G.O.S.H's 92,425 Facebook members have given $280
Howard Lake | 22 October 2008 | Blogs
Two days ago, the administrator of the G.O.S.H (Great Ormond Street Hospital For Children) group on Facebook announced that 89,500 people had registered to support it through the Causes application. Today that figure stands at 92,425.
That’s an impressive number. Yet these ‘supporters’ have donated just $280 to the charity via Causes.
That doesn’t mean that these supporters haven’t given or won’t give by other means. They just haven’t given via Causes/Facebook.
That probably isn’t too surprising, although donors must by now be used to giving via a number of ways to their favourite charity/charities e.g. through Justgiving, Bmycharity, Alta Contact and the rest, via Paypal or Google Checkout, and even via Amazon and Yahoo! in cases of major disasters such as the 2004 South Asian Tsunami.
It probably means that the supporters are more likely to give direct to the charity itself, presumably via its website. The challenge therefore for charities using Causes and similar third party tools is somehow to persuade those groups of self-selecting supporters to contact them directly.
That’s not easy of course. But the admin of the GOSH Causes group is trying it. In announcing its total of supporters, the admin gave web links to enable supporters make one-off or regular/Direct Debit donations.
Unfortunately, the latter link isn’t correct: “The direct debit form cannot be displayed as it is missing its campaign reference” says the page you reach.
So, there remains considerable potential from Causes for charities, but it does need a dose of hard work, good old fashioned fundraising common sense, and, where volunteers are managing the communications, for professional fundraisers from the charity to oversee it.
And GOSH isn’t the only charity not to generate large sums via Facebook Causes. Amnesty International has 312,210 members, who have donated $15,423 via Causes.
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/8620?m=4105dd6c
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.