Donate and donate again
Howard Lake | 12 January 2011 | Blogs
Successfully encouraging donors to give more than once is at the heart of most good fundraising. Which is why I like this sticker so much.
It was on the front cover of a second-hand book I bought online from a British Heart Foundation shop. The message on the yellow and black sticker reads:
“The British Heart Foundation always needs more books.
“Read it then please bring it back for others to enjoy”.
The shop is encouraging a virtuous circle of giving. First, I bought the book and generated some income for the charity. Secondly, I’m being encouraged, having read the book, to donate it back to the charity so it can be bought again. And so on.
There’s a small chance that the sticker is redundant. I’d imagine most people who buy books from charity shops would also be the kind of people who would donate unwanted books to charity shops.
Still, it’s an explicit ask, and a particularly satisfying one for me.
www.bhf.org.uk/shops
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.