Sticking to paper

Howard Lake | 19 January 1999 | News

In November, UK Fundraising reported that the Disasters Emergency Committee was not using the Internet as a response mechanism for donations in response to the devastation in Central America wrought by Hurricane Mitch.

In November, UK Fundraising reported that the Disasters Emergency Committee was not using the Internet as a response mechanism for donations in response to the devastation in Central America wrought by Hurricane Mitch. The DEC is clearly aware of the UK Internet audience since it has placed a two-page advertisement in the February issue of Internet business magazine Internet.Works. The original approach, however, still holds. The response mechanisms on offer from this advertisement are the cut-out form and a credit card telephone number. No Web site, no e-mail address.

Now, of course, the DEC’s ad space might have been donated, so the ad would very likely have been created to appear in a range of publications, most of them unrelated to the Internet. But its very appearance in a magazine whose slogan is “making the Internet work for you and your business” does make the absence of an Internet response mechanism all the more obvious.

Incidentally, in the very same issue of Internet.Works you can read a case study of BBC Children in Need’s successful use of the Web at the same time as the DEC appeal when they received pledges of £246,888 via the Web. UK Fundraising covered the event live.

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.