Comments on: Magnets Anyone? http://www.theagitator.net/dont-miss-these-posts/magnets-anyone/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=magnets-anyone Fundraising and advocacy strategies. Trends, tips ... with an edge Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:21:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Susan Duffin http://www.theagitator.net/dont-miss-these-posts/magnets-anyone/comment-page-1/#comment-28098 Susan Duffin Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:31:12 +0000 http://www.theagitator.net/?p=1495#comment-28098 Personally, I detest magnets. I do not like cluttering my space with them and feel incredibly guilty about putting them in the trash, knowing they are not earth-friendly, period. We need to be more conscious of the waste we foist on others in the name of good causes. Personally, I detest magnets. I do not like cluttering my space with them and feel incredibly guilty about putting them in the trash, knowing they are not earth-friendly, period. We need to be more conscious of the waste we foist on others in the name of good causes.

]]> By: Katrina VanHuss http://www.theagitator.net/dont-miss-these-posts/magnets-anyone/comment-page-1/#comment-28081 Katrina VanHuss Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:24:07 +0000 http://www.theagitator.net/?p=1495#comment-28081 I am a support vendor for a national nonprofit. My company provides the logo-imprinted items of which you write. Best involvement piece ever? Lottery-like tickets. The fundraiser uses it as a crutch to ask for donations. There is a physical handoff, and tactile involvement on part of donor. The twist is that you donate whatever you scratch off. We designed it to raise $250 if fully used, and our hope is that the fun interaction would yield meaningful conversations involving recruitment and mission delivery. But...tracking income through the method proved almost impossible. The money came in offline of course and we were unable to find a low cost alternative way to track. So, lots of great feedback from fundraisers, hard to prove ROI. Katrina I am a support vendor for a national nonprofit. My company provides the logo-imprinted items of which you write. Best involvement piece ever? Lottery-like tickets. The fundraiser uses it as a crutch to ask for donations. There is a physical handoff, and tactile involvement on part of donor. The twist is that you donate whatever you scratch off. We designed it to raise $250 if fully used, and our hope is that the fun interaction would yield meaningful conversations involving recruitment and mission delivery. But…tracking income through the method proved almost impossible. The money came in offline of course and we were unable to find a low cost alternative way to track. So, lots of great feedback from fundraisers, hard to prove ROI.
Katrina

]]> By: Mike Browne http://www.theagitator.net/dont-miss-these-posts/magnets-anyone/comment-page-1/#comment-28069 Mike Browne Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:58:20 +0000 http://www.theagitator.net/?p=1495#comment-28069 Tom: Fulfill tchotchkes for online contacts: As more and more successful NPO fund raisers start using the low cost Internet approaches to generate contacts; they typically get email addresses, but they need a way to get correlating terrestrial address; especially from Millennials. I recommend to my clients to "fulfill" with tchotchkes. Once you have the terrestrial, you can append demos and begin to understand waaay more about the contact. The spelling of "Tchotchkes" - who knew!!!. -Mike Browne Browne Innovation Group Tom:

Fulfill tchotchkes for online contacts:

As more and more successful NPO fund raisers start using the low cost Internet approaches to generate contacts; they typically get email addresses, but they need a way to get correlating terrestrial address; especially from Millennials. I recommend to my clients to “fulfill” with tchotchkes. Once you have the terrestrial, you can append demos and begin to understand waaay more about the contact.

The spelling of “Tchotchkes” – who knew!!!.

-Mike Browne
Browne Innovation Group

]]> By: Kim Silva http://www.theagitator.net/dont-miss-these-posts/magnets-anyone/comment-page-1/#comment-28067 Kim Silva Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:47:03 +0000 http://www.theagitator.net/?p=1495#comment-28067 When I worked for a theater, we sent magnets with the new season information on it when we asked people to renew their subscriptions. People loved it because it was information they wanted in a convenient format that they would see often (hopefully on their fridge). Now, I work in an environmental education group and I have to be very careful and selective with my little gifts because people who give to environmental groups pay us to promote less consumption. It is a careful balance. I often use a simple bookmark with photos of kids we serve on one side and a list of what a donation can buy on the back, and people seem to like that - recycled paper, soy ink, recyclable, of course. In one mailing last year, I sent cards for people to write a note to our students who didn't get mail at camp. Unfortunately, very few were returned to me. I think that people liked the cards too much and decided to keep them. HA! I needed to make them less cute, I guess. The good news was that one donor asked if I could make more for her. Of course I did, then she sent me another donation. Great! I'd love to hear more about raising response by forwarding/sharing/commenting/etc. online. In my experience, I haven't had that be so. Paper mail is still king - even in environmental groups, unfortunately. I always have trouble renewing my email only donors compared to my paper donors. What has raised my response rates is customization. For example, when I send letters with personal notes and real signatures to families we serve, I get a much better response than when I just send it through the mail house - even if I don't include the bumper sticker. Probably no surprise. When I worked for a theater, we sent magnets with the new season information on it when we asked people to renew their subscriptions. People loved it because it was information they wanted in a convenient format that they would see often (hopefully on their fridge).

Now, I work in an environmental education group and I have to be very careful and selective with my little gifts because people who give to environmental groups pay us to promote less consumption. It is a careful balance. I often use a simple bookmark with photos of kids we serve on one side and a list of what a donation can buy on the back, and people seem to like that – recycled paper, soy ink, recyclable, of course.

In one mailing last year, I sent cards for people to write a note to our students who didn’t get mail at camp. Unfortunately, very few were returned to me. I think that people liked the cards too much and decided to keep them. HA! I needed to make them less cute, I guess. The good news was that one donor asked if I could make more for her. Of course I did, then she sent me another donation. Great!

I’d love to hear more about raising response by forwarding/sharing/commenting/etc. online. In my experience, I haven’t had that be so. Paper mail is still king – even in environmental groups, unfortunately. I always have trouble renewing my email only donors compared to my paper donors.

What has raised my response rates is customization. For example, when I send letters with personal notes and real signatures to families we serve, I get a much better response than when I just send it through the mail house – even if I don’t include the bumper sticker. Probably no surprise.

]]> By: Kathy Swayze http://www.theagitator.net/dont-miss-these-posts/magnets-anyone/comment-page-1/#comment-28055 Kathy Swayze Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:45:06 +0000 http://www.theagitator.net/?p=1495#comment-28055 Holding things in your hands is important -- and for items like magnets, you also get the lasting branding impact. I don't know if it is a higher level of involvement than passing along a petition or video online though. Because when you decide to pass something along, you do have to stop and think about who you are going to send it to and it forces you to reflect on your values and who shares those values. So that's a pretty cool thing. p.s. I decided to go with the word items so I didn't have to spell tchocke or chockey or whatever. :) Holding things in your hands is important — and for items like magnets, you also get the lasting branding impact. I don’t know if it is a higher level of involvement than passing along a petition or video online though. Because when you decide to pass something along, you do have to stop and think about who you are going to send it to and it forces you to reflect on your values and who shares those values. So that’s a pretty cool thing.

p.s. I decided to go with the word items so I didn’t have to spell tchocke or chockey or whatever. :)

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