2. +
Business Background
Mission: To offer organizations alternative methods of funding
with lower overhead costs while creating awareness of causes
in our local communities.
Consumers view charitable projects on the website.
Donations are made through a PayPal system.
The Money Crowd’s challenge…
3. +
Customer Pain Point
1. Customers do not like the name The Money Crowd:
2. Customers prefer to donate through non-profit organizations:
4. +
Target Market
• Tampa Bay Area
•Age 26-66
•Primary Data
•Secondary Data
•The Money Crowd’s current aim/this
projects recommendation
6. +
SWOT and Competitive Advantage
Strengths Weakness
Recognized by Forbes Magazine Limited number of possible donors
reached by current social networking
Numerous charities wish to post channels
projects on the website.
Donors do not like The Money
Loyal network of donors Crowd’s name.
History of successfully completed Donors prefer to donate through non-
goals profit organizations.
Opportunities
Threats
Add LinkedIn as a social networking
site. The economy not doing well = people
not spending/donating money
Increase number of projects to peak
donor interest/add categories Donors loyal to their personal
charities
Provide tax documentation and
annual giving amount for households Their audience getting stale and
donations stop
Add radio advertising budget and
create informative commercial.
7. +
Marketing Strategy
Rebrand from The Money Crowd to
The Charity Crowd
Become a non-profit organization
Increase social network following
Seta budget for radio
advertising, create an informative
commercial
8. SMART Goals
Viral Building Goals:
1. Informative Radio Commercial (Created and Aired twice per day – due
date 5/1/13)
2. Increase Facebook Following
a. 500 by 7/1/13
b. 1,000 by 9/1/2013
Donor Retention Goal:
1. Increase donor retention by 50% using:
a. “Thank you Shout-outs” on Facebook
b. Posts of successful projects
+ c. Personal “Thank you” emails to donors
d. Providing tax documents to donors
11. +
Call to
Action
“With The Charity Crowd your donations make an immediate impact where they are
needed the most. In addition, the results of the projects funded are posted regularly on
our website, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn-keeping you connected to your favorite
charities. Together we can make a huge difference. Visit us today at
thecharitycrowd.com!
Together we can give more!” – The Charity Crowd
Editor's Notes
The idea for The Money-Crowd came from wanting to help the community and knowing that pulling resources together could work better than trying to do it by themselves. Projects are posted on the website with information and videos about the charity. The Founders combine a blog and PayPal donation system with their network for donors to access through the website. Details of successful projects and future goals are displayed here.The Money Crowd’s biggest challenge is to draw in large amounts of donors to its site; keep them engaged in the organization, and start raising significant amounts of money for community projects while making a profit. This project will examine the environment The Money Crowd is operating in, the marketing objectives of The Money Crowd, and will include a call to action.
There are two aspects to the customer’s pain point regarding The Money Crowd. First, customers seeking to donate did not give positive feedback on the company’s name, and this alone may prevent them from donating. Second, donors prefer to give charitably through non-profit organizations. The Money Crowd appeals to the charities that need help, but its business model does not appeal to consumers.
Primary data from The Money Crowd shows the organizationhas successfully drawn in donors in the Tampa Bay area ranging from 26-66 in age. The majority of these donors have been female. For example, The Tampa General Project had 12 donors total. 8 of the donors were female; 4 donors were male. The Money Crowd’s average donation is $63. Research into The Money Crowd’s target market shows the organization is aiming at the correct age group. The numbers on the graph above were taken from a Blackbaud survey of over 4200 people. The donations increase at the age of 25. The age bracket of 35-65+ shows the highest amount given in donations ranging in an average total of around $1390 in a 12-month period for the U.S. The Money Crowd is aiming for working professionals with disposable incomes, affluent housewives, and retirees with money to donate. However, this target market should be expanded to include average people in the age bracket because The Money Crowd is leaving out a large population of consumers who could be donating.
JustGiving.com, is a British fundraising website. This is a for-profit organization that openly advertises that it takes 5% of each donation which could immediately turn many donors away. Then it states that it reinvests it into the company though, which could keep some donors on the site long enough to donate. The website also offers tips to boost corporate charity fundraising. In addition, it has links to well-known companies and social networking sites. iPledg is another crowd-funding site that will fund charities along with other types of projects. This website is user friendly, motivating, and inspires users to take their marketing into their own hands. The website is has a high volume of information and provided many tips for people who have their own projects. The website does not list how much the organization’s fee is; this was a weakness of iPledg because donors who know it is for-profit want to know what percentage is going to iPledg. Springwise.com (2013) highlights a site called Pledgeit. They are sponsored by a non-profit. Pledgeit is a website where people can set up goals for cancer patients and “people to donate money”… “there is no middle man involved to take fees and every single penny raised goes towards fighting cancer” (para. 3). This is the ideal non-profit; not all charities can have every penny go toward the cause they are supporting. The weakness of Pledgeit is that I had to hunt for this website. When a website exists where 100% of funds go to the cause, donors want to know about it. This is the only weakness I can find on this site.
The Money Crowd’s strengths include repeat donors, a history of successfully completed projects, an overflow of charities who wish to post projects on the site, and recent recognition by Forbes Magazine. However, the limited number of donors being reached by the social networking channels used by The Money Crowd is a weakness of the organization. In addition, we discussed the negative impact the name of the organization is having on consumers, and the feeling consumers have about the business being for-profit. Opportunities available to The Money Crowd are to appeal to a broader audience due to re-branding, reorganization to a non-profit, and adding LinkedIn as a social media channel. Setting a budget for radio advertising, and creating informative radio advertising will also help market the organization to a broader audience in Tampa Bay.Threats to The Money Crowd are competition of charities that donors are already loyal to, the impact of the economy on charitable donations, and their audience getting stale. They must reach out to their donors to through their communication channels regularly to mitigate these threats.
The Money Crowd must increase its site users to increase donations. There are four opportunities to consider that may draw consumers to The Money Crowd. The first opportunity is the possibility of rebranding. Second, the organization should change its business model to a non-profit. This will make it appealing to donors. Third, the organization must find ways to increase its social network following; and fourth, the company will have to set a budget for advertising, and start radio advertising.
To address viral building: The Money Crowd has two goals aimed at building its customer base. Goal 1) Create a commercial to be aired at least twice per day. This commercial will be ready to debut by May 1st. The goal of the commercial is to inform the Tampa Bay market about The Charity Crowd’s website (and social media channels), and draw donors to fund the community projects. Goal 2) Increase the number of followers on Facebook to 500 by July 1st, 2013, and 1,000 by September 2013. This will be accomplished by referring donors to Facebook through the radio commercial and various marketing channels discussed in this paper. The Money Crowd must post interesting and powerful messages several times per day on Twitter and Facebook (and LinkedIn via Twitter) to grow their following on social media. The more frequent their messages, the more often they will be seen. However, the message needs to be noteworthy. This plan will continue through the end of 2013 and then be re-evaluated. They could recruit a college intern for these duties.To address donor retention:Goal 3) The Money Crowd’s goal is to increase donor retention by 50%. To do this they will send continue to post “Thank you Shout-outs” on Facebook, post videos of successful projects, and send personal “Thank You” emails to donors. The Money Crowd will also begin providing tax documents to donors for ease of use. This plan will continue through the end of 2013 and then be re-evaluated. They should consider recruiting a college intern for these duties.
Above are examples of creative media The Money Crowd’s audience would be drawn to.
