Donors think charities should change the way they communicate
Howard Lake | 10 February 2010 | News
Three quarters of donors think charities need to change how they communicate, according to a new report from the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).
The report was based on the responses of over 200 CAF and non-CAF donors who were asked for their views on how the recession affects charities and what they thought charities could do to alleviate the effects of the recession.
A key recommendation was using new forms of communication with 70 per cent suggesting social networking and 65 per cent email. A huge 85 per cent thought charities should be forging closer links with each other.
Ninety four per cent thought charities should focus on their efficiency to weather the recession and 92 per cent that they need to show their achievements to donors.
Donors also think that charities should diversify their income streams by using volunteers, applying for more grants, asking for donations of goods and dedicating more resources to fundraising. CAF points out that some of these suggestions can be considered to be partly drive by a lack of knowledge of the issues that affect charities and how these can make it more difficult to achieve the suggestions.
However, it also says that charities should be more aware of their public perception and to make sure they are communicating successes, activities and ways of working effectively together.
The report is free and downloadable from http://www.cafonline.org/connectdonors
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.