Non profits

   Non profit organizations collect as much as 40% of their donations around the end of the year. It's not just the spirit of giving, it's the tax deduction that attracts much of that. Recently I have seen that companies tend to send nickels out as part of their campaign to collect donations. How does sending out money help collect money? What if the charity kept the nickel and only sent out a letter, would they receive more donations including the nickel they saved? I know that it sounds ridiculous thinking that  a nickel could have an impact on a company, but if they send out 2,000 letters that is $100.00. Some charities such as Children's Hospital Los Angeles says that for every nickel it spends in the campaign, it makes a dime; but does that nickel really have to be sent to make the dime?
   After doing some research, I have learned that companies mail out money ($0.05) as an inexpensive premium. Most of the items that you receive in the mail, such as greeting cards, address labels, calendars,and notepads typically cost more than $0.05. So with the company sending money they actually save on the campaign.
  Direct mail is still more effective than the internet in terms of fundraising, but direct mail is not exactly environmentally friendly.To attract just one new donor, nonprofits need to send out about 200 pieces of mail.
   Just this week I have received several pieces of mail asking for donations. One of those from the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Written on the envelope,'This nickel can help provide life-saving assistance to paralyzed veterans.' Also included with the nickel were; 72 address labels, 10 holiday gift tags, 10 envelope seals, and a magnetic 2016 calendar. My first thought when opening up the envelope was why did they send so many things? I can understand if I had already sent them a donation previously, that they might step up the 'gifts' as thinking that I might send them another donation but they are risking valuable campaign dollars one just one letter sent out.  
   I know that everyone gets mail asking for donations, and that not everyone donates to the same causes but do you base your donations on the free items that they send you? Do people really donate just because of the company sent you a nickel? What are your thoughts?

Drive in theater

  Saturday October 17 was Sand Mountain Twin Drive-In Theaters Halloween night. The theater plays four different Halloween movies that last all night. The price for admission is $15.00 per car. So you could be a group of seven or just two and will pay the same price. To promote this once a year night, they gave each person who entered the theater a meal ticket. This ticket could be used in the concession area to get a free hot dog meal. The price listed for a hot dog is $2.25. So if you had seven people in one vehicle and each used the meal ticket, the drive-in gave away $15.75 in food cost. The drive-in used the idea to get more people to come to the movies but was is a good decision? The thinking from the company is that if we get them here, they will more than likely spend money to make up the difference in cost for the free hot dog.
     So back to the example of the seven passengers; if they all used the meal ticket (free hot dog) and bought a drink ($3.00 for small, $3.25 medium, $4.00 large) the drive-in had the opportunity to sell $28.00 of products. Other favorite movie snacks including popcorn, candy, and nachos are also available for purchase to make up for the free hot dog meals. Some other items that were offered for purchase was pizza, funnel cakes, chicken fingers, cheeseburgers, corn dogs, and chili cheese fries. With more items offered and during the six hour movie marathon playing that night, I think the drive-in used the meal ticket to their advantage and ended up making more money and attracting more customers with this offer.

Big News for McDonald's Customers

McDonald's made big changes to the menu earlier this week. As of Tuesday, October 6th customers can order breakfast items at any time during the day. Sounds perfect, right? Well there is a catch; only certain breakfast items are in the all day menu. For most of the southern states including; Alabama, Louisiana,Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky, the Biscuit Menu is available.

Biscuit Menu includes:

Bacon egg cheese biscuit
Sausage and egg biscuit
Sausage biscuit
Fruit and maple oatmeal
Sausage burrito
Fruit  and yogurt parfait
Hotcakes
Hotcakes and sausage
Hash browns
 
For Northern states the McMuffin Menu is available. The items are the same as the biscuit menu only they are served on McMuffins rather than biscuits.

McDonald's say the decision was based on local customer preference.

McDonald's has been pressured with the idea to serve breakfast items for awhile now. McDonald's previously said that it was pretty much impossible to serve breakfast all day. The thinking was that the restaurants were too busy and the kitchens were too small to handle breakfast orders on top of burger orders.This is why McDonald's is limiting the menu to prevent kitchens from getting overwhelmed by cooking breakfast and burgers at the same time.

Some items that are not included on the all day breakfast menu are; breakfast platters, McGriddles, and bagel sandwiches.

I went on McDonald'd Facebook page and read some of the comments about the all day breakfast menu. Some of the comments included concerns for not including McGriddles and hash browns. McDonald's had replied to some of the comments and stated that hash browns were included in 90% of restaurants all day breakfast menu and that they were starting with a limited menu but that it could possibly grow to include other favorites such as the McGriddles.I was actually surprised to see how much McDonald'd had replied to comments left by customers.

Some of the concerns about having the all day breakfast menu is that breakfast items generally cost less than burgers. Will this impact McDonald's negatively? Will customers who normally buy burgers buy breakfast items and not spend as much money? Or will this attract new customers? I think only time will tell.