Charity lottery Archives - FundraisingForce

Stephen Mally Charitable organisations, Charity, Charity direct mail, Charity lottery, Direct mail, FIA, FIA Code, Fundraising Institute Australia, Non-profit organisations, Premium, Premiums

Lots of discussion about excessive premiums in charity direct mail

There have been lots of discussions about “excessive” premiums in charity direct mail lately. The conversation was raised in various circles, including at the Fundraising Institute Australia (FIA) conference, as well as during the development of the new FIA Code. Card packs, pens, shopping bags, and other items are sent to various prospective donors to entice them to give a first time gift to a charitable organisation.

The fact is premiums work for some charitable organisations and premiums have proven to be a strong method to get people to give. On a recent visit to my parent’s in the United States, I found dozens of packs of address labels and other items sent to them from various veteran, healthcare, and other types of non-profit organisations. They have enough address labels to wallpaper a small bedroom.

The “debate” and discussion around premiums raises several questions:

Who decides what is excessive?
Should the cost of the premium item for a direct mail donation be deducted from the value of the donation for tax purposes?
- The US follows a similar rule.
How do charity lotteries fit into this discussion – i.e. the luxury automobiles, $1 million+ homes, boats, and lavish holidays that are given away by hospitals, medical research, and other types of non-profits?
Does the ratio of those luxury prizes to the cost of the ticket mean they are excessive?

In interest of full disclosure, I am a big fan of charities using premium packages for their direct mail and they cause me, as a private donor, to respond. I have seen some fairly create premium packs used by some key direct mail suppliers in the Australian marketplace. That said, the debate is worth having and this discussion is worth the calories. I purchase many lottery tickets from the likes of the Mater Foundation, MS Queensland, RSPCA NSW, and others. Also, in interest of accuracy, FIA chose to remove clauses related to excessive premiums from their Code.

Stephen Mally Best Practice, Charity, Charity lottery, Charity lottery tickets, Donors, Facebook, Nonprofit, Nonprofit organisation, Social media

Is someone in charge of your nonprofit’s social media?

I get a lot of offers to purchase charity lottery tickets and, I assume, you might as well. The offers arrive via Australia Post, Email, and also social media. Last week, I checked out a lottery offer from Surf Life Saving Lotteries on Facebook. I was curious about the house on offer. I noticed seven people had commented on the post, so I also reviewed the comments on the listing.

I was horrified at what I saw.

One foul comment and another negative one had been posted, and remained, online for a day. This caused me to ask: is someone in charge of social media at this particular organisation and are they watching over the accounts after hours? Does a person or team monitor your organisation’s social media regularly, even after hours? Would your team delete these sorts of comments or allow them to remain? What’s best practice, especially when foul language is used?

Social media is a fantastic channel to promote our nonprofit brands and to raise needed funds. Social media is also a means for people to offer praise or criticisms of various brands. Donors may choose to promote their support of your nonprofit organisation’s mission and others may choose to criticise your organisation for whatever reason. Every organisation needs to monitor and be responsive on social media – even during the evening or weekend hours. (To be fair, I note Surf Life Saving Australia have responded to many comments on Facebook regarding their lottery, including legitimacy questions and other comments).

If your organisation only monitors social media during daytime hours, think about the harm that might be done in the evening or the weekend if you allow comments to remain or if you fail to respond to feedback. Charities ought to create a schedule for “on call” staff who will monitor social media after hours. Frankly, these staff are likely on their own social media accounts during the evenings and weekends. Monitoring additional accounts is likely to not cut much into their personal time. Dividing the responsibility through proper scheduling will also reduce the time each person needs to spend on this out of office hour task.

There is no doubt social media has added to our workday and increased our workloads substantially. Nonetheless, in this day and age, we must incorporate a plan to be responsive to comments positive and negative. And, there are times we may want to delete offensive comments from posts such as this one.