‘Daily Deal’ Businesses Sprout Nationwide to Spotlight Local Charities
By Michelle Gienow
By now pretty much everyone
knows the drill: Every morning like clockwork, a sweet deal
appears in your e-mail inbox
for, say, 50 percent off a meal
at an upscale restaurant or a
“buy one, get one free” offer for
yoga classes or a hot stone massage at a trendy downtown day
spa.
In an increasing number of
American cities, however, a
“deal of the day” message may
arrive on behalf of a local char-
People in their 20s
are “the first for
whom money is
not cash but rather
a virtual thing.”
ity. And while purchasers still
get to enjoy super savings,
some—or even all—of the money they spend goes to benefit the
nonprofit organization.
The new local efforts—
mounted by at least a half-dozen companies, some of which operate
in multiple cities—represent
attempts to adapt the Groupon
model to a new fundraising tool,
giving small charities a better
chance at reaching a large number of donors, especially young
ones. These “deal of the day”
sites are raising money—
occasionally significant amounts, for
hometown charities. But even
as more nonprofits benefit from
the trend, some experts and observers question whether it can
sustain itself.
Recoup, a company in Washington that offers 50,000 subscribers a daily chance to
support charities, rewards donors with discount deals at local businesses.
‘The Big Give’
Groupon itself has begun to
sponsor periodic fundraising
drives for charities it selects to
be part of its G-Team. Through
the promotions, Groupon or an-
other company matches the
donations made by individu-
als. But “getting your charity
selected for a G-Team promo-
tion would be like winning the
lotto—lucrative, but the odds
aren’t really in your favor,” says
Joe Waters, a consultant who
helps charities fashion promo-
tions with businesses and a co-
author of Cause Marketing for
Dummies.
Ms. McDonald and Ms. Fal-cone founded the for-profit
GiveCorps after both spent
years volunteering.
“Both Beth and I served on
boards for quite a few nonprofit
groups in Baltimore, and we saw
that every charity targeted the
same handful of foundations,
corporations, and wealthy in-
dividuals,” says Ms. McDonald.
“We see a coming sea-change
in the world of philanthropy, as
Generation Y comes into ma-
turity in terms of its members’
ability to give. The shift is go-
ing to be huge,” she adds, part-
ly because of the sheer size of
that young generation but also
because it’s “the first for whom
money is not cash but rather a
virtual thing.”
In November, Luca Pivato,
started Recoup, a Washing-
ton company that also seeks to
raise money for local charities
via daily-deal announcements,
which currently reach 50,000
subscribers. He did so, he says,
in part because he saw that
charities hold the key to their
own fund-raising success—and
are mostly failing to use it.
“Every little bit helps
these days. Better
still, it’s not an ‘ask’
and then another
‘ask’ to our donors.”
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The means by which “daily
deal” companies find the charities that ultimately benefit from
their enterprise are similar
across the country. All of them
reach out to nonprofits directly,
and many encourage their subscribers to recommend favorite
local charities, often through a
button on the marketers’ Web
site.
Hanna Mast, a development
associate at a Baltimore group
called Moveable Feast, says
she’s sold on the approach taken
by GiveCorps. She worked with
the company to raise donations
for her organization, which delivers meals to people who are
homebound due to illness.
“Our first project with
GiveCorps was to raise enough
money to provide 555 meals—
my small support can be mean-
ingful.”
Sandy Henshue, events direc-
tor at Gilda’s Club Madison, a
Wisconsin nonprofit that offers
emotional support to cancer pa-
tients and their families, first
paired her group with Commu-
nity Change, a Madison site,
more than a year ago. Commu-
nity Change sells gift cards that
people can use to pay for goods
and services at a discount at
participating local merchants,
and 20 percent of each purchase
goes to designated local chari-
ties.
