Find out the truth about online fundraising and fundraising discount cards
Online fundraising, does it really work?
Online fundraising sounds so easy and profitable, how can you say no? “Just place our banner on your site and every time someone buys a product from our site you’ll earn a percentage of that sale, you’ll get 300 people to buy and your organization could earn $600 a month.” Sounds good, right? The problem is that the heads of your organization won’t just click on your link and buy.
A study of a football club website with a too-good-to-be-true online fundraising banner (on the front page) showed the following. The banner fully and concisely explained the benefit. He explained on the banner the three short steps to help his organization:
1.Buy,
2. Get discounts/savings and,
3. Your organization receives a donation for each purchase.
The organization has two seasons each year with around 300 children participating each season. Registration information, game times, camp information, directions to the field, and contact information are all included on the site, so we can safely suspect that almost every parent visits the website at least once a season and most parents visit the site several times. times each season. The site AVERAGES 300 visitors per month. In the last 20 months, the banner hasn’t generated a single donation nor has anyone signed up for a free shopping membership to even check it out… not one…
So why has it failed?
The main reason for failure is the lack of requirements to help the organization. In general, when people go online to get information, they do just that, get the information, and move on. If they are going to buy online, they go to where they buy (usually from search) and then they buy. Most people won’t go to the effort, even spending 30 seconds to get a free membership to an online shopping mall to check it out. This is why most fundraisers require payment up front, you pay upfront for the product and then keep the money when you make a sale. What if your football team had a fundraiser candy sale…but it was optional? I’d bet less than 10% would sell a chocolate bar…hence the prepaid.
Now I’m not saying they don’t work at all, maybe some funds could be raised if you were required to get a free shopping membership before you could sign up, and then include direct email requests for action. But what I’m saying is don’t expect to add a link or banner to your site and sit back and watch the funds roll in. Instead, expect to spend a lot of time and energy promoting, cajoling, reminding, and promoting the fundraiser a little more to earn a few bucks. So maybe for a few years, your nonprofit can make a few hundred dollars a year.
What works then?
Fundraising Discount Cards to work! On the front of the fundraising cards is your organization’s name, logo, and expiration date. The reverse side contains twelve (12) to twenty (20) local merchants who are the sponsors of the card, each of which offers some type of offer or discount usable continuously during the period of one year. The same football organization mentioned above has just completed its first fundraising discount cards and the results crushed those of online fundraising. The organization of 300 children has sold 700 cards so far (2 weeks). Each card sells for a profit of $8 (larger organizations can make upwards of $8 per card), do the math. I suspect we will end up selling around 1200 cards.
Happy profitable fundraising!
dial south
