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 tour1. What is symbolic giving – or alternative giving?2. What are the benefits of symbolic giving?3. How can I deal with restricted giving constraints?4. Who are symbolic giving donors?5. What will be more important for marketing?6. How can you integrate your marketing efforts?7. How can personal page fundraising be used for symbolic

giving?8. What are some success stories from organizations big and

small?9. How do you steward and convert symbolic gift donors to

sustained monthly donors?10.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?

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The 3 steps to alternative giving?

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

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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

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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?

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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

Female 77.7%

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!

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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)

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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

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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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Holiday Eappeal

November 28, 2006

19 gifts in the first 5 days

Use images to convey urgency or convenience of donating online

Subject: A better way to buy gifts this holiday season

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Refer to prior appeals

Reminder #1

December 12, 2006

25 gifts in the next 5 days

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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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Donations Per Date

4

7

32

3

1 1 1 12

16

32

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12

87

20

6

4

1 12

43

2 21

0

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ov

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Donations

First Reminder

Initial Appeal

Second Reminder

Final 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 2 – 2006

• Launched October 2006• 520 total donors – 462 in

December• Average gift $96.32• $50,085 total gifts

Campaign Year 3 - 2007

• 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

Campaign Year 1 – 2005• Launched October 2005• 592 total donors • Average gift $68.15• $40,256 total gifts

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 310

10

20

30

40

50

60

CHF Gifts That Matter December Donations2006 vs 2007

20062007

Date in December

Num

ber o

f Don

ation

s

Case Study 2 – Oxfam Canada

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 310

50

100

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Oxfam Unwrapped December Donations2006 vs 2007

20062007

Num

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f Don

ation

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Case Study – Oxfam Canada

Holiday 2006 Holiday 2007 Holiday 2008$0

$50,000$100,000$150,000$200,000$250,000$300,000$350,000$400,000$450,000$500,000

Total Holiday Revenue

Year

Reve

nue

Case Study – Oxfam Canada

Holiday 2006 Holiday 2007 Holiday 20080

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

Number of transactions

Year

Num

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f tra

nsac

tions

Case Study 3 – Canuck Place Children’s Hospice

Canuck Place Children’s HospiceCampaign Year 1 – 2006• Launched December 2006• 42 total donors• Average gift $112.14• $4,710 total giftsCampaign Year 2 - 2007• Year round alternative

giving option• 156 total donors - 69 in

December• Average gift $113.94• $13,840 total gifts• 294% in revenue

Campaign Year 3 - 2008

• Further promotion as a year round alternative giving option

• 154 total donors - 63 in December

• Average gift $118.96• $34,260 total gifts• 247% in revenue

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Precious Gifts December Donations2006 vs 2007

20062007

Num

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f Don

ation

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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

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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

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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!

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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!