Individual giving

Like many people I was saddened at the news this week that Bmycharity is withdrawing from the online giving market. Any loss of options for raising money cost effectively and providing greater 'consumer' choice gives us as a sector pause for thought.

I will never stop believing, or probably saying that, whichever audience(s) we serve as organisations, their needs should underpin our thinking and actions.  That's not to say that we shouldn't seek to achieve our own objectives - of course we should.  The customer / supporter / volunteer is not always right and we have our own targets to meet.

There are 2 big issues the sector needs to get a grip on in the social care and ageing debate....

The Guardian ran a pretty decent and balanced video news item recently entitled: ‘Why do people hate chuggers?'. Two-hundred-and-seventy-four people responded in what was a genuinely informative (though often ill-informed, as usual) comment stream (sorry, as a former officer* of my school debating society, I can’t bring myself to use the word ‘debate’).

At first, I felt dreadfully sorry for the fundraiser (as reported in Third Sector a few days ago) who was so upset by abusive phone calls from members of the public that she quit not just her job but left the whole charity sector. It’s not the first time that I’ve heard about a member of the public being so obnoxious that they’ve reduced a fundraiser to tears. In fact, it happened to someone I know just a couple of days ago.

The response to the Haiti earthquake appeal has continued the trend for donors method of choice to donate being online.

Following discussions with a charity team last week, I wanted to suggest a few tips on how to integrate e-marketing and social media.  Then, I found an article by the very prolific team at Marketing Sherpa which talked about how a business in the USA had successfully integrated their email and social media activity.  On the grounds of not wanting to reinvent the wheel, I think there is a lot of learning here for NFP organisations as well as businesses.

One of my passions around online fundraising is that the technology is a means to an end.

It's an old and often-debated question and the answer varies depending on what kind of organisation is doing the asking and the target audience's wants and needs.

News that Oxford academic Toby Ord has pledged to give away £1 million during his lifetime - and is encouraging others to pledge 10% of their income to charity - made the national media this week. If Ord had been a wealthy donor, it would still have been newsworthy, but the fact that he is a philosophy researcher on an ordinary salary makes the story all the more interesting. Fundraisers will wish that there were many more Toby Ords around. But of course there are….