Charity websites still not promoting regular giving enough
Howard Lake | 6 July 2010 | News
Many charities are still not using their websites to encourage regular giving by Direct Debit, according to the results of the Online Giving Survey, published by Rapidata Services plc. Although the charities surveyed said that regular giving was the most important source of voluntary income, it featured less on their websites than did the options to give via credit card and using Gift Aid.
The survey, conducted in association with UK Fundraising, found that 91% of charities offer online giving through their own website. Nearly as many included the facility to give using Gift Aid (86%) and via credit card (83%). However, only 63% enabled online donors to support the charity regularly through direct debit.
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Not surprisingly, donors are more likely to be able to give by direct debit to larger than smaller charities: 75% of large charities (those with a voluntary income of over £1 million) facilitate direct debit giving online, compared to 43% of small to medium-sized charities (those with a voluntary income of less than £1 million).
Overall, many charities are using a variety of digital channels to fundraise, with 89% of respondents using email to fundraise and 79% of charities using social media to raise income. Note that the survey was online so one might expect responses to come from the more online literate charities.
Scott Gray, Managing Director of Rapidata Services Plc, said: “With almost 8 in 10 charities now using social media to fundraise, charities have been quick to adapt to new fundraising techniques, but they are missing a trick when it comes to facilitating regular giving online.
“Over a third of charities and more than 50% of smaller charities still don’t enable donors to give regularly via their website, which is at odds with the importance charities attribute to regular giving.”
He added: “it is just as straight forward for charities to offer direct debit to donors through their website, as it is a one-off credit card donation.”
The survey, conducted during June 2010, received 90 responses from charities.
A summary report with results of the survey is now available from Rapidata’s website and from Rapidata’s stand at the National Convention in London.
www.rapidataservices.com
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.