Target Direct uncovers shortcomings in online giving acknowledgements
Howard Lake | 9 December 2003 | News
Agency Target Direct’s mystery shopper research has found some top UK charities have not got the basics right in acknowledging online donations.
The results of the exercise were revealed at the International Fundraising Congress in Holland in October. Professional Fundraising magazine reports that Target made online donations to 31 of the top 100 UK charities by income.
The actual online donation process was straightforward and rapid in most cases, but the quality of the data gathering and acknowledgement was poor in a number of cases. Only 26 of the 31 charities responded, and only 10 of these did so by e-mail. However, on average they took 18 days to do so!
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While online donations were handled well, few charities seemed interested in finding out more about the donors. Few donation forms asked donors for their telephone numbers, their date of birth, or what interested them about the charity.
In a separate mystery shopping exercise about telephone donations, Target gave £10 to 17 charities. Not one of them asked for the donor’s e-mail address.
Many fundraisers embraced online fundraising a few years ago, but Target’s research shows that basic mistakes are still being made.
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.