Playful Fundraising

KaBOOM! leveraged a relationship with Groupon Grassroots to grow its donor file and raise money to build playgrounds.

As the fundraising landscape continues to evolve and more nonprofits pop up seemingly every day, building and growing a donor file can be a tricky proposition. And we all know that growing your donor file is critical for sustaining your organization.

Donors are hit from all sides with mailings and messages from this organization and that, asking them to make gifts and provide their contact information. It's information overload, which makes it easy for donors to tune it all out.

That's the conundrum that KaBOOM! found itself in. The organization dedicated to saving play for America's children by building playgrounds and playspaces in communities throughout the nation needed to find a way to grow and manage its donor base and empower communities to build their own playgrounds. But instead of purchasing lists and sending out communications to potential donors who may or may not have any desire to support KaBOOM!, the organization sought an innovative way to reach a new audience.

Enter Groupon Grassroots and KaBOOM!'s donor relationship management database partner, Salsa Labs.

Leveraging connections

As fate would have it, in the summer of 2011 a KaBOOM! staffer met a Groupon Grassroots (then branded the G-Team) staffer at a conference in New Orleans and got to talking, says Anna Morozovsky, senior manager of individual giving and major gifts at KaBOOM!. When the staffer returned, she connected the Groupon folks with Morozovsky and the two organizations began discussing Groupon's year-end Grouponicus campaign.

Groupon Grassroots is daily deals site Groupon's social-action brand with a mission to activate citizenship and foster neighborhood advancement through Groupon. The goal is to provide Groupon customers with a simple way to support local causes. It does that by promoting a collection of local campaigns — usually around 15 — each week on Groupon, says Patty Huber Morrisey, manager of Groupon Grassroots, providing a new segment for the organizations featured.

"We're using the platform in the same way Groupon uses the platform to help small businesses connect with new customers," Morrisey adds. "By offering discounts these businesses can attract new customers. So instead of the incentive being a discount for causes, it's a guaranteed impact in the community."

• MORE ON
• CAMPAIGNS / FUNDING SOURCES
• STRATEGIES / TECHNIQUES