This is fantastic, great twist on what charities are doing with Gifts for Life, Virtual Gifts etc… Found it on Advisor to Superheroes
Monthly Archives: July 2009
UK Card Association reports increase in donations
This is a really interesting piece from the BBC website showing that donations to charities on debit and credit cards have increased year on year. The piece is nicelt balanced highlighting that areas charities have struggled with is legacies as well as an increase in demand for services, no mention of corporate donations. But I think its certainly worth reading.
Source BBC News
The latest figures from the UK Cards Association suggests the public’s appetite for giving to charities has not diminished during the downturn.
The trade association for the cards industry said that in the first four months of 2009, the value of donations on debit cards was up 24% on the same period the previous year. Credit card donations were up 11% over the same timescale.
This followed an 18% rise in donations on plastic cards in 2008 – up from £1.01bn in 2007 to £1.19bn in 2008.
“These card figures tell us an interesting story. Despite the economic downturn, it seems there was no let-up last year in people’s commitment to charity,” says Sandra Quinn, of the UK Cards Association.
The Charity Commission figures show the annual income of the 166,807 main charities reached £51.16bn by the end of June 2009. This was up from £48.4bn at the end of 2008 when there were more charities – 168,354.
With the figures having risen steadily over the previous years, the position still looks rosy for charities.
But these statistics do not tell the full story.
Various aspects of charitable giving have been hit in recent months. With the value of homes and shares having fallen sharply, the amount received in wills has been cut.
A recent report by a think tank, the Smith Institute, concluded that there might be a loss in the value of legacies of between £150m and £200m in 2009.
Low interest rates have also meant that charities’ own savings and investments had not performed as well as they might have expected. Some were caught up in the saga with the Icelandic banks.
An economic survey of 1,000 charities in England and Wales in February discovered that 52% of those asked said they had been affected by the financial downturn. Some 58% suggested that they suffered a drop in income.
“Clearly the impact of the financial downturn on charities is widening and deepening. Some charities still face that double whammy of a drop in income as well as an increased demand for services,” says Dame Suzi Leather, who chairs the Charity Commission.
Migrate with your flock this October
So the word for a group of Fundraisers is………… a Flock!
Well that is according to the Resource Alliance and this years IFC. They are are doing some nice stuff to promote this years conference. Here is a video they have on their website to promote it, to be honest I found it a bit long (stopped watching after 1 min) but still its good to see them doing stuff like this.
22 Ways a Blog can Rock Your Social Media Campaign
I did a presentation recently on Blogging and why you should Blog (you can check it out here).
I came across this today and thought it was a great follow on from that. I found it on JohnHaydon.com
- Your blog will enable you to deepen relationships with your fans. They find fresh, relevant content that is useful them – and have a place where they feel heard.
- Your blog is a powerful way to attract new visitors by demonstrating social proof.
- Your blog will save you money on IT costs because blogs are easy to use and maintain.
- This ease of maintenance adds to the sustainability of your organization.
- People using Google will find your non-profit a lot easier if you have a blog. Blogs get much more search engine juice than traditional, static websites.
- Blogs are much less expensive to host and manage than traditional websites – and most hosting companies feature “1-click” installation of blogging software, like WordPress.
- Your HR recruiting strategy can be enhanced by having employees regularly blog about why they work there. And by the way, pay isn’t as important as you think.
- Your key executives will learn to speak in a more human voice through blogging.
- You, yourself will become a better writer through regular blogging.
- You can trash your marketing theory in exchange for valuable insight into why donors really give you money.
- You will employ the Law of Karma to promote your non-profit on the web.
- You will experience a spike in the number of visits and depth of engagement from your fans.
- You will even have parties with your blog (with horns and cake), because it actually can be fun and easy!
- Your blog will be a tool to enhance and develop valuable partnerships with other non-profits.
- You can increase donor conversion rates with content that is relevant and useful.
- You get the support of a huge community of thousands of other non-profits.
- Having a WordPress.Org blog includes access to tons of free (yes, free) software for your blog.
- You’ll empower your board members to talk about why they love your non-profit. Yes – they can write, can’t they?
- Instead of waiting for your IT intern to return your call, you’ll communicate urgent news very fast with your blog.
- Your blog can be a tangible way to value your staff, enhancing retention.
- A blog will help you refresh and refine your passion – which is the whole point anyhow. Right?
- You will be able to learn more about social media just by jumping in and starting a blog.
Understanding Donors Motivations for Online Giving.
Todays post is by Guest Author Scott Neilson. Scott is the CEO/Founder of FundBunch, which provides tools and services to allow individuals and organizations to be more effective in their online fundraising efforts and he shares his insights into what motivates donors to give online
There are lots of motivations for why donors choose give online, but essentially they can be summarized as a combination of three reasons:
- Convenience (63.4%). It’s fast, convenient, and allows quick action on an urgent need.
- Direction (20.3%). They were asked to give online
- Incentives (15,4%). Credit Card rewards program, managing personal cash flow.
Source: American Express Charitable Gift Survey, November 2007
Nearly two thirds of online contributors stated that convenience was the primary reason for giving online. Nothing else is close. And that is what you should expect. Giving is an emotional transaction. Once you’ve reached your audience with a compelling message about your cause, you need to make it easy and convenient for them to contribute. If your donors have to work, you’ll miss out on a lot of opportunity. And few things are worse than missed opportunity.
The other main reason that contributors chose to give online is you took the initiative to ask for the contribution. Just having an online presence itself does not lead to contributions. You must still be active in asking for contributions and directing your supporters to a convenient way for them to contribute.
As an online fundraiser, you need to make sure that it’s easy for your donors to complete their transaction. Eliminate multiple pages in the contribution process where they can drop out. And be considerate of their time. Don’t require them to complete unnecessary information about themselves they isn’t required to process a payment. This is not the forum for building profile data.
Most importantly, ask people to contribute online. Just having a website and expecting contributions makes you a ‘fund-accepter’, not a ‘fundraiser’. And that is not where you want to be.
You can reach him at scottn@fundbunch.com or visit his site at www.fundbunch.com
London Twestival Looking for Charity Nominations
This week, charities can nominate themselves to be the charity for Twestival Local in September 2009. The first Global Twestival on February 12th 2009, was a groundbreaking charity fundraiser, uniting Twitter users in 202 cities around the world raising $250k for one charity in 24 hours.
There will be a global charity for Twestival Global next year, but the next Twestival is a Twestival Local. The organisers want to support something local, something that matters to Londoners.
A charity that understands the power of social media, that can really engage with twitterers and capitalise on the huge awareness is being sought to be the partner in this event.
Charity nominations for Twestival London Local are open til 11pm this Sunday 26th July. Nominations can be made here: http://3.ly/HbN and all the info required is there.
Tree-Athlon
I like this idea, nice twist on the Tri-Athlon. Just goes to show that if you think differently about something you can find a new angle for it.
The idea is to give something back to the environment while at the same time improving your health .
The three-part event includes a fun 5km run, an opportunity to share your wish for the future of trees and the chance to plant a sapling
The event takes place in London, Leeds and Manchester,
Get others to make your case
Im sure lots of you are reading Seth Godin so this may not be new, but I thought it was worth sharing and certainly something we could try out.
Seth was asking “How do you get your boss to approve something, the customer service people to understand the pain a system is causing or the folks in engineering to see things your way?”
His solution was simple in its genius
“Here’s a new way that’s extraordinarily effective: Make a video….. interview your customers. Ask them questions and show the answers to your team. ”
And here is an example from Ji Lee at Google masterminded this man on the street interview:
Cancer Research UK – Powerful Ad
Well done Cancer Research UK, this really got me
Replace the Word Customer with Donor
And this video makes real sense. I read this great little Simple Truths book and here is a video summary of it. Its actually worth getting some copies of the book and circulating them in your organisation. Its great thinking.
you can buy the book here
This is the way to say thanks
This is great work by Action Aid UK again, they really get it. This is similar to something I saw during the US election (check that post out here).
This may be a bit expensive for your organisation, but adapt it, how about some of your supporters or people who benefit from your service recording a Thanks video, like this Send a Singer post from Crisis. Simple but effective.
Thanks to Eugene Flynn from 54 degrees for showing us this at Fundraising Ireland
Livestrong on Twitter
A lot of Twitter posts lately!
Thought this was great way to adapt the LiveStrong wristband onto Twitter. Simple click through to add the yellow band to your profile picture. Nice work
Why is Social Media Important to a Brand?
I came across this on the Engaging Brand Blog and thought it was worth re posting (hope thats ok?)
Social media should be part of a brand strategy for 5 main reasons
- A brand succeeds when it bridges a gap inside the consumers mindset of where they are now and where they want to be….social media can help build that bridge – it can work with the consumers on answering their fears, their questions….lead them from their reality to achieving their visions (being slim, educated, healthy, green, successful etc)
- Brands need advocates to spread the word – nothing better than social media for recommendations, shareability etc
- Brands need to communicate at all levels and to all emotions
- Brands need to listen, not for the sake of it…but too evolve.
- Brands need to be consistent and constant in their consumers lives. RSS allows that opt in approach from the consumer which stops forcing the brand into the consumer’s life.
Originally posted by Anna Farmery on the Engaging Brand Blog
Check out #iofnc Tweets
Lots of people Tweeting from the Institute of Fundraising Conference. Check some of them out like
Harry Potter Fundraiser
Are you planning on seeing the New Harry Potter Movie?
Well this is a great idea (you may remember there was one for Star Trek too) where they are asking everyone or anyone who goes to see Harry Potter to make a 1 dollar donation to mark the occassion.
Conor Byrne's Blog 