SOLIDARITY GIFTS
Petra NEDBALKOVA
Have you ever thought
of giving someone a cow ? Or a mosquito net ? Or a toilet ?
If you cannot help 100 people, at least
help one! Or Would you like to give a different gift, especially one
that makes a difference ? These are devises of NGOs proposing different
kinds of Solidarity Gifts.
What is a Solidarity /
Humanitarian Gift ?
The concept varies depending on the
NGO’s Solidarity Gift concept, but the principal idea is the same. It’s a way of helping a child or family in
need by giving them a concrete useful gift in the name of someone
(your family member, friend,
colleague…). The Gifts are aiming at the communities with which NGOs are
working in the developing world.
How does it function in practice
?
It
is simple : you consult the NGO’s Solidarity Gift Catalogue on the Internet, you
choose a gift you like (because you find it interesting, useful or original : for
example a cow, school supplies, vaccines…) and you pay online. Then, the chosen present will go symbolically
to your relative or friend who will receive a card / postcard and, basically, will benefit a destitute family
or a child of an area where NGO works. Or you can just buy a Solidarity Gift «
for yourself », just because you like the idea, without giving a card or photo
of it to someone.
The
form of the Gift Card depends on the NGO Solidarity Gift (SG)
concept: sometimes it’s just a card with the NGO logo and an image representing
a family in need, sometimes it’s a
signed photograph, etc. Sometimes you can also add a personal touch to your Gift Card by choosing the image or by
writing a personal message to a relative or friend who will
receive the card.
Once bought and paid online, the
gift is supposed to be given to a beneficiary family or child in one of the
NGO’s country of intervention. NGOs
want a donor to be able to give unusual
and beautiful gifts that not only will make
his family and friends happy but, most of all, will be useful for other
people in need. This way you can make three persons happy at the
same time: yourself, the person who gets the present, a child or a family (or a
community) in need.
What about Solidarity Gift journey
monitoring
Gifts
can be bought in the country of
origin of the NGO (in France in
case of a French NGO) and then sent to the field or it can be bought directly in the country of a
development programme (which is better for the local economy development). For
example one of the French
NGOs offers Solidarity Gifts Catalogue in all
countries where it has
development programmes. Once its local staff identify the most vulnerable
families’ needs and quantify the number of gifts, then the gifts demand is sent
to the headquarters in France, which will try to advertise the gifts demanded by the field.
The purchase
of a Solidarity Gift is supposed to make
a lasting impact on the individuals,
families and communities with which the NGOs are working all over the
world. The problem is a potential Solidarity Gift donor has to believe in NGOs
promises : apart from a photo of a gift - in the case of some NGOs, but not all
NGOs - there is no other evidence proving the present was really given to a
family in a developing country, so the donor has no possibility to verify the
gift journey process. That is a pity, because if the donors could identify the exact beneficiary family,
it would surely increase the number of Solidarity Gifts sold.
Unfortunately,
as one of the French NGO
proposing Solidarity Gifts List states, it is money and time consuming to ensure a gift journey monitoring : for example to send an NGO field staff to take picture of the
gift with the beneficiary family and then post it to the headquarters.
Place of Solidarity Gifts within NGO
Marketing Strategy / Marketing game
Let’s not forget the role of consumer in the Solidarity Gifts selling process. Solidarity Gifts marketing strategy answers to
a change of donors’
behavior which occurred during the last years. Actually, an ordinary consumer is a « donor-participant
/ involved donor »,
he/she is no more passive ; he/she is both donor and participant concerning a donation. In other words, a « donor-participant / involved
donor » is no more giving
money without thinking or asking for whom and for what
purpose it will be used, on the contrary, he/she more and more demands concrete
proofs about its utilization. So
we can observe an ordinary donor makes currently the same requests
as an ordinary consumer. His/her donation is no more an act of « generosity for free », but rather
considered as an « investment », a kind of « involved generosity », because he/she is expecting
to have information about his/her donation
in return.
Solidarity Gifts offer answers to specific field needs : an individual
need of a child/family in developing countries, but also to an expectation
of consumers’ behavior demanding concrete proofs about using their donation. Thus SG meet at the same time the requirements
of both field and consumer in order to maintain the balance between supply and
demand.
Solidarity Gifts
Market
The Solidarity Gift Market has been considerably developed during
the last years; many
International NGOs have their own
original Solidarity Gift offer. The most known are Unicef,
Oxfam, World Vision, Plan, SOS Enfants, Aide et
Action, Elevages sans
frontières, etc. Potential donors can choose within a large-scale
Solidarity Gifts offer. The most of Solidarity Gifts are not seasonal: any occasion can be a Solidarity Gift moment. NGOs
propose presents for every pocket and
for every occasion : Birthday, Christmas,
Saint Valentine’s Day, Mother’s and Father’s Day, weddings (wedding gifts list),
etc. There are just some examples :
-
Unicef (many
types & categories of SG; e.g. vaccine cooler box, jeep, etc.)
-
Oxfam
(many types & categories of SG; e.g. set of tools for victims of
natural disasters)
-
Vision
du Monde France (6
categories of SG : food, water, health, education, environment, liberty ; e.g.
toilet, solar panels for a medical center, etc.)
-
Babyloan (proposes
a Gift Passport: a « voucher for a solidarity loan » which will helps a
microentrepreneur to expand his/her activity)
-
Elevage
sans frontières (is selling « a breeding animal pack »
including the animal, its transport, beneficiary’s training, etc.)
In the era of consumerism, Solidarity Gifts represent
ideal gifts for those who ran out of ideas but still want their present to be meaningful. Maybe you have
never thought to give a cow or a tree plant as present but they can be a good gift for many
families.
Bibliography
No comments:
Post a Comment