Fundraising

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GivingTuesday has come and gone

Snip20151127_15The volume of charities I give to in the US is minimal compared to the number of charities I give to in Australia. Australia is my primary country of residence, so I guess it makes sense I am giving to in a larger way in Australia. That said, I was a bit disappointed at how few Australian nonprofit organisations I support reached out to me on #GivingTuesday  compared to the large amount of US charities I supported in years past who reached out to me on #GivingTuesday.Snip20151202_28

Charities in the US used #GivingTuesday far more effectively to do the following:

  • Set a financial target.
  • Encourage active involvement in the campaign.
  • Provide Email updates throughout the day.
  • Post updates on organisation’s website throughout the day.
  • Create a matching gift challenge to prospective donors and demonstrate a doubling of their gift.
  • Tell Email recipients a story about how their gift will make a difference.
  • Encourage donors to give on a day set aside to remind us all of the importance of giving and volunteering.
  • Used #GivingTuesday as a marketing component of and wrapped into their end of year (Christmas) appeal.

Snip20151202_31PayPal announced a boost of everyone’s gift, using their platform, by 1%. #GivingTuesday sought to exceed the world record for giving in one day in the Guinness Book of World Records. I was pleased to see Blackbaud and GoFundraise amongst suppliers promoting #GivingTuesday locally.

I recognise #GivingTuesday is a new campaign in Australia compared to the US. But, I am hopeful more charities will see its value and will jump on the bandwagon in 2016. You have 12 months to prepare. Perhaps we can encourage the suppliers and fundraising peak bodies to get involved to create a cohesive effort in the New Year? Let’s see how well the campaign does worldwide and if we can get any statistics on Australia’s piece of the campaign. Those results may be a motivator for more to join the campaign.

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It’s Giving Tuesday – where are you?

Snip20151127_15It’s #GivingTuesday. Did your nonprofit organisation participate in this increasingly important marketing campaign?

GivingTuesday, often stylised as #GivingTuesday for purposes of hashtag activism, refers to the Tuesday after U.S. Thanksgiving in the United States. It is a movement to create a national day of giving at the beginning of the Christmas and holiday season.

US Thanksgiving, which was Thursday, 26 November, is a day when families and friends gather for an autumn feast and celebrate the things we are most grateful for in our lives. Friday is known as “Black Friday”, which is the official kick off of the retail season for Christmas and other holidays. Saturday is known as “small business Saturday”, promoting shopping at your local businesses. Monday is known as “Cyber Monday”, promoting sales online.

#GivingTuesday follows the madness of black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, where your charity may partake in a worldwide marketing campaign to encourage and incentivise people to give to the charity of their choice. The movement started in the US in 2012.

#GivingTuesday says “This effort harnesses the collective power of a unique blend of partners— charities, families, businesses and individuals—to transform how people think about, talk about and participate in the giving season. #GivingTuesday will inspire people to take collaborative action to improve their local communities, give back in better, smarter ways to the charities and causes they celebrate and help create a better world. #GivingTuesday will harness the power of social media to create a global moment that is dedicated to giving around the world”.

The results obtained during #GivingTuesday last year were phenomenal. Feel left out? Make plans now for #GivingTuesday 2016. It’s not too late to join the movement.

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Happy Thanksgiving, USA

It’s Thanksgiving in the USA and, by now, many will have enjoyed a meal surrounded by family and friends. I woke up this morning to several Thanksgiving greetings from nonprofit organisations including the following from Share Our Strength, Boston Children’s Hospital, The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, and SpeakEasy Stage Company:

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Earlier this year I wrote about one of my favourite donor care messages from University of Queensland.

Messages such as these, and the one I received early week from the Wisconsin Alumni Association, are wonderful ways to show the love for your donors. These stewardship pieces are cost effective to produce and very fruitful in sharing the joy. These pieces are also great motivators for people to continue their support by making an immediate gift at calendar year end.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, worldwide! And, to the charities taking the time to send these messages of gratitude out – thank you! You not only made this donor feel good, but you also added variety to my in box this morning, which is full of “black Friday” sales offers from retailers. Kudos.

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Gifts of stock to charities

When I teach fundraising classes for Fundraising Institute Australia and others, I often times draw distinctions in fundraising in the UK, US, and Australia. One distinction I draw is the difference in direct marketing and major gifts fundraising between the US and their UK and Australian counterparts. Perhaps an over generalisation, but direct marketing is much stronger, particularly regular giving programs, in the UK and Australia than in the US. And, major gifts are far stronger in the US than in the UK and Australia.

Snip20151125_1Take this email I received from Dana-Farber and The Jimmy Fund as an example. The email suggests I consider a gift of stock at year-end. Gifts of stock are a popular means for US major donors to give due to their appreciation and tax benefits. US non-profit organisations and charities actively seek gifts of stock from their prospective donors throughout the year and, in particular at year-end.

I received a second request this week for gifts of stock. This one is from Florida State University (FSU). FSU points out the tax benefits of making this type of gift.Snip20151126_2

Australian charities may take a page from the US nonprofit playbook. Think about prospective donors who have an affiliation with your nonprofit organisation and who may have appreciated stock. Perhaps these prospective donors are employees of US corporations and part of their compensation package includes securities.

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Wisconsin Alumni Association sends Thanksgiving greetings

The Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) sent their Thanksgiving greetings yesterday by way of video message to WAA members. The well-rounded piece included a multitude of thanks from Paula Bonner, CEO of WAA, as well as a view of the campus, students, and activities, and what’s to come in the future. This is a perfect example of a superb donor care video and good, solid stewardship of donors.

Snip20151125_72I personally loved the ask for a gift when I opened the page as much as I did the video. The ask did not come at the end, but prior to even selecting play.

Wisconsin has a great tradition of raising a lot of money via its UW Foundation and also WAA. The alumni community is grateful to UW and shares love back in more ways than their pocketbook. Nonetheless, it is fantastic to see the love sent our way in a creative piece such as this Thanksgiving message. Wisconsin and the WAA really gets donor care and stewardship.

To all my fellow Badgers, Happy Thanksgiving!

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Handwritten envelope? Sort of…

You may recall, I have written about hand written envelopes prior and their ability to capture a donor’s attention amongst a mountain of mail in our letterboxes.

BHA Envelope 2Bush Heritage Australia nearly got there last week with this interesting piece.

I received an appeal from Bush Heritage Australia and the carrier had an interesting font, which is unusual and particularly stood out amongst the charity mail received last week.

Hand written envelopes (not actually hand written at all, but machine produced in a hand written font of the non-profit’s choice) are rare. The fact is we receive hand written Christmas cards (becoming rarer these days), birthday cards, and perhaps the occasional thank you note.

But, how many charities send hand written devices to stand out amongst their peers?

Remember non-profit organisation shave three challenges with direct mail:

  1. Getting the piece delivered to the correct party at the correct address.
  2. Getting the piece opened.
  3. Getting the piece responded to.

To achieve #1, you have to practice good data hygiene. To get to #2 and #3 you must produce a captivating piece, which will not end up in the recycling bin. I am not suggesting your organisation will employ hand written as a strategy for every appeal. But, testing it for one appeal next year would be prudent.

Your suppliers likely have the tools, in house, to produce hand written pieces.

Bush Heritage Australia produces outstanding pieces of direct mail. Last week was an example of how Bush Heritage Australia stands out often in my letterbox. How will your non-profit organisation stand out in letterboxes in the new year?

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Charity Christmas cards – have you purchased?

Christmas balls in winter setting,Winter holidays concept.
Christmas balls in winter setting,Winter holidays concept.

Christmas cards are certainly not sent at the same volume of the ’80s, ’90s, or, even, ten years ago. However, Christmas cards are still sent by many suppliers and individuals.

Have you purchased your Christmas cards to send to customers, family, friends and neighbours? Are the greeting cards benefitting a charity?

For anyone who still needs to select cards to send this season, I searched “charity greeting cards Australia” on Google to see what is available in the market. When I performed this GoSnip20151115_6ogle search, I was surprised by two factors:

  1. How few direct charity programs appearing on the first page of the search.
  2. The number of companies selling cards and allowing consumers to designate the benefiting charity.

Three direct charity programs resulted from this Google search, including: Oxfam, The Smith Family Foundation, and Surf Life Saving Foundation.

Yet, five companies offering greeting card sales, with the ability to designate a benefitting a charity, appeared in the same Google search results. Those companies, include:

Some companies resell charity Christmas cards, while others give you the freedom to design your card and designate the charity of your choice to benefit from a percentage of the cost.

There is a lot of competition in the charity greeting card space. It is likely most consumers do not decide to purchase a set organisation’s cards based on a Google search. Nonetheless, to stand out to those who may search online for cards, and above the corporate programs, charities need to do a better job to improve their standing in search results.

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Best practice use of bar coding and scanning

Does your non-profit organisation use bar coding to scan response devices for the tax or Christmas appeals?

I give to hundreds of charities a year – partly for the FundraisingForce mystery shopping study and others for personal reasons. Very few of the organisations supported through the mystery shopping study or on my own use bar codes on response devices.

Endeavour Foundation utilise bar coding on their lottery mailings.

Bar CodeBar codes are generated by the organisation’s CRM and often times contain components the organisation wishes to track, including supporter number, campaign, designation, appeal, segment, package and other important metrics. Some organisations use bar codes for ease of data entry for acquisition campaigns. In this case, the CRM recognises who the person is, and the associated workflow creates a new supporter record in the CRM, and records the other components at the same time. Imagine the time savings for your supporter services team. Time which can be spent ensuring the donor receives a receipt within the required 48 hour time frame and time which can be spent on other matters.

Your non-profit organisation may already have the tools to create the bar code and a CRM which will consume the bar code. A little time invested in establishing the workflows in your CRM to manage the process described may pay multiple dividends in the long run. This time of year, time is money. Actioning this process will be a nice year-end gift to your supporter services team and…to your donors.

 

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BPay is another option on the giving menu

Of all the charities I give to throughout the year, within the FundraisingForce mystery shopping study and independent of, I am surprised how few charities offer BPay as an option on the giving menu.

Donors prefer choice. BPay should be added to the menu of giving options for your charitable organisation.

BPay is very popular in Australia for you and I to use to pay our monthly bills. We use it for rent, mortgage, credit card, and other payments. Electronic bill pay is far more popular in Australia than it is in my home country, the United States. In fact, in the US, cheques are still the preferred method. This is particularly true amongst the over 65 age group. In Australia, the direct marketing target audience is largely over 65 and this group is already conditioned to prefer BPay for day-to-day business. Why not offer them BPay on your charity’s direct mail response devices?

FormQIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute (QIMR) is one such organisation offering BPay. QIMR have offered BPay for the last 7 or so years.

QIMR use functionality in The Raiser’s Edge, which produces a BPay number based on the algorithm required by their bank. The Raiser’s Edge automatically creates a BPAY number for all new constituents added to the CRM, and it creates one for anyone in the database who may have been missed through a batch functionality. This smart technology means QIMR are able to offer choice to donors above and beyond their counterparts in the sector.

Does your non-profit’s CRM offer BPay creation for your donor records?

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Emirates Airlines and Emirates Foundation – capturing traveller’s attention

Snip20151103_1I wrote a blog post recently about travel audiences being captive audiences and I asked why more travel companies do not promote charities and charitable activity to this audience. With more than 23 hours of flight time on recent flights on Emirates Airlines from Amsterdam to Dubai and Dubai to Sydney, I felt that captivity!

EmiratesEmirates Airlines did a tremendous job promoting the Emirates Foundation on its aircraft, in the airline’s magazine, on the television monitors, and throughout the airport. The Airline, in fact, asked people to give online to the Foundation, donate onboard, donate airline miles, and to purchase Foundation merchandise via duty free onboard. Additionally, in the Emirates business class lounge there were coin collection stations encouraging people to give their foreign currency. Dubai is the homebase for Emirates and the traffic through the airport amounts to some 75 million passengers travelling annually. Dubai is the third busiest airport in the world. Clearly Emirates is playing to the audience and encouraging us to give with a menu of options.

Emirates also published a bit of a mini annual report or a project update to educate us about projects funded by the Foundation around the world.

Congratulations to Emirates and to the Emirates Foundation for a stellar job promoting the Foundation’s good work. You caught this passenger’s attention and kept it throughout the journey.

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