International superstar Shakira chose Charitable Checkout to power a social cause marketing campaign to raise awareness and dollars for her Barefoot Foundation which builds schools for underserved communities around the world.
The campaign, which launched in the last days of 2012, will run through March. It is accessible via mobile or desktop devices, in English or Spanish, here. Donors get an exclusive download, a Thank-You post on their Facebook Wall from Shakira, and a chance to win a video-chat with Shakira.
Thanks to Dympol, Inc.‘s Charitable Checkout, public figures and influential organizations now have access to an all-in-one platform to promote their favorite causes and benefit by rewarding their fans and followers for getting involved. Charitable Checkout not only makes it easy to start a social fundraising campaign for any of over 1.5 million non-profit organizations, it also enables the distribution of a wide range of donor rewards, including digital media, discount coupons, loyalty program points, product samples, public appreciation in social media (aka ’Social Thanks’), and contesting.
Brands have been involved in charitable activities for years but, as company Founder & CEO Jay Ziskrout discovered by chance, they are not always effective. On the contrary, if mishandled, cause-related programs can actually create ill-will on the part of consumers.
“The notion of Charitable Checkout came from a personal visit to a traditional ´brick and mortar´ retailer,” recalls Jay. “After spending a couple hundred bucks, I was asked to make a donation to a charity I knew very little about. The retailer’s participation was limited to making the ask and then, presumably, taking the credit with one of those oversized-check photo opps. They weren’t offering donation matching, or any other incentive for participating. And, in terms of the social aspects, all I felt was pressure to give; not the good feeling you get when you’re genuinely motivated to make a difference. I left the shop thinking about what a terrible experience that was and all the ways each negative element could be reversed. Soon, I put pen to paper and Charitable Checkout was born.”
The Charitable Checkout platform turns the traditional “buy our product and we’ll make a donation” model (or worse, the donation solicitation model described above) upside down. Instead, it creates a valuable experience for all stakeholders and measurably helps companies convert their corporate social responsibility efforts from a pure expense, in to a goodwill-generating, customer-acquiring, profit.
How It Works
Anyone can create a free, personalized Charitable Checkout campaign with basic functionality at CharitableCheckout.com. The company doesn’t touch donations raised but does charge for customization and for performance; quantifiable achievement of desired user behavior apart from making donations.
Such actions include social media posts, click-throughs, providing personal data, signing-up for third party services, and/or spending money on a sponsoring brand’s product or service. In addition to standard placement on Web and Facebook Page instances, premium campaigns can also play out via mobile apps, text message, online display ads, and e-commerce checkouts. Premium campaigns also have access to ‘Giving Squads’ functionality which captures big data on user preferences and influence while enabling socially-connected clusters of people to compete for greatest charitable and/or social media impact.
Charitable Checkout Works
In a recent campaign for Omaha Steaks, 13% of people that saw the campaign on Omaha’s Facebook Page made a donation to one of the brand’s three preferred charities. Of those, 52% subsequently clicked through to Omaha’s e-commerce site and 21% made a purchase.
When HGTV used Charitable Checkout to power “Raise A Roof College Challenge,” a charitable face-off between gridiron rivals Ohio State and University of Michigan to benefit Rebuilding Together, top fundraisers won various prizes including $10,000 tuition payments and an appearance on (HG)TV. Being a highly motivated cohort, 63% of campaign views converted into a donation and 57% of donors Tweeted about their participation.
When the platinum-selling artist Switchfoot ran their campaign in support of Standup For Kids in their online merchandise and ticket store, 15% of customers made a donation during checkout and 14% of those made a subsequent purchase with campaign sponsor, Hurley.
So far, Shakira’s “Buy-A-Brick” campaign is also racking up impressive numbers. Nearly 5% of campaign views have converted into charitable donations and over 80% of all donors have participated in at least one post-donation action such as subscribing to an email newsletter, accepting the “Social Thanks” post, adding their profile picture to the campaign photo mosaic, or participating in the social media contest.
