Anybody work with or for a charity?

[Brown and Boris]

I have a business idea which involves getting certain target charities to encourage their existing supporters to volunteer to take part in web survey type activities, in return for the payment going to the charity or a % of the fee going their way.

Not sure how they will react to an approach and what the best approach is?? Will they have data protection issues in emailing existing supporters from their database just offering my new web address and leaving it up to them? I am guessing their DP registration extends to contact to raise funds and therefore they could use that database of supporters?

[parakitaMol.]

Brown and Boris said:

I have a business idea which involves getting certain target charities to encourage their existing supporters to volunteer to take part in web survey type activities, in return for the payment going to the charity or a % of the fee going their way.

Not sure how they will react to an approach and what the best approach is?? Will they have data protection issues in emailing existing supporters from their database just offering my new web address and leaving it up to them? I am guessing their DP registration extends to contact to raise funds and therefore they could use that database of supporters?

Unlikely many would consider direct mailing their supporter/customer/client database on behalf of someone else. Unless it made a significant contribution to donations. Which I suspect completing a questionaire wouldn't do.

[MentalSarcasm]

I don't work for a charity but some of the survey sites I'm a member of do something vaguely similar, once I get enough points I can buy a "donation voucher" for a selection of charities (rather than a voucher for Amazon or Play).

Off the top of my head, the big one that does this is "Lightspeed Panel", I think iPoints used to do it as well but I haven't been on their site in over a year.

[Famous Graham]

We certainly have a CRM of donors and volunteers but we only use it to alert them of upcoming events and what we're doing with the money/help we have received from them already.

Donors wouldn't really be appropriate to contact as, not only is it a bit much to ask over existing donations, but there's a danger they'd NOT donate afterwards as they've already done this thing. If that makes sense.

Volunteers, however, might be a better bet - the content of the survey would have to be pretty carefully tailored to reflect the charities concerned though.

[parakitaMol.]

Famous Graham said:

Donors wouldn't really be appropriate to contact as, not only is it a bit much to ask over existing donations, but there's a danger they'd NOT donate afterwards as they've already done this thing. If that makes sense.
.

Yes. Donor fatigue is bad enough without exacerbating the delicate relationship with unrelated 'asks'.

If this activity actually produced real value donations then they might put a button or link on their website which passing traffic could click if they felt like it.

[Mrs Grumpy]

I am involved with a charity. What is the target market you are looking at?

[tonyvid]

Try Jessica as well

[Brown and Boris]

Mrs Grumpy said:

I am involved with a charity. What is the target market you are looking at?

Probably 'hard to reach groups'; Black and Minority Ethnic groups right the way down to sub-groups like Asian pakistani, Asian Indian, Asian Bangldeshi, then people with disabilities, gay/lesbian and some religious groups. I can do the White Christian Heterosexual thing through local charities but these groups may need targeting directly. I thought some of the sickle cell, disablity and gay/lesvian/transgender support-groups and Asian/African poverty relief charities might have contacts within these communities that they could 'snowball' for me.

[V8mate]

Now look here Mr B&B. I offered you a better solution last week

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Starting a new thread won't fool me (for long)

[Mrs Grumpy]

Brown and Boris said:

Mrs Grumpy said:

I am involved with a charity. What is the target market you are looking at?

Probably 'hard to reach groups'; Black and Minority Ethnic groups right the way down to sub-groups like Asian pakistani, Asian Indian, Asian Bangldeshi, then people with disabilities, gay/lesbian and some religious groups. I can do the White Christian Heterosexual thing through local charities but these groups may need targeting directly. I thought some of the sickle cell, disablity and gay/lesvian/transgender support-groups and Asian/African poverty relief charities might have contacts within these communities that they could 'snowball' for me.

Ah! Not the sort of charity I am involved with, although I know there are some of the groups above that post on the forums. Predominantly white, hetero and christian though.

Many charities do have forums though. Perhaps if you found the ones you were looking for you could PM a mod and ask if you could post a link?

[Brown and Boris]

V8mate said:

Now look here Mr B&B. I offered you a better solution last week

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Starting a new thread won't fool me (for long)

Damn! I was just concerned about their Data Protection Registration and as I want mainly their Black, Disabled, Gay , Jewish etc employees that may be an issue!

[mulletmark]

I work for a charity and am part of the digital marketing team, under which falls e-mail marketing. To be honest I don't think you're going to get very far with this idea. Bottom line is that giving money to a charity isn't something which people have to do (unlike paying the gas bill, which is pretty high on people's 'must pay for' list) so charities are doing all they can in the current climate to retain supporters.

Any mailing which is sent by a charity which doesn't relate directly to their work is *very* likely to p155 people off and they need very little excuse to vote with their feet.

I would suggest that you look for alternative markets for this sort of enterprise.

[Brown and Boris]

mulletmark said:

I work for a charity and am part of the digital marketing team, under which falls e-mail marketing. To be honest I don't think you're going to get very far with this idea. Bottom line is that giving money to a charity isn't something which people have to do (unlike paying the gas bill, which is pretty high on people's 'must pay for' list) so charities are doing all they can in the current climate to retain supporters.

Any mailing which is sent by a charity which doesn't relate directly to their work is *very* likely to p155 people off and they need very little excuse to vote with their feet.

I would suggest that you look for alternative markets for this sort of enterprise.

I have had some success with very local charities trying to raise funds for a specific purpose, but I can see that an unsolicted email from a larger charity wouldn't go down well. I wonder if it would work better as a bit in their newsletter, which I know is less direct and probably isn't read by most supporters, or a simple paid ad in their magazine or newsletter?

One more thought, do I need their permission to donate? What I mean is, if I put an Ad in The Voice ( The newspaper aimmed at Black people) or Asian Times could I mention the names of charities to whom they could donate like Sickle Cell or Diabetes UK without asking the charity? Common sense is that I get their permission but waiting for 13 committees to meet over 6 months to make a decision might be frustrating.

Edited by Brown and Boris on Wednesday 22 July 08:09

[parakitaMol.]

Brown and Boris said:

I can see that an unsolicted email from a larger charity wouldn't go down well.

It is highly unlikely that any charity would run direct mail campaign on your behalf. The only way they *might* is if it was part of another mailing - mailings do have a cost -even e-campaigns.

As to your other point about asking them. No you don't have to do that but you should really be in communication with them and might want to contact their 'Community Fundraising Manager' if they have one. It might be helpful to understand how they are structured.

Most larger charities Fundraising departments comprise:

• Statutory Fundraising Manager (Government funding)
• Community Fundraising Manager (localised or regional)
• Trust Fundraising Manager (Trusts & Foundations)
• Corporate Fundraising Manager (company giving schemes + strategic partnerships)
• High Net Worth / Individual Fundraising Manager (individuals and high value philanthropists)
• Marketing team

Their database of donors are all inter-linked and comms are very well planned, timed and considered but the sensitivity of mailings would be wider than you might consider.... eg an individual donor might also be sitting as a Trustee of a Foundation awaiting a meeting for a decision - a cold, unrelated mailing might be rather 'off-putting' etc...

+ a Head of Fundraising/Marketing Director

The Community Manager provides support to the 'tin shakers' or community based efforts (which you would be) and they provided support in terms of materials, logos, fundraising packs etc to assist your effforts.

I have worked at a senior management level in 3 not-for-profit organisations. Drop me a PM if I can help further.

Edited by parakitaMol. on Wednesday 22 July 08:46