How I Got My Goat

Before my birthday, Christmas, and all sorts of other special occasions, my wife has always asked what I would like as a gift. For the past several years, I have been telling her that the only thing I want is a goat. Due to my current living situation – a residential neighbourhood in Kingston Ontario – a goat simply would not be the most manageable of pets. I wasn’t asking for a goat because I wanted one for myself, though.

Oxfam is an online alternative giving program where shoppers can purchase gifts for others which are used to help underprivileged women, men, children, and communities as a whole. Goats are one of the gift items that can be bought to help needy communities in developing countries. My wife had never been fully aware of Oxfam’s motives, and therefore was always joking and teasing me about my frequent requests for a goat.

One day, as she was watching the Ellen DeGeneres Show, she found herself listening to Sandra Bullock; a spokesperson for Oxfam. Sandra explained how the program worked, in terms of buying farm animals, health supplies, seeds, vaccinations, tools and equipment, etc. for villages in Africa and over 20 other underprivileged countries. Sandra mentioned that goats were one of the purchasable farm animals that could be used to help countries in need! My wife was touched, and instantly went to the Oxfam website to see about getting me the goat I’d wanted for years!

My wife had a ton of fun in the process. She especially loved that she could use the website to create and customize a gift card for me, featuring a full-colour picture of good ol’ Billy-Bob the goat. In the process, she ended up making a donation of $58 to help people who are far, far less fortunate than us.

Oxfam Unwrapped

So, after several years, I finally ended up getting my goat! I keep the card hanging up in front of me on my bulletin board, and every day it makes me chuckle and smile. I love telling people the story of how I got it, and so does my wife. Many of her friends have also followed suit with Oxfam. They are constantly telling us about how their loved ones are not interested in receiving an actual gift, but rather, having a donation made on their behalf.

Donors and prospects, such as my wife and her friends, are plentiful. How does your organization appear to these potential constituents? What would be their incentive to donate to you?

Let’s take a look at what Oxfam is doing. (It should be noted that we have not worked with Oxfam before.)

Technology in Fundraising

Pertaining to technology in fundraising, here are some key areas/issues that I hope Oxfam is paying attention to:

• How is my wife’s gift recorded in their database?

• What additional information did they record, on top of standard biographical and gift information?

• Do they know how much fun my wife had in the process?

• Do they know how many people my wife has referred to them?

• Did Oxfam soft credit or acknowledge me in some way for the gift?

• How am I recorded in their database?

• What is their communication strategy to my wife (the donor)?

• What is their communication strategy to me (the recipient of the gift)? (E.g. Do I get an update on Billy-Bob?)

• How will they stay in contact with my wife and I; email, snail mail, phone, or all of the above. Perhaps they don’t plan on contacting us at all. Hopefully this is not the case because I would love to make a donation myself, if asked!  :)

• How did the data that my wife submitted via the Oxfam website get into their actual donor database?

• What information moved from the website to their donor database?

Fundraising

Looking at Oxfam from a fundraiser’s perspective, here are some questions that this organization should be asking:

• How do we continue to build the relationship with this newly acquired donor(s)?

• Is this actually a new donor, or has this donor given to us before?

• How do we move this donor from the $58 level to the next level?

• What exactly is the next level for this donor?

• How should I communicate with this donor?

• What amount of ‘people-time’ should be allotted to this donor?

• Where should this donor be located on my daily reports?

• What is his/her score in terms of how close he/she is to making a major gift, annual gift, etc.?

• What should the next touch point with this donor(s) be?

In conclusion, Oxfam provides innovative and extremely beneficial gift and donation solutions to people who seemingly already have everything. They have tremendous appeal to donors and are hopefully doing everything possible to build their existing relationships while continuing to steward new donors as well. It is absolutely possible for your organization to appeal to a large spectrum of donors as well! The key to success is making sure all your bases are covered, pertaining to technology in fundraising as well as actual fundraisers’ perspectives.

If any readers decide to donate to Oxfam as well, please let me know! I’d love to hear your stories of chickens, donkeys, and even goats that are helping to provide the less fortunate with a better quality of life. :)

Parallel Universe:

RESolutionsTECH has a convenient and extremely efficient service which will assist your organization in answering many of the important fundraising questions that I have posed above.

Our Complete Database Audit is a thorough and affordable way to identify all of the ideas within your database where improvements could and should be made. Our technology and fundraising experts will assess your database to ensure it is properly set up to meet and even exceed the needs of your organization.

When we audit your database, our ultimate goal is to provide you with a roadmap to help your organization grow and move forward. We want you to clearly understand:

• Where your organization is at now

• Where your organization needs to go

• How our proposed changes will benefit you and your constituents alike

Our database audit will also assist you with:

• Staff training and support

• Data clean-up

• Accurate reporting

• Your online presence

• Communicating effectively

• Reducing operational costs

• Saving time

Let RESolutionsTECH help your organization reap the benefits of a clean, efficient database while saving money and building better relationships with your constituents.

Contact us at sales@resolutionstech.com or (866) 776-5414.

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It's All About the People!

It’s been a gorgeous weekend in Kingston and my wife and I were fortunate enough to spend a good chunk of time together while doing our spring gardening. Shoveling, digging, weed-whacking and getting my hands nice and dirty reminded me how important the balance between humans and technology is, in all areas of our lives. When it comes to gardening, some tasks are best done with your own two hands while others should be left to tools and machinery. The same applies to the world of fundraising. At RESolutionsTECH, we help hundreds of local, national and international charities on a daily basis. A major goal of each charity we work with is to acquire new donors for the organization. However, the reality is that not all newly-acquired constituents originate as major donors right off the bat. Instead, they may begin their relationships with charities as $10-donors, volunteers, peer-to-peer fundraisers, connectors, or even just friends of the organizations.

Once a newly-acquired constituent is added to the database, a charity’s goal now shifts to engaging and stewarding this relationship. If done effectively, the constituent will move forward along the pipeline and become closer to his/her ultimate major gift to your organization.

So, what is the most effective balance between humans and technology that will allow your organization to maximize these major gifts?

With the thousands upon thousands of constituents that charities are managing in their databases, we always hear that there are not enough hours in the day to properly nurture and build relationships with them all. Do not fret, though. Tackling this problem is very doable!

Constituents need to be segmented into two groups:

• Those you should be spending your time with
• Everyone else

Typically, charities will have lists of key people who they feel they should be spending their time with. However, there are always other constituents who they aren’t even aware of yet. At RESolutionsTECH, we use predictive modeling and other data mining activities to assist our clients in identifying new constituents who they should be allocating time towards. These special constituents should get personalized attention. As for everyone else in the database, technology becomes critical in the continuance of building relationships.

We pride ourselves on successfully helping charities use email, websites, social networking, surveys, and a great deal more to engage their constituent groups of ‘Everyone else’.

Whether charities are spending one-on-one time with constituents or making use of technology, it is critical that they are creating regular touch points with every constituent and collecting all pieces of the constituent puzzle. This data needs to be tracked in one convenient and centralized location: the constituent database.

As charities continue to piece together their constituent puzzles, it becomes clear that knowledge and data are their new best friends. All activities, both present and future, will be based on the puzzle pieces that charities have collected and recorded in their constituent databases.

Improving and increasing your technology usage will allow your organization to collect more relevant data than ever before. New data will flow in at all hours of the day and night, even when charity staff is not involved! Your reach will be significantly expanded and relationships will continue to be built between both constituent groups: those you should be spending time with, and everyone else.

With all of this additional information, technology can be utilized even further to prioritize activities. We can help you determine which activities, with which particular constituents, will provide the best return on investment.

A proper balance of human interaction and technology usage will provide your charity with:

1) An improved total picture of each constituent individually as well as collectively with the rest of your database.
2) Convenient, informative single-click dashboards and reporting.
3) Data and information benchmarks over time.

At this point, your charity will have a clear road map or strategic plan for utilizing technology, as well as people, to broaden your reach and maximize your fundraising results.

You will increase your gifts and revenue, reduce costs, and improve the relationships you have with all of the constituents in your database.

Remember – it is all about your people spending time with the right people and letting technology assist with the rest!

Parallel Universe:

RESolutionsTECH provides our satisfied clients with two convenient and affordable options to achieve the aforementioned human and technology balance.

If you want absolutely everything taken care of for you, our comprehensive and worry-free Total Support Package is right up your alley!

Your second alternative is through our interactive, hands-on Unlimited Online Training Package.

The first option costs a bit more; however, our clients are always telling us that our services are considerably less expensive than what other companies are offering. Partnering with RESolutionsTECH will provide you with far more bang for your buck and is one of, if not THE best decision your charity will ever make!

Let RESolutionsTECH assist your organization in maximizing revenue and building better relationships with new and old constituents alike. Contact us at sales@resolutionstech.com or (866) 776-5414.

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