E-mail and Web fundraising viewed as "somewhat unsuccessful"
Howard Lake | 4 November 2003 | News
The first survey for the new Philanthropic Giving Index has found that the UK’s top fundraising directors rate e-mail and Web fundraising as the least successful in a range of fundraising techniques.
The survey, reported by Professional Fundraising magazine, asked fundraising directors at the top 500 charities by income how they thought different fundraising techniques were performing. They could rate techniques between one “unsuccessful” and give “successful.”
Top of the rankings was committed giving at 4.02, following by legacies (3.83), trusts/foundations (3.78), special events (3.72) and direct marketing (donor development) at 3.72.
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At the bottom, beneath public collections (2.85) and lotteries and gaming (2.83) were “Internet” (presumably the Web) at 2.59 and email at 2.39. A score of between 2 and 3 meant that the technique was judged as “somewhat unsuccessful.”
No technique received the top rating of 5. Putting the new media figures in context, most of the techniques listed scored only between 3 and 4, indicating a neutral or ambivalent attitude by the fundraising directors. Also, the new media techniques were the only two techniques which fundraising directors expected to see improve in effectiveness.
The Philanthropic Giving Index has been developed by Henley Management College. It is designed to provide “a measure of ‘business’ confidence in the fundraising sector,” Adrian Sargeant, chair of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Management at Henley Management College, told Professional Fundraising. The Index will carry out twice-yearly surveys to help identify trends.
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.