Keeping on top of your gift rewards
FundRaiser Professional and Select (with the optional Premium Module) have the ability to track your inventory of gift premiums, print labels and packing lists for shipping them, record the cost and value of the premiums, and showing the net value of a gift that involves a premium. I wrote an article several years ago that covers that module (find it here) in detail, and it's still pertinent today. This blog, however, is not to tell you how to do it, but to get you to thinking about whether or not you want or need to consider giving away items to donors.
Are incentives necessary?
First of all, as pointed out in the case study this week in Sasha's blog, giving away premiums for donations, no matter the amount of the donation or cost of the premium, will take money away from the primary mission, and has to be weighed against the amount of additional donations those premiums will generate. In the case of a public TV or Radio station, the public has many choices, generally, in what they can tune in on their sets. Often the same sort of broadcasting will be done by multiple stations, so the competition for donations can be stiffer than it might be for other types of non-profit organizations. Are you under the same sort of pressure for donor dollars, with other similar organizations in your area of influence? If so, premiums may help.
Is your mission unique? widely beneficial? specific?
What is it that sets apart your organization from others vying for the same donor dollars? The mission statement usually expresses this, and you'll want to remind prospective donors of what it is that you do, how it benefits them, directly or indirectly, and what, specifically, you are doing with the dollars you are asking them to provide. Reminding them of your mission, and of your organization, can be another benefit of using premiums.
Consider "Logo" items, not generic
If you use incentives, or premium items, that are "branded" with your logo, then they will serve the secondary purpose of keeping your name out there for your donors to see. This is especially true if your premiums are common items everyone uses: coffee cups, T-shirts or "hoodies", backpacks, etc. Of course, you need to gear your premiums with the type of folks who donate to you in the first place, since part of the give-away idea is to attract like-minded new donors while encouraging repeat donations from your current donor list.
Have an ample supply on hand
The premiums module can help keep track of inventory on hand, which is a good thing, and gives you the opportunity for a secondary mailing or announcement when your inventory begins to dwindle. The call to action to "get them while they're hot" so familiar from ball game vendors comes to mind, but the same sort of thing applies here. And some branded items can be re-offered from one donation drive to the next, so ordering more than you expect you need for the current drive may not be a bad thing.
Timely fulfillment is critical to future donations
You'll want to keep on top of distribution of premiums, and FundRaiser helps you do that, whether you are shipping the items, or having donors pick them up at a predetermined location and time, or both. It's critical that you not keep your donors waiting too long after they've donated, if you want them to participate again in the future. No one who has to wait 3 months or longer will be eager to donate again, unless they really belive in your cause, in which case the incentive probably wasn't needed in the first place. So keeping track of what you have, what you need, what you've distributed, and the dollars involved, are all important. Once again, if you thing premiums might work for you, check out this article for a more comprehensive view of the premiums module.