The favourite ways of giving for UK Christians

Here is some interesting data from our Why Christians Give survey:

1. Nine out of ten evangelical donors have a favourite way of giving.

2. More than half of evangelical donors (56%) prefer to give via standing orders and direct debits.

3. The least popular ways of giving were: online donations (2%) and Stewardship or CAF accounts used by respectively 4% and 7% of evangelical donors.

4. On the whole evangelical donors are more likely to give regularly to charities compared to UK donors’ at large (52% vs.37%).

However, while the relative popularity of methods for UK donors might have changed little in the last decade, the popularity of regular giving methods has changed a lot for evangelical donors.

A partial comparison of preferred ways of giving in 2009 vs. 1998 reveals that giving by cheque was the most popular way of giving followed by standing orders and CAF accounts. Today, we see a 25% increase in giving by direct debits and a 14% increase in giving by standing orders, while giving by cheque remains almost at the same level.

So, do you know your donor’s favourite ways of giving? Have you ever asked them? In what ways would that information affect the way you ask for money in the coming year?

What constitutes good content for charity websites?

What kind of content should a charity include in their website?


If you are looking to re-vamp your charity’s website or even start from scratch you might want to have a look at Internet for Nonprofits Management, a new book published by Wiley containing some excellent insights and strategies for online fundraising and marketing.


Here is a brief list of good content ideas that online visitors who might know nothing about your work would want to see on a charity website:

• Home page

• Mission and vision statements

• Services and programmes

• Goals

• What's new

• Past accomplishments

• Brief history

• Issues or causes your charity addresses

• Message from the CEO

• Press releases

• Past and future events

• Urgent action alerts

• Testimonials from beneficiaries and donors too

• Photo album

• Endorsements or awards

• Donor hall of fame (maybe this is more a US than a UK thing)

• Privacy and security policy

• Annual report / review

• Project outlines/ other key documents to download

• How your charity can help

• Frequently asked questions

• Links

• Staff list and bios

• Board list and bios

• Contact information

• How to donate


How does your website measures up to the good website content list?

How to write effective e-newsletters that get read

Well, here are a few tips for creating newsletters that will attract and retain your charity’s supporters.

Ideas about creating great content

Offer news items that are interesting to your charity’s donors. Note here that I said news items that are interesting to donors not to you! What you find fascinating is not likely what donors might find fascinating. So, the first step is to make sure that you are listening to your donors and you are discovering what they find interesting.

For example, donors to a charity helping teachers in Africa might be interested to know what happened at the training days for local teachers in Sierra Leone. How many teachers attended? What did they learn? How are they planning to use that knowledge in their schools etc? – This is the project you told donors about a couple of months ago and asked for their support – this a news item you might want to include in your e-newsletter to offer feedback on how this project impacted lives.

You might also want to share some news or statistics that highlight the types of problems you are trying to tackle, stories and comments from the people you are helping, a photo album featuring one of your projects etc.

Do some research, see how other charities in your field are sharing news and relating to donors online and work out how you can do the same. Bookmark or monitor RSS feeds from useful websites to receive information to help you craft better e-newsletters.

Use case studies. Most of your charity’s supporters don’t really understand the complex problems or issues you might be trying to tackle. What’s more they are not likely to give money to an abstract cause. So, if you want more people to engage with your cause use real life stories about how your charity is helping people.

Build e-newsletters around one of your real life stories and make sure you let your field workers or beneficiaries tell the story in their own words. You can position the story in such a way that your donors are included too – by reminding them that they helped make the change happen through their gifts and prayers.

Offer some spiritual insights or advice to your readers. A Christian charity can use an e-newsletter to bless its supporters by offering them some spiritual encouragement in the form of short Bible based reflections. These could be spiritual lessons that the leaders of the charity or missionaries have learnt during field trips, answers to prayers and much more.

Charities that are working in areas of education or healthcare too can offer their e-newsletter readers and supporters some specific advice or, ideas about issues that might concern them.

Make e-newsletters interactive. There is nothing more boring than being bombarded with information and not given a chance to participate. The growth of social media has broken the power of monologue and has given readers a voice. So rather than shunning this trend you should use it for your charity’s benefit.

You can do this by including a quick poll relating to a specific topic that your charity is addressing or to get donor’s opinions on specific initiatives. Many people love to have their voice heard, even if only through a quick vote, and they love to hear how others view an issue.

What can you learn from stillerstrong.org

Right now one exciting charity venture that is making headlines in America is Ben Stillers (www.stillerstrong.org) charity aiming to raise funds of a school in Haiti.

At first sight, there seems to be nothing too special about this - celebrities big or small always seem to be involved in promoting a charity or another. But take a closer look at www.stillerstrong.org and you will soon discover that .... well, what Ben is doing is something unique and special. And, I dare say perhaps he is paving the way for a new kind of celebrity involvement in charity work.

Having had lots of fun watching the different videos on this site here are some of the things I have discovered that make stillerstrong work.

First of all the cause is simple and focused - Ben Stiller is not trying to save the world - he has simply teamed up with Save the Children to build a new school for poor kids in Haiti. And, he is asking fellow celebrities and other people who visit his website to donate to this cause.

Secondly, unlike some celebrities who give a five minute endorsement to a cause Stiller is spending some of his time regularly to shoot mini-videos asking people to give to the cause and giving out his stillerstrong bands. This idea of headbands is a play off from his movie Zoolander.... and works rather well in this particular context.

Thirdly, every now and then Stiller reveals the comical side of celebrity involvement in charity work - see the episode when he speaks to Bill Clinton who asks him about the capital of Haiti and Stiller is honest that he doesn't know. Or the episode when Stiller tries to convince Owen Wilson to donate to the cause and Owen pretends to show interest... ah, and the episode when he hires and fires the fundraising consultants...

In short, Stiller doesn't pretend to be the perfect charity champion and he doesn't expect donors or fellow celebrities to be perfect either...

Fourthly, the website is full of interesting and entertaining ideas and more importantly easy and quick ways to give. It also offers the visitor many opportunities to stay connected to the cause and give feedback on what they have seen ....

On the whole, I really enjoyed the experience of surfing on stillerstrong and am feeling quite tempted to buy one of those headbands.

What's missing from charity websites?

Ask any charity fundraiser about whether their charity offers online giving and most of them will proudly tell you that they have a 'Donate Now' facility on their website and that they are using email campaigns, google adwords, adverts, etc to engage with potential donors online. So, how do online giving tools and activities compare to offline ones?

Well, having recently reviewed several charity websites I have come to the conclusion that online giving fundraisers have a great deal to learn from their direct 'snail' mail colleagues.

Here are some of the common weaknesses of charity websites when it comes to online giving that if addressed can help a charity build stronger relationships with online donors:

• No personalised invitations to give - in direct mail fundraising the invitation to give is issued from one person (e.g. the CEO, the fundraiser or the particular project leader) to another (e.g, the donor). In most websites, with very few exceptions, there is no personalised invitation to give. In other words, online fundraising asks are like 'unsigned' letters issued to a whole crowd. Crazy or what?
  

• The online visitor is often invited to relate to info@charity.com Try asking a question to a charity, make an enquiry about their work, or donate and sure enough you will be directed to that infamous online 'person' called 'info' who may or may not reply to your email. Why is that? - I still haven't found a satisfactory answer to this question. But if you are a charity fundraiser reading this blog then go and have a look at your charity's website - pretending for a moment you are an outsider how would you feel if the only contact point with the charity is that dreaded 'info@charity.com' ?
  

• Generic invitations to give that don't relate to compelling stories. You know what I am talking about - take a look at a charity's homepage and you will find one or two compelling stories of how the charity is making a difference. Then press the 'Donate Now' button and hey presto a page will open up with a donation form and no reasons to give that relate to the story you have just read. Even the most inexperienced fundraiser would not dream of mailing out just a response form to potential donors without connecting the 'ask' to a project or a cause - so why set ourselves up for failing by doing this online?
  

• Giving no reasons to motivate donors to become regular givers. Sure, most charities now have a regular giving facility online but, once again when you click on that 'regular giving' button what comes up is a standard form without any inspiring copy to encourage donors to become regular givers. Ah, I almost forgot - some fundraisers hasten to add in the regular giving page a sentence about 'regular giving helps us keep our costs down'. Well good for you - but I don't think that is the number one reason that motivates donors to give. Do you?

• Too many calls to action - a couple of weeks ago I reviewed a charity website with six calls to action that included donating now, regular giving, sponsorships, prayer, campaigning, carbon footprint reduction tips, volunteering, - you name it they had it. A labyrinth of opportunities that paralysed me completely - so I took a look got confused and well, left! Please understand me that different calls to action are not necessary a bad thing but, next time you add another one please prioritise ... and stay focused otherwise you are likely to overwhelm your potential givers and confuse them too. Once again, you would not ask the donor to do three or four things in one appeal when you send a fundraising letter so why do that online?

The list can go on I suppose but I will stop here and would be very interested to hear your views and opinions on this matter.... so please feel free to comment.