Valentine’s Day is one of the most commercial holidays. A $20 billion dollar holiday, in fact. Last year, the average person spent $130.97 on candy, cards, gifts and more, but you can find some who’ll spend up to $13,000 for a romantic getaway.
If there’s one thing we can take from these statistics, it’s that people are obviously already primed and prepared to reach into their pockets this Valentine’s Day – probably for the first time since Christmas. But with the typical gifts being chocolates, flowers, fancy dinners, and romantic getaways, how can you redirect some of these funds to charitable donations? While we’re not out to take all the romantic adventures out of the day, there are plenty of ways to encourage charitable giving and fundraise on Valentine’s Day.
1. Seize the content opportunity
There’s a lot of pressure on Valentine’s Day. You can bet that a large portion of givers are looking for the perfect gift idea online. In fact, in 2013 26.3% of people celebrating online planned to give a gift found online; 40.7% used their smartphone to shop for gifts; and 46.9% used their tablet to purchase or research gift ideas according to Forbes.
So seize this opportunity! Try creating targeted content that will be found during these gift searches. A blog post like “5 Gift Ideas for a Selfless Valentine’s Day” could bring in great traffic and get Valentine’s gift hunters thinking about donations.
2. Create special donation options
If you’re hoping donors will gift their donation to their special someone, you might want to rise to the special occasion and create some tailored packages just for Valentine’s Day.
Try to stick to a theme like love or the importance of relationships. Maybe this is as simple as a printable ‘receipt’ with appropriate graphics to be gifted, or perhaps you can create a tailored package with a specific dollar amount relating to love and relationships. Plan Canada does a great job of this with a fun play on words: Give the gift of honey to your honey. Here, they offer a Beekeeping kit, which offers everything a family, needs to make and sell honey. Note that these packages should be tailored to where your non-profit organization actually plans to spend the money.
3. Build personas for Valentine’s Day
Keep in mind that there are different types of people when it comes to Valentine’s Day. Some may be all in, looking to impress their special someone in whichever way they can; some may be minimalist; some might not have a special someone and not really care for the day; and some who don’t have a special someone might have a particular distaste for such a commercial outpouring of love! It’s certainly important to keep all of these personas in mind, and identify which one is most likely to relate to you and your charitable donation opportunity.
While you may not be a chocolatier or florist, Valentine’s Day is as much your holiday as anyone else’s – so take part! Just remember to tailor your fundraising efforts to the day and focus on providing value to a loved one (because that’s what your target’s focus is!).
Put yourself in your future donors’ shoes and ask yourself: “how would a charitable donation become a phenomenal Valentine’s Day gift?”.
The post Tailor Your Fundraising and Donations for Valentine’s Day and Feel the Love appeared first on iNotForProfit.