A CREATIVE WAY TO RAISE FUNDS AND AWARENESS
Hair Wars — A Marketing Win for a Spay and Neuter Non-Profit
Tackling pet overpopulation one clip and snip at a time
As a board officer for a local non-profit spay and neuter clinic, I lead the marketing committee. Our job was to create new ways to raise awareness about pet overpopulation while getting the word out about the services we offered to mitigate the problem.
We were also tasked with coming up with fundraising ideas to bring in desperately needed dollars.
We always needed to Get Our Paws on Money!
Ironically, we were victims of our own success.
We’d been so successful in letting people know they could “alter” their pets at our low-cost/no-cost clinic, we were inundated with appointments from elderly pet owners who didn’t pay anything due to their fixed incomes.
The clinic offered low-cost services (half of what most vets charged) to people meeting certain income levels, and free services to people 65 and over.
Luckily, local veterinarians didn’t see us as competition. In fact, many of them sent us clients and several performed volunteer surgeries on a regular basis.
However, we operated just like a for-profit clinic. We had paid staff, office rental, equipment and surgery expenditures, and a staff veterinarian.
We were constantly behind the eight-ball when it came to funding.
The more surgeries performed, the more resources were used. As resources gushed out we had to quickly replenish them so more surgeries could be performed.
Sometimes it felt like an unbeatable battle — like we were only making a splash into an ocean of need — but we kept persevering because of our collective love of animals.
And we had the conviction that every surgery meant dozens, if not hundreds, of animals wouldn’t be added to the overpopulation boom already overwhelming our city.
An idea is born
While brainstorming one afternoon during my daily walk I recalled hearing about a friendly competition that was held between a handful of hair salons in another city.
I didn’t know the whole story, but it was along the lines of a prize that was presented to the salon that donated the most money to help out with the funding of some equipment for a children’s theater.
We could do that, I thought. And within five minutes the idea of Hair Wars was born.
I ran the rest of the way home and pounded out some ideas on my computer. That evening I emailed members of the marketing committee urging them to meet me the next afternoon regarding a fundraising idea.
We met at a local pub, and after everyone’s wine order was taken I presented my idea for Hair Wars.
There were only a few skeptics but I was already prepared for them. The previous evening I tried to imagine every argument against it and how it could be resolved.
Sometimes I wondered why certain individuals volunteered for this committee — or why they wanted to serve on the board, for that matter. I could always count on these nay-saying Debbie Downers to spell out numerous reasons why something couldn’t be done.
One of them dolefully warned, “Salon managers would never go for this — they’re too busy and wouldn’t have time.”
Another one piped up, “What about collecting the money? Who would pick it up? What if it gets stolen?”
“First of all,” I began — having already anticipated these arguments, “we don’t know if the salons will participate or not — but we can find out, can’t we? I know my salon would — all the girls there are animal lovers.”
I looked hard at “Ivy.”
“I guess maybe your salon wouldn’t want to participate, but that’s OK. There are hundreds in the city that would love to get involved. We’ll generate some great PR around it and the salons will be heroes.”
Ivy quickly backtracked. “No, my salon girls are animal lovers, too. They would probably go for it.”
Regarding the money collection and possible theft — I delivered my rehearsed response. “Yes, we’ll need a system to pick up donations weekly. Regarding theft, that’s just something we hopefully won’t have to deal with but if someone steals our donations there’s not much we can do.”
The other three committee members were on board and enthused.
We spent the next hour fleshing out details and adding ideas which I included in the proposal that we presented at the upcoming board meeting.
At the board meeting I laid out our plan — what we’d need to do, the personnel involved, volunteers required, and associated expenses.
They loved the idea, and we got 100% approval to move forward.
Hair Wars was launched — and here’s how we did it
Our aim was to get fifty hair salons to participate in raising money for the spay and neuter clinic. We would conduct the promotion over a period of one month, and whoever raised the most money would receive an award.
They would need to allow us to place an acrylic collection container next to their cash register. It would be decorated with artwork explaining the promotion and where their customer’s donations would go.
Stylists would be asked to talk up the Hair Wars competition with their pet-loving clients and encourage them to contribute.
It was important to instill the sense of competition into all participants.
We enlisted 55 salons without breaking a sweat!
A graphic artist who worked with us previously designed the logo and other collateral items that branded the Hair Wars promotion.
Around 200 17" x 11" posters were printed and two or three were placed in each salon. Others were put up wherever we got permission.
Other posters landed in windows of local retailers and veterinary offices. The smaller cards were used to put in the “window” of the collection boxes.
At the end of the month, donations were to be tabulated and awards presented to the top three salons.
The highest earning salon would receive an engraved plaque and second and third place winners would be awarded framed certificates.
To get things rolling, a special Hair Wars committee was organized to carry out specific activities. One group was dispatched to visit participating salons and set up their collection box and posters.
Another group visited the salons weekly and brought back whatever donations they’d received.
We also wanted the salons to stay enthusiastic. They knew who their competitors were and often the owner or manager asked how they were measuring up so far.
We had to be careful not to brag on any one salon or show any favoritism.
The fact was, several salons were very into it and were determined to win. Some of these had their owners writing large checks and sticking them into the collection boxes.
During the four weeks, we promoted the event to our clients and to everyone we came into contact with.
I sent out two rounds of press releases and persuaded a few writers and their photographers to visit some of the salons for stories.
I appeared on one of the early-morning TV shows to talk about the event and went on a couple of local radio talk shows.
The hardest part of the promotion was collecting the weekly donations. The committee charged with that task had only five members — they needed twice that amount.
It turned out that picking up money from 55 hair salons all over the city was extremely time consuming — not to mention the gas involved. But somehow it got done.
Within a week I realized we’d need to get certificates of appreciation ready for our volunteers. They worked their asses off.
Was it worth it?
You bet.
Here’s what our expenses looked like.
- 55 acrylic collection boxes — First quote was $12.99 per unit, but with a volume and non-profit discount we got it down to $9.99, which totaled $549.00. This was our single biggest expense.
- Graphic artist — $200.00. This was a steal. But he was an animal lover and always gave us a great deal.
- Collateral printing — $150.00. Our printer also provided a deep discount. His wife worked at one of the participating salons, which didn’t hurt.
- Awards — $150.00. This included the plaque, two framed certificates for the salons, and the additional certificates for our volunteers.
There were probably some other costs not listed but the whole promotion was roughly $1,050 to $1,150.
How much did we bring in? Almost $12,000.
Some salons did better than others, but when broken down, they averaged about $218 per salon. Per week, it was just over $50. A few salons raised almost $1,000 by themselves. The winner brought in $1,200.
All in all, Hair Wars was a success. It was a fun promotion that put a nice chunk of change into our effects to reduce pet overpopulation.
And that was a Win/Win for everyone.
