Meet Sharon S. Ober-Lehn who is working at Community Center of St. Bernard that is providing hurricane survivors with the recovery resources they need in a safe and all-inclusive setting. She contacted me via Facebook after she my post on shopping for cause and my query for tips for how nonprofits can make the best of cause-related shopping sites. Sharon is using a site called Maatiam, but these tips could apply to any program where your nonprofit receives a percentage of sales.
Here's her advice:
1. Link to the shopping site from your web site. On the right sidebar of every page of our website there's a link to "Shop Online" which takes you to a page that explains how Maatiam works and has links to our Maatiam page.
2. Include links in your email tag lines. I periodically include a link to our Maatiam page and a 1 sentence "Support us while you shop online" tag in our email signatures (rotate it with other ways to support us and info about various events & programs we offer).
3. Promote the shopping for cause opportunity year-round. I find a reason to mention the Maatiam page in nearly all of our monthly newsletters, both email and print editions. Right now it's a 'give the gift of giving' promotion, basically 'Support us while you do your holiday shopping online.'
In the fall it was the 2nd anniversary of Katrina and 'here's what we've accomplished but so much remains to be done. Please support us while you do your back to school shopping online. Later it will be our 1st anniversary and again, 'here's what we'd like to do in the coming year. Please support us while you shop the MLK Day/President's Day/Valentine's Day sales online. In the spring I'll focus on the work we've done in the schools and the services we offer for children and families and ask 'please support us while you shop online for Mother's Day/Father's Day/Graduations. I'm not quite sure yet how I'll tie an appeal into Mardi Gras, but I'm sure there will be something.
Simply put, there is always some kind of national, regional or local event that gives us an opportunity to tell people about what we've accomplished and the services and programs we provide, and ask for their support.
Good tips. Another piece of advice is find the people who buy stationery etc in small businesses and encourage them to use your site. A number of small but regular users can quickly build up the income for you.
We are making steady progress with www.buy.at/birminghamconservation . One of my frustrations is that the site we use doesn't allow us to craete links to specific projects.
Posted by: Nick Booth | November 20, 2007 at 04:11 AM
Our nonprofit group NAP Africa has linked up with this great website, www.nonprofitshoppingmall.com, which allows our supporters to do their everyday shopping and turn it into philanthropy. All you do is choose the nonprofit group you want a percent of your sale to go to and then pick the store you want to shop at. It's a little here a little there but it adds up!
Posted by: Sandy | April 09, 2008 at 06:55 PM