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Special �REWARDS� Program for
Non-Profit Organizations and Food Cooperatives
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WE ARE NOT ACCEPTING ANY NEW APPLICANTS AT THIS TIME
Abundant Earth�s Special Rewards Program
for non-profit organizations and food cooperatives provides a special fundraising, and awarness raising opportunity for your organizations.
 Non-profit Organizations (NPOs):
Abundant Earth provides an exceptional opportunity to raise money for your organization. Simply encourage your members
to purchase through Abundant Earth, and we�ll donate up to 15% of all qualifying purchases made through our online ordering system to your organization (see Affiliate �Rewards� Contract
for more information). For orders take by phone, we�ll donate 5% of the qualifying products total, when your member mentions your organization�s name, during the ordering process.
Food Cooperatives:
Rather than siphon business away from your local food coop, Food Coops can turn every purchase at Abundant Earth into a Food Coop purchase! The profits your food coop receives from Abundant Earth are pure profits, with no other
costs involved (except maybe taxes). In most instances, your local coop will earn as much money (net profit) from purchases you make through Abundant
Earth, as purchasing directly through at your coop, especially because we carry many products your coop doesn�t carry.
Just like with NPOs, Abundant Earth will donate up to 15% of all qualifying purchases made through our online ordering system to your food cooperative(see Affiliate �Rewards� Contract for more information). For orders take by phone, we�ll donate 5% of the qualifying products total,
when your member mentions your cooperative�s name, during the ordering process.
How to Encourage Members to Purchase Through Abundant Earth and Support Your Organization:
There are many ways to encourage members to purchase through Abundant Earth, even if your organization does not have a web site, or your customers do not have Internet access.
We suggest you try multiple strategies, rather than just one. The more strategies you use the greater the likelihood for sucess, and just as important as your
strategies, is consistancy. If you begin using a method and you do not immediately see results, do not abandon that method. You must give any
method you use several months, if not a full year before you can truly evaluate its effectiveness. It sound crazy to market for months or longer huge paypacks,
but this is the nature of marketing. It take time to inform your members so them remember your request and TRUST your efforts. Your job is to trust your
membership. Trust that they will respond faithfully after they have had adequate time to consider your request. On our end, here at Abundant Earth, we promise
the absolute best possible customer service once your members begin to patronize us. We want them to keep coming back to the best catalog on Earth, and we want them to keep supporting your organization.
Internet Web Sites and E-mail:
1. If your organization has an Internet Web Site, by all means, post banners
and text links throughout you site. Use the banners and links we provide, or contact us for approval in order to use your own hybrid banners.
2. Just as we explain in our Newsletters and Magazines section below, write articles, letters and product profiles in order to encourage your members and
visitors to visit Abundant Earth. Print contest information, or any other information as it pertains to your affiliation with Abundant Earth.
3. In order to encourage people to enter the Abundant Earth web site by first entering your site (to ensure your referal comissions), set up a seperate
Abundant Earth page on your site and encourage people to bookmark it as their entrance into Abundant Earth.
4. Use e-mail to encourage people to visit Abundant Earth. With your e-mail newsletter, provide articles and advertisements for Abundant Earth. For all
other e-mail from your organization, also include a �signature� at the end of your letter that include a quick link to the Abundant Earth web site.
SPAM Alert: Please note that Abundant Earth does not accept SPAM as a respectful
form electronic communication or expression. If your organization engages in SPAMing or any other unsolicited mass e-mail, and makes any reference to Abundant Earth either
directly or implied, our affilation with your organization will be terminated immediately.
Newletters and Magazines:
It�s really important to try to reach both the folks with and without
Internet access. In addition to the various technique
1. Write and publish a letter informing your reader/members about your affiliation with Abundant Earth. Get the President, General Manager, Editor,
CEO, Director or Board Member to write a letter to your readers asking them to patronize Abundant Earth. Be sure to publish regular updates about your
affiliation, so that all your members will have a chance to learn about it.
2. Write an article about Abundant Earth or a related topic that ties to Abundant Earth. This is slightly different than a personal letter, because it
generally takes on the third person voice. You might want to erite an article extolling the benefits of some of our products. For example, a water
conservation article might include our water conservation products. An article on gardening might include our unique composters, and our unique sink that has
its own composting chute. Be creative, and try to print a new artical in every issue that highlights several of our products. Highlighting products is very
important, because some of your members will not have Internet access and will only find out about our products through your articles.
3. Be sure to mention any other marketing programs you are using to encourage people to shop with Abundant Earth. For example, list any contests you might sponsoring (see Contests, Promotions & Events), or fundraising goals with regard to Abundant Earth. Mention your website and be sure to remind your
members to visit Abundant Earth by fist visiting your website and then following a link over to Abundant Earth.
4. Include an insert with your Newsletter or Magazine. Inserts stand out, and offer a great way to alert people to your new affiliation with Abundant Earth.
Meetings and Announcements:
At group meetings, events, and whenever notices for meetings and events are
posted or mentioned, be sure to tell people about the Abundant Earth program. Hearing about your afiliation with Abundant Earth, rather than just reading
about it, makes a big impression on many folks. Tell as many people as you and as often as you can. Don�t be shy about repeating yourself. It will take 6 or 7
times before enough people remember your announcement anyway. If you have purchased through Abundant Earth, tell people about your experience. We are
proud of the way we serve people, and we want people to hear about our excellent customer service. As an affiliate, you should want people to hear
about it too! The best way for people to hear about it is from you. If your friends, neighbors and members hear about your good experience, they�ll fee
less anxious about placing their first order with Abundant Earth.
Targeted Mailings:
Targeted mailings are an especially good way to inform your members about
Abundant Earth. With mailing to both your members and to other sympathetic peoples, you can really focus on your messege: Shop Abundant Earth and Support our Mission!
With a targeted mailing you can spell out exactly how people should purchase from Abundant Earth. Give them your web site address and/or instruct your
members to mention your organization�s name when they call to place their order.
Be sure to include a few extra flyers (see below) for your members to post in their workplaces. Get everybody in on your fundraising efforts.
Flyers and Posters:
Another effective way to reach large amounts of people in a particular region is
through the use of flyers and posters. Go to a place where other posters and flyers are located, and notice which catch your eye and draw your attention.
Some do it with ink color, others with paper color, some with pictures, others with text, and even others with �white space.� Some do it with size, and others
do it with humor. Make mental notes about what attracted you certain flyers and promotional literature and try to duplicate the effect with your flyer and poster promotions.
After desinging and printing your flyer/poster. Mail them, or hand them out to members and friends. Post them respectfully, never covering another
organization�s flyers unless theirs are outdated.
Contests, Promotions, and Events:
A great way to encourage your members to use the services of Abundant Earth
is to sponsor a contest, promotion or event.
1. Contests: There is probably no better way to muster up support and pull peoples attention then by sponsoring a contest. Everyone loves the possiblity of
winning something special. There are essentially two kinds of contests we�ll discuss here. The first is a contest where �chance� is the ruling queen. The other
is a contest where �performance� reigns. You may wish to consult an attorney for the legal definitions and legal issues involved in sponsoring contests.
- Chance: Essentially, the idea behind a contest of �chance� is that the contest is not linked to performance. You organization may offer a free
entry in contest to win an Abundant Earth bicycle and a $50 gift certificate when they visit the Abundant Earth web site. You ask them to tell you why they like Abundant Earth on their entry form, or you may
ask them to write one unique way that they can get more people to shop at Abundant Earth and support your organization. All entries are then collected and winners are RANDOMLY chosen with no connection to
excellence of the content of their responses on your entry form.
- Performance: In this kind of contest, you are asking people to do something a little more specific. There are basically two kinds of
performance-based contests, the Pure Form and the Chance Hybrid.
1. Pure Form: In this kind of contest, the winner is the the person who
clearly performs the best or the most. The person who raises the most money, the person who gets the most people to purchase at Abundant Earth, or the person donates the most volunteer hours are all Pure Form
performance contests. A marathon or a chess tournament are other examples of this kind of contest.
2. Chance Hybrid: Perhaps the best kind of contest is the one that
mixes chance and performance. This kind of contest gives most participants a chance to win, but also rewards those who perform more a greater chance of winning. An example of this kind of contest might be
that everyone who purchases from Abundant Earth through your referral program is entered into a contest. Every time the member purchases something from Abundant Earth, they are entered into a random drawing
for a prize. You might have the members send you copies of their reciepts as entry forms, or you might collect the names from us. Either way, these kinds of contests tend to get the biggest response from
people. To add spice to this program, keep it active throughout the year. For example, give away a prize every quarter of every year!
2. Promotions: Promotions are another great way to raise awarness for your afilliation with Abundant Earth and raise money for your organization. There are
many forms of promotions, but we�ll just cover a couple to get you thinking in the right directions.
- The Giveaway: One kind of promotion would be to give something away for free when people shop Abundant Earth. This promotion is
similar to a contest, but is different in a couple of ways. Usually with a promotions, everyone wins who fulfills your requirement. For example;
you might promote a product form Abundant Earth, such as Futons. You might have an organic cotton futon promotion where you give a free set of organic sheets to anyone who purchases an Abundant Earth queen or
king size futon between now and December 31st.
- The Feel Good: This promotion is a hybrid between and event and a promotion. You are giving away good feelings for everyone who
participates in this kind of promotion. Essentially, you run this promotion like a fundraiser. You set a resonable monetary goal and an acheivemnet
date, and then you ask your members, their friends and their families to participate. For example, you might set a goal of raising $10,000 in donations (referal fee) from Abundant Earth by December 31. You job
is to encourage people to purchase from Abundant Earth to help you reach your goal. Be sure to frequently update your members with your progress. Send them letters, have board member make phone calls, and
even sponsor contests tied to your promotion. Thermometer graphics work great with these kinds of promotions. People love to see their progress visually and really get involved as they see their efforts nudge
the �temperature� up toward your goal.
3. Events: Events are a form of promotion. Essentially you sponsor a baseball team, have a garden party or host some other spectular event. In addition to
raising money by selling ticket to your even, you can have a raffel with Abundant Earth prizes, you might auction off an Abundant Earth composter,
and you might want to use the event to let people know about Abundant Earth.
Special Note: If your organization chooses to sponsor a contest, promotion or event
(hereafter refered to as �function�) using the Abundant Earth name or Logo, you must include a disclaimer indicating that the function is sponsored by your organization, and
that Abundant Earth is neither involved nor responsible for the function, and that all claims are the responsibility of your organization. Failure to provide this information to
the public will be considered a breach of contract.
Food Coop Displays and Promotions:
Food Cooperatives have some specific marketing advantages over most other
organizations. Most food cooperatives have retail store locations where their customers frequent week in and week out. Design special displays and
promotions of Abundant Earth products that encourage people to purchase from Abundant Earth and support the coop.
Here�s an idea for an industrious food cooperative: Set up a computer with a modem connection for your customer, and let them view the Abundant Earth
web site right from your store. An alternative is to purchase several Abundant Earth products for display. If customers want to purchase these products, have
your �information desk� staff assist with the purchase. Once again, using a computer and a modem, the Info. Desk staff can place the order with the
customer right there �on the spot.� Ordering from the web rather than by telephone will ensure higher referral fees.
Quick links to Rewards Program Pages:
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