Donation Dollar

In 2020, we introduced Australia to Donation Dollar.

The world’s first legal tender currency designed to be donated, not spent. One was minted for every Australian. Over 25 million individual daily reminders to give, over and over and over again; creating a generosity loop that lasts generations.

An idea that has so far:

  • Earned the endorsement of the Community Council for Australia,
    the representative body of 50,000 Australian charities.

  • Become the world’s most creatively awarded campaign for 2021.

  • Received top honours in Fast Company’s ‘Best World Changing Idea’.

  • Most importantly, raised an estimated $1.9m for Australian charities.

I could spend hours talking about everything we went through to bring this idea to life. I was part of the project from day one, but I’d be lying if I said the idea came from a clean insight I wrote in a creative brief. In fact I remember Adam and Peter sharing the idea with me in my first year of advertising, only to fast forward years later, and the three of us are presenting it to the Royal Australian Mint.

Below are six moments along the way that make me so proud of the part that I played. Moments that also matured and broadened my appreciation of what a strategist can be.

How I made a difference

  • The initial sell-in

    To support the initial creative presentation, I trawled through the annual reports of the Royal Australian Mint and framed Donation Dollar as an opportunity to deliver on their ambition of creating ‘innovative and new numismatic products’. I argued this would refresh and give circulating coins a new role in modern Australia.

    This helped the Mint see that Donation Dollar wasn't just a brilliant idea, it was directly aligned with their vision & long-term goals.

  • Disproving an economic principle

    For the first time, we were asking RAM to create a coin designed to be given away, not collected. This goes against a principle they’ve always abided by, so to ease their concerns, I conducted pre-testing research, which showed that people understood Donation Dollar became more valuable if they paid it forward.

    This helped us overcome an early but important hurdle, which allowed us to continue fully testing the idea before approval.

  • Getting Australia's buy-in

    Before we got final approval, we needed to sense check the idea with wider Australia. Through this process, we discovered that lower SES communities would see Donation Dollar as an effortless way to be part of greater good. I wrote all research plans, moderated all focus groups and wrote the final analysis.

    This gave RAM the confidence that Donation Dollar wouldn’t feel like a burden to Australia, resulting in the final sign off of the idea.

  • Testing coin designs at grocers

    For four days, I stood outside a local grocer with the Mint, where we had planted three differently designed coins to see which one would be donated most in a fake donation tin. This helped us see that the design had to be bold enough to stand out, but not so special that it encouraged people to collect the coin.

    This gave crucial feedback and direction for the final design of the Donation Dollar coin face.

  • Campaign & channel planning

    Broadly, I suggested that all of our owned channels should focus on the potential of the coin, and that anything from ambassadors, social or partners (e.g. small businesses, charities and schools) should be a platform for them to talk about who they’re donating to. All in the name of making this idea feel like a shared initiative.

    This helped make Donation Dollar feel like an idea genuinely owned by everyone; receiving 99% positive sentiment at launch.

  • Writing the APG & Effies papers

    Although Donation Dollar was intended to create longterm good, I told an ROI story by treating every coin as a media placement and focussing on the projected amount RAM’s research told us had already been donated. I also emphasised the fact it cost no extra money for the Mint to create the coins.

    This earned Donation Dollar 2 x APAC Effies, 2 x Australian Effies and 2x AGP Awards. (It also gave me a bit of a big head).

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