2. Contents Introduction
Part 1: Tuning the donation journey page 4 Everyone we spoke to for this handbook was excited and curious about digital
fundraising. The internet has transformed many charities, and it presents a wealth
Reciprocity page 6
of opportunities for fundraising too.
Appeal to all parts of the brain page 8
It can multiply your reach – perhaps overseas, perhaps with a younger audience, or
In practice: maximise social information page 10
possibly with niche interest groups. It’s easy to set up new experiments, it’s flexible
Don’t treat everyone the same page 12 and you can react quickly to data and audience feedback. Local, personalised and
light-touch communications should help keep supporters engaged and reduce
In practice: photography page 14
attrition rates.
Part 2: Persuading more people to give page 16
The statistics seem to bear this out too. Estimates put the average online donation at
Does online giving lack emotion? page 20 between two to four times higher than offline. In short, digital fundraising ought to be
Should fundraising be everywhere? page 22 a fantastic return on investment.
In practice: challenge yourself page 24 However, the digital revolution has not yet had the impact we’d expect. The total
Are we involving donors enough? page 26 amount given to charity has not risen significantly, online giving still remains a tiny
slice of the fundraising pie and charities lag way behind other industries, such as retail.
Does peer-to-peer make us forgettable? page 28
It’s time to be more ambitious, and that’s why we’ve written this book. It celebrates
Can our stories take us to new places? page 30
the many successes of digital fundraising, as well as examining how we can do better.
One last thing: Giving as investment page 32 Part one establishes just what we mean by digital fundraising, and then looks at how
Thank you page 34 we can improve the donation journey. The second part discusses ‘the thinking’,
or how can we convince more people to give.
We hope you like it.
The Public Zone team
2 thisiszone.com/public-zone This handbook was written and printed in 2012 and is the third in the series. 3
3. Part 1
What is digital fundraising? It’s never been easier to give
The
In all the excitement about digital With online fulfilment, charities have
fundraising – or online giving, or created a new way for supporters to give.
multi-channel donation journeys –
Given the usual cost and technical
there is some confusion about what
Doing
complexity of big digital projects, it’s
exactly these words stand for.
fantastic that almost all charities have now
Do we mean donations processed created a new fulfilment platform online.
through your website? That includes Setting this up was the correct first step
mobile too, right? How about something for digital fundraisers.
less direct, such as the income that
Reassuringly, 92 per cent of people say
Fine-tuning the donation journey comes in offline as a result of a social
they’re happy with the experience of
media campaign? We like to think of it
giving to charity – up 12 points since
in two parts: the doing and the thinking.
2006. Perhaps this is due to the fact that
The doing we’ve made it easy to give online.
This is the fulfilment side: providing new
There’s a huge amount of good thinking
ways for supporters to give you money
and ideas in this area now. There are
via technology.
plenty of blog posts and expert guides on
The thinking perfecting the donation journey. We have
This is the role digital plays in created a list of the best on our website at
persuading people to give. thisiszone.com/digital-fundraising-guides
As for this book, we’ve looked a little
further ahead. So here are our get-ahead-
of-the-game top tips for the next few
years. We think these will get a few more
people giving to your charity.
All the studies and statistics cited in this
handbook are available on our website at
4 thisiszone.com/public-zone thisiszone.com/digital-fundraising-studies 5
4. Reciprocity
What’s the idea? The reciprocity rule works best if
Several studies in social psychology your audience feels they’re receiving
have established something called something from real people, not a
the rule of reciprocity. It says that if faceless website. Show off your staff
somebody does you a favour, you’ll photos or talk about how this page
likely feel some emotional obligation to was created, and make that connection
give something back in return. really explicit.
Researchers have also looked at how Set the tone early and assertively. When
this works on the internet. When we you publish a big new web page, or
use Wikipedia or Gmail – or make use start a new online service, shout loudly
of helpful information and services on a about how donations made it happen
charity’s website – we feel grateful and and are needed to keep it up.
more inclined to give something back
How can we use it?
Provide an obvious way for users to
repay this ‘reciprocity gap’. This should
be directly connected to what the user
Read more
has received, so a big generic donate
button isn’t always best.
When we make use of helpful For more tips on using
Try something far more specific such as: information and services on psychology and emotion
“Did you find this stress-beating advice a charity’s website, we feel in your website, search for
useful? Give a small donation today so grateful and more inclined ‘Designing For Emotion’
we can keep this page up to date.”
to give something back. by Aaron Walter.
6 thisiszone.com/public-zone 7
5. Appeal to all parts
of the brain
What’s the idea? How can we use it?
Thanks to extensive research on Websites have the space to appeal to
decision making, we now know there all three parts of the brain, much more
are broadly three physical parts of the so than a poster or a mail drop.
brain that evaluate action.
Take all of your fundraising messages
One part deals with quick, gut-reaction and separate them out by what part of
decisions and responds best to a visual the brain they’re trying to reach. Keep
message. Another part listens to how them strictly separate so that they
we’re feeling, and responds best to an each have the most impact.
emotional appeal.
Since the three parts work in order, use
Finally, there’s a separate part that numbers and statistics only right at the
deals with rational evidence. It lets us end. So take off those emotive images
weigh up the pros and cons before from the last part of the donation form
making a decision. and replace them with logical graphs
and statistics about how the money is
Read more
spent wisely.
Neuroscience and persuasive
design is an emerging field
in digital. Susan Weinschenk’s
Take all of your fundraising book ‘Neuro Web Design:
messages and separate them What Makes Them Click?’
out by what part of the brain is easy to read and gives
they’re trying to reach. you loads of practical tips.
8 thisiszone.com/public-zone 9
6. Maximise social
In practice
information
Using extremes not averages
How much did other people give? Although these recent gifts may
Social information is powerful stuff. include large donations that encourage
When we’re not sure what to do, we further generosity, they may also
take cues from others like us. So when include some small donations.
emotional and logical appeals from the Displaying a small donation gives
charity aren’t quite enough, include people permission to do the same.
evidence of what other people have
On the other hand, Virgin Money
done before.
highlights the biggest donation so far.
For example, we’ve all looked at
Showing off a single large donation of
JustGiving’s list of recent donations to
£100 can boost the average amount
help decide how much to give.
given by as much as £30.
However, just showing the recent
donations tends to make people
converge on a smaller amount.
One generous donation of
£100 can increase the average
amount given by 30 per cent.
10 thisiszone.com/public-zone 11
7. Don’t treat
everyone the same
What’s the idea? How can we use it?
We utilise segmentation techniques Earlier this year, Google Analytics
b
when using campaigning tools such quietly introduced a very powerful tool
as letters or direct mail, but websites called Content Experiments, which
are often left as an all-purpose lets you test out multiple versions of a
shop window. page, all of them live at the same time.
However, a leisurely weekend browse
on the laptop is very different to
snatching a hurried five minutes on
the work computer. Similarly, a visitor
Create four subtly different versions
of your homepage, or five different
donation buttons, and see immediately
which is the most effective. What are
a
reading your news page is quite the right words, the right colours and
different to someone searching for a the best way to get someone to act?
local support group. And we haven’t
Use it to continually try out new things,
even mentioned behaviour on mobiles
and build up a record of the most
and tablets.
inspiring way to ask different visitors
The solution lies in using data. at different times. Read more
Record all of the information on
how people are using your website, If you want to know more
change one feature, and assess the about making decisions from
impact immediately.
A visitor reading your news audience behaviour, you
page is very different to should read our previous
someone searching for handbook on user research
a local support group. at thisiszone.com/public-zone
12 thisiszone.com/public-zone 13
8. Photography
In practice
Putting photos to the test
To find out what makes people Similarly, holiday rental platform
donate, micro-lending charity website Airbnb found that properties with
Kiva records and tests all of the professional photos are booked two
photos used alongside their global and a half times more than those
fundraising projects. without – so they send out a proper
photographer to your home whenever
Researchers found that projects with
they can.
pretty, slim and light-skinned females
receive the most donations. For charities, photography is often
used as a generic extension of brand
Kiva has opened up its photography
values, but we could think about it
data to other researchers so they can
differently. Find out exactly what sort
examine how other elements influence
of photography makes people give
donor behaviour. What happens when
more by testing it on your live website.
the photo is staged, professional or
formal? When the subjects smile or
look sad? And how does this vary by
region and gender?
By testing live, Airbnb
found that properties with
professional photos are
booked 2.5 times more
than those without.
14 thisiszone.com/public-zone 15
9. Part 2
Online fundraising is Charities still receive only seven per
The
not yet a success story cent of their funding income online.
The National Council for Voluntary During 2012, half of charities saw
Organisations and the Charities Aid no increase in this proportion. Many
Foundation published their latest actually saw a decrease.
Thinking
survey of UK charitable giving in
The retail sector provides a sharp
November 2012.
contrast. E-commerce provides 13.2 per
While the headline finding was cent of its income, and this is estimated
a 20 per cent drop in total giving, to grow to one-third over the next
we were more surprised to see that 10 years. Why isn’t the charity sector
Persuading significantly more online giving has remained static keeping pace?
people to give to charity over the past two years.
In 2012 many charities saw
a decrease in the proportion
of fundraising income via
the internet.
16 thisiszone.com/public-zone 17
10. Very few of us donate online You would expect there to be a gap, Why is it so important to get Thinking beyond the donation journey
We compared how many UK adults given that more people shop than people giving online? Improving the little details of the user
have shopped online with how many give to charity. But even when you Aside from the obvious cost benefits, journey is really important, and will
have donated online. take this into account, it’s still a we’re seeing a larger trend – one best definitely help conversion rates.
five-fold difference. articulated by a recent announcement
The results are extraordinary. Although But given that 92 per cent of donors
from Amazon. In August 2012, Amazon
two-thirds of UK shoppers have Spending money online is an are happy with the experience of giving
UK reported that it now sells more
shopped online, only one in 14 charity established, normal, everyday activity. to charity, we believe that further
Kindle eBooks than printed books.
supporters have donated online. We’re ready to spend, but we’re not improvements to the fulfilment journey
That’s only four per cent of the adult inspired enough by charities to spend However, this isn’t a straightforward will have diminishing returns.
UK population. with them. case of digital cannibalising print –
We keep hearing the same reasons for
because of this digital innovation,
why digital fundraising hasn’t taken off
sales of all books rose by more than
yet: risk-aversion and lack of resources.
six per cent.
Yes, these are significant issues, but they
How do we generate the same impact aren’t going away anytime soon.
for charities?
We wanted this book to move the
debate forward, so here are five
brainteasers that we’re trying to figure
out. Take some time out with your team
to discuss them.
Only four per cent of UK adults have donated online.
In contrast, 66 per cent have shopped online.
18 thisiszone.com/public-zone 19
11. Does online giving
lack emotion?
Giving without thinking Ask people to spend some Let people explore and read in depth Not all of our digital content has to be
Striving to solve fulfilment, we may time with you At the same time there has been a short and snappy and condensed into
have taken one too many lessons from Offline, fundraisers take care and time boom in long-form articles on the web bullet points. Perhaps we should try
e-commerce. With a focus on the to bring warmth and feeling to the and the proliferation of sites such as writing some much longer articles, such
quickest, clutter-free journey to the introduction of a topic, or to explain TheFeature.net and LongReads.com as a detailed explanation of a recent
thank-you page, have we made the the genuine need to give. The best that “handpick the finest articles and fundraising decision, or interviews with
online giving experience too cold fundraisers make the opportunity to essays” for you to savour over time. long-supporting donors.
and superficial? donate feel exciting and new patrons They highlight the demand for in-
leave with a huge smile and a glow in depth and comprehensive information
One of the reasons people enjoy
their belly. on a subject.
e-commerce is because it’s so easy.
This is why mobile text giving and Should we be creating experiences The best fundraisers make
emergency appeals go so well that go against the grain of the super- the opportunity to donate
together: you can act now in response quick, light-touch nature of social feel exciting.
to a shock, then put the phone back in media and the internet?
your pocket and get on with your day.
The slow web
However, the speed and lack of We’re not the only ones talking
emotion creates an unmemorable about the need to relax the internet
experience, damaging our ability a little – some are calling it the slow
to convert these donors into web movement. It’s concerned with
long-term supporters. routines and doing things at your
own pace.
Do we really want people to give
without thinking? For example, ‘read-it-later’ services
such as Pocket and Instapaper let you
save a long web page to your phone
or tablet and relax with it when it’s
more convenient.
20 thisiszone.com/public-zone 21
12. Should fundraising
be everywhere?
Interrupting people doesn’t Create an effortless next step Charities could copy this, but with a Financial asks can come later
make sense Taking five minutes to get out your twist: instead of rating the page with These are small, easy, nice things for
Most site visitors haven’t come to credit card or fill in a three-stage form, a star button, we could try creating a the visitor to do to help. Only after
donate. Depending on the charity, no matter how perfectly designed it is, ‘thank you’ button that does nothing they’ve taken this easy step could we
they may be in vulnerable or sensitive is an obstacle that will always put off except quietly tell the team that their follow up by turning the button or the
situations. Should we interrupt them lots of people. Instead, can we create effort was appreciated. Or in a similar checkbox into an email form, with a
constantly to ask for a donation? smaller things for them? Actions that vein, we could include a ‘this helped message such as: “We’re really glad
are so minor and effortless they feel me’ checkbox at the bottom of a page. this helped you – it’s what we do. Can
On the one hand, we want to deliver
like a natural next step? we send you an email next time we
what they came for without annoying
create something similar that we think
them, especially before we’ve made Getting this first interaction is crucial
you’ll find useful?”
a good impression. That isn’t what for distinguishing between warm and
charities stand for and it’s unlikely cold visitors, so that we can follow up Less than 1 in 500 charity If they’ve done that as well, then it’s
to succeed. appropriately later. website visits ends in absolutely appropriate to put a strong
a donation. fundraising ask in a follow-up email
And on the other hand, the number Something small on every page
later that day or week. It started with
one reason people give money is Publishers and bloggers have long
something really small, but now we
because they are asked to, so we understood the need to try to get a
have an email list of warm leads to
shouldn’t just let them go. In our quick bit of extra engagement from
follow up.
experience less than 1 in 500 charity their readers.
website visits ends in a donation.
Likes, comments, favourites, star-
Surely we can improve this!
ratings and thumbs-up/thumbs-down
votes are all small ways to generate a
bit more of a connection with readers
and get some feedback about a
blogger’s work.
22 thisiszone.com/public-zone 23
13. Challenge yourself
In practice
Letting users tell you what works
Ask an easy question Take a list of what you consider to be
Campaign sites such as Robin Hood your most indisputable fundraising
Taxes are good at drawing you in with asks and messages, and scatter
an easy question. questions like this throughout your
site. You’ll find out quickly which ones
It’s a common technique in advertising,
effectively draw people in and which
and the questions often work in
ones aren’t as unquestionable as
reverse – in this case imagine asking if
you thought.
you agreed with keeping our financial
services sector competitive and strong
for the sake of the economy. How far
can we take this principle?
24 thisiszone.com/public-zone 25
14. Are we involving
donors enough?
Donors demand more Digital gives us an opportunity to They have taken the idea of ring- An ongoing thank you
In general, supporter satisfaction with be more transparent about how fenced donations to the extreme After a donation, shouldn’t the thank-
charities is going up, but not in every things work. It might take months for and turned it into an impressive you message last longer than just the
respect – donors are becoming less someone’s donation to total up with communications asset. confirmation page? This is especially
satisfied with the information they others into something that can be true for regular givers.
receive about how donations are used. used on the ground, or years to start
We could ask someone on the team
something new. We could better share
Digital and social media have changed responsible for using a campaign’s
and involve people in this journey. Donors now demand detailed,
donor expectations. They now demand funds to do a fortnightly blog about
detailed, personalised information about Social media is the perfect place to personalised information how it’s going (or do a quick two-
the impact their money has made. talk directly with supporters, explain about the impact their minute video interview), and then
work without jargon and clear up any money has made. send email updates about it to new
How can we use digital to prove it?
controversies. One idea is to hold a donors. Over time, this would create an
Make real-time progress available monthly Q&A session on Twitter with impressive archive of work and impact.
Online, there’s a chance to do more a member of staff from every team.
than just a monthly update on what
Live feedback on a donation
the charity has been doing and how
Representing the extreme end of the
the big capital project is progressing.
scale is charity: water. It is the case
Should we be decentralising our study de rigeur these days, and there’s
digital work, and making the team a reason for that – the charity has
responsible for spending project funds put a significant amount of money
also responsible for updating donors? into turning its digital presence into
a near-live account of all its work,
linked to all the individual donors that
made it happen. Search on Google for
‘dollars to projects’ and prepare to be
impressed.
26 thisiszone.com/public-zone 27
15. Does peer-to-peer
make us forgettable?
It’s the big growth area Is this actually a threat? Short-term donors, Take back control
Peer-to-peer fundraising (where However, is this trend damaging our not long-term supporters Action for Children decided to get
supporters ask on behalf of a charity) ability to create long-term supporters? Movember has radically changed the ahead of this issue by re-inventing
and external donation platforms (such It means losing control of your brand, demographic profile of men’s health how they did online fundraising.
as JustGiving) are fantastic revenue your asks and your relationships supporters. It has raised millions, but They’ve created an entirely new online
opportunities for charities. They’re the with supporters. it hasn’t significantly raised awareness platform, and are transforming how
big growth areas for digital fundraising for prostate and testicular cancer, nor funds go from donors to local projects
Quick – think of the charities you’ve
at the moment. has it delivered long-term donors for – look at my.actionforchildren.org.uk
donated to this year via JustGiving.
these charities.
In fact, 90 per cent of online donations It’s hard, because you didn’t feel like Not everyone can or should create
are not made on charity’s websites – you were donating to the charity. Perhaps we should be using peer-to- something like this right away. So,
they are made on third-party platforms You were donating to your friend. peer and external platforms only for should we be demanding more from
created by businesses or new starters large projects such as big challenge the donation partners we work with?
In an unexpected twist, charities
filling a gap, sites such as BT MyDonate events. It’s a difficult call.
now risk becoming an increasingly
and Vodafone Txt Giving.
incidental part of the donation journey.
90 per cent of the fulfilment
income charities receive
online doesn’t happen on
their own websites.
28 thisiszone.com/public-zone 29
16. Can our stories take
us to new places?
Charity stories are often If one of your supporters runs the Creating a popular blog about the Control the narrative
the most inspiring marathon in record time, would you Football League’s best strikers – Movember has taken this to the next
It’s your stories that engage people think of contacting running blogs? who wear the number nine – has level. By using the moustache, a
online. This is something charities have Imagine a story about how running for catapulted the charity’s message into strong male emblem, and connecting
long understood in their traditional charity can inspire you to run harder an entirely new arena, and significantly it with the challenge of 30-day growth,
awareness and fundraising campaigns. (and get you a free place). These kinds increased traffic to the Prostate UK they have created a hugely compelling
of stories can reach new people and website, where there is plenty of story. Any mention of the moustache
As an agency, we work with major
give them a reason to join you. content about the prostate. – and in some ways manliness – is
brands such as Coca-Cola and Tesco,
now connected to Movember during
which are already exploiting new Apply your values in new areas
November. It is no accident that many
opportunities in digital storytelling to Over the past decade charities have
of the staff at Movember have editorial
reach new audiences. invested significantly in their brands. It is no accident that many of
backgrounds.
This includes defining a tone of voice. the staff at Movember have
Charities have amazing, everyday
Could we use these principles to take editorial backgrounds. We believe content, and a more
stories from supporters, staff,
us into new places? For example, conversational, always-on approach to
volunteers and local groups that
health charities don’t need to always storytelling, is going to have a major
are hugely inspiring and interesting,
tell their stories in a medical context. impact in the future.
potentially far more so than those
from brands. Are we using them We recently faced this challenge with
effectively online? Prostate Cancer UK, who became
partners with the Football League.
Join new conversations
We were reluctant to talk directly to
This book has already covered inspiring
football fans about prostate cancer,
people on your website. However, your
but we did have a strong message
best stories don’t need to live only on
about one in nine men in the UK being
your own platforms.
affected by the disease.
30 thisiszone.com/public-zone 31
17. One last thing
Donors have become investors
Giving as
We couldn’t finish this book without
including what we think is the most These innovations are coming from
exciting development in online new organisations, not within charities,
fundraising – giving as investment. so let’s learn as much as we can.
Their trademarks are very direct
investment
It’s a game-changer.
giving – such as to local projects –
It wasn’t a donation
a real element of risk to the project’s
Perhaps there’s a simpler reason
success, and returning something
why only four per cent of UK adults
tangible to the supporter. Donors
say they’ve given to charity online –
have become investors.
perhaps when they gave money, they
didn’t think of it as donating.
Perhaps the internet has
Has a massive shift happened in digital already uncovered an
fundraising? There are a number of entirely new way of giving.
‘donation’ platforms that are changing
It’s an exciting thought.
the very definition of the word.
Amateur funding platforms such as
Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, micro-
lending service Kiva, and checkout
round-it-up-for-charity service Pennies
have all used the internet to dramatically
change how we give to others. As of
September 2012, the world has given
just short of half a billion pounds to
Kickstarter and Kiva combined.
32 thisiszone.com/public-zone 33
18. Thank you
Public Zone would like to thank the
many people who contributed their time
and insight to this handbook, including
Craig Linton, Dean Benton, Celina
Ribeiro, Adrian Hon and many others.
Special thanks to our own fundraising
expert, James Brown.
34 thisiszone.com/public-zone 35
