Proprietary Currency or Loyalty Programs

Offer a reward that creates an emotional connection - it can generate loyalty and increase redemption

Proprietary Currency or Loyalty Programs

Are you a community-based web site that utilizes a proprietary or virtual currency as part of your business model? Do you have or operate a loyalty or recognition program that rewards customers or employees based on certain behaviours? Do you use a membership card or concept in your business?

The redemption and use of membership currency is both a challenge and an opportunity. Many loyalty programs may not create an emotional connection with your customer, and may therefore be ineffective for their intended purpose. Creating donation currency into a branded redemption alternative or membership perq that results in an empowered, tax effective donation to the charity of the user's choice is an excellent option to add to your existing business model.

The Benevity™ Solution

Benevity's secure online donation platform can easily integrate into your corporate site, membership program or currency redemption process. Using this technology, you can offer customers the opportunity to redeem your currency for your own donation currency based on a conversion ratio determined by you, without leaving your environment or introducing another brand. Customers never leave your site and any emotional connection that comes with the "feel good" and "real good" aspects of the charitable giving flow to your brand and program. Redemption of the currency can be at whatever threshold you choose, giving the opportunity for a more frequent redemption cycle, greater velocity of burn of your currency, and support for the underlying business model.

You can choose the best way to implement the Benevity embedded giving engine into your site and how to undertake a number of innovative social business initiatives that can be tied to your business strategy.

See Sample Applications

A children's site that sells proprietary currency decides to effectively rebate a portion of the purchase price as donation currency, populating their user accounts on the site with an amount equal to 50% of the purchase price for the proprietary currency. Users and their parents research the selection of their chosen charity, providing an opportunity to teach children about social values, and see the company as making an important social investment. Or existing currency could be exchangeable for donation currency, reducing breakage but increasing customer goodwill and enhancing the likelihood of continued use of the product and program.

A grocery store chain that has its own loyalty program wants to increase the level of engagement, since a customer survey discloses that very few customers use their card for anything other than inviting the discount off certain products. It decides to implement a social giving redemption reward, in which every cardholder has an account with the Benevity functionality (ie. they can create a Personal Foundation with their own chosen charities, etc. See [How it Works] above), enabling them to aggregate rebates, sales discounts and sponsor matching in the account, as well as make donations on their own at the checkout. The chain also offers donation currency for reusing bags, and uses the program to stimulate sales of certain local products with a low carbon footprint. They discover that the Giving Program drives people to both use the card more and interact with the company's website, increasing customer engagement, available analytics and loyalty, without an increase in the overall cost of operating the loyalty program. Statistics for aggregate giving to the grocery chain's chosen charities improve dramatically, as do customer satisfaction survey ratings.

The Benevity platform provides an API to connect your company’s website to the Benevity functionality, which means ease of integration, low technology risk, and a choice of features to expose on your customer-facing site.

Key Benefits

Implementing Benevity brings enhanced value to your proprietary currency as you can:

Offer customers a way to feel good and do good while using your products or services, creating an emotional connection that may generate real loyalty
Increase sales by tying giving goals to business goals and through innovative promotional, marketing, merchandising and matching initiatives
Attach sales incentives or stimulation that have a social business profile on either the corporate level, by product or empowering the customer to add a donation to their purchase
Avoid the "trinkets and trash" mindset to which many programs have resorted to improve redemption cycles
Expand the utility of your analytics by including cause choice metrics
Increase revenue through increasing the burn or redemption of your proprietary currency

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[Did you know...]

The importance of CSR is increasing in the minds of CEOs. When asked to indicate how high a priority CSR was to their companies, 56% stated it was high or very high, compared to only 34% three years ago. The expectation of respondents is for even greater priority in the future: 69% of surveyed CEOs project that it will be a high or very high priority three years from now.

Global Business Barometer, survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of the Economist, online survey conducted Nov-Dec 2007
That American Express began the first “embedded giving” campaign in 1983, for the Statue of Liberty restoration project. By donating a penny to the project for every cardholder purchase, the company raised $1.7 million. (Incidentally, American Express card use increased 27%, and card applications rose 45%).
Based on a McKinsey study of corporate executives from around the world, 84% believe that society expects a much more active role in environmental, social and political issues than it did five years ago.
When asked about barriers to supporting charities and non-profits, the top reasons cited included not being asked, not liking the way donation requests were being made, and not knowing how to give.

Corporate Social Responsibility Review Autumn 2007, The Conference Board of Canada.
Implementing the Benevity platform can improve a company's ability to attract and retain key employees. Talented personnel weigh a company's CSR policies among other factors when deciding where to work, and how long to stay there. In recent surveys of corporate employees, a consistent 8 out of 10 report being more motivated and loyal the more socially responsible a company becomes.

Corporate Social Responsibility Review, The Conference Board of Canada, Autumn 2007.
Making Benevity a part of your coherent responsible business strategy will improve your reputation in the marketplace. A Globescan study that asked respondents in 1999 and again in 2005 about the factors most influencing their impressions of companies, showed that in the latter year consumers were much more likely to volunteer corporate social responsibility factors, putting these factors well ahead of brand image.
Integrating Benevity's functionality into your systems can protect against future reputational incidents. A Weber Shandwick survey of CEOs in eleven countries found that 79% of respondents thought a strong corporate social responsibility record enables a company to recover faster post-crisis.
Weaving Benevity into your customer-facing processes can increase sales, market share and customer loyalty. A 2006 study by the Calvert Group said consumers were 77% more likely to buy a product or service from a company that is socially responsible, and 71% more likely to buy the stock of such a company. A 2006 poll by Cone Inc., a marketing agency in Boston, reported 89% of Americans between 13 and 25 would switch from one brand to another associated with a "good cause", if products and prices were comparable.
Traditionally, charities have relied on a small support base to survive. The top one-quarter of donors provided 82% of the value of all donations and the top 10% accounted for 62% of all donations.

Caring Canadians, Involved Canadians: Highlights from the 2004 Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, Statistics Canada, June 2006).
Individuals are a huge part of the philanthropic puzzle. Of the $300 Billion given to non-profits in the U.S. in 2007, only 5.1% came from corporations and their Foundations. Canada's percentages are comparable.

Analysis conducted by "Giving USA", 2007.
Online is the place people want to be: Although still less than 3% of total giving, online giving is growing exponentially; from $250 million in 2000 to more than $6.9 Billion in 2006

e-Philanthropy Report
Online donors contribute more: They give in total (both online and offline) more than 50% more than donors who do not give online

Kinterra/Luth Nonprofit Trend Report.
Easy = Effective: In the January 2008 Keystone Report of online philanthropy markets, 92% of respondents cited convenience as the reason they choose to give online.
Matching programs increase total donations: The existence of a matching gift increases total donation response rates by more than 20%

Analysis conducted by Giving USA, 2007.

Benevity - Enabling Corporate Social Responsibility

Offer a reward that creates an emotional connection - it can generate loyalty and increase redemption