Online giving increased by 85% in past three years, says nfpSynergy report
Howard Lake | 15 September 2011 | News
Online giving has increased by 85% in the past three years according to research by nfpSynergy together with MissionFish UK, eBay for Charity and the Institute of Fundraising.
The research findings will be presented on 19 September at the Institute of Fundraising’s annual Digital Fundraising Conference.
The research, part of the second edition of the report ‘Passion, persistence and partnership: the secrets of earning more online’ reports on how charities and donors are using social media, smartphones and mobile internet, in particular in relation to fundraising and supporter engagement. (The first edition of the report was published in May 2008).
A majority of the charities surveyed are taking active steps to reach donors, rather than relying on them finding their own websites. NfpSynergy reports that:
• 71% of charities now use Facebook
• 62% use Twitter
• and 50% use YouTube .
This means that many charities are now becoming experienced in more frequent engagement with supporters and contacts, sometimes in real time.
NfpSynergy report that online fundraising teams at charities raise an overage of £170,000 per staff member in their online fundraising team, placing it between donor recruitment (£137,000) and major gifts (£210,000) in nfpSynergy’s rankings.
Nick Aldridge, MissionFish CEO and chairing the Digital Fundraising conference, said: “While online donations remain some way behind online retail – at almost 10% of UK retail – our research indicates that many charities are beginning to generate real returns from their online activities. At the same time, our report also clearly shows that charities are taking a more sophisticated and holistic approach to online communication – looking beyond the money at how to develop deeper relationships with potential supporters.”
www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk
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.