If a Koala Bear Can Create a Social Enterprise....You Can Too!

Jaffa is 3 years old, highly photogenic, loves to be cuddled, and is the star of her non-profit organization's social enterprise venture.  She is also a koala bear. 

Jaffa lives at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane, Australia.  Lone Pine is the largest and oldest Koala Sanctuary in the world, featuring not only over 130 koalas, but also a multitude of kangaroos, exotic birds, dingoes, crocodiles, lizards, and the occasional tasmanian devil or two.

Like many other non-profit animal sanctuaries and zoos around the world, the current economic crisis has led to dramatically decreased donations which literally keep the animals alive by paying for food, shelter, and medical care.  In addition, such organizations often operate with minimal advertising/marketing budgets, and these budgets in turn are usually reduced or eliminated in difficult economic climates.  This creates a vicious cycle  - sanctuaries and animal shelters (like many museums, parks, performing arts groups and other audience-dependent organizations) rely upon individual donations and visitors to stay solvent.  Yet if cuts must be made to marketing and outreach budgets, then the agency faces even more difficulty in recruiting and attracting donors.

Lone Pine has created a very simple, effective social enterprise model to address this paradox.  One of the highlights of a visit to Lone Pine is the opportunity to have your photo taken while cuddling one of a handful of carefully selected picture-perfect koala bears.  A single photo costs about $12 US, which gives you both the Lone Pine official digital image in a snazzy recycled cardboard frame, as well as the opportunity to use your own camera to take as many additional photos as you like (or, as is usually the case, to have a friend or family member take multiple images of you grinning ear to ear as Jaffa or one of her colleagues naps happily in your arms).  On the day that I went to Lone Pine, there was a constant stream of international tourists standing in line to happily fork over their money for their private koala moment.

But here's the clever social enterprise twist.  Lone Pine figures that anyone willing to stand in a lengthy line and then fork over a good chunk of cash just for the chance to hold a koala (for anyone who is interested, Jaffa was surprisingly heavy and very soft - sort of like holding a bowling ball swaddled in a padded wool blanket) is probably going to share that experience with each and every one of their 1500 friends on Facebook.  

When you pick up your official photo, there is a note on the cover of the cardboard frame explaining that all of your photo donation money goes towards upkeep and maintenance of the Lone Pine Koalas.  And then there is a personal URL which is automatically generated, which lets you know that for the next 60 days, you can print, download, and/or email your koala duet portrait to anyone, anywhere.  That URL in turn tells everyone to whom you send the photo about Lone Pine, its koala sanctuary mission, and how to donate.

So Lone Pine has effectively taken a tool which costs them no additional money or infrastructure resources and turned it into a massive free outreach, marketing, and donor solicitation opportunity.  I know that I instantly email-blasted the photo of Jaffa and me (new BFF) to a huge circle of friends and family - all of whom are now in Lone Pine's database, and some of whom will no doubt one day make an effort to meet Jaffa up close and personal on their own.

Many non-profit organizations utilize techniques for capturing potential donor information (free ring tones, screen savers, and downloadable images are the most common examples).  Where many of these efforts fail is that it is almost impossible to demonstrate which of these users might actually open their checkbooks for you.  Lone Pine's social enterprise solves that problem by building its database ONLY from people who have already demonstrated that they are willing to pay a pretty hefty premium for a koala encounter.  In this way, Lone Pine has found a way to take one of the most basic rules of fundraising - turn one-time donors into potential repeat donors - and establish it in a reliable online medium.

Oh - and if you want to see my brag book with Jaffa, go to http://photo.koala.net/1003049009.htm.  I'm the taller one on the left.  Jaffa is the cuter grey furry one on the right.Tim and Jaffa - BFF