First-Time Online Givers Often One-Time Online Givers
01:01, 30 March 2009
.. Posted in techculture and tech to help.. Link
According to a new study based on the experiences of twenty-four nonprofit groups, reported on in The New York Times, people who go online to donate to charity for the first time often do not return to make additional gifts online. The study was conducted by Target Analytics, a unit of software-provider Blackbaud.
The study suggests that while the Internet can be a valuable fundraising tool for charities, particularly in soliciting gifts after major disasters, it is not a replacement for direct mail or other fundraising channels. Many fundraisers have found that donors who use the Internet to make their first gift to an organization often are responding to a specific disaster or event and have no interest in supporting the group's ongoing work. In addition, nonprofits tend to add online-acquired donors to their direct mail lists, which often encourages those donors to give in more conventional ways. Reaching donors electronically also can be costly (very glad someone has finally said so!), as organizations need to hire people to create and improve their Web sites and manage e-mail marketing. Even then, solicitation materials can get caught in spam-trapping systems or be stripped of the graphics that can be so effective in direct mail.
Still, charities find the demographics of online donors enticing. According to the study, of the donors who made at least one online gift in 2008, roughly a third had incomes greater than $100,000, compared to about a quarter of those who gave in other ways.
"Online giving is higher than offline giving, and the demographics of online givers are more attractive -- better educated, higher income -- but how you get people to routinely give online is a nut no one has yet cracked," said Tobias Smith, director of online communications at CARE, which took part in the study. "What we're learning is that we need to be less worried about what channels these donors use and offer them a variety of channels through which they can give."
Blogger's note: I make more than half of my annual financial donations online; I'm usually prompted by the postal mailing I receive telling me it's time for my donation. What makes me renew a gift?:
- feeling that I'm investing in great work, not responding to a desperate plea for funding
- having received electronic and postal messages that detail the organization's work and show the organization really is garnering results
- my opinions being solicited by an online survey or through an online forum at the organization's web site
