Desperately seeking hard facts… (a new survey)
Howard Lake | 21 June 2006 | Blogs
CAF are about to begin a new survey into the success of new media or electronic fundraising, relative to other channels to market. It’s something I have been helping them with, as I’m keen to see the v/sector build upon the excellent foundaitons and stimulus of regular reports such as Virtual Promise, and one-offs like Giving (in) to the Internet or WCIT’s ICT Success (that Worshipful lot!).
To do this, they really need contributions from charities with strong evidence of their own electronic fundraising successes, hopefully backed with some hard data and analysis to illustrate the relative value of this fundraising channel alongside other strands of their strategy. If you have something to share with CAF please do contact them – details are at the end of this post…
I have my own theories as to what charities (banded large, medium and small) could be raising from their new media activities as a % of their income. This is drawn from my work with clients and other evidence. It isn’t pretty, or it could be seen as pretty depressing given that we are almost reaching 10 years of new media fundraising in this country (aside// a topic Howard Lake and I are to present on at this Summer’s Fundraising Convention…). So it would be fascinating for me to see if this survey holds up any of my predictions or smashes them to bits – I hope it’s the latter as otherwise even the largest charities are still dealing with a marginal fundraising stream from what I can tell. One that barely beats payroll..
But more to the point, there is a lot that we don’t know that a survey, assuming it can access hard data, might reveal. Such as which new media fundraising methods are growing fastest? (there are so many ways to raise funds online now). Or which offline form of fundraising can online most easily be compared with today, and historically perhaps, in terms of its evolution over time? Is new media fundraising even close to maturity, or is it simply the victim of fickle public behaviour where one method is superceded by a new fad before it can bed itself down? How is it different for charities who start out by focusing on online methods of outreach, as opposed to ‘bricks and clicks’ charities trying to embed online into a very different fundraising culture? Perhaps the study will point the way to some of these questions and answers…Whatever it manages to do, CAF, with its access to charity income data and its own internal agency fundraising services, is in a great position to set some new context around how it all looks and works.
Here is the announcement from CAF, with what to do if you want to take part:
Survey aims to raise profile of New Media fundraising
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Information on the success of New Media fundraising and how this compares with other methods is urgently needed by charities. CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) Research is carrying out a survey of the use and value of New Media fundraising.
We would be delighted to hear from any charity interested in participating in this research. Our findings will be made available by CAF in the Autumn. Please contact Liz Goodey, Senior Research Officer, CAF at eg*****@ca*******.org for an informal discussion about the project by 30 June.
And if you’d like to debate some of the questions I’ve prompted here, please post away. I am 2 days overdue with my second baby and in need of the distraction! (just adding that to see if anyone notices.. things have been quiet for a while)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.