Donor Centered

Terri and I went to see Penelope Burk speak (thanks to WNC Pathways).  She is an incredible speaker,  and her ideas are so obvious they’re brilliant.

Basically she started out to find out some fresh ideas for donor recognition.  Finding nothing new out there she went to the source,  the donor.   What she determined has changed the face of fundraising,  and it’s so obvious it’s almost scary.  Donors basically require three things:  Acknowlegement, Recognition, and Communication.  It pretty much boils down to customer service. 

 With the rate of attrition (90%) amoung donors so high,  the profit lies with loyal donors,  yet non profits spend the bulk of their marketing budget and efforts on collecting new donors that give once and disappear.  The reason she found that most people give once and never give again is that they never receive any information or acknowlegement from the non profit that would cause them to stay.  Smaller NP’s can take really benefit from this,  and take advantage of an opportunity to really get to know their constituency.

Inkless?

I stumbled on a new company today, Zink (Zero Ink).   I’m pretty fascinated with the idea of printing without ink.  Basically the technology is a paper embedded with CMYK chrystals,  that are heat activated. 

While the site leaves me with as many questions as answers (Will the paper be activated in any heated environment?  Why is it so small?  Can they not increase the paper size?)  the possibility of this changing the face of digital printing is clear.

Bless you!

Once again personalisation is employed to stave off becoming the dreaded commodity. 

 Kleenex is so much a commodity that their brand is synonymous with the product.  But by launching personalised tissue boxes,  they have expanded their market base.

When Kimberly-Clark re-designed the box into an oval they already punched up sales and interest (especially during the holiday season). But now they’ve taken that design even further by giving the option to make personalised tissue ovals.

It’s a great study in expanding the market through smart design and personalisation. 

You can go to http://www.mykleenextissue.com/ and design your own boxes with anything at all on it.  It’s a cute idea for a fundraiser or for any group.   Most appealing is that it’s really quite affordable,  and there’s a discount for large orders.  The word hasn’t even been spread with much advertising,  most of it has been viral.