i m thinking about organizing a campaign at my pizza shop and donate 10% of my sales of february to Haiti relief effort, for sales boost, to create positive image and of course to help out people who desperatly need it - estimated 200,000 dead. is anybody doing it, thinking about doing it? is 10% fair? any thoughts, experiences in donations are welcome… thanks
So you’re looking to profit (by creating a sales boost) off a horrific event? :shock: :shock: :shock:
Maybe there is a better way to go about it, I don’t know. But do you think the people of Haiti would care if someone made some profit off of it? Which by the way is not guaranteed that profit will be made.
I’ve tried to come up with a way for my business to help the relief effort, but everything I thought of came off as self-serving. Short of donating 100% of proceeds for a night, it would look like I was trying to profit off of it.
Donating 10% of a night’s sales to a local school is great… I think donating 10% to a crisis where 200,000 people died and there are millions homeless in a country where 66% of people were unemployed before the quake sends the wrong message.
If you drive a sales increase with the promise of donating 10% of proceeds you really aren’t making a donation - your customers are. You will be collecting the other 90% and probably dropping 40% in gross profit.
If you’re going to do it, donate 100% of the proceeds for the night. Then both you and your customers are making a donation.
No, the people of Haiti won’t care. The ethics of it aside, I think you need to be concerned about the image you are putting forth. I would not get a favorable image of a business appearing to profiteer from a tragedy.
If helping is the primary objective then do it all the way. If building sales and image are the primary objective then send out some advertisements. Just MHO.
As for the question as to wether or not 10% is fair, maybe upping the percentage donated to 20% or even 50% would be appropriate. If the key is to not come off as making a profit off of the Haitians I would think that donating 20% to 50% would solve that problem. Or maybe advertise it after the fact, like a flyer or something that says, " we would like to thank all the customers who ordered on Friday night. We were able to make a donation of $xxx to Haiti."
NO, he’s looking to find a way to have his business help the people who are victims of that horrific event. Maybe if people weren’t so negative regarding this charities could raise significantly more money. If this is the attitude of the general public, screw it, don’t donate a penny! What a $hitty attitude.
On a side note, after hurricane Katrina our three stores tried to do a fundraiser and donate 30% of sales to the Red Cross. The Red Cross couldn’t be bothered to give us permission to use their name and logo so we did the fundraiser to benefit the United Way and raised quite a bit. I have since done plenty with the United Way but not a thing for the Red Cross.
Its really simple: Just do a donation (100%) either from yourself or your business.
In my book, you are a slime bag when you start promoting the fact that you donated. If you seek a way to take advantage of some horrific event, by promoting yourself or your business, by “BOOSTING” your sales (learn to read Paul - those were his words not mine) or spinning your image, well you’re just total CRAP!
What to help someone - GO HELP THEM!
In my book, you are a slime bag when you start promoting the fact that you donated. If you seek a way to take advantage of some horrific event, by promoting yourself or your business, by “BOOSTING” your sales (learn to read Paul - those were his words not mine) or spinning your image, well you’re just total CRAP!
In my book the more money that can be raised for the charities, the better. If someone can donate thousands by promoting their business as opposed to donating nothing then it’s a a win win proposition. Unfortunately too many people get offended by this so many businesses won’t want to take the risk and get involved. The victims are the ones that lose out.
I’m curious. I should probably research the archives but I don’t have the time right now. What efforts were applied when Katrina hit in 2005? I was in my 7th month and did nothing and often wonder, who did. What sort of promotions did you run for donations to the victims of Katrina?
PD
One thing that was discussed was setting up a mobile kitchen to serve fresh pizza to the the victims. Lincoln offered use of a mobile trailer set up with Lincoln X2 ovens. There were some offers of food and labor donations. The biggest problem was a lack of a propane and diesel source to power the ovens, generators and refrigerated trailers. I would love to see this get put together so that it is viable for the next disaster of this magnitude.
So are you saying he should make a personal donation and have it remain anonymous?
Ever thought of doing a donation night with your customers and matchtheir total $ for $. That way your customers can donate how large or little without embarassment and you top up the total.
Advertise it for a special night with a cheap offer to get people through the doors.
They get a cheap pizza and a chance to donate and you get to donate a worthy cause. I think your customers would appreciate this type of donation.
Dave
I like that idea Dave.
I’m kind of surprised at some of the negative comments and name calling regarding a fundraiser. If Boston09 didn’t mention “boost sales”, would it have been better received? Maybe. The bottom line is that he’s making an effort to raise money which is quite a bit better than most, which is to do nothing. I commend his effort. If his sales go up because of it, then so be it; his fundraising goes up too. To call someone a “slime bag” seems a bit out of line IMHO.
I do like Dave’s idea too.
I’ve got a small fundraiser going right now. I wrapped it with the BIG GAME coming up. I am selling squares on a 10X10 grid for $5 per square. 100% of the proceeds ($500) will be donated to the ARC. I am donating the prizes; about $200 in gift cards to the winners of the pool. I hope I don’t get slammed with being called a slime bag because I’m using the SB to promote a fundraiser. :?
Another option is to donate 100% of the profit for the day or for a specific product. Meaning that all costs ie labor and food are accounted for and the rest goes to the cause. I would think that should be somewhere in the 50% of sales ball park. You may even be able to get some of your suppliers on board with donations so the amount of profit would be higher.
I recall a promotion from McD’s that 100% of the profit from the sale of Big Mac sandwiches for a day went to some relief cause here in my city. They sold a ton of them but also sold a ton of fries and drinks which did help their bottom line.
As for the idea of exposure to boost sales. I have heard it said marketing is everything and everything is marketing. Media exposure when doing something like this will go a long way to boosting your regular business. The big thing here is to help a cause and come out of the experience with a positive perception in the public eye.
You clearly did not think about Brett Favre’s feelings before planning this.
I like Daddio’s idea. Why not run something like all proceeds for a small or large cheese pizza will be donated. Choose a day that is usually your slowest. Send a press release about it. You may or may not make profit off of it but your name will be out there as the pizza place that did something for someone who needed it.
I think “all profits from…” is the only way to go.
However, I think your previous efforts in the “charitable contributions” area are key to how this is interpreted by the public.
Have you publicly been involved in charitable organizations in the past? For example, much of this misery is not new on Hati - they were the poorest country in the western hemisphere before the earthquake. Did you help those people before? Anyone else? If so, great! If not, I think you run the risk of looking like you are doing this just because it is the now “cool” thing to do.
I am a memeber of the “text club” of a local competitor. A day or so after the earthquake I received a text that said “Help Hati Earthquake victims! Portion of sale DONATED 1/14-1/24 ORDER TODAY!”
Puhleeze. I’d be better off send the “donate $10” text than take a gamble on how much a “portion of sale” is.
People have 100’s of ways to donate directly to a charity - and have 100% of their money go there. I don’t really see the need for there to be a “middle man”.
Paul has a point, that if you are doing this to help people and you happened to benefit too, well, it might be okay. But if it ends up giving customers or potential customers a bad feeling about you and your business, then you are not helping yourself in the long run - and thus you are not helping anyone else.
It’s true, there are lots of ways to donate. The fire department came through my neighborhood last night with a big, plastic collection bucket. Lit up the whole cul-de-sac with all the flashing lights.
But if you are looking to host some kind of fundraiser in your restaurant, the NRA and Share our Strength announced their Restaurants for Relief – Haiti fundraiser program and marketing resources this morning.
http://www.strength.org/get_involved/restaurants_for_relief/
We also put together a fundraiser promo kit this week for our customers, with a flyer, poster, and press release templates. If you’d like to support a different charity instead of NRA/SOS, feel free to use any of these.
http://www.speedlinesolutions.com/haiti
The first press release template is an invitation to the community to join in the fundraiser. For a lot of the same reasons you’ve brought up in this thread, we debated including the second release… use it or not – I know it’s a tough call - but if you’ve invited your community to help you raise funds, it seems right to let them know how much you raised together.
j.