Small charities lead the way in online fundraising

We were interested to learn that small charities are leading the way when it comes to fundraising online. There are more than 220,000 charities registered in the UK today, all working hard to raise those all important donations. However, significant differences were recorded in a survey of 500 UK charities conducted for Everyclick’s Digital Giving Review.

Charities employing one to ten staff tend to rely more on online supporters than larger charities, the review reveals. Additionally, 56% of a small charity’s audience is online, compared to 39% for larger charities. 91% of the audience of medium-sized charities is online. While online giving has now overtaken offline giving as the primary means of donating, the most interesting point to note is that small charities are doing the best job of converting their online audiences into active donors.

More than a third of small charities’ total donations are collected online through sites such as Everyclick, JustGiving, BT MyDonate and Virgin Money Giving. This compares to 21% for medium charities and 13% for larger charities, suggesting there is a big gap to bridge between online audiences and online donations.

Everyclick’s survey revealed that the largest barrier to successful online fundraising is a lack of internal resources. The second largest challenge is donor resistance, and it’s an area where charities need to share best practice in order to improve.

Charity donors may already give to their chosen cause through direct debit or a standing order, and see no reason to explore other avenues. However, as people spend more time online, the option to donate online is becoming increasingly attractive. We recommend that charities maximise the opportunity to prompt online donations using creative social media campaigns and original content to inspire donors and followers.

Other key statistics reported in the review indicate that just 48% of charities communicate to their supporters via social media daily and 34% communicate via email or e-newsletters monthly.

CJAM regularly produces discounted e-newsletters for charities and can provide bespoke e-newsletter templates, along with training and full evaluation of results. We also specialise in strategic social media campaigns. We recently helped the J’s Hospice in Essex to drive crowds of potential donors to a key fundraising event via social media, and increased their Twitter followers by more than tenfold in just three months.

Please contact the CJAM team on 01787 226995 to discuss how we could help to drive online donations via the power of social media and digital marketing.