Don’t let CharityGiving turn donors away from online giving

Howard Lake | 28 July 2013 | Blogs

The recent news that online giving platform CharityGiving has been suspended over concerns about an estimated £250,000 of missing charitable donations has raised concerns for the entire industry. In the first of two posts for UK Fundraising, Blackbaud’s Martin Campbell explains why not-for-profits must do all they can to reassure donors about online giving in the fallout from CharityGiving.

The rise of online giving over the past five years or so has been remarkable. As people have grown more comfortable with online banking and shopping, it’s not surprising that  the amount of people donating online has increased, as has the average amount that people donate. Blackbaud compiles the UK Online Giving Trends for the Institute of Fundraising, a comparison of sample organisations data over a three year period (January 2010 to December 2012).  According to recent data, there has been an increase in the average online gift of £52.87 in 2010 to £64.07 in 2012. People are still happy to donate to their favourite causes via traditional channels, but online giving is undoubtedly on the rise.

The reason it has grown so popular is the sheer speed and convenience it offers. People can donate to a cause without any fuss and until now, haven’t questioned whether their donation will reach the cause they are supporting. However when The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, launched an inquiry into the registered charity that runs CharityGiving, the Dove Trust, there was found to be a significant shortfall between the money CharityGiving holds and what it owes to charities.

It is perhaps surprising that it has taken this long for something of this nature to occur, but what is most important is that donors are not turned away from online giving. For a generation of people, online giving is all they know, so if people do not feel confident their money is going to their chosen cause then that revenue may not be replaced. The good news is that many of the online giving platforms are more established brands than CharityGiving and are far more trusted by consumers. More importantly, they all have more rigorous and stringent security measures in place that make it quite clear what the donation process is and how the donor is protected.

This needs to be highlighted as much as possible and online giving platforms should reiterate their security stance in the wake of CharityGiving to reassure donors further. But security is not the only factor a supporter should be considering when looking at online giving platforms. Each of the platforms in market differ in how much they charge not-for-profits for their service, which impacts on how much a donors’ donations reaches the cause.

Online fundraising will one day be the de facto method of donating with a majority choosing to donate this way. Not-for-profits should therefore be doing all they can to reassure their supporters that their donations will be going straight to their chosen cause. It is hard enough for charities to acquire and retain new supporters with the amount of worthy causes all fighting for mindshare and attention, so that donor reassurance will become increasingly important.

Martin Campbell is director of strategy and innovation at not-for-profit software and services firms, Blackbaud Europe

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.