Charity Rewards on GiveSafely.io
Rewards connect new donors to your charity and can deepen your charity’s relationship with existing donors. Every time a donor redeems a reward with you, you receive the personal data that the donor chose to share to earn GivingPoints when donating.
Donors may redeem their GivingPoints for any rewards they choose. A donor may give to a charity that is not you and redeem a reward with your charity. Or a donor may give to your charity and use the GivingPoints earned on another charity’s rewards.
Over time and as a community we’ll learn what types of rewards work best. We encourage you to test out different models and share the results. It may make sense for your charity to list multiple rewards to see which format is most popular. Or to list rewards targeted to younger donors, and rewards targeted to older donors, etc. We encourage you to make the rewards fun to attract donors! Ezra is happy to help you think through ideas or look at what you have.
How many GivingPoints per Reward?
When donors give at least $5 (or the equivalent) via GiveSafely.io, they automatically receive 3 GivingPoints. If they choose to share more of their information, donors may receive up to 11 GivingPoints. Keeping this in mind, we ask that the lowest GivingPoint amount listed to redeem reward be 6 GivingPoints. We’ll be testing this and see how it goes.
Three Types of Rewards
The way we see it (and this will likely expand and grow), there are three main types of rewards:
We suggest combining a human/fun element with cause/mission related elements. Donors (especially younger donors) want to connect with causes on a human level in low-pressure fun ways. It’s a needed first step towards connecting with you as a charity. Conversational or ask-me-anything type chats can be a great way to reach donors in this way.
Tips
Consider who donors might want to connect with:
Older donors, or donors already tied to your charity might want to connect with the organizational leadership to ask questions but...
For a new or younger donor it may be exciting, and make them feel closer to your cause/mission, to connect with (and ask questions of) a staff member who works ‘in the field’ as defined by your organization’s work.
Younger donors might find talking with a younger staff member more relatable.
Consider the format:
Think about whether you want to make the rewards descriptions or chats themselves information heavy. Donors can already visit your website, your YouTube, etc. to get information or to watch videos. Donors might not want to just get talked at.
15-20 minutes feels low pressure and low-stakes.
Think about having ‘hook’ that donors will find relatable:
If your organization works with animals, you could have animal care/feeding/grooming tips- or maybe an appearance.
The hook could be quirky. We’re all people and have something interesting about us. For example, if one of your staff members loves cooking, they can give cooking tips and relate them to your cause/mission. The staff member who will present could start the chat out with a fun song, talk about their love of puppets, etc.
How many people do you want on the chat?
Would one-on-one be better or is that too much pressure? Would 3 or 5 people be best? You might not want to have too many people on if you want to keep it conversational.
Consider the topics:
What do younger donors want to know about?
They may be interested in what it’s like to work in that space. You could have someone who ‘works in the field’ (as defined by your organization) talk about surprises they encounter in their typical day of work- now or pre-COVID-19 – or both and compare.
They may be thinking about their own career and path in life.
So, it could be interesting to hear from someone about their story. Their careers and trajectory: John Doe started as a volunteer in X doing X. Studied X which is completely related (or unrelated!). This led him to working in Washington, DC then in X country. Now John does X for us and is considering a move towards X type work within the organization.
Or even tips for networking in the non-profit space.
Find a way to tie these chats to your mission and work. Within your area of the non-profit space what’s interesting about careers- why do people get into it, etc. Why do people (why do you) stay? What is surprising about the work.. What sort of impact have you seen… etc. Working with your organization you’ve realized that X .. etc.
For ask-me-anything type chats, include some example questions in the descriptions to potentially guide and get the conversation flowing
Test it!
Run ideas by your younger staff members, your nieces and nephews, etc.
List a few options and see what gets the most attention.
Ezra is happy to brainstorm with you on these too!
Many charities have already pivoted some of their traditional engagement programs to virtual engagement. Rewards could be a way to bring donors into these programs.
Tips
This could be access to your online gala, auctions, existing talks, education programs, walks, etc.
If your events are already listed on your site as free, consider finding a way to add an extra benefit as the Reward.
For example: We’ll enroll you as a VIP in our July 30th walk which means X.
Feel free to list your digital and blockchain swag (NFT’s, etc.). We’ll have a webinar on creating those.
At this phase of the launch we ask that charities hold off on listing physical swag (mugs, t-shirts, etc.) so we can get a handle on the rewards experiences.