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Frequently-Asked-Questions about eFundraising How much did you spend on eRetail last year? What if those purchases could have also counted towards supporting your cause? What if you could generate contributions just by doing what you already do—shop online? And it wouldn't cost anything extra. Find out how you can generate more money with an eMall from these Frequently Asked Questions. If your question isn’t answered below, please email us at info@sparhawkcorp.com or call your local Sparhawk representative.
What is an eMall? What is an eMall? An eMall is essentially a portal. It’s the site (hosted by Sparhawk) that sits between your member and the online store they want to shop. Most of the Top 500 US eRetailers have partnered with Sparhawk and you choose which ones best fit your eMall. We brand your eMall to match the look and feel of your organization’s web site. It contains an alphabetical list of the eRetail stores you’d like to include as well as categories to shop by, such as home and garden, travel or electronics. It also features eMall-only specials, such as discounts or free shipping. The eMall also provides a way for Sparhawk to track your members’ purchase amounts and the name of the store they bought from. Sparhawk collects only these two pieces of information for the sole purpose of linking a contribution to your organization. With this information, we report your monthly totals and send you a contribution check! For your members’ privacy and security, Sparhawk never collects personal information. How does the eMall work? Members simply click to your eMall first and then click from there to the online store they want to shop. For example, instead of going directly to www.amazon.com, your members would get to Amazon by first going to your eMall, and then clicking the Amazon link or Amazon promotion that is provided on your eMall. Members don’t pay anything extra by shopping through your eMall and there are eMall specials every month. How do my members access the eMall? There are several easy ways members can access your eMall by:
Why should I spend my time deploying Sparhawk’s eFundraising Program? First of all, it's FREE! Even better, it can help you generate more contributions with virtually no risk or barrier to entry. Plus, Sparhawk builds, custom brands and supports your eMall. Why wouldn’t you want to deploy an eMall as another way for supporters to help you carry out your important cause? Your members want to support you. Give them a new and easy way to get involved. How much money can I potentially generate through eFundraising? Millions. Your contribution potential depends on how many members you have. See ROI chart below. What if each one of your members is worth $19.65 and you had 50,000 members? That would mean $982,500 in new money raised if you deploy an eMall. In 2005, US Census data reported that $149.3 billion was spent online; up 24.6% from 2004. Online sales are projected to increase to $349 billion by 2010. It's only by adopting eFundraising that you can capture some of these huge dollars. (See Raise Millions). And it's only going to get better since more and more people with shop online as the years go by. eCommerce will be marked by innovations that will make online shopping easier and more engaging. That means your same eFundraising program will return more money year after year. And it won't cost you anything.  What are the benefits, and negatives, of implementing Sparhawk’s eMall? There are so many benefits when you implement an eMall from Sparhawk—for both you and your members. And really, there are no negatives. One negative could be that your members don’t like or trust shopping the internet. However, the US Census reported that more people are shopping online more often, especially around the holidays. In fact, $149 billion was spent online in 2005, and spending is expected to increase to $349 billion by 2010. Here are some incredible benefits to implementing an eMall:
How does an eMall provide another income stream to my organization? Every time a member makes a purchase through your eMall, a contribution is automatically generated for your organization. Every single dollar counts every single time. It’s that simple. As more and more members shop your eMall, and as online shopping sales continue to increase every year by 25%, your return on investment becomes even higher. Who makes the contributions? Sparhawk's eRetail partners do. Sparhawk has partnered with most of the online stores that are popular and trusted for their quality products, services and excellence in customer service. Every time your members make a purchase through your eMall, the eRetailer gives anywhere from $1 to 26% of the purchase price to your organization. The average contribution is 3% and the highest is 26%. Expensive marketing is taking more and more margin away from eRetailers. Contributing a percentage of eMall purchases is a much less costly way for eRetailer to attract and retain loyal customers. It’s based on affinity marketing which has been a proven practice for decades. In addition, these stores want to do their part in giving back to the community by supporting a cause like yours. Why are there no costs to my organization or its members? Because Sparhawk’s eRetailer partners make it possible to offer everything for free. They pay both your organization and Sparhawk every time a transaction goes through the eMall. In addition, Sparhawk has created a streamlined method to build and brand each eMall, producing cost-minimizing economies of scale. What eRetailers are featured in my eMall and how much does each contribute? You choose the eRetail partners that will best fit your eMall. We help you analyze and select them. Since there are too many eRetail partners to list here, please ask for the full list by calling or emailing your Sparhawk representative. Below is a sampling of participating eRetailers and the percentage they contribute.
How is Sparhawk different? The difference is that your eMall is not the “build it and they will come” methodology where members are not effectively targeted. It is built, branded and supported to promote your eMall. Other eFundraising companies, such as iGive, have built an eFundraising site, but it is not customized to support each organization. Therefore, the money might go to any one of the hundreds of causes listed on iGive’s site. Their one portal supports all of the organizations and thus many different users. In other words, members are not targeted either. Therefore, the site does not capture support for one cause, but hundreds of different causes. The problem is that when you dilute the affinity to support one cause, you dilute the ROI that any one organization can receive. And, there is no loyalty created for long-term support. With no individualized support, an organization’s eMall cannot be effectively marketed. Education is also crucial. Without targeted, best practice marketing, education and support, there will be less participation, if any. In actuality, iGive makes money on shear accidental volume; but none of the organizations win because they cannot count on continuous ROI. Why does Sparhawk build, brand and support my eMall for free? When we support you, your eMall is more likely to reach its full potential in generating contributions. When it does, everyone wins—and we all make money. The more we can help you better allocate your resources to improve member interaction through the right mix of communication channels—such as email, direct mail and the internet—the more opportunity you'll have to promote the eMall across every channel. When you improve and expand your fundraising base, we all raise more money and enjoy success. What kind of services and consulting are included in Sparhawk’s free support? Sparhawk provides technology and support for free because when your eMall generates contributions, we all succeed. We build, brand and support your eMall in the following ways:
Are there other types of services that Sparhawk offers? Yes. Paid services are also available if you wish to engage Sparhawk for more in-depth work, including:
What is multi-channel marketing and how does it apply to us? If you only send out a newsletter once a year, you're in trouble! eCommunication is the most effective method used today and will only get more popular as people use the internet more. (See Multi-Channel Marketing). It’s about finding out how your members want to get information and how they like to be involved. We suggest:
How long will it take before my eFundraising program is ready to use? Your eMall can be up and running in as little as one week. After you send us your company logo and any other design elements that help us build and brand your eMall, it’s all about educating your members on eFundraising. To help, we send you professionally-written marketing copy for you to cut and paste right into your eNewsletters, emails and other online and offline materials that you regularly send to your members. We’ll help you introduce and explain eFundraising and then provide ongoing support to remind members to keep using the eMall. Does it cost more for my members to shop the eMall? No. Members buy the same products for the same price whether they shop your eMall or go direct. But remember, when they start their shopping from your eMall, every purchase generates a contribution for your organization. Why is Sparhawk’s technology and service free? It’s free because we area able to offer it at no cost. Its part of our model where truly, when you succeed, we succeed. And of course, our eRetail partners make it possible by writing the checks. They give you a contribution and us a transaction commission every time your members shop through the eMall. Our technology, expertise and support are free because together, we can get your members on board with eFundraising and keep them interested in giving. And when they keep shopping the eMall, we all make money. When we help you and your members understand the ease and power of eFundraising, we all succeed in changing the world, one purchase at a time. That's our mission. The bottom line is that we want to do our part to help the world. It's ideal that we've found a way to help and be successful at the same time. We spend the time and money to craft our vision into technology that funds your success because we want to spend our lives feeling like we’re making a difference. Our experience and skills make us experts in eCommerce, marketing, and member interaction management. We pass this technology and know-how on to you so that together, we can achieve something great. We create eMalls to connect millions of caring people to the cause they want to support in a way no one has ever done before. It's our way of giving back and succeeding in our work at the same time. How does Sparhawk get paid? We get a transaction-based commission every time your organization generates a contribution. Our eRetail partners are the source of contributions to both your organization and ours. The more members shop and generate contributions, the more money we both receive. Does Sparhawk have security and privacy policies to protect my members' personal information? Sparhawk never captures any personal information. We only need the purchase amount and the store name to tie the contribution to your organization. That is the only information we ever collect. Once your member leaves the eMall by clicking to the eRetailer’s site, the security and privacy policies of that site comes into effect. Are Sparhawk’s eRetail partners are trustworthy and reputable? Sparhawk uses the best research data available to screen and select eRetail partners. Your members will be much better informed and safer by shopping a Sparhawk partner since we have hand chosen them based on research, proven customer experience and our own records. Can you safeguard our organization against illegal or disreputable sales practices? Of course no one can ever be completely safe from a poor vendor experience. However, we go through great lengths to partner with only the most dependable eRetailers that conduct an ethical, high-standard business. Should we discover that an eRetail partner is not acting in accordance with safe, reputable business practices, we would immediately terminate our association with them. Has your concept been proven effective? Our model is an extension of proven best practices in affiliate marketing that has been around for decades. Many companies before us have proven similar affinity models, such as:
The difference with Sparhawk is that you get an eMall that is branded and targeted to raise funds for your organization only. You also get support every step of the way. This is why we are unique and revolutionary in the market today. What could cause our members' purchases not to count for us? The primary reason why your purchase would not count has to do with your computer rejecting cookies. What are cookies and why should I care about them? Cookies are OK! They need to be enabled in order for your purchase to benefit your organization. Cookies are small files stored on your computer that record information allowing our merchants to report sales to your group. Cookies are not dangerous and cannot be used to steal names, email addresses, phone or credit card numbers. How can I guarantee that my computer will not reject a merchant's cookies? Most computers are set to a privacy setting which allows cookies. Unless your browser's internet settings are at high your computer should accept our merchants' cookies. If you don't know whether your computer will accept cookies, check to make sure that the privacy settings in your Internet Options are placed below the high setting. Where can I get additional information about cookies? You can get comprehensive information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie_%28computing%29#Misconceptions Why wouldn’t I want to sign up for an eMall? We don’t know! But what we do know is that once you understand how Sparhawk’s eFundraising program works and why it’s a no-brainer, you’ll ask yourself, “Why wouldn’t I want an eMall to increase contributions?” We’ve heard it time and time again! Start your eFundraising program today! |