A Horse of a Different Color

A Horse of a Different Color

Jan. 24, 2006

By Abny Santicola, associate editor, FundRaising Success

Farmers aren't the only ones "branding" livestock anymore. Heifer International does it. And so does Food for the Poor. Both organizations send out catalogs to past donors and prospects through which they can purchase goats, chickens, cows and other farm/ranch animals as a donation to a needy family, most often in Third World countries.

"Abstract gifts" is what Angel Aloma, executive director of Food for the Poor, calls them. Gifts can be made in honor of friends or family members, who receive cards announcing that donations were made in their names. Those who receive the animals use them for labor or for milk, eggs and cheese, which they can use to feed their families and sell to make extra income.

One challenge of such a program is that, unlike most direct-mail reply forms that can be barcoded so that they can be run through a machine to track donations automatically, each purchase must be processed manually because the organization doesn't know what each person will buy from that catalog, Aloma says.

A tip Aloma shares with nonprofit organizations interested in setting up a cataloging program such as this is to make sure you're prepared for fulfillment.

"If you send out a catalog of that nature and you get an overwhelming response and you're not prepared in donor processing and you're not prepared in customer service and you're not prepared in your mailroom to send out the cards in a timely manner, you might actually get more donors who are angry because of mismanagement than those who have good will toward your organization," he says.

Angel Aloma can be reached via http://www.foodforthepoor.org