactics. In 2018, the group raised more than $30 million through gifts and events, an increase of about $4 million over 2017. It continued its fundraising and marketing efforts such as the Nexus Israel tech innovation conference in New York City and opened a Philadelphia office to raise money in that region. The group also continued its longstanding focus on major gifts.
“The increase in fundraising is the cumulative result of all these efforts,” Hume wrote in an email.
As end-of-year fundraising picks up, the group will continue reaching out to new donors with funny videos aimed at solving “one of the world’s biggest problems ... the lack of good Hanukkah songs,” Miryam Greene, director of marketing and alumni affairs wrote in an email.
The videos will feature festive songs written by “HU Bot,” an artificial-intellegence algorithm. In a song about latkes, for example, the group will highlight the university’s agricultural research on potato rot. While Bubbe won’t feature in these videos, the group hopes the upcoming campaign will be a springboard from her unexpected popularity.
