DEC launches Asian tsunami appeal but minus online element
Howard Lake | 28 December 2004 | News
The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has launched a public appeal to fund the work of its member aid agencies working to help the victims of the south Asian earthquake and floods. Donations can be made by telephone, but not online.
The DEC’s appeal was launched earlier today but focused on encouraging donations by telephone via 0870 60 60 900. It is not promoting the facility to make online donations: indeed, as of 11pm on 28 December, two days after the disaster, its Web site makes no mention of the Asian floods disaster or how to donate to it.
Instead it focuses solely on its Sudan emergency appeal. Indeed, although you can give online to the DEC, you can only give to its Sudan emergency appeal e.g. “I want DEC Sudan Emergency to reclaim the tax I have paid.” The site’s front page indicates that it was last updated on 16 December 2004.
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The DEC is the umbrella organisation which launches and co-ordinates the UK’s national appeal in response to major disasters overseas, and represents its 12 international aid agency members.
The initial focus on telephone donations rather than online is unfortunate for three reasons. First, the DEC itself knows, as do other emergency organisations, that the average online gift is higher than the average offline donation. For example, in its 2002 Southern Africa appeal the average online gift was £56 compared to the average telephone gift of £40.
Secondly, the Web has overtaken the telephone as the preferred method of giving to emergency appeals. For example, in the first two days of Oxfam’s appeal for the victims of the Goma disaster in 2002, three times as much was given online as via the telephone. It had experienced this development already with its 2001 emergency appeals for Afghanistan and the Gujerat earthquake, both of which generated more online than via the telephone in the immediate aftermath.
Thirdly, speed of response matters. Medical charity DebRA found that nearly half of all online income it received after being the subject of a Channel 4 documentary in March 2004 came in within the first 24 hours. More significantly, 6% of online income (£6,000) came within the first two minutes of the programme’s end, and a further 13% (£20,000) coming in within the next 28 minutes. The DEC has enjoyed similar success in the past: in the first three days of its Sudan appeal in July 2004 over £1 million was donated online.
Any delay in offering an online donation facility by an emergency organisation could therefore affect the total amount raised.
While this DEC emergency appeal is likely to be very successful, it is likely that even more could have been raised had the Web donation facility been launched from the outset.
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.