10 Take-Aways To Improve Or Kick Start Your Symbolic Giving Program

Takeaways to Improve or Kick Start Your Symbolic Giving Program

TP2010
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Christine Smith
christine.smith@hjcnewmedia.com
Fundraising and Innovation Consultant, HJC
Dave Lavoie
davel@oxfam.ca
Core Donor Officer, Oxfam Canada

A virtual tour
What is symbolic giving – or alternative giving?
What are the benefits of symbolic giving?
How can I deal with restricted giving constraints?
Who are symbolic giving donors?
What will be more important for marketing?
How can you integrate your marketing efforts?
How can personal page fundraising be used for symbolic giving?
What are some success stories from organizations big and small?
How do you steward and convert symbolic gift donors to sustained monthly donors?
How can small and mid-sized organizations afford to introduce symbolic giving this holiday?

Alternative Gift Catalogues: Are a way for donors to share their affinity with your cause in a fun and easy way
WHAT IS ALTERNATIVE GIVING?

Fundraising Strategy
Alternative giving programs are a donor
acquisition tool

THE 3 STEPS TO ALTERNATIVE GIVING
Step 1 – Donor selects a gift
Step 2 – Donor sends a card to a loved one, friend, colleague, teacher...anyone who they buy gifts for
Step 3 – Donor gets a tax receipt for the full amount of their gift

PRIMARILY ONLINE

BUT ALSO SUPPORTED OFFLINE

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
The “everyone gets something” mentality

Donor – Gets that “feel good” feeling, a tax receipt, and a fun and interactive way of giving

Gift Recipient – Gets a “feel good” feeling because their gift is helping someone and they have received an e-card or print card that explains how

Organization- You get fundraising dollars, new donors, old donors giving more, brand awareness and media attention

RESTRICTED VS. UNRESTRICTED
I have to raise general program dollars, not
restricted. Alternative gift catalogues won’t
work for my program.

The industry’s best kept secret? Most alternative gift catalogues are UNRESTRICTED GIVING

WHO ARE SYMBOLIC DONORS?
Oprahs’s donors!

These donor want:
want easy, attractive, fun, ONLINE giving experience.
want the feeling of designation on the smallest gifts
want to feel like they really know and understand where
their donation is going
want to show how philanthropic they are – by sending
cards, telling friends and posting things on Facebook.

Some stats…
Age
< 25 8.9%
25-34 20.3%
35-44 21.6%
45-54 21.8%
55-64 18.6%
65+ 8.8%
Gender
Female77.7%
Male 22.3%
Coincidentally – Oprah’s prime audience too!

ARE THESE NEW/EXISTING DONORS?
In the case of CHF and Oxfam approximately 85% of the donors are new!

How to Market?

Celebrity Endorsements
Example: Minnie Driver speaking on the Ellen DeGeneres
show (about Oxfam US but drove Canadian traffic)
HOW TO MARKET?

HOW TO MARKET?
City wide flyer postings...

HOW TO MARKET?
Online Media

50% of survey respondents for Oxfam Unwrapped said this article is what drove them to give
HOW TO MARKET?
Holiday features in Print Media

HOW TO MARKET?
Radio ads

HOW TO MARKET?
Video

EMAIL APPEALS
Holiday Appeal
November 28
19 gifts in the first 5 days
Use images to convey urgency or convenience of donating online

EMAIL APPEALS
Reminder #1
December 12
25 gifts in the next 5 days
Refer to prior appeals

EMAIL APPEALS
Reminder #2
December 19
15 gifts within 2 days
Emotional
Convenience
What gift can accomplish

EMAIL APPEALS
Reminder #3
December 21
32 gifts in the 4 days before Christmas
Last Minute Gift-Focus on service to donor – sense of urgency!

EMAIL APPEALS
Final Reminder
First Reminder
Second Reminder
Initial Appeal

HOW TO INTEGRATE MARKETING?
Insert a print catalogue INTO your normal holiday DM
Drive traffic with email
Hijack your homepage with an ad for your symbolic gift catalogue
Hand out leaflets in your door-to-door or mall campaign

APPLYING PERSONAL PAGES

Don’t BUY me anything this holiday – go to my personal page – and help me reach my goal as a holiday present!!!

Sick Kids holiday personal page fundraising:
No promotion except button on homepage
Three weeks on homepage during Christmas season
$120,000 in three weeks
People make their own page and proactively going out to friends, family and colleagues and asking for donations
Will people begin to make their own pages for a designated purchase? e.g. $10,000 piece of equipment or $10,000 for one designated researcher/doctor?

CASE STUDY – CHF
Case Study 1 – CHF Gifts That Matter
Campaign Year 3 - 2007
Campaign Year 1 – 2005
Launched September 2007
703 total donors
Average gift $97.76
$68,725 total gifts
Launched October 2005
592 total donors
Average gift $68.15
$40,256 total gifts
520 total donors
Average gift $96.32
$50,085 total gifts
652 total donors
Average gift $107.68
$71,485 total gifts

CASE STUDY – CHF

CASE STUDY – Oxfam

CASE STUDY – Oxfam
Environmental Scan:
Oxfam had Unwrapped programs in 10 different markets - Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, America, New Zealand, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, France and Quebec.
These programs are at different levels of maturity from five to two years.
Programs at the five year level are seeing a levelling or reduction in revenues. Due to market competition and in some cases the fun of Unwrapped was replaced with overwhelming mission content.

CASE STUDY – Canuck Place

Launched December 2006
42 total donors
$4,710 total gifts
Further promotion as a year round alternative giving option
154 total donors - 63 in December
$34,260 total gifts
Year round alternative giving option
156 total donors - 69 in December
$13,840 total gifts

By creating designated gifts – both small and large –
Canuck Place has attracted larger gifts from
Foundations and from companies.
The ‘commodification’ of what a donor’s dollar can do
is getting both larger and smaller gifts

STEWARDSHIP & UPGRADING
Your symbolic gift donors have a connection to your mission, and can be converted to monthly giving using the right tools and effective stewardship

Ensure that the donation experience is easy, seamless and efficient.
Have a dedicated person to respond to all donor requests and problems.
Email and thank these donors after the campaign, let then know how important their support is to your organization.
Follow-up using real examples on how donor dollars are used.

Using the Phone:CHF did a test and called 5,000 of their DM, telephone and symbolic gift donors to upgrade to monthly. The symbolic gift donors converted at a much higher rate than the other two groups!

What We Learned:
Use the phone! Symbolic donors converted by phone have joined Oxfam and CHF’s regular monthly giving programs with an average conversion rate of 3-4%
These donors feel a personal connection to your organisation and mission – so the personal touch of a phone call is the best method for conversion to monthly giving!

IN CONCLUSION
Why Alternative Giving?
allows donors to share their affinity with your cause
cost-effective donor acquisition tool
unrestricted funds
increased brand awareness
supports existing appeals/campaigns
attracts both small and large gifts
good upgrading potential

THE END
Thank you!

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10 Take-Aways To Improve Or Kick Start Your Symbolic Giving Program

by hjc on Apr 16, 2010

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10 Take-Aways To Improve Or Kick Start Your Symbolic Giving Program — Presentation Transcript