£8.7 billion virtually untapped charity income… the NBT?

Howard Lake | 26 July 2013 | Blogs

IMRG Capgemini are forecasting online spending to be around £87 billion in 2013 and 85% of this is through some 50 retailers who will all give 10% or more to charity through affinity marketing schemes, indeed several thousand online retailers have signed up, giving charities an unprecedented new income channel.

Supporters download a widget to their computer and thereafter 10% of their online purchases are credited to their chosen charity – simplicity itself.

So, why haven’t some charities signed up? And why are others rushing to now?

The best promotion is by email straight from a charity to its donors but us fundraisers tend to measure things by instant return and compared to email appeals this is slow-burner, we buy things online now and again through the year, so the charity gets it money now and again through the year; but year by year, purchase by purchase it adds up to billions in total and huge sums per charity depending on the size of its supporter base.

Like legacies, the immediate returns may not appear significant but the end results can be amazing, especially as we are increasing our online spend massively year by year. Of course the widget does not need to be renewed.

A note of caution: This is a zero sum game and there can only be one widget on your supporter’s computer, so if you don’t sign them up someone else may.

Early agencies tended to take a large bite out of the charity discount at 50% or more but more recent entrants e.g. give4sure www.give4sure.com take only 25%, white-brand their widget so the process is charity led and let donors download it without having to give their details, neither do they have to return to the agency site to make a discounted purchase.

Save the Children, PDSA and Shelter among others are driving this forward with their supporters and I expect we will all be following pretty quickly.

So, could this be the next big thing?

John Baguley

CEO

International Fundraising Consultancy

www.internationalfundraisingconsultancy.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.