We Increased our Donations by 264 times - Here's how we did it

Last night, my 7 year old, 9 year old and I attended a vigil in support of the Orlando shooting.  We decided to solicit donations on behalf of the victims.  I decided to alter our solicitation strategy every five minutes to test what worked best.  Over the course of our fundraising we increased the rate of donation by 264 times.  Here are the solicitation strategies and their results.

1.  Holding donation buckets, verbally asking for donations, but not directing ask to an individual - $0.11 ($1.32 per hour of fundraising)

As we were getting set up the kids held donation buckets in the stream of people heading to the vigil.  Everyone pretty much ignored us.  Takeaway – do something to get people’s attention.

2.  Holding donation buckets, verbally offering a sticker (we made stickers to give away), not directing ask to an individual - $2.00 ($24.00 per hour of fundraising)

We got a much better response when we offered a sticker at the point of donation.  My guess is that this made us more visible.  But, only a small fraction of passers-by took the initiative to reach out for a sticker, and even fewer were called to donate.  Takeaway – have a giveaway.

3.  Children holding donation buckets, adult giving away stickers without asking to individuals - $4.50 ($54.00 per hour of fundraising)

In this scenario I changed “Would you like a sticker?” to “Have a sticker!” and placed it on the passerby.  This more than doubled the rate of sticker giveaway.  Donations per sticker stayed about the same.  Takeaway – individualized both yourself and the potential donor, reduce opportunities to say no, and volume matters.

4.  One child and one adult holding donation bucket, one child verbally offering sticker/giving away stickers - $6.00 ($72.00 per hour of fundraising)

Same as 3, but my 9 year old wanted a turn giving away stickers.  This actually slowed the rate of sticker giveaway but dramatically increased the rate of donation per sticker.  Takeaway – there is truth to the axiom that babies, kids and puppies are the best salesmen.

5.  One child holding bucket, one child verbally offering sticker/giving away stickers, adult not in visual field of donor - $29.00 ($348.00 per hour of fundraising)

I didn’t intend to test this strategy, but I had to step to the side for a moment to text my wife.  It was a mob scene when I returned.  Takeaway – I think that it is obvious.

Going from strategy 1 to strategy 5 we increased our rate of donation by 264 times. We raised a total of $41.61, more than 70 percent of which was raised by strategy 5.

Things that we didn’t test:

1. Location.  We positioned ourselves between the public transit station and the vigil.  This offered a certain demographic.  I considered a different location between an area with a bunch of bars and the vigil.  This second location may have been superior.
2. Location (2). We positioned ourselves in the stream of people going towards the vigil.  It may have been better to stroll through the crowd at the vigil.
3. We had one small sticker to giveaway.  We did not test a better or worse giveaway.