student travel Article

Boost Your Charitable Giving Responses with Travel Incentives
By Sheryl Strasser
There have been so many disasters in the last few years that many donors are scaling back on their charitable giving. If you depend upon donations to operate your non-profit organization, that fact can spell financial disaster for you. But there are some unique ways to coax a donation out of even the most unresponsive donor if you know the secret of offering incentives.

Imagine being able to offer free round-trip airfare to major vacation destinations, or 3-night hotel packages to 3 and 4-star resorts! You can do that, and more, when you offer incentive coupons with your charitable solicitation.

What do you think will elicit a higher response rate; a "thank you" card, or 3 days and 2 nights in Hawaii for two? I think that the answer is obvious.

But what about costs? Surely you can't afford to spend all of your donations, or even a large part of your donations, on incentives and give-aways. Relax, that's not the case when you offer incentive coupons.

Travel incentive coupons are sold at steep discounts by companies that coordinate with major hotels and airlines to make sure that these business operators aren't faced with too many empty rooms or airline seats. The and vacation industry would rather give away accommodations, and count on the ancillary money that the vacationers are bound to spend, rather than have empty inventory which won;t generate any revenue at all. That means that you can buy incentives that are worth hundreds, or even thousands of dollars for a small fraction of their actual value.

Speaking of value,

the perceived value of these packages is many times higher than the average charity donation, so donors are much more motivated to open their checkbook.

Travel incentives are delivered as coupons which you simply send out to your donors. They fit into a standard business envelope and can be mailed at whatever discounted postage rates your organization qualifies for. They are easy to handle and you won't need any special inserting equipment or extra staff for fulfillment.

Where to buy incentives

Make sure that you only buy your incentives from an authorized incentives broker. Your reputation depends upon your donors having a world-class experience, and only the best brokers offer legitimate incentives from the best hotels and reputable airlines. You can't afford anything less than a 100% legitimate offer.

If you have a special class of donors who make larger than normal donations, you can get creative and combine multiple incentive coupons for even more attractive offers. How about a 3 day, 2 night, 3-star hotel package and a $500 spending certificate in select cities?

Other possible combinations include getaway packages like 4 or 5-star hotel accommodations that can be combined with free round-trip airfare incentive coupons. You can come up with as many incentive combinations as your imagination allows.

If you're interested in lifting your charitable donation response, take a good look at incentives. They are easy to order and you can handle the details right on-line.

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