Asking your supporters to switch their consumer spending to you
Howard Lake | 14 June 2011 | Blogs
In my last blog post, I spoke about the need to diversify fundraising income by asking supporters to switch their consumer spend from their existing supplier to you.
This is a simple way to generate new fundraising income without having to always appeal to your supporters directly asking for more.
But why should you be thinking of doing this?
A quick update on trends in giving
Today, society as a whole has a more caring side. Consumers are aligning themselves with brands that do good. A recent global consumer study revealed that 61% have purchased a brand that supports a good cause even when it wasn’t the cheapest option. (Source: Good Purpose Consumer Study, Edelman Worldwide, 2009)
However, due to the current financial downturn, the amount we give to charity is dramatically in decline.
• 11% of supporters are reducing their giving
• 8% of supporters will cancel one or more direct debits to charity
• 16% said they would not be able to afford to support the same number of charities
• 17% say they would not be able to give as much to the charities they currently support
To manage this, the way in which we give is changing. The most successful fundraising takes place when ‘giving and living’ are moulded seamlessly together (source: nfpSynergy survey).
A solution, in line with these fundraising trends, is for your supporters to switch their consumer spend to you.
How do you go about doing this?
Find yourself a reputable affinity partner.
We see affinity partners popping up time and time again from charity car scrappers, gas and electric suppliers, mobile phone suppliers, online search to charity cash back shopping portals and of course, my own company which provides the technology to sell greeting cards.
It would be wise to source a partner to fulfil these services as you do not want the burden and costs associated with setting up something new without the necessary skillset or knowledge.
Communication channels to your supporters are like prime real estate. Therefore, only focus on a product or service that your supporters would most likely use that would bring in a respectable return on investment for time spent making the project successful.
If in doubt, ask your supporters. Say you are considering launching this new product or service and if you did, would they actually use it?
The better affinity partners should be able to assist you in the marketing, providing both tools, strategies and case studies.
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Craig Hartzel is CEO of Charity Greetings. Charity Greetings provides white labelled charity cards shop to charities. To open a free card shop visit www.joincharitygreetings.com
You can support charity by sending a greeting card, including birthday cards by going to www.charitygreetings.com.
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.