How to Kick Start Your Symbolic Giving Program

10 Takeaways to Improve or Kick Start Your Holiday Symbolic Giving Presented by Michael Johnston and Sheetal Persaud

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: designated gifts for the ‘every day’ donor?
1 – What is alternative giving?

The 3 steps to alternative giving?
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Proprietary and Confidential
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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
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But also successful OFFLINE
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2- What are the benefits?
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The everyone gets something mentality

Donor – Gets that feel good feeling, a tax receipt, and a fun and interactive way of giving
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Gift Recipient – Gets a feel good feeling too (they didn’t even donate!) and a beautiful ecard or print card
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YOU – You get fundraising dollars, new donors, old donors giving more, brand awareness amongst gift recipients and media attention
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3 – Restricted giving
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I can’t designate my funds two specific programs. How can I adopt alternative giving?

The industry’s best kept secret – most alternative gift catalogues are UNRESTRICTED GIVING
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4 – Who are symbolic gift donors?
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Oprahs’s donors!

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

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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!

And are these kinds of donors new to the database?
In the case of CHF and Oxfam approximately 85% of the donors are new!

5 – How do you market successfully?
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Some less conventional traffic drivers for Oxfam
Celebrity Endorsements
Coldplay announcement at concerts
Peter Singer link from fan site
Minnie Driver speaking on the Ellen Degeneres show (about Oxfam US but drove Canadian traffic)

City wide flyer postings...
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Online Media
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Holiday features in Print Media
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50% of survey respondents for Oxfam Unwrapped said this article is what drove them to give

Radio ads
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Celebrity Endorsement and Videos
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6- How do you integrate your normal marketing efforts?
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Insert a print catalogue INTO your normal holiday DM
Drive traffic with email
Hijack your website with an ad for your symbolic gift catalogue
Hand out leaflets in your door2door or mall campaign

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Subject: A better way to buy gifts this holiday season
Holiday Eappeal
November 28, 2006
19 gifts in the first 5 days
Use images to convey urgency or convenience of donating online

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Reminder #1
December 12, 2006
25 gifts in the next 5 days
Refer to prior appeals

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Reminder #2
December 19, 2006
15 gifts within 2 days
Emotional
Convenience
What gift can accomplish

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Reminder #3
December 21, 2006
32 gifts in the 4 days before Christmas
Last Minute Gift-Focus on service to donor

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Final Reminder
First Reminder
Initial Appeal
Second Reminder

7 - What about personal pages and designated small gifts?

Don’t get 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 home page
Three weeks on home page during Christmas season
$120,000 in three weeks
They love the idea of having people make their own page and proactively going out to friends, family and colleagues saying ‘no gifts please…’ 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 – and seek small gifts from their friends for their designated personal page solicitation?

8 - Some case studies
Alternative giving can work – for bring brand AND small brands

Case Study 1 – CHF Gifts That matter
Campaign Year 3 - 2007
Campaign Year 1 – 2005
Launched October 2005
592 total donors
Average gift $68.15
$40,256 total gifts
Introduced year round School Fundraising focused campaign
Re-launched holiday focused campaign September 2007
703 total donors – 544 in December
Average gift $97.76
$68,725 total gifts
Launched October 2006
520 total donors – 462 in December
Average gift $96.32
$50,085 total gifts

Case Study 2 – Oxfam Canada

Case Study – Oxfam Canada

Case Study 3 – Canuck Place Children’s Hospice

Canuck Place Children’s Hospice
Launched December 2006
42 total donors
Average gift $112.14
$4,710 total gifts
Further promotion as a year round alternative giving option
154 total donors - 63 in December
$34,260 total gifts
247% in revenue
Year round alternative giving option
156 total donors - 69 in December
$13,840 total gifts
294% in revenue

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

9 - How do you steward and upgrade your symbolic gift donors?
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Your symbolic gift donors love your brand and can be upgraded with the right stewardship streams

Be sure to email and thank your symbolic gift donors after the campaign and let them know how their gifts helped your organisation
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Then phone them!
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CHF called 5000 of their DM, telephone and symbolic gift donors to upgrade the donors to monthly. The symbolic gift donors converted at a rate 1000% higher than the other two groups!
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What have we learned from CHF and Oxfam’s commitment from these donors?
Use the phone!!!! These donors have joined Oxfam and CHF’s normal monthly giving programs with an average conversion rate of 5-7% from the phone.
These donors feel a personal connection to your organisation – so the personal touch of a phone call really works!

10 – A technology choice for the mid-sized to small organisation
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Setting up your own symbolic gift catalogue can get expensive. With CharityGiftBag.org an organisation with even a small budget embrace this effective form of giving

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Benefits
Central hub for many organisations so easy to acquire new donors
CGB led marketing driving traffic to the site to help you acquire donors
Low cost of entry – but still plenty or room for branding, personalisation and YOU get the donor names

www.CharityGiftBag.org

Thank you!

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How to Kick Start Your Symbolic Giving Program

by hjc on May 12, 2010

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