Use Case: More help for ill children thanks to the donation store of the AKM Foundation
Give help with a donation – in the new donation store of the AKM Foundation
Since 2004, we, the Outpatient Children’s Hospice Foundation Munich (AKM), have been caring for families with terminally ill and life-threateningly seriously ill unborn babies, newborns, children, adolescents and young adults in Munich and throughout Bavaria. Our team of full-time doctors, psychologists, nurses, curative educators, therapists and social workers is supported by over 300 volunteers in the areas of family support, crisis intervention and public relations. Our goal is to be a firm support for affected families during this difficult time and to provide moments of safety, security and normality. In order to achieve this, we rely on donations, because only about one third of our services are subsidized by health insurance companies.
A new way to donate to the AKM
After months of planning and numerous hours of text and graphics, we were able to offer our donors a new online donation option at the end of 2020, in addition to our existing online donation tools of the FundraisingBox: the AKM Donation Shop. There they have the opportunity to donate symbolic gifts to the AKM Foundation and thus to the families we support.
The gifts offered there represent products/services that we need and offer as part of our daily foundation work in our operational service areas. The special feature: When donating a symbolic gift in the donation store, donors receive a donation certificate to print out (and give on) – whether for Christmas, a birthday or no occasion at all.
Why use a donation store?
Until now, interested donors had, among other things, the opportunity to make an individual donation to the AKM Foundation by bank transfer or via our online forms. With a donation in the donation store, in addition to themselves, they can now also give a friend, family member or work colleague a treat and give them the feeling of a benefit by passing on their donation via a lovingly designed donation certificate.
At the same time, we would like to continue to help as many families as possible with seriously or terminally ill children and adolescents or an ill parent in the future and expand our support services. From 2021 onwards, we hope that the donation store will generate additional income from donations, which will make this possible – and also safeguard us in the event of a corona crisis.
Example: This is what the donation certificate looks like, which you can give away after making a donation via the AKM Foundation donation store.
Implementation with the Charity Shop of the FundraisingBox
For years we have been using the FundraisingBox as a management tool for our donor data and incoming donations. Donations via the online donation form flow into it, as do donations from online fundraising campaigns or standard transfers that are synchronized with the FundraisingBox. With the Charity Shop of the FundraisingBox, all donations received via our new donation store are now also managed in it.
At checkout, the point at which donors have placed their chosen gifts to our foundation in the shopping cart and wish to pay for them, the FundraisingBox donation form comes into play. From here on, all data (personal data of the donor, selected gifts, donation amount) flows into the FundraisingBox and can thus be managed and evaluated by us together with all other incoming donations. The payment process remains consistent across all online donation options of the AKM Foundation, including in the donation store.
Because every cent counts: Small and large donations
Our donation store can be reached at https://www.kinderhospiz-muenchen.de/spendenshop/. The offers listed there, as well as the materials needed, range from a hygiene protection set for a small amount of €2.50 to a siblings’ day for €600. After donors have selected their gift(s) and “paid” via online form, they receive a personalized thank-you email as well as their donation certificate, with an individual greeting message for the certificate recipient if desired. A wonderful way to make others happy and to do something good at the same time. And our supporters see it that way, too: As part of our 2020 Christmas campaign, the donation store has already been very well received – in November & December 2020 alone, 1280 gifts were given by private individuals and companies in the donation store. We are very happy about this!
Hand in hand to the new donation store
At this point, we would like to thank the team of FundraisingBox, who accompanied us during the last months and ensured a smooth donation process during the Christmas season. Furthermore, these thanks also go to the NeoDesign agency, who also supported us in the implementation of the donation store and programmed it for us and got it running in coordination with the FundraisingBox.
– Simone Kraus, Head of Fundraising Foundation Outpatient Children’s Hospice Munich