One of the things On Your Feet Project struggles with is the conflict between raising awareness of our non-profit partners among young professionals, and raising money for our partners. We try to keep our events low cost or free in order to get more people in the door. That way more of our target audience will become aware of the charities, and perhaps in the future volunteer their time or donate significant funds.
However, Seth Godin raises an interesting point with his post on "Marketing the charity auction." The idea is to get people to pay MORE than what the object (or event, in our case) is worth, versus trying to get a bargain. While I agree with his point, I wonder how exactly you get people to do that.
I suppose people are willing to spend more if they believe in the non-profit, or in the non-profit's cause. In our case, our young professional audience often times is not even aware of the non-profit, and/or are not willing to pony up major cash (more than $25) no matter the cause.
I think OYFP is in the business of convincing people to care, or showing them why they should care, kind of like those TV commercials with the faces of foreign children in poverty. "It only takes $1 a day..."
Instead of using kids' faces to guilt people into charity work, we try to convince our young professionals audience that volunteering can be fun, that it can be good for your career, and that giving will make you happier.
I won't lie - it's a hard sell. OYFP is committed to the cause, though. Hopefully, though, in the long run our work will lead to more people giving more. I can hope so, anyway.
Related Posts: We Rocked, Words for Sale?, Adventures in Recruiting
However, Seth Godin raises an interesting point with his post on "Marketing the charity auction." The idea is to get people to pay MORE than what the object (or event, in our case) is worth, versus trying to get a bargain. While I agree with his point, I wonder how exactly you get people to do that.
I suppose people are willing to spend more if they believe in the non-profit, or in the non-profit's cause. In our case, our young professional audience often times is not even aware of the non-profit, and/or are not willing to pony up major cash (more than $25) no matter the cause.
I think OYFP is in the business of convincing people to care, or showing them why they should care, kind of like those TV commercials with the faces of foreign children in poverty. "It only takes $1 a day..."
Instead of using kids' faces to guilt people into charity work, we try to convince our young professionals audience that volunteering can be fun, that it can be good for your career, and that giving will make you happier.
I won't lie - it's a hard sell. OYFP is committed to the cause, though. Hopefully, though, in the long run our work will lead to more people giving more. I can hope so, anyway.
Related Posts: We Rocked, Words for Sale?, Adventures in Recruiting
No comments:
Post a Comment