By Amanda Antunes Bueno
In March 2020, the new coronavirus pandemic was declared and the first cases were registered in Santa Catarina. That same month, the team from the Grande Florianópolis Community Institute (ICOM) met to decide what they would do to respond to the economic and social crises resulting from the pandemic. The first strategy was to Coronavirus Emergency Support Line, created to guarantee decent and sufficient food and hygiene and cleaning items for socially vulnerable people affected by the pandemic, through the mobilization and transfer of direct resources to organized civil society initiatives. In April, within the Support Line, the first Community Bank from Santa Catarina. With it, families receive resources in the form of social currencies and have the autonomy to buy what they need most in stores in their peripheral communities.
So many people and organizations showed solidarity and donated financial resources in 2020 that ICOM reached records: R $1.7 million mobilized and donated in all its actions to combat the pandemic. This value is 11 times greater than ICOM's annual average of direct donations to organized civil society, and impacted 22 thousand socially vulnerable people across the State.
Another record was the number of local donors: 717 among individuals and organizations. To the Coronavirus Emergency Support Line and the Community Bank, 362 people and companies contributed. The organization therefore realized that it was necessary to invest in the loyalty of these donors. After all, ICOM's mission as a community foundation is to promote community development, being a bridge between donors and groups that organize and fight for rights for all.
In order for ICOM to further strengthen community philanthropy in the region, it is necessary to take a careful look at those who believe in its mission, those who trust and donate resources to support the community where they live. The support of the Philanthropy Network for Social Justice was essential for ICOM to strengthen the Coronavirus Emergency Support Line: raising awareness, mobilizing and working to retain local donors, further expanding ICOM's response capacity to the coronavirus crisis in Greater Florianópolis.
Learnings about the donor loyalty process:
The first step in the plan to retain local donors was to create a database with important information about each donor. To this end, an active search was carried out on different platforms and also on social networks (Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn).
Each of these platforms has its limitations, and this was a difficulty that the team encountered along the way. In addition to operational issues, another lesson learned is that it must be taken into account that many donors do not want to be identified and, therefore, do not share their full names when making a donation (and this must be respected).
At the same time, we spoke with communicators from organizations that are part of the Philanthropy Network for Social Justice about the challenge of retaining donors, and exchanged ideas about how this work could be done.
At the end of this active search and dialogue process, we created a database with the names of people who donated to the Line and the Bank. Of the 717 total donors, contacts for 269 were found.
Having this consolidated base, it was possible to make interesting details such as gender, legal personality and number of donations per individual or company, which is very useful when studying the public for a campaign and understanding who you are talking to. From this base, it was time to move on to some practical actions.
One of them was a round of one-on-one conversations with some of the most engaged donors. During these dialogues, they presented their views on the organization, what could improve our approaches and what would make them continue donating to ICOM.
After hearing these reports, the team prepared the next step of the campaign: an “Online Coffee with Donors”. During the event, which had 17 participants, results were presented and the organization was open to answering questions and accepting suggestions. It was an important part of the process, and joined the list of events that should be repeated on ICOM's agenda to bring the community foundation ever closer to those who donate.
Another important action that was possible to carry out through the financial support of the Philanthropy Network for Social Justice and which also served to leverage donations was a week of challenge grant during the Community Bank Christmas campaign. It worked like this: when donating R$ 1, ICOM donated more R$ 1 (up to the limit of R$ 12 thousand, with resources from the Network). During this week, almost R$ 40 thousand were mobilized – more than three times the initial target of R$ 12 thousand.
These were very important actions for ICOM as a member of the Network, as one of the lessons we learned was that there is no “magic formula” for retaining donors. Opening dialogue channels ended up being one of the most important actions. Each organization must create a strategy according to its context and audience. What we can do is share our experiences so that other organizations can also put some actions like ours into practice, adjusting to what they need, according to their own specificities. With this, we believe that each of us, community philanthropy organizations, can become stronger, grow and learn more and more together.
Find out more about all of ICOM's actions in response to the pandemic at www.icomfloripa.com.br
