Charities, nonprofits and organizations that fundraise have long used ‘free gifts’ to reward and encourage donations. This is the ‘reciprocity effect’ in action.
The concept of reciprocity effect states that giving someone something, or doing a favor for someone, establishes an return obligation. As a printing business, you are in a prime position to leverage the reciprocity effect to increase results for your fundraising selling opportunities and clients.
The case for printed / branded products as a gift is simple: A charity or fundraising organization will get will raise awareness from continued exposure to printed goods. This can’t be achieved with a gift of tickets to the opera, a golf outing, or a chefs dinner.
Below is an example of how you can use a free gift in an InkSoft fundraising webstore. These free gifts can serve as an inducement to purchase as the perceived value increases. Consider how you can use low cost promotional items, or easy to print products as a free gift. The cost from these gifts is easily offset by an increase in the main fundraising product. Furthermore, a free gift program and promotion is a powerful selling tool when presenting your fundraising capabilities to prospective clients since they are vested in maximizing the results of the fundraising campaign.
Examples of charities and nonprofits using gifts as part of their fundraising efforts:
Takeaway
Approach charities, nonprofits and organizations that fundraise to educate them on the benefits of gift giving as part of their fundraising campaign and efforts. Specifically, educate your customers on how a logoed product as a gift can yield the best outcome as it continues to benefit the organization through repeated exposure and awareness.
