One of the best things you can do to increase the volume and regularity of your donations is to start a subscription box. Since subscription boxes are all about establishing and maintaining relationships over time, they’re the perfect fit for any social business or nonprofits’ efforts to raise money– especially if you already send your monthly donors a ‘thank you’ gift.
Don’t send your donors gifts? There are lots reasons to start!
Below, we’ll explain the benefits of recurring donations and a quick step-by-step guide on how you can get started.
Why Subscription Boxes?
If you’re not familiar with subscription boxes, they’ve become an increasingly popular buying behavior over the last 6 years. Here’s their search interest over time:
The model is flexible: people can subscribe to a discovery-driven subscription, like BirchBox, or a replenishment subscription, like Dollar Shave Club. In both cases, subscribers are renewed & shipped products on a recurring schedule, usually monthly.
This naturally inspires high engagement for a product, and when it comes to non-profits, subscriptions can encourage the same engagement on a monthly basis.
Consider the following four advantages:
Your donors will be more involved and satisfied
One of the most compelling reasons to use a subscription box model is that it helps retain your donors. Putting physical goods in the hands of your donors on a regular basis not only serves as a tangible “thank you”, but it also helps your donors feel involved in your process. That can lead to more donations per donor than any standard 1-off donation model.
There’s no one “right” thing to include
What you put into your box is entirely up to you! That means you can include shirts to promote your organization, personalized cards, pictures, or informational handouts to keep your donors updated on your projects and impact. It can be anything you think your audience would enjoy. Ideally, it should be driven by the category of your non-profit and directly related to the donations they provide on an ongoing basis.
Subscriptions provide predictable revenue without aggressive marketing
Estimating revenue and how much donations you can expect to receive each month is much easier with a recurring revenue model. Having donors choose an ongoing donation plan can drastically increase their lifetime value (the amount given over the duration of their relationship with your non-profit). In contrast to aggressive marketing campaigns, a subscription box can casually serve to encourage an otherwise one-time donor to become a recurring one.
Bottom line: This means, every month you’ll know how many recurring donors you have and roughly how much money you’ll bring in from donations each month, all without the headache of constant marketing efforts.
You don’t even have to call it a subscription box!
Rather than asking donors to “buy” or “subscribe”, you can simply offer them rewards for donating.
Example: “Donate $15 dollars a month and receive a small collection of gifts every month as a thank you”
How do I start my donation subscription box?
1. Figure out what will go inside your box
Although this could change every month, this is the first thing you have to get in order. Will you provide each new donor with the same thing the first month? Or will you give them whatever you send out that month?
A good idea can be to use this as a platform to send your donors merchandise to help market your organization — t-shirts, reusable bags, hats, stickers, and other branded material. You can also use this as a medium to keep your donors updated through pictures, cards, and events!
Also, consider offering a different selection of items for different “tiers” of donation. For higher paying donors, you can include larger, more valuable items.
2. Determine Your Packaging
While it’s called a subscription “box”, feel free to think outside of, you know, the box. You can send your donors anything– a bubble mailer, box, an envelope, a tube, a freight truck, canister, or whatever else will fit what you’re sending out!
Cratejoy offers boxes you can buy at a pretty competitive price (just 88 cents a box if you buy at least 50)!
3. Sort Out Shipping & Fulfillment
Choosing the right box size is a big part of the operation. Small boxes are cheaper to ship, but limit the size of products that can be included. Larger boxes have plenty of space, but can be difficult to fill each month.
Start by getting an idea of shipping rates. Cratejoy has a calculator that helps estimate the price of shipping with different box sizes and weights. If you would like to keep shipping costs under $10 per box, you’ll need to be careful about the weights and dimensions of your products.
Once you have a rough idea of shipping costs, purchase some sample boxes (or envelopes, or tubes, or whatever else suits you) that fit within your shipping price range and see if the products fit comfortably.
For fulfillment, Cratejoy offers a list of recommended fulfillment partners. On a per package basis, you should estimate roughly $1-2 per box in cost. Alternatively, packing a few 100 boxes is achievable in just a few hours, and by using your own staff, you can get inspiring photos to share with your donors and on social media.
4. Take Great Photos
Getting your finished box together is a good feeling, so don’t forget to take pictures! People are more likely to trust websites when there are high-quality, high-resolution pictures.
Here are some tips:
- Take pictures with even light & composure
- Use an arrangement of colors that pop or resemble that of your brand
- Capture some sort of emotion or feeling in your images.
To see more on how to take product photos, read our guide about how to improve product photos.
Oh, and don’t forget to share your pictures. Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest– whatever you find works best for your organization! Campaigns with pictures are 42% more likely to be clicked!
5. Add your box to your Donation page
Even if you already have a donation page on your website, Cratejoy can still fit seamlessly with your existing website. We suggest adding a button to your donation page, or separate menu option, with a direct URL to your Cratejoy checkout.
Need help? Check out our guide on how to add Cratejoy to any existing website or store.
Just remember, Cratejoy requires you to have fixed prices. While you can accept some variations (like t-shirt size, or color preferences), each subscription product has a fixed price. Of course, you can have as many subscription products as you’d like, with varying durations.
6. Collect your donations & Manage Subscribers
Cratejoy was built to make managing subscriptions incredibly easy.
In the backend of your store, Cratejoy intelligently sorts shipments, allows you to purchase postage, and manage subscriber accounts — including providing refunds, processing cancellations, updating addresses, and any other changes a recurring donor may need.
Get Started on Your Recurring Donations
On behalf of all of us here at Cratejoy, thank you! Thank you for working hard to make the world a better place for all of us.
