Not-for-Profit

Keeping it All in the Family…

More and more nonprofits have come to the realization that if you can’t count on your family who can you count on? Through social networking, electronic or otherwise, many charities are finding new ways to connect with core audiences.

Parkinson Society Canada’s Family Fund is a fantastic example of a nonprofit that is both getting into the “social networking” game and also building a group of leadership supporters drawn from their family & friends. The brainchild of a long-time Parkinson’s volunteer, the “Parkinson’s Society Canada Family Fund’ has been created to provide Family members of those affected by Parkinson’s a way to pool their dollars to help support the Society’s work towards finding a cure.

Together members' dollars will help build a pooled fund of $3 Million. Families are asked to contribute to the fund to collectively help it grow.

The program is being introduced to “family” members using a multi-faceted, integrated approach that includes: highly personalized mail, phone, online and face-to-face visits.

Through the mail, a personalized invitation package will be sent to prospective members. The Manager, Major & Planned Giving will then be following up with personal calls.

Feedback from a recent donor whose siblings pooled their funds to donate several thousand dollars to the fund, says it all,

“This was the best way for my sister, brother and I to really make a difference for our dad who has Parkinson’s.”

Isn’t that what our philanthropic work is all about?

A Win Win For Both Parties

Thanks to changes at Revenue Canada over the past few years, gifts of stock have become more attractive donation vehicles. Charities receive a donation and stock owners reduce the amount of tax they need to pay. But, while there are donors searching to give via stock, not all nonprofits are taking full advantage of ths improved opportunity.

At a minimum, a number of nonprofits have created small informational insert pieces included in donor receipt packages. Donors are asked to consider a gift of stock. Most also include details on how to start the process (you can find simple charts on the website).

How else are groups attracting stock?

Some have created and branded their very own 'gift of stock' website. The William Osler Health Centre Foundation is one example. You can find their site at: 'www.givestock.ca'. Potential donors can identify with the donor testimonial that is front and centre on the home page of this website - an address the foundation has secured as their own. Potential donors googling this option have a very strong chance of seeing their page. The home page also briefly but concisely explains the process of stock giving via a welcome message from the Foundation's CEO.

Why Charles and Lenore Armstrong Donate Securities

Charles and Lenore Armstrong know a winner when they see it. The long-time Brampton residents have seen great success in the breeding and racing of Standardbred horses, ranking among the leading breeders in North America since 1965 so when Brampton Civic Hospital became a reality, Charles and Lenore recognized the importance to Brampton and the surrounding areas.“We are excited Brampton and the surrounding community will soon have this tremendous asset and we want help make sure William Osler has all the resources to make it the best hospital around,” says Charles.

The Armstrongs met with the Foundation and discussed several giving options, including gifts of securities. In the end, a gift of stock appealed most to them. "We chose to donate stock because it made the best sense for us. The Foudantion met with us, discussed the advantages and processed everything with our financial advisor."

Whether nonprofits go as far as creating a unique website or an insert, what's most important is for groups to let prospective stock donors know they should be considered. Not all nonprofits have the resources to set-up a website similar to the one set-up by the William Osler Foundation, but a simple info checkbox also gets the message across and may attract a new supporter looking for a way to both decrease their tax burden and give back.

Please, please can you give us a gift before the end of the year...

As the end of 2007 approached, the number of email requests flooded all of our inboxes. Most had a very similar strategy - encourage recipients to give an additional gift before the end of the year.

They all accomplished the task of getting an ask into the inbox of their email supporters. But for the most part, they did not contain compelling reasons to give to their solicitation over all of the others. With so many competing asks being received, an opportunity to distinguish themselves from the rest of the pack was missed by most of these groups.

I am happy to say that in my inbox, a few did stand out. One example was an erequest I received from Save The Children USA.

Their esolicitation included an interesting matching gift opportunity.

....Special opportunity to have your donation DOUBLED by Sam Simon, co-creator of The Simpsons ends tonight at midnight!

Between now and midnight (EST) tonight, December 31, Sam will match every donation that supports our mission made through our website, up to a total match of $1,000,000....

Using a well known personality helped to add confidence and excitement to the ask. In addition, offering a compelling matching gift opportunity with a timeline to match the end of year deadline gave potential donors a compelling reason to choose this ask over a multitude of esolicitations sent at the same time.

The twist on the 'end of the year' theme provided a winning combination for a very worthy cause.

Caring About the Environment…How Chic!

I had the honour of attending the First Annual Fashion Auction Eco-Couture Gala & Benefit the other week.

Billed as Toronto’s Greenest Fashion event, guests were invited to get “green” with envy by strutting the grass carpet. Potential ticket purchasers were invited to see haute–couture pieces made from soy, hemp, bamboo and organic cotton.

And the marketing didn’t disappoint… Everything from the lighting, organic food & drink, right down to the Green Limousine was eco-friendly to ensure the lightest of eco foot prints were made.

Even better, this was a fundraiser with the proceeds going to support one of Canada’s leading environmental organizations: Environmental Defence (www.environmentaldefence.ca). This group is responsible for many eco wins since their formation in 1984 including – greater protection of our greenbelt, creation of the Oak Ridges Moraine as well as the protection of several endangered species in Canada.

The organizers thought of many creative ways for attendees to part with their money. As guests entered the event, they were encouraged to purchase a “swatch” of eco material used for the clothes to tie on a tree. There was also a fantastic silent auction featuring eco friendly products, a ‘green’ scooter for raffle and the piece de resistance?...five beautiful outfits available for live auction following the runway portion of the show.

In the fundraising world, it seems everyone is asking the same question. “How do we get more young people engaged and giving to our causes?” As I looked around the room, this group of young hipsters represented the very same group everyone is yearning for.

KUDOS to the organizers!

Oh look – more labels and cards…

As I retrieved my mail today to find 8 separate premium mailings – all lovely collections of personalized labels and note cards, I asked myself, “how many pretty flower labels do I really need?” Then I remembered the key findings of a recent paper on this topic presented at the last Non-Profit Direct Marketing meeting in Washington DC.

The findings were that mailings with labels and cards are on the increase and so is the response to them. Judging from the contents of my mailbox, my colleagues have seen and/or experienced similar findings and are responding accordingly.

But have we prepared ourselves if the market shifts? What happens if the day arrives when their effectiveness (labels/cards,etc) begins to wane?

In the event that day is on the horizon, I thought I would share some recent successful alternatives to this popular creative approach. At the same conference mentioned earlier, many different charities from across different sectors presented countless examples of test against premium packages. In most cases, the label and card return on investment won hands down. But there have been a few notable exceptions.

One such example was an acquisition package sent on behalf of an international development agency in the US. They created a MAP package in 2006 (a WALL map insert illustrated descriptions of their work around the world) that beat an existing labels package (that had been the organization’s control prospect package for more than a decade). The MAP package has become the new control in 2007.

In Canada, a national health charity has managed to introduce a compelling envelope with ‘message based’ contents and no premium that has outperformed a label test package across all metrics including: gross revenue, average gift, return on investment and net revenue. To date, this control has managed to remain in place for 4 years.

Both of these examples represent an organization’s ability to create a mission-based appeal – one that introduces a donor to their specific cause and need. This is much different from the labels and cards which are for the most part, generic and not dissimilar between different groups. I was reminded of this recently during a visit with a major supporter (and frequent label responder) of many Canadian charities. I asked her how she decided which to respond to amongst all the packages she received each week. She told me her decision was simple – “whoever has the prettiest labels”. I couldn’t help but think relationship opportunities were being missed with this individual.

With the two non-premium test examples, the organization’s have not only been able to “sell their cause”. In addition, in both cases, packages were produced at a much lower package cost. The organization’s were able to both reduce cost per package and increase return on investment.

While it is clear, premiums are an essential mix of nonprofit marketing programs, hopefully these examples will encourage more charities to “think outside of the label and card box” and keep trying something new.

Do Not Call Registry – Are We Exempt or Not?

There has been much confusion lately as to whether charities are or are not exempt to the list that will be created.

The answer is yes.

You can review a copy of the news release issued by the CRTC.

While there are still question marks as to how individuals who are on the list will react to charities and other exempted groups calling them, there is a legal OK to do so.

I would be interested to hear how your call program might be planning to deal with possible public reactions when the list is in operation.

Have you considered revisions to scripts? Exempting Do Not Call List registrants anyway? Something else?

A Kid in a Candy Store

I had the opportunity a couple of months ago to visit the University of Birmingham in the U.K. and attend their annual conference on Brand Management.

Just imagine 120 academics from all over the world presenting over 1,000 pages of data, information, and insights in the world of Branding.

I was like a kid in a candy store—it was an incredible experience and the learning and growing was wonderful!

Papers on every aspect of Branding for product, service, store, and place Branding themes like: “The impact of mergers and acquisitions on luxury Brands”; “an integrated definition of Brand”; “Liverpool and City Branding”; and on and on.

I’ve attached a copy of the various papers. If you are interested in any of these, let me know.

Papers from Branding Conference

A Summer Project?

Why not take the traditional summer slow down to Cleanup Your Data?

If the task seems too daunting, concentrate on a smaller piece. Assess your greatest need areas and concentrate on them. An ongoing data clean up strategy can ensure that gradually all of your data issues are addressed.

How to begin? Ask yourself tough questions about your data:

- Is your coding structure as clean as it can be?
- Is your duplicate rate as low as it can be?
- Are spousal/corporate records linked?
- Are relationships organized to allow for seamless major gift integration?
- Are there multiple locations to consider?

Asking these and other related questions is a great way to kick start your plan!

Any data clean-up tips to share with others?

In Praise of Volunteers

This weekend wraps up National Volunteer Week. We owe much gratitude to all those who volunteer for making our lives and communities better for it. Whether volunteers assist business organizations like the CMA, sort food at the food bank or raise funds to fight cancer – giving of oneself needs to be appreciated by all of us.

Yesterday, at an event held by the Canadian Society of Association Executives Trillium Chapter, we heard from a young woman who in 2005 was the recipient of the YWCA ‘Woman of Distinction’ award. At 24, she really understands the power of volunteerism and is using her own experience as a volunteer to role model others. She founded an organization called the Medina Collective to help women of colour participate in the urban arts community, where they might be inspired to affect change in their lives and communities. Medina Magazine was launched to provide a medium for dialogue with these young women. Here is a woman who has lived through adversity, is telling her story, and working at finding solutions. She understands the youth of today, and how to reach them. At Ryerson, she is studying marketing, and there is no doubt she will involve social media in a big way to help young women get ahead. The audience was totally captivated by her presentation; her poise, drive, and passion.

She would like to connect with entrepreneurial women in the areas of media, publishing and fundraising who are willing to mentor her. Sounds like a great volunteer opportunity to put marketing know-how to good use. Expressions of interest welcome.

Why isn't radio advertising better?

I had an iPod adapter installed in my new car when I got it last April. Not too hard to believe, I suppose. But the reason I did it is because radio advertising does a better job of annoying me than it does of inspiring me.

Exhibit A: Sean from Spence Diamonds. I suppose there is something to be said for the fact that I even know the guy's name and I know he's the spokesperson for Spence Diamonds. But I would never go into a Spence Diamonds store because I find their commercials so off-putting. Nails on a chalkboard is the only way to describe it.

Exhibit B: Christine McGee from Sleep Country. Both of my kids sing the jingle when it comes on the radio. And admittedly, Sleep Country is a proven marketing success story. But I literally turn the channel every time one of her spots comes on.

Exhibit C: Just about everything else you can hear between the music and the inane DJ banter. Everything just seems to lack any creativity or originality.

In our all-staff status meeting last Monday morning, one of our creative folks presented just a few radio spots from the recent Crystal Awards -- the best in radio advertising. Every spot was better and more creative than the next. Funny, engaging, creative in their use of music, creative in their use of sound effects, creative conceptually.

Terry O'Reilly from Pirate Radio is a guru of Canadian Radio advertising. He speaks brilliantly on the topic and is perceived to be one of the best in the business. Where are his disciples? I'm sure they're out there. Perhaps I don't listen to the radio enough. But there is no denying if they are out there working, they are the exception, not the rule.

The Crystal Awards prove that creative work can be done for radio. O'Reilly himself has said it is the medium that offers the most untapped potential in that it is inexpensive to produce, it can be turned around quickly, and it allows you to be creative if you have it in you to be.

I am seriously challenged to think of one recent radio spot that had me thinking, wow, now THAT'S using the full potential of the channel.

Can you think of one? Here's the criteria: Entertaining. Memorable (spot and product). Smart.

Integrate Your Online & Offline Giving Programs

Here are some tips for those of you in the charitable sector ‘digitizing’ your marketing/fundraising communications:

1.Resist the temptation to isolate supporters of your cause into rigid streams of giving methods. Developing an ‘online’ giving program should not be in isolation of your established ‘offline’ programs such as direct mail or telephone. While it is true that many of your donors will choose to remain segregated in a particular stream, some will embrace multiple touch points.

For example, one may give annually through an offline direct mail program, but choose to be recognized in an online environment. If your organization is yet to move into an online environment, a first step may be to introduce offline supporters to e-communication vehicles such as e-newsletters and e-updates.

2. When collecting email names, do not assume these individuals will not want to communicate in an offline environment such as the mail or phone.

3. If you can, segment these supporters to evaluate the effectiveness of their multi-channel involvement. It is likely that their commitment level and support will prove the value of your focus in this area.

In closing, you may feel you do not have the time to initiate an entire emarketing program. My suggestion is to start small with a few smaller initiatives and then grow from there. Just one e-campaign can provide a wealth of learning to help drive future online programs.

And the Winning Package is…

Just returned from the DMA NonProfit Conference in Washington and one of the more interesting sessions was on recent creative tests undertaken by some of the largest US non profit mailers over the past year. Their most notable findings?

Possibly not surprising….. the most basic packages won each time.

Countless beautiful, compelling and catchy packages were shown in competition with plain white envelopes displaying teasers along the lines of ‘Annual Fund’ and ‘Supporter Card’.

Speculation was that there are just too many “wow” packages and that moving to “plain white envelopes” may be the best way to get noticed. My hunch is that donors want a clean and clear message and that we do have to ‘read’ the current market offerings when developing our concepts.

Would love to hear your responses. What have you found in your testing over the past year?

New Donor Crisis???

What’s hot today in nonprofit direct response marketing?

Most would agree it is how organizations cost effectively acquire new supporters.

The after-effects of recent privacy legislation and increased competition for those potential donors has made it more difficult for nonprofits to find new supporters. Where do we go from here?

New channels and greater channel integration, more rigorous up-front analysis, geo-demographic profiling, an indepth exploration of internal names, increased use of premiums, are among the responses some organizations have had to the “crisis”.

What’s working for you? Or are you still a ‘spray and pray’ organization?

Gettin’ out the vote

I love it when our members get recognized for their amazing work. We received our stack of Marketing Magazines yesterday and I was so pleased to see so many CMA members nominated as Marketing Magazine’s “Marketer of the Year” 2006.

I will be honest: I hadn’t taken the time (yet) to go to their site to vote.

But then I received an email from Pamela Davis, WWF’s Director of Marketing, letting me know about their nomination, urging me to vote and telling me how. Personalized ask, good copy and simple instructions. Of course I clicked on the link. For Pam’s effort WWF is ahead with 83% of the vote.

Why don’t you check it out and vote?

And here’s what Pam had to say in her email:

That's right! WWF has been nominated for Marketer of the Year 2006. You have the power to help the little guy win. We've got a week in order to do it.

You know, it's easy to sell cars when you have lots of money. We're trying to save the planet with a little money and A LOT of help from our friends. Of course we should be Marketer of the Year!

Please help us lay waste to the competition. All you have to do is:

1. Click on this link: http://www.marketingmag.ca. Find the poll on the lefthand side of the page and click on WWF-Canada.

That's it, that's all.

And I know some of you have very long tentacles into the on-line world and can really help us out. Please put out the call to your contacts via email, or put it on your blog, or whatever fancy Internet magic you can make.

Thanks for taking a minute to vote!

p

P.S. To win this is important because the exposure in the business community makes us more attractive to potential corporate partners because they see us as being very professional and having a brand that is valuable. The biz community is a source of revenue to help us do our conservation work. Please vote right now.

‘Marginal Cost’ can be a useful tool for direct response fundraisers…

In my 16+ years as a direct response fundraiser working both in-house and as a consultant with dozens of charities, I haven’t often heard talk of marginal cost in discussions of expenses. I’m not sure why.

We all know about cost per piece. But if your overall cost per contact is $1.00 and you’re contacting say 100,000 donors, how much more will you spend if you contact another 5,000 donors? Intuitively, we know the answer is not $5,000 because we all understand the concept of economies of scale.

The actual cost of contacting an additional donor will be the marginal cost. To calculate it, you’ll need some understanding of what are your fixed costs (up-front costs you have regardless of quantity) and variable costs (costs that occur on a per contact basis.)

If the example above was a mailing, many of your fixed costs (such as design, the setting up of a printer, etc.) will not change whether you print 100,000 or 105,000. A variable cost would be something like paper or postage. Once you strip the fixed costs from your $1.00 cost per piece, you may find a variable cost closer to perhaps $.50.

So how to use marginal cost? You can use it, for example, in comparing different fundraising tactics. Trying to decide whether to put a group of lapsed donors in the phone or mail? – use marginal cost to determine what your ultimate net revenue from each approach will be.

You should also use marginal cost to determine your contact quantities. Once you know the marginal cost for any kind of appeal, you can do a few simple calculations to calculate break-even points. Are those donors from 3 years ago really worth soliciting? Armed with marginal cost information, you can accurately decide whether or not these donors will be profitable for your organization. (You can of course also use long-term value (LTV) calculations to help your decisions.)

So if you want to dazzle your Board at their next meeting, show them how you’ve used marginal cost calculations to reduce a mailing by 10% and improved your net revenue at the same time…