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| Logo Image: Right Gift |
As a nonprofit professional, I’ve had the opportunity to plan and execute programming events. My most recent, was a community event that included a 5k walk and runs. While there were many people involved in the event planning, I led the donations and sponsorship committee. Imagine, I had to start by creating a list of in-kind and sponsorship items for my committee members to ask - drawstring bags, fruits, t-shirts, water - just to name a few. I wanted to make sure we treated our runners and community participants well. However, It was challenging getting the donors and sponsors for the items we needed. This was very frustrating that I told myself the next time we hosted a community event, I would make sure we had more donor resources. Then, RightGift became introduced to me.
RightGift is a Benefit Corporation that offers nonprofit organizations, businesses, and people the ability to create a wish list of specific items to meet their critical needs. To create a wishlist, you have to register as a user to create your campaign (i.e. event or personal wish list). After you’ve created your campaign, RightGift has a variety of funders such as businesses, people, and retailers, that give to your wish list. The wish list helps to relieve the burden of having a donor go to the store to buy an item then drop it off to you. To illustrate, if you are a nonprofit organizing a back-to-school event, you can create a wish list with all the supplies you want to give to families at your event. RightGift helps to make it easier for you to receive the donations on your wishlist, so you can focus your attention on other direct solicitation and sponsorship opportunities. Overall, RightGift is a tool for you to seamlessly transition from your daily hustle of the “ask” to an actual donation because the donor can give directly on-line to your wishlist.
Additionally, RightGift makes it easy for you to engage with your community. You can send an email blast to coworkers with the link to your campaign, share on social media, and get others to do the same. The beautiful part of these engagement strategies is that once it's shared online, you can reach friends of friends across the country that wouldn't typically be able to give. It's also worth mentioning that RightGift provides you, as the campaign organizer, with the donor’s information. As a corporation, they understand that it is important for nonprofits, or an individual organizing an annual drive, to maintain relationships with donors. Note: Amazon wish list or similar platforms don't offer this perk.
When I plan my community event later this year, I will use RightGift as ONE of the many tools to make my event a success. It’s exciting to know that as I am busy making the “ask," businesses and people are willing to give on-line to make sure I have all the specific items to meet my critical needs. Checkout RightGift for your next campaign event needs!