DEC how you can help page omits to mention giving by telephone
Howard Lake | 4 January 2005 | News
The Disasters Emergency Committee’s Web page that details how to help still doesn’t mention giving by telephone.
The “making a donation” section of the DEC’s Web site mentions giving online, sending cash/cheque/postal orders or charity vouchers through the post, and completing a
a DEC Bank Giro Credit Slip/ Transcash voucher at any high street bank or Post Office.
One week after the Tsunami Earthquake appeal was launched, there is, however, no mention on that page of giving by telephone, one of the two most important methods of making a rapid donation.
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Nor is there any mention of the facility to make a donation by SMS, although that was only introduced in the past 24 hours.
Given the massive response to the current emergency appeal, the lack of information about giving by telephone doesn’t seem to have adversely affected the appeal’s success. Of course, the telephone hotline is prominently featured on the site’s front page.
Yet the absence of information about making a telephone donation on the “how you can help” page demonstrates that even the largest fundraising appeals can overlook basic errors in advising donors how to give.
On the subject of omissions on that page, the section about giving to the appeal via ShareGift continues even today to include a non-implemented Web link to “print out a ShareGift coupon”. The text remains just that – you can’t click on it. Again, one week after the appeal was launched, it is regrettable that this facility has not been addressed.
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.