Let’s make it easier to save the world.

Donating to charities could be so much simpler…and fun.

As I see it, here’s the 5 atypical fund-raising tactics as of 2010:

1. Expensive direct mail…where a 2% redemption rate is cause for celebration.
2. Scatter gun advertising based on what the media offers FOC..and not on where the donors are.
3. Identifying that one special day…Movember. Jeans For Genes. Daffodil Day. All well thought out, but boy must they take some organising and resources!
4. Rattling tins on street corners and roads…dangerous and dated.
5. Gala balls. Raffles. Silent auctions.

Now, I’ve no doubt all of the above provide a ROI to some extent…but they all feel very 1950s (“Hello” to the Fonz!).

So, as one never to raise a problem without providing a solution, here’s 4 tactics I’d employ if I were the Marketing guy at a charity:

1. Place big red buttons all over town…alongside which was a coin slot, note drive and credit card swipe. Pushing the button once equaled a $5 donation.
2. Let’s take this one step further. Let’s create a vending machine that had 20 buttons. Each one representing a different cause. Same payment methods though. Then people could choose a cause that rang their bell.
3. Have a number you could send a SMS to that would result in $1 being added to your phone bill. The phone company would then pass it on to my charity. I’d have the number plastered over freely negotiated outdoor advertising everywhere.
4. Create an iPhone / iPad app that cost $1.19 to download…the entire amount (less Apple’s 30%) going in to my cause’s coffers.
5. In fact the above app could be the button mentioned in my first idea…and each time you opened it you were presented with ideas on how to donate…there’d be a red button locator…the number for sending an SMS…and maybe even an opportunity to buy a raffle ticket!

I know. I know. There are some technical issues to overcome with all the above. That’s OK…then we best get started.

Can you help bring one of these ideas to life? Or add another?