Taking the FUN completely out of "Fundraising"

I raise money for a living, among other tasks. As Executive Director of a non-profit, that's one of those things that's part of my everyday life (to donate, go to www.youthlaunch.org). See? I can't stop.

Some of it is very rewarding (literally and figuratively), like the $65,000 grant we were awarded this week from a large foundation. Some of it is not. Today's "Shop for a Cause" falls squarely in the "not" category.

Each year, Macy's sponsors one day they call "Shop for a Cause." Non-profits get shopping passes to sell for $5 each. Non-profits keep the money, people who buy the passes get 20% off purchases on that day, and Macy's gets an easy way to help many non-profit organizations and receive good PR. Great idea.

Our friends and board members sold some passes. The staff sold some. We raised close to $1,000 in the last few weeks. We also signed up to sell passes at Macy's today for people who hadn't had the chance to buy one earlier.

Customers pay $5, get 20% off, and help a local non-profit. Sounds like a win-win-win, doesn't it? Well, no, not really apparently.

Several problems. The first rule of marketing is "location, location, location." Our booth today was in the men's department next to the cologne counters (plural). It was not really on the beaten path and we had almost no traffic go by the table.

At about 10:30 am, the cologne salespeople arrived, turned on loud techno music and brought out cologne samples (with names like Diesel, Armani's Attitude, and a new scent called Indoctrination) that wafted through the area. Coupled with the poster-sized Calvin Klein underwear model pictures and it was the Worst Gay Bar EVER!!

And the people who did walk by had no interest in talking to me. Their expressions told me that when I said "Would you like to buy a $5 shopping pass, save 20% and support a local non-profit?", they heard:

"Can I recruit you into my cult-like religion, shave your head and take all of your money?", or

"Would you like to sign up for a credit card that has 0% interest for four days, then goes up to 46.3% next Thursday?", or

"Can I have your identity so I can get a credit card in your name and charge electronics and porn to you?"

So it was not so successful. I sold two passes, netting a whopping $10. Which is even worse than last year, when I spent the day in Women's Clothing (not to be confused with, well, I'll leave it at that.)