1. 10 Takeaways to Improve or Kick Start Your Holiday Symbolic Giving Presented by Michael Johnston and Sheetal Persaud

2. A virtual tour What is symbolic giving – or alternative giving? What are the benefits of symbolic giving? How can I deal with restricted giving constraints? Who are symbolic giving donors? What will be more important for marketing? How can you integrate your marketing efforts? How can personal page fundraising be used for symbolic giving? What are some success stories from organizations big and small? How do you steward and convert symbolic gift donors to sustained monthly donors? How can small and mid-sized organizations afford to introduce symbolic giving this holiday?

3. Alternative Gift Catalogues: designated gifts for the ‘every day’ donor? 1 – What is alternative giving?

4. The 3 steps to alternative giving? hjc Proprietary and Confidential 4 Step 1 – Donor selects a gift Step 2 – Donor sends a card to a loved one, friend, colleague, teacher...anyone who they buy gifts for Step 3 – Donor gets a tax receipt for the full amount of their gift

5. Primarily ONLINE hjc Proprietary and Confidential 5

6. But also successful OFFLINE hjc Proprietary and Confidential 6

7. 2- What are the benefits? hjc Proprietary and Confidential 7 The everyone gets something mentality

8. Donor – Gets that feel good feeling, a tax receipt, and a fun and interactive way of giving hjc Proprietary and Confidential 8

9. Gift Recipient – Gets a feel good feeling too (they didn’t even donate!) and a beautiful ecard or print card hjc Proprietary and Confidential 9

10. YOU – You get fundraising dollars, new donors, old donors giving more, brand awareness amongst gift recipients and media attention hjc Proprietary and Confidential 10

11. 3 – Restricted giving hjc Proprietary and Confidential 11 I can’t designate my funds two specific programs. How can I adopt alternative giving?

12. The industry’s best kept secret – most alternative gift catalogues are UNRESTRICTED GIVING hjc Proprietary and Confidential 12

13. hjc Proprietary and Confidential 13

14. 4 – Who are symbolic gift donors? hjc Proprietary and Confidential 14 Oprahs’s donors!

16. They want to feel like they really know and understand where there donation is going

17. They want to show how philanthropic they are – by sending cards, telling friends and posting things on Facebook.

19. And are these kinds of donors new to the database? In the case of CHF and Oxfam approximately 85% of the donors are new!

20. 5 – How do you market successfully? hjc Proprietary and Confidential 18

22. Peter Singer link from fan site

24. Online Media hjc Proprietary and Confidential 21

25. Holiday features in Print Media hjc 22 50% of survey respondents for Oxfam Unwrapped said this article is what drove them to give

27. Radio ads hjc Proprietary and Confidential 24

28. Celebrity Endorsement and Videos hjc Proprietary and Confidential 25

30. Drive traffic with email

31. Hijack your website with an ad for your symbolic gift catalogue

33. Proprietary and Confidential 28 Reminder #1 December 12, 2006 25 gifts in the next 5 days Refer to prior appeals

34. Proprietary and Confidential 29 Reminder #2 December 19, 2006 15 gifts within 2 days Emotional Convenience What gift can accomplish

35. Proprietary and Confidential 30 Reminder #3 December 21, 2006 32 gifts in the 4 days before Christmas Last Minute Gift-Focus on service to donor

36. Proprietary and Confidential 31 Final Reminder First Reminder Initial Appeal Second Reminder

37. 7 - What about personal pages and designated small gifts?

39. Don’t get me anything this holiday – go to my personal page – and help me reach my goal as a holiday present!!!

40. Sick Kids holiday personal page fundraising: No promotion except button on home page Three weeks on home page during Christmas season $120,000 in three weeks They love the idea of having people make their own page and proactively going out to friends, family and colleagues saying ‘no gifts please…’ and asking for donations Will people begin to make their own pages for a designated purchase e.g. $10,000 piece of equipment or $10,000 for one designated researcher/doctor – and seek small gifts from their friends for their designated personal page solicitation?

41. 8 - Some case studies Alternative giving can work – for bring brand AND small brands

43. 592 total donors

44. Average gift $68.15

45. $40,256 total giftsIntroduced year round School Fundraising focused campaign Re-launched holiday focused campaign September 2007 703 total donors – 544 in December Average gift $97.76 $68,725 total gifts Campaign Year 2 – 2006 Launched October 2006 520 total donors – 462 in December Average gift $96.32 $50,085 total gifts

47. Case Study 2 – Oxfam Canada

48. Case Study – Oxfam Canada

49. Case Study – Oxfam Canada

50. Case Study 3 – Canuck Place Children’s Hospice

52. 42 total donors

53. Average gift $112.14

54. $4,710 total gifts

55. Further promotion as a year round alternative giving option

56. 154 total donors - 63 in December

57. Average gift $118.96

58. $34,260 total gifts

60. 156 total donors - 69 in December

61. Average gift $113.94

62. $13,840 total gifts

64. By creating designated gifts – both small and large – Canuck Place has attracted larger gifts from Foundations and from companies. The ‘commodification’ of what a donor’s dollar can do is getting both larger and smaller gifts

65. 9 - How do you steward and upgrade your symbolic gift donors? hjc Proprietary and Confidential 46 Your symbolic gift donors love your brand and can be upgraded with the right stewardship streams

66. Be sure to email and thank your symbolic gift donors after the campaign and let them know how their gifts helped your organisation hjc Proprietary and Confidential 47

67. Then phone them! hjc Proprietary and Confidential 48

68. CHF called 5000 of their DM, telephone and symbolic gift donors to upgrade the donors to monthly. The symbolic gift donors converted at a rate 1000% higher than the other two groups! hjc Proprietary and Confidential 49

69. What have we learned from CHF and Oxfam’s commitment from these donors? Use the phone!!!! These donors have joined Oxfam and CHF’s normal monthly giving programs with an average conversion rate of 5-7% from the phone. These donors feel a personal connection to your organisation – so the personal touch of a phone call really works!

70. 10 – A technology choice for the mid-sized to small organisation hjc Proprietary and Confidential 51 Setting up your own symbolic gift catalogue can get expensive. With CharityGiftBag.org an organisation with even a small budget embrace this effective form of giving

77. hjc Proprietary and Confidential 58

86. CGB led marketing driving traffic to the site to help you acquire donors

88. Thank you!