After 17 years of my time spend within the realm of retail sales, I even have understood the important meaning or vision of retail sales for nonprofit – “Retail Sales for Nonprofit may be a platform where Heroes among folk are created by inspiring them to offer money or making them advocates for legitimizing the cause by raising money”
Now the question is there are tons of apprehensions within the minds of the social entities that Retail sales for Non-Profits require tons of investment and therefore the Return on Investment (ROI ) for social entities don’t come quickly. this is often a real point, but this apprehension has also crept within the mindset thanks to the non-clarity of the success stories which have happened across the planet within the last 10 years from retail sales for nonprofits.
clear your apprehension by reading this text https://www.moonclerk.com/monthly-giving-programs/benefits/
Note:- Retail giving-http://www.psjp.org/increasing-retail-fundraising-in-india/
Now let me define retail sales for nonprofits.
have you ever witnessed a really “> during a marketplace near a very prominent junction within the city location where you’ve got been approached by an executive saying “excuse me” am I able to have your few moments to save lots of a child’s life/ save the environment/ save the rights of marginalized community/ save from HIV/ Save precious water/ Save whale/ panda/ Tiger etc.??
Yes, that’s retail sales for nonprofit executives trying to prevent you and cause you to conscious of the social cause. And here you’ll find the Vision of doing retail sales for nonprofits. Imagine when a retail sales executive meets 200 individuals and do meaningful conversations with a minimum of 10 of them. This executive is making around 200 individuals conscious of your cause during a month. If your organization has to mention 5 retail sales executives, they’re taking your cause to 1000 individuals, and during a fiscal year, they’re connecting to 12000 capable citizens who weren’t conscious of your issue and now can relate to it.
Now if this team is properly nurtured with proper capacity building and proper infrastructure, they can get you around 1200 committed donors in a year. This is not a small donor cont.
So here a few outputs are achieved in one shot.
- You have brought the public closer to your social issue
- You have generated a huge database that can be further involved and turned into donation opportunities.
- You have also made your donor pool.
- You have created a livelihood opportunity for your local community
- You have created a platform where you are now growing an income base that will ultimately solve your social issue.
- You have created a platform from where you are making champions for your social issue.
Now let me explain to you the Model.
You can have two models for your retail giving – committed giving & onetime giving
Committed giving is when a donor pledges to donate monthly /regularly as per his/her wish.
Read this article https://mrbenchmarks.com/data/how-to-read-the-charts, This kind of giving is very productive and the majority of charities are now taking this model in their fundraising mix. Committed giving will only become successful in the markets where the donor retention figures are great, you have to do a few tests of your market area to decide on this.
One Time giving in another model can be used for generating immediate donations for a piece of work. but if the donations are not in huge amounts then this model is not very productive.
So the success of your retail giving will be achieved when you will have a mix of both monthly giving and one-time giving. The best mix is 80% monthly giving and 20% OT giving.
You can have your in-house team do this or you can also get agencies to do it for you.
The only challenge with Agencies is that they work on higher % e.g. if they raise Rs 100 for you, they will take Rs 70 as the cost of fundraising and you will only get Rs 30.
A 5-member in-house quality team staff monthly cost would come around 4000 us dollars a month and an in-house retention quality team monthly cost would be 1500 US dollars. You can even build your team with lesser investment, but the output might be not quality. The more quality staff you will enroll, the sweeter will the output.
But the income they will get for you is 100% yours and control and management are also under your supervision. Whereas if you go with agencies noting is 100%.
After you have tested a few markets with dummy face-to-face fundraising now it is time to draw the plan.
So, this Model is divided into two parts – Acquiring the donors & Retaining the donors which have to follow a process steps to know more read this blog:-https://mobilisationlab.org/resources/engagement-pyramid/
Acquiring process is again diving into various levels
Recruitment of the staff(JD development, advertisement, Screening, selection ), Training of staff, Acquisition plan, and objective. ( Street locations, Timings of fundraising, incentive/benefits, collaterals, donor form/ payment gateways/ and giveaways)
The retention process again divided into various levels
Recruitment of the staff (JD development, advertisement, Screening, selection ), training of the staff, Retention plan and objective( supporter journeys, upgrades, downgrades,
Total staff required to start a retail giving model is 5 staff in acquisition ( team leader & fundraisers) and 3 staff in Retention( Donor care leader, Donor care executive, database officer)
So now you are ready for a retail giving program.
Now let me give a glimpse of investment as well as the output of this 8-member team for your retail giving program for a year.
Investment:- 5500 us dollars a month, for a year it would be 60500 us dollars
Now, what is the output:- 1200 donors giving you a monthly donations of about 10 us dollars, so in year 1 these 1200 donors will give you an income of 84000 us dollars. ( I am saying all these 1200 donors will give for only 7 months)
In year 2 out of these 1200 donors, only 420 donors will remain in the system and they will give 32700 us dollars
In year 3 out of these 420, only 150 will remain in the system and they will give 16500 us dollars. These 150 are your real cream of donors who would stay life long as by now you have serviced them with a proper donor journey.
So, in year 1 you have invested Rs 60500 us dollars and then you have not done any new acquisition in year two or year 3,
Your return on investment of Rs 60500 will be133200 us dollars which is 2.02 which is brilliant.
Now if you continue to invest in Acquisition in year two, year three then you will make up for even the drops out of the donors who leave you in year 1, year 2.
Yes, it is a leaking bucket but if you keep on acquiring quality donors this linkage will be not there in year 3 or Year 4.
Now a very important point I’m going to share is how retail giving will survive in the current pandemic like COVID 19?
retail giving success depends on how many people you are meeting daily. But now the new norm is social distancing, Individuals will be apprehensive to come near you, The fear of getting infected will loom at large, this makes us easily think the retail giving will be not an option during this kind of social distancing.
We have to test new skills, We have to test new methods, we have to evolve.
This pandemic will end and we will have to live with a new normal which is social distancing.
We have to keep ourselves protected with protection so that even when we meet people we are following all the norms of social distancing, Now the question is where we will find people to talk to?? At their homes!! and when the restrictions will open people will return to streets /malls/ marketplaces and the normalcy will return.
Here are a few things we can try:-
We have to bring in a digital aspect of talking to people which will have a mix of digital and offline elements. how will you do that? we have to target potential prospects via digital marketing and then requesting them to give time to explain our social cause via skype of zoom or Whatsapp video call, and then making him/her donate online, So you can generate enough appointment for your face to face team who can from their home only reach to the potential prospects who are currently at home due to social distancing.
If you use this method you are getting the following outputs:-
- you are making sure your fundraising is running.
- You are making sure there is enough work for your fundraisers.
- You are innovating.
we can help you to design a plan around this process
Few things you should before starting your retail giving model – read this to know more http://www.theagitator.net/wp-content/uploads/8thingsyoushouldknowFtF.pdf
Items needed to start your process:-
Acquisition Process
Banking formalities-
Your organization should have either one savings bank account or a current account in which the individual donations can be taken.
Also for Regular giving, if you are recurring donors offline then you need to have a NACH / Electronic Clearing System for the NACH facility.
To know more about Nach Facility please click Here.https://signdesk.com/in/emandate/what-is-emandate
There are a lot of service providers who can establish a NACH system for your organization if you don’t have one already. NACH facility is only required if you are Choosing to acquire a donor for Monthly giving.
Online Recurring giving it is much easier to implement but your volume does donors will come more offline than online.
Location / Spots with potential prospects,
This is one of the most important aspects of retail giving. You will acquire quality donors only when you are enrolling quality donors from quality locations/ Spots. Now, what is the best definition of quality location/Spots?
A quality location/Spots can be defined as a place or an area in a locality where you find a constant flow of people with decent purchasing power visiting daily. A good location/spots should have the following thing nearby, And most importantly the location/spots should be shared, which means you are saved from rains or sunny sun. :- Washrooms, Coffee Shops, Consumer durable shops, branded grocery shops, People with the age group of 30 plus, Metro station entrance, Bus stand, Railway stations, Airport, Cinema halls, etc.
There are a lot of methods of selection of Location/spots, you can first search in Google map by putting the filters in your locality, and then when you have selected a few you have to do a recce of the location/spots by doing a direct field visit and taking note of how many footballs are happening, at what hour is the maximum footfall happens, which day of the week is the maximum footfall happens,
So now you have a template with the following details.
Name of the location/spot, Time of the footfalls, Which days heavy footfall,
Now is the time to take your team and place them in those locations/spots for testing the audience.
Once you do this you will come to know whether you need permission from the local civic body or you can just do it without permission.
We are experts in location/spot hunting and also can help you in getting permission if required.
Now you can actually target prospective audiences in your Facebook algorithm with some marketing investment in those locations about your cause for two days before your retail sales executive goes to those locations for fundraising. This step will aware of the prospects about your cause and when your retail sales executive makes an approaches the rejection rate would be low as the brand recall value will be a little high.
Retail sales executives (RSE):-
Retail sales executives are the people who will do the financial appeal to the prospects on your organization’s behalf. so you need to very carefully select the executive. You need to prepare the Job description of the retail sales executive.
The job description of the retail sales executive
1. RSE will be visiting busy high street locations/spots in local market places and the surrounding areas.
2.She/He will be engaging in at least ten fascinating, vital conversations with members of the public in a day and inspiring them to donate for the organization’s cause either by regular donation or a one-time donation.
3. Remuneration- Fixed Salary plus incentives
Criteria of selection of the face-to-face executives.
Age group- 18 to 25, Male or Female, decent communication in the local language, Aruticulative, fun-loving, extrovert, will have a positive attitude and will be highly-motivated go-getters who are passionate about social change.
Recruitment drive and selection process-
Now you have to place advertisements in your social media channels as well as a local newspaper classified sections for getting walkins at your office place for interviews, You can also put advertisements on free online portals for getting applications. You can also use your website to publish an ad.
The advertisement should be open for at least two weeks of getting a better response. After two weeks if the response is great then closed the application and if the response is not so great then place your advertisement on Colleges, Institutions where candidates are doing through courses.
Remember you only need candidates who can give you 4 hours a day for your fundraising activities. And you will get candidates as this job will give them short time perks, learning space to build their communication aspect which will help them in the future. So you will get candidates.
We are experts in the Recruitment process for street fundraisers. We have in total a sound experience of taking interviews of at least 10,000 candidates in our career till now and we have successfully selected around 2000 candidates till now for street fundraising.
Now after the recruitment drive, you have to do a screening of the candidates, All the candidates who meet your JD will be called for Interviews and in 3 days all the candidates will be interviewed and selected candidates will be offered the Job.
Now in his process, you will also be able to shortlist the team leader for leading this team of 5 to 5 staff on the streets.
Team leader
Criteria for selection of the Team leader.
Age group- 25 to 30, Should have experience of leading a field of more than 6 months, Male or Female, team player, decent communication in the local language, Aruticulative, fun-loving, extrovert, will have a positive attitude and will be highly-motivated go-getters who are passionate about social change, demonstrate the ability to make decisions.
The job description of Team leader for retail giving
1. A retail sales team leader will be managing a team of 4 to 5 team members on busy high street locations/spots in local market places and the surrounding areas daily.
2.She/He will be helping the team members to deliver at least ten fascinating, vital conversations with members of the public in a day and inspiring them to donate for the organization cause either by regular donation or a one-time donation.
3. He or She will the deciding on which locations or spots the team will be working and also how many hours the team will be working.
4. He or she will maintain harmony in the team by exhibiting leadership qualities and providing equal mentorship to his/her team members when they face tough situations about acquiring donors.
5. She/he will be responsible for achieving daily targets of donors as per the Organisational development plan for street fundraising.
6. She /He will be responsible for taking care of the team members, their well-being during working hours.
7. She /He will be responsible for maintaining the timely report required by the seniors from time to time.
8. She /He will be responsible for performing other duties required for implementing a successful street fundraising process.
Remuneration- Fixed salary plus attractive bonus
Recruitment drive and selection process for team leader
Now you have to place advertisements in your social media channels as well as a local newspaper classified sections for getting walkins at your office place for interviews, You can also put advertisements on free online portals for getting applications. You can also use your website to publish an ad.
The advertisement should be open for at least two weeks of getting a better response. After two weeks if the response is great then closed the application and if the response is not so great then place your advertisement on Colleges, Institutions where candidates are doing through courses.
Remember you only need candidates who can give you 8 hours a day for your fundraising activities
We are experts in the Recruitment process for street fundraisers. We have in total a sound experience of taking interviews of at least 800 team leaders candidates in our career till now and we have successfully selected around 165 team leaders candidates till now for street fundraising.
Now after the recruitment drive, you have to do a screening of the candidates, All the candidates who meet your JD will be called for Interviews and in 3 days all the candidates will be interviewed and selected candidates will be offered the Job.
Now comes the Training part
TRAINING:-
This involves a very exciting quality process. This is the time when the seed of your organization’s cause will be planted in the hearts of street fundraisers. This is divided into two parts and should be completed in 3 working days maximum.
Day 1- Organisation orientation day- Knowing about the cause, Success stories, Why do we need retail sales executives.
Day 2- Retail giving- Pitch preparation, How to behave on the street locations, Grooming, Approach, introductions, Objection handling, closing, understanding tax benefits thanksgiving. Understanding the KPI’s, understanding the bonus structure, understanding and know-how to fill the physical donor forms, How to fill the donation transaction part in the NACH form, Do’s & Don’t. How to operate the swipe machines, Tabs, and learn how to do reporting.
Day 3- Roleplays
- Pitch- What will the fundraisers present to the prospective donors.
The pitch should be made keeping the following communication indicators in mind. — What is the issue, How your organization is solving the issue, Why you need funds for your issue, what is the benefit to the donors.
If your pitch is made on these parameters then the donor acquisition will be more.
Format of the pitch:-
Approach ———- About the organization———- what is the issue—- How an organization is working on the issue– Why the donation is needed—– Benefits of donating.
The important aspect of a good pitch is getting 3 Yes( 3 times prospect agrees with your point of view) from the prospect, Once You get 3 Yes your conversion will be more.
The important thing to note here that after every 10 conversations you will get one donor.
- Presentation folder- The presentation folder is nothing but a guiding communication tool that has images and infographics which are synced with the Pitch created for the cause.
- Payment gateway, Read this article https://www.techradar.com/in/best/best-payment-gateways
Payment gateways are nothing but the platforms by which the donors will donate money to your organization. For Eg, Razor pay provides a payment gateway for online donations. If you have this then your street fundraiser job becomes easier and manual process are taken care off,
- Physical donation forms- These are two-pager donation forms that are used to capture the donor details manually also required to take donors’ signature for NACH recurring giving scheme.
The team leader needs to deposit the complete donation forms to the back office every two days for making the donor details captured in Central data system of the organization (CRM)
A sample copy of Physical donor formshttps://www.formstack.com/templates/nonprofit
- Give away Items for donor retention- These items are not very costly affairs, This is a welcome kit which consists of a leaflet of the organization as well as one badge or any token item which the donor can keep as a token of thank you.
Read more to get an overview of this.
- Bonus structure for the executives – It depends on the model in which your organization will be working. The easiest model is that each fundraise gets 10% of the amount raised in the bank account of the organization. Now there are different models for a bonus for bringing in the quality acquisition. My favorite is on successful debits/ shows, which means when a fundraiser gets a minimum of 10 donors’ successful debits in the organization’s bank account then the fundraiser gets 25% of the total amount donated. for e.g if there are 10 successful debits of say Rs 500 in a month then the fundraiser gets 25% of 5000 which is 1250. this bonus is over and above the salary. There can be slabs, like 15 successful debits of say Rs 500 in a month then the fundraiser gets 35% of 5000 which is 2650. 20 successful debits of say Rs 500 in a month then the fundraiser gets 40 of 5000 which is 4000.
We are experts in making bonus structures, we can make bonus structures for you.
It is very important to have a bonus structure for driving the motivation level of the staff on the streets.
By having a bonus structure you can ever have a fixed salary payout variable.
- Key Productivity Indicators- These are nothing but guiding tools for performance.
The following are the key productivity indicators for street fundraising-
Man days, No of approaches, No of presentation, No of Closed deal, Productivity of the day, No of Unclosed deal, No of Credit card Donor, No of NACH Donors, Frequency of donation, Amount and Age of the prospect, Cost per donor, Average ask per donor, Income generated.
We have been designing these templates for the last 17 years and are experts in building this for you.
This brings the end of the acquisition process
Retention Process for retail giving program.
Staff required:- 1 Telecaller, 1 Donor care executive, 1 Retention team leader
Retention is nothing but how you can inspire your donor base to stick to you for your lifetime. how you can put systems in place which will ensure that your donors are getting information about your work.
The Retention module is made based on what acquisition model you are adopting. The Retention module for Regular Giving or OT giving.
Staff required:- 1 Telecaller, 1 Donor care executive, 1 Retention team leader
Tools required- Donor journey, Content, Email software,
If you can create a Retention team then this team can do retention for all other retail giving channels.
We are experts in this process also we will do the recruitment for you, we will do the training for you, we can set up everything.