The concept of FriendLilySHOP

The concept of FriendLilySHOP is simply to make it easy for charities to receive money from donors.

The stakeholders of the site are the charities, vendors, advertisers, and the consumers.

In my life I have owned a small business, worked with a charity and like all of us I am a consumer. Plus, I did sell elevator advertising to finance my university expenses, starting in the university’s pubs.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. My experiences good and bad, will help me to understand what each stakeholder needs to benefit from FriendLilySHOP.com. I will describe each stakeholder’s pain points, goals and motivations from my perspective and experiences.

Let us start with charities.

MY EXPERIENCE

I was with the Kidney Foundation of Canada (Hamilton board) in the mid 2000’s, and it was a privilege. I realized it is a social investment when you donate time or money to a charity.

My Mother passed away in 2018 and it was related to kidney disease, which she only developed in her 88^th year, after I was with the Kidney Foundation.

When she was going through dialysis, I saw firsthand the support she received. It is nice to know when you or your loved one needs help and support it will be there. That is why I want donations to be easy for any donor to contribute to a charity.

An important take-away from my time with the Kidney Foundations was the number of resources (money /time) to plan any fundraising event. The administration of the Hamilton Chapter of the Kidney Foundation was skilled at planning.

As we know it takes money to make money and any event will cost money.

YES & YES.

But here is the thing.

A charity plans an event, maybe a silent auction one evening.

rent a hall $$$
collect donations$$
liquor permit$
staff it$$
cater food$$
mailer (emails)$

What can go wrong on that exact date?

Leafs (insert any popular team) battle in the 7^th game of a championship
a freak snowstorm / windstorm cripples the city
work emergency or new COVID rules reduce attendance

Of course, all speculation, but that makes you think. Events out of our control can derail any fundraiser. Charities need multiple revenue streams to offset a black swan.

Now let us look at what we do know from studies and surveys and plan around those behaviours and realities to make the charities prosper without ANY $$$$ outlay.

Below are articles I looked at for fundraising trends.

Why we give.

compassion for those in need (89%)
personally believe in a cause and want to help (85%)
contribute to our communities (79%)
personally affected by an organization’s cause (61%)
religious obligations or beliefs (29%)
income tax credit (23%)

(http://sectorsource.ca/research-and-impact/giving-research)

Crowdfunding stats for non-profits show that crowdfunding success rates largely depend on four things:

Social media sharing – the rate of success rises with every social media contact – 10 friends increase 9%, 100 friends increase success by 20%, etc.
Campaign descriptions of 300 to 500 words
Regular updates for supporters – update every 5 days result in 3X more donations
Videos – campaigns with video appeals raise 150% more than those without

(https://www.definefinancial.com/blog/charitable-giving-statistics/)

What does the charity / non-profit landscape look like in Canada? – as per National Survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations (Hall et al., 2004)

there are over 170,000 charitable and nonprofit organizations in Canada. ¹
85,000 of these are registered charities (recognized by the Canada Revenue Agency).
Over 13 million people volunteer for charities and nonprofits.

Most government funding goes to a handful of charities. 2018 Giving Report – authors – Canadahelps.org and Imagine Canada

$177.2 billion in funding from the government goes to the charitable sector but most of it ($150.9 billion) goes to 1 percent of the sector made up of mainly health and education charities.

Canadians give over $14 billion annually to charity. 2018 Giving Report – authors – Canadahelps.org and Imagine Canada

Younger generations are not giving in the same way as previous generations their age, and the charitable sector is relying on a narrowing older population, 70 years and older. This group will age out of giving in the next ten years, meaning $4.3 billion will be in serious jeopardy of exiting the charitable system.

Online donations are on the rise. 2018 Giving Report – authors – Canadahelps.org and Imagine Canada

Although overall donations have decreased by 0.5 percent from 2006 to 2015, online donations have steadily increased by 20.5 percent annually over the same period.

After all these facts and figures here are my strategies

Canadians are charitable with their money & time, so they need to be made aware of initiatives in their own community
make it a no risk and a no expense process for a charity to receive a contribution
lights, camera, now create some donating action -develop videos or write-ups to introduce the potential contributors to a charity’s message
people just want to help – give them an easy way to contribute to their charity of choice – overlap shopping and donating
most donations for charities are given in December, make contributions a 365 day / 24-hour event
use social media’s power to connect with potential contributors, including the important younger cohorts (University / College)
allow cash donations to be made with a link from FriendLilySHOP.com straight to a charity’s donor page
target smaller regional charities – something you can see, and touch is a thing!

Thanks for READING MY BLOG – Next time we look at the vendors or better yet, let us call them what they are Canada’s Entrepreneurs