# Charities's disaster appeal communications need improving, say Plan

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/02/14/charities039s-disaster-appeal-communications-need-improving-say-plan/
- Published: 2011-02-14T10:13:13+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

A survey for international children’s development charity, Plan UK, suggests that
fewer than half (43%) of people who donate to charity disaster appeals are told 
about the difference their money has made. The survey, carried out by research company
ComRes on Plan’s behalf, found other elements of donor communications that needed
addressing by international charities.

The research was commissioned in order to understand the public’s perception of 
the media’s reporting of humanitarian disasters. In terms of donor communications,
it found that only 20% who contributed to disaster appeals received some sort of
communication regarding their donation. Only 5 per cent of these were personalised;
and remarkably just 9% of respondents were thanked.

“Rightly, many people want to take some kind of action when they see a disaster 
unfold,” said Plan UK’s Director of Fundraising, Jeremy Cooper. “However, if we
don’t thank and inform them properly, we miss the opportunity to build support and
understanding for the fact that aid

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works.”

The research confirmed that awareness of disasters is mostly high amongst the British
public, with only 4% of people not recalling seeing coverage of events in countries
like Haiti and Pakistan in the last year.

More than half of those surveyed (51%) said that they were likely to donate to specific
appeals from charities following natural disasters; 56% said they have already taken
action after watching reports on events like floods, famine and earthquakes, with
36% donating money. More women said that they gave to disaster appeals: the survey
reports that 43% of women had contributed cash to disaster charities, compared to
29% of men.

Former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief,
and Plan UK patron, Sir John Holmes, commented on the survey’s findings, saying:“
Aid agencies need to learn how to communicate more effectively and journalists need
to understand better the dynamics of a disaster and what is possible and necessary
in aid terms.”

[ComRes](http://www.comres.co.uk) interviewed 2051 adults online between 14 and 
16 January 2011. Data was weighted to be representative demographically of all adults
in Great Britain.

www.plan-uk.org

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