Awards & Press

New Mexico Business Weekly, Reporter: Megan Kamerick:

SF/ABQ Donations helps businesses boost sales via donations

If Netflix can deliver DVDs to your door, surely nonprofits can get gift certificates and businesses can donate them just as easily.

That’s what ran through Tracy Hogg’s mind seven years ago, after she moved to Santa Fe from British Columbia. The former ad agency owner worked in development for the Waldorf School and quickly realized that there were many nonprofits in the city, but no central listing of nonprofit events.

So she started collecting every listing with the idea of putting them in a central place. In 2007, she launched Santa Fe Donations, and last fall she launched Albuquerque Donations.

So far, Hogg has facilitated $700,000 worth of donations in the two cities by using a system that offers businesses a way to market themselves and potentially increase customer traffic. She has 14 participating businesses in Albuquerque and 15 in Santa Fe, and plans to take the concept to markets around the country.

“What if you could give to all the events in town and you get recurring business yourself?” said Hogg. “That tweaks their imagination.”

Essentially, a business selects a package based on the number of events, from 10 to 160, paying Hogg’s company from $359.88 to $1,825.20 on top of their gift certificate costs. Hogg creates the packages and delivers them to the charities, who also send the business a receipt for tax purposes. There is no cost to the nonprofits.

The convenience has proven attractive to businesses as well as charities. Vicki Assaad, development director at Alta Mira Specialized Family Services in Albuquerque, used the company to obtain donations for the nonprofit’s annual gala.

“Special events [are] only one piece of the pie, and you don’t want to spend time going from one restaurant to another. Having a central clearinghouse makes it easier,” she said. “And everything is ready — the logo, the packaging — it’s a real time saver.”

She received donations from businesses she didn’t even know about, she added.

Jessica Daly, development director for the Children’s Grief Center, said it was a quick way to gain numerous donations, which contributed to the group’s silent auction being its most successful ever.

For business owners, it offers a way to funnel all the donation requests through one place. And it offers increased visibility. Many charitable events draw people with higher incomes, said Dennis Vik, owner of the House of Bread, which donates through Albuquerque Donations. Vik opened two years ago, the day the stock market tanked in September 2008, so the possibility for increased customer traffic to his bakery was attractive.

“I probably get three or four new clients a week,” said Pattie Christianson, owner of Spa Namaste in Santa Fe.

Her gift certificates offer a discount on various spa services. People often finish their appointment and immediately book their next one for the following month, she added. Christianson and her husband plan to open a frozen yogurt shop soon and will use Santa Fe Donations when the shop opens.

The idea is people often will spend more than the amount of the gift certificate, generating more revenue for a business, Hogg said.

Terry Keene, co-owner of the Artichoke Cafe in Albuquerque, has donated packages of 12 gift certificates through Hogg, with a face value of $25 each. They’re only good for dinner at Artichoke, so it means someone will spend more than the value of that certificate.

“It just made sense,” said Keene.

Hogg won a Business Excellence Award from the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce six months after launching Santa Fe Donations.