From Incentive to Inspiration: Weaning Your Donors Off Incentives

Agenda: Oklahoma Blood Institute at a glance Donor Recruitment Assessment Drivers for change Steps to wean our donor base off incentives and appeal to their sense of altruism Current state Next steps Q and A

Oklahoma Blood Institute at a glance: 11 th Largest independent blood center in United States Red cell collections – Over 200,000 annually Single Donor Platelets - Approximately 38,000 Collections: 70% mobiles / 30% donor centers Self-sufficient. No blood imported since 1981 FY2008/ Largest RBC collections in OBI history

Donor Recruitment Assessment: Mobile Recruitment : Recruiters with no sales background No calendar guidelines No consistent brand No balance in fulfillment of materials requests / materials production No effective performance metrics Call Center: De-centralized Hours of operation unmatched to customer availability No tracking tools No consistent supervision No effective performance metrics There was not call center Marketing and Communications: At the whim of Mobile Recruitment No brand consistency Planned promotional blood drives Purchased media to support collection efforts Six figure t-shirt budget

What does that all have to do with Incentive Philosophy?

In the absence of core Donor Recruitment competencies, donor incentives become your donor recruitment strategy

When recruitment strategies with donors and sponsors center on incentives: Relationship development is secondary to promotion of the incentive Altruism is lost in the discussion Promotional budgets will continue to swell in attempt to “one-up” the last promotion Creativity trumps strategy Operations are complicated in execution of incentive logistics Customer service is traded for incentives The patient is lost in dialogue

Why Change?

Why change? Oklahoma Blood Institute Incentive Environment All t-shirts, all donors, all the time HUGE promotions budget Creative design of t-shirts and donor give-aways became the focus T-shirts were the donor recruitment strategy Penetration rates were stagnant Donor frequency decreasing

Event "badges of honor” donors Loyalty programs Related cause-marketing opportunities Appropriate incentives by market segment Oklahoma Blood Institute Definitions:

Disclaimer: Donor incentives will never be completely eliminated Some donor groups require incentives to feel part of an event Some donors are truly incentive-driven For some donors, particularly first-time donors, incentives (t-shirts) are part of an overall donor experience Some traditions cannot be broken Incentive items can be diversified to promote brand or behavior beyond initial donor experience

Changing the incentive culture: THE PLAN Develop alternatives to incentives with cause- related marketing opportunities Recognize your immovables and traditions Align necessary incentives with times of need Invest in skills to understand customers needs Invest in internal communications - FIRST Highlight your mission Strengthen your brand

Cause-related marketing opportunities:

Concurrent Activities Mobile Recruitment: Marketing plan process Recruitment meetings Professional Selling Skills Revamped Incentive program Holiday collection strategies Calendar Guidelines Summer Sales Contest Performance Standards Call Center: Establishment of a contact center Restructuring of department Career paths Elimination of incentive program Development of list management strategies PLAP recruitment process Marketing and Communications: Staff with key skill sets hired Two mass media campaigns Centralized production of promotion materials Brand analysis and guidelines completed

Donor Incentive Strategies – FY2010

Lessons Learned: Slow conversion to a sales culture hampered messaging with sponsors More internal communication needed, particularly with Donor Services Sponsors needed help messaging to donors why t-shirts were going away More patient-centric, brand messaging with sponsors was required Change in incentive philosophy prior to branding launch complicated donor and sponsor communications

Has conversion from donor incentives to inspiration been successful? Best RBC collections in OBI history $500,000 in expense cut from budget Penetration rates decreased across the system Donor frequency was flat Donor Center collections up dramatically over previous year Still evaluating outcomes

Next steps: Continue co-branding opportunities with other medical- related non-profit organizations Launch new branding campaign internally and externally Strengthen sales culture Enhance the donor experience

Questions?