We do direct mailers for our end of year giving, as well as three newsletters throughout the year. We've been doing these for longer than I've been at the shelter (over 15 years!). We get a pretty good return on them (which is why we keep doing them) but I'm not directly involved so I don't know the exact figures.
There are a number of stores/gas stations in our county that let us keep a donation canister on their counters by the checkout. It's a great low cost and low effort way to get donations. The stores will contact us once the canisters are full and we just go swap them out. The only cost is really just the time & gas getting to and from the stores, and initially purchasing the animal-shaped piggy banks. This is another one we've been doing since before I was involved with the shelter, and since there's pretty much no cost to us, it's worth it regardless of how much we raise.
We also have some stores that allow us to keep donation barrels there so it's easy for people to purchase a bag of food, for example, and just drop it in the bin for us to collect instead of having to drive out to the shelter. Like the donation canisters, these are another low effort, low cost way to collect donations. The barrels we use are plastic 55 gallon barrels that local girl scout troops painted for us.
We also have a few local bars/breweries that are very supportive of our shelter, and we've tossed around the idea of putting photos of some of our adoptables with a QR code in those acrylic tabletop sign holders and putting them on the tables in the restaurant. We haven't yet because we haven't figured out how we would stay on top of it and make sure they get switched out when animals get adopted. Once we get the logistics figured out though, I think it'll be a great way to reach people.
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Samantha Maurice
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-28-2022 10:38 AM
From: wendy frink
Subject: Marketing tactics OTHER than email and social media
Has your organization (or one you know of) tried not-so-common ways of reaching NEW community members (ie that haven't donated or don't follow you on social media and/or are on your email list)? For example: direct mailers, inserts in utility bills, flyers left at coffee shops, restaurants, etc., billboards, posters? What has and hasn't worked?
#MarketingandSocialMedia
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wendy frink
Marketing Communications Specialist
Maddie's Fund
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