December, 2010
Press Release: U.S. Nonprofits Recommend Top Fundraising and Donor Management Solutions Three fundraising and donor management products have recently been honored with Campbell Awards for exceptional customer feedback. Award winners were those with the highest proportion of customers saying they
would recommend the product to others.
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Author: Justin Cross
Prize drawings can be a great way to get peoples’ attention. Campbell Rinker uses prize drawings to thank those that participate in our research. They are also used for other purposes, such as making events more exciting. Whatever the reason for the drawing, it’s important to pick great prizes since desirable prizes should result in a successful drawing. This article gives advice on how to select prizes and conduct drawings, and provides data on the popularity of a variety of different prizes based on our experiences at Campbell Rinker.
When Campbell Rinker provides a variety of prizes for a drawing, we typically give people the opportunity to select the prize that they are most interested in. Doing this provides several benefits. First, those that enter our drawings know that if they win, they will receive a prize they actually want. Second, we feel that this type of engagement increases the likelihood that potential survey participants will begin a survey and complete it. Last, this allows us to track the popularity of different prizes, overall and with specific groups (different ages, genders, etc.).
Since Campbell Rinker is using the prize drawings for research purposes, we work to avoid respondent bias that the prizes may introduce. What do I mean by that? Basically, we want to make sure that the selection of prizes we offer are appealing to all of the different types of people that we’re interested in. For example, if we’re conducting a study where we would like a significant number of Quakers to respond, providing a selection of prizes limited to electronic gadgets will undermine our efforts. But even if you aren’t conducting research, you should make sure you’ve got something for everyone.
Below you can see how popular a variety of different prizes were that Campbell Rinker has provided to survey participants in three different studies.
In the first drawing, two items were extremely popular and three were extremely unpopular. While it’s not necessary for every item you offer to be equally popular, you should avoid items that are downright undesirable. So for future drawings, Campbell Rinker is avoiding perfume, tools, and men’s jewelry/watches.
First Drawing
Description & Type of Entries: 3,848 individuals employed at nonprofits
Date of Survey: September, 2009
Apple iPod Nano (8GB, Blue) |
41% |
TomTom ONE XL Bluetooth GPS Navigator |
34% |
$50 in Starbucks Giftcards |
14% |
Denali 79-Piece Drill Accessory Set |
6% |
Pierre Cardin Men’s Watch |
2% |
Dolce & Gabbana “The One” Perfume for women |
1% |
Declined participation in the drawing |
2% |
The second and third drawings were both for the same items. With the group for the second drawing being made up of college-aged individuals, and the third group consisting of older individuals that previously graduated from college, one might think their interest in the different items would be quite varied. But their interest in the items were very similar, with the exception that the college students were much more likely to turn down entry to the drawing (this may have been due to the fact that these were primarily religious college students that are interested in missionary work).
Second Drawing
Description & Type of Entries: 8,797 college-age respondents
Date of Survey: January, 2010 and August/Sept. 2010
Third Drawing
Description & Type of Entries: 547 college alumni
Date of Survey: May, 2010
|
Second Drawing |
Third Drawing |
$100 American Express gift card |
39% |
38% |
iPod Touch (8 GB) |
28% |
31% |
Samsung SL202 10MP Digital Camera |
10% |
8% |
Garmin nüvi 4.3-Inch Widescreen GPS Navigator |
9% |
11% |
Calphalon Commercial 9-Piece Cookware Set |
8% |
9% |
Declined participation in the drawing |
6% |
2% |
For the second and third drawings, we consider all of the items to be a success (though 8% is starting to get a bit low). As you can see, cash is king. But popular gizmos such as iPods and car GPS navigation units also typically do well. Even though electronics are popular, make sure to also have non-electronic prizes, otherwise interest in the items won’t be as universal as it would be with a more diverse set of prizes.
Below are some interesting facts that we gleaned from looking more closely at the data from these studies…
- The digital camera was twice as popular with females as it was with males
- Those with children in the home were much more likely than those with no children to choose the iPod, and much less likely to choose the $100 American Express card
- Those that are unemployed were much more likely to choose the American Express card
- Middle-income households were less likely than higher-income households to select the iPod, but more likely to select the cookware set
- The GPS unit was equally popular with all of the groups we looked at (males vs. females, those with and without children, etc.), which means it doesn’t introduce any obvious bias
A few additional tips for your prize drawings…
- Allow people to select the prize that they would like to win most, as opposed to entering every person to win every item
- Prizes of cash, or cash equivalents (examples listed below), are often most popular and are usually equally appealing to all. But if you’re with a not-for-profit type organization, you need to be wary of being seen as giving away money.
- Pre-paid debit cards
- Amazon.com credit
- Giftcards for places that have something for everyone, such as Walmart, Target, etc.
- If you need to ship prizes to the winners, try to select prizes that are smaller in size and don’t weigh too much. This will save you a lot of money on shipping charges. Also, avoid perishable and very breakable items. Luckily most electronics have shipping-friendly packaging.
- If you are going to have an unusually large number of winners (e.g. the first 100 people that download your white paper, 50 randomly selected respondents to your survey, etc.), consider providing Amazon.com credit. During the order process, Amazon allows you to batch order every credit due in one swoop just by pasting in a list of email addresses for the winners. This can save you both time and money on postage and shipping.
- Make sure you have prizes that appeal to all groups that you are trying to please. And avoid incentives that work against the goals of your project. Several examples are listed below…
- If you were conducting a national survey, you wouldn’t want to give away a giftcard for a local store in New York. That would probably bias the results towards New York residents, because they would probably respond in greater numbers.
- You wouldn’t want to rely solely on giftcards to Starbucks if you wanted to appeal to those in more rural areas who might not have a Starbucks in their area.
- If you wanted to survey alumni in an effort to better understand how those that give to the university are different than those that do not, incentivizing respondents with university-branded gear wouldn’t be advisable. The merchandise would be much more popular with those that have affinity with the university (i.e. donors).
- If the drawing is for a not-for-profit type organization, then you might be able to get the prizes donated- especially if you are approaching local businesses and the drawing is for a local project that will get the businesses some exposure.
Prize drawings can be a great way to draw interest and thank those that help you in some way. But don’t let your selection of prizes undermine your efforts. A little planning at the outset can help ensure that your endeavor is a success.
