Newsletter: How to Process Point-of-Sale Donations 🤑 ; Rival Clubs Offer Charity Donations to Customers That Abandon SoulCycle 🚴♀️ ; Five Nonprofit Chatbots That are Worth Talking To 🤖
Newsletter reader Robyn had a great question last week. Here's the question and my answer.
Q. I am trying to find out how local businesses partner with us to raise funds. For example, we have some local businesses that want to help us raise funds the week of Boulder Pride (i.e. where they ask for a donation at the register). However, these businesses don't know how to set this up and neither do we? Do you have any information on what is the best way for a business to do this?
A. Thanks for writing, Robyn. Here's the key with point-of-sale fundraisers. Whatever point-of sale (POS) system the business currently uses to process sales, use that same system to process the donation.
So if they process a sale by scanning a barcode, create a barcode for the fundraiser and scan it every time someone donates. This is easy if you are also selling charity pinups (note the barcode in the lower right). If they process a sale by pressing a specific button or entering code into the register, give the fundraiser its own button or code. If they are unsure how to do this, businesses can usually contact their point-of-sale system provider and get an easy answer.
However, if a business is really in the dark ages, and is either has an outdated POS system or simply doesn't want to mess with their current system, the old standby is an envelope near the register where cashiers can stash cash donations. I don't generally recommend this because of obvious security and accountability issues, but sometimes you have to work with what you have!
Other questions on point-of-sale fundraisers? I'm all ears!👂
✍️ Partnership Notes
1. The Philadelphia Eagles had an open practice and asked fans to pay ten bucks to watch. You won't believe how much they raised for autism research. Just think about how much an open practice to watch Tom Brady would raise. 😍🐐
2. I bet you haven't been talking to companies about this partnership benefit. But as the author points out, link-building with local nonprofits is a valuable opportunity for companies that are eager to be found on Google's coveted first page.
3. You probably heard about the SoulCycle and Equinox founder who hosted the Trump fundraiser this past weekend. But you may not have heard that rivals like Town Sports (aka Boston Sports Club, New York Sports Club, etc.) "causejacked" the news, which included the chain making a $10,000 donation to The Trevor Project.
4. Great round-up here of cause-related back-to-school fundraisers from Stage, Gap, Kids Foot Locker and more! [SPONSORED LINK]
🤑 Marketing Your Cause
1. How nonprofits are adding chatbots to their social media teams. Want to try a few? Here are five bots worth talking to. Finally, get your own nonprofit bot for free courtesy of Direct Relief, which is sharing the technology behind their own for FREE.
2. I'm a monthly contributor to Best Friends. I love this new dashboard that allows me to track in real-time the progress of shelters in my area - and which ones need more help to become no-kill. This is impact in action!
3. Sometimes the best marketing for nonprofits is just a bigger incentive to give.
🔬 Cause Research
The three things you should be using to recruit corporate partners: in-person events (e.g. partner summit), content marketing (e.g. case studies), email marketing (e.g. bi-monthly newsletter)
😎 Cool Jobs in Cause
1. Manager, CSR, Michael Kors (NYC)
2. Director, Corporate Annual Giving, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (Philadelphia)
3. Events & Cause Marketing Manager, Medela LLC (McHenry, IL)
4. Content Manager, Mass Humanities (Northampton, MA)
Have your cause-related job featured here for FREE. Hit reply to this email and give me the details and a link to the position.
🧠🍌 Brain Food
1. The future of charity shops is radical. Arrive as a shopper, leave as an activist. Maybe this is the future of GameStop?
2. This is interesting. The NFL has hired one of staunchest critics (and Kaepernick supporter) to guide its social justice efforts.
3. Jeff Bezos is quietly letting his charities do something radical - whatever they want.
Have a question, comment, or just want to say hi? Just leave a comment below or head over to Twitter.
