When I was a kid, I participated in all sorts of fund raisers for charity. It wasn't hard to get people to donate -- all I had to do was go door to door and ask for donations. One year I raised over $1,500 for a local children's hospital. Who can resist a face like this?
Typically at least half the people I asked would donate $10 or $15. Somehow I don't think the same strategy would work as well today, now that I'm a big, bearded adult. Clearly my charitable efforts aren't as effective over the internet, where fewer than one percent of our readers donate.
That got me to wondering: what sorts of gimmicks are most effective in getting people to donate to charity? Some of them are quite expensive: Jim and Nora's school raffled off a $40,000 BMW last year -- nearly half the money raised went to pay for the car. Does this sort of charity "marketing" pay off? Or are people turned off by the excessive expense of the fundraiser?
And what about those $5 candy bars kids are selling these days to raise money for band trips and cheerleading squads? What of $15 PTA wrapping paper? Does it make sense for charities to offer expensive incentives for people to donate? Or would they be better off just asking for donations? That's what this week's non-scientific study will attempt to find out.
Click here to participate in the study
The survey is relatively short, with about 20 questions. It should take only a couple minutes to complete. You have until the morning of Thursday, October 18, to complete your response. There is no limit on the number of respondents.
Don't forget to come back next Friday to see the results!
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This stuff has just begun to annoy me, now that sprog is in school and hence we get the PTA fundraisers. Yes, I'll donate. No, I will *not* pay $20 for a second-rate cheesecake (or whatever is being flogged these days).
Even more annoying is when the school sends your child to the fundraiser, tells them t opick out stuff, and only *then* tells the parent - me - that 'we need $736 to pay for your son's book selections, please.'
Hmm. I sense that a button got pressed there somewhere ;).
Anyway, I'll go take the survey, but certainly my reaction to such stuff is to be turned off. Ditto the charity solicitations that offer 'free bag' or whatever (exception for NPR, whose not-really-free stuff is generally stuff I'm actually willing to pay for; so maybe other causes should take advice from them.)
p.s. (sorry) The survey isn't detailed enough, really. For instance, we used to buy coupon books that gave 2-for-1 at local restaurants (and this was back in penurious grad school days), and would do so now if they included good restaurants; but we would not buy coupon books for stuff we'd not be buying anyway (I dunno - McDonald's or something, where I would refuse to enter).
You might just add a 'comments' field at the end to catch this kind of stuff, if you care.
It's too late to add a comment field, but anyone with questions or concerns can always bring them up in the comments thread. The way the question was phrased, it's "how much more than they're worth," so if the book was worth $1, would you pay $2 for it, and so on... Obviously if you thought the book was worth $100, you'd be willing to pay quite a bit for it.
Fund raising lotteries are really big in British Columbia. The big ones are by hospitals and other well-known health agencies. There are usually 2-3 going on at the same time. The prizes are usually houses, cars, and/or money. The ticket sales usually gross 5-8 million dollars. I've never heard of one losing money, but one that ended a couple of days ago was advertising final-days ticket sales of 75% (i.e. they were using their lack of success as a marketing tool to convince people that their odds of winning were better than if the lottery had sold-out (which is true, but not by much)).
One observation: I used to fundraise door-to-door as a kid regularly, but now even I dislike having strangers appear at my door unannounced, whether child or adult. Similarly, my husband gets feverishly mad when random people call on the phone and ask for a donation or to buy into a raffle -- he calls it an intrusion on his family time. I think there has been a shift in the suburban US culture to frown on approaching strangers at home. I don't mind kids hawking $5 candy bars in front of the grocery store, nor do I mind a community with which I'm affiliated (preschool, university, etc) asking me to buy raffle tickets/books/candy or throw a dollar in the kitty for some project -- just as long as the dollar amount is entirely within my control (and not my child's, as the first poster commented). If I end up winning something I don't care for, I can always think of a friend or family member to gift it to!
So, most of my giving is planned giving. Even if I would add that charity to my list of things I give to I rarely give in the moment. And if I'm giving I really want all of it to go to the charity (not to buy cheap prizes, not for overhead, etc). So I'm only inclined to buy stuff if the stuff was donated. And I'm most inclined to do unplanned giving if there is a chance for matching funds.
The one exception is girl scout cookies - which isn't really an unplanned gift and for which I do want the goods. But I sold them as a child and learned things from the process. I only buy from kids (not parents) and I make the girls tell me what they plan to use the money for (and yes I buy even if the answer is lame).
Golly, don't I sound fussy.
The main thing for me is that I hate anything that smacks of being pressurised or embarrassed into giving to a cause, as opposed to convinced that it's a good thing to give to. I give (considerably more than the average for my salary level, if the statistics I've heard are to be trusted) from a charity account fed from my salary, and when I decide to give to a new charity, I do it because I've found out that they do good work. That might be because they posted me some information, because I heard a mention of them doing something worthwhile, or possibly because of an advertisement - but I'll go and read about them, and think about it, before I donate. I won't do it on the spot, regardless. So most of my answers to this were "no", "0" etc.: the exceptions being that I would give small amounts when it's unbearably embarrassing not to, e.g., where it would require asking for an amount to be taken off a restaurant bill. What your survey didn't give me the chance to say is that I wouldn't go back to that restaurant.
I only give locally and directly to any cause.
The survey makes me look like a cheapo. None of those things motivates me to donate.
But, in fact, I do donate - but I am influenced not by the manner of asking nor by an associated gift or prize, but rather, by the cause being supported.
Actually, there was one option missing: in Europe (at least, Belgium, the Netherlands and UK), they often approach you on the street as well. But those are mostly to give regular (monthly) donations. So far, I've only opted in for one, and that was because I was planning to do so anyway.