# 4% of large charities' income raised online

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/08/26/4-large-charities039-income-raised-online/
- Published: 2007-08-26T11:49:56+01:00
- Author: Guest Blogger

Back in June 2006 I posted a blog about a piece of research I was helping CAF with
into charities’ new media results: [www.fundraising.co.uk/blogs/sarahhughes/2006/06/21/desperately-seeking-hard-facts-a-new-survey/](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/blogs/sarahhughes/2006/06/21/desperately-seeking-hard-facts-a-new-survey)

Well it’s been a long wait but CAF have finally published a headline figure in Charity
Trends 2007 stating that the UK’s top 100 fundraising charities (listed in Charity
Trends 2006) generate around 4% of their annual voluntary income via new media fundraising
methods.

It seems it was a difficult piece of research to successfully recruit charities 
into (and my call to action post made no difference, ha!) and more difficult still
to conduct. Most charities admitted they find it difficult to isolate online income
from everything else. This is certainly still my finding when working with charities
on developing their online plans and strategies. But it’s something I always try
to concentrate some time on (without getting hung up on the problems). How do you
know where you are heading if you don’t know where you have come from?

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CAF call the figure indicative, and only 21 charities participated, but say that
they plan to be able to produce trend data in Charity Trends 2008. They have told
me their aim is to publish the research directly in the coming weeks so I will watch
out for that and report back. At the time of discussing the research with CAF I 
did emphasise how useful it would be to have comparisons between online income and
other channels, as well as historic comparisons – for example, what was payroll 
contributing after its first 10 years in play?

In the past‚ I have predicted that most large charities would be raising between
3 and 5% of their overall income online, so it’s a little gratifying to see that
validated. But I have also said that the more effective new media communicators 
would (should) be raising twice that and more, and that smaller charities could 
have suprises to show us with much stronger yields (less political, less offline
marketing baggage, less constipated with bureacracy?).

I’ll try in future weeks to draw this new data together with other information from
the charity sector – for example, Virtual Promise – as well as from business, to
keep up a current view of new media trends and realities.

Meanwhile, do please comment, and better still, be brave and bold and share details
of your own online fundraising results. Go on.

**Sarah Hughes**

 * **[People give more when beneficiaries make an effort’](https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/09/06/people-give-more-when-beneficiaries-make-effort/)**(
   6 September 2007)
 * **[Hits are a miss at the Charity Commission's website](https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/09/13/hits-are-miss-charity-commission039s-website/)**(
   13 September 2007)
 * **[Virtual Promise 2006: is all fair in small, medium and large e-fundraising?](https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/10/29/virtual-promise-2006-all-fair-small-medium-and-large-efundraising/)**(
   29 October 2007)