Best Bits: How can charities encourage people to continue giving?

We round up our expert advice on encouraging donations during times of financial difficulty

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How can charities encourage people to continue giving? Photograph: Alamy

Martin Campbell, Blackbaud Europe

Strategy for encouraging continued support: Firstly, we need to make it easier for supporters to learn about a particular organisation, what it does and what it's aims are, this is our chance to establish with the individual that they care. If they don't they won't go any further no matter how we ask them. Secondly, charities needs to respond to any questions supporters have – this is where social media can play a major role - and this is an opportunity chance to build trust. Finally we must provide clear ways for people to make contributions and use what we know about those individuals to encourage them towards the best channel to do that.

Target supporters who show more support and give higher donations: Our clients in the education sector for example use some pretty extensive data modelling to ensure that where someone has shown a good level of engagement and looks reasonably likely to be able to afford a higher donation, they're asked for a larger amount - lower amounts don't just bring in less money, they're more likely to be ignored completely.

Trust is a hugely important issue: Donors need to trust your brand and trust that you've been effective in this area before and that you will be so again. If you can convince them of that then they're ready to act. Sometimes a brand itself will convey all the required trust but if it is not that well-known, don't over-state it. A charity should speak with authority and clarity about the situation and communicate what has been done and what remains to be done. I need to trust that it's a worthwhile expenditure and that the reward I get is worth the cost.

Charities should maintain a social media presence: Charities can be put off social media because of a lack of resources, but it is a commitment worth making. There is a fair amount of upfront work and a presence on Twitter or Facebook requires some on-going resource, but once established social media allows a charity's supporters to spread the word. Build a relationship with your most passionate and influential supporters and once they have been engaged and provided with the required information and tools, they are able to promote a charity and in turn influence others to do the same.

Rhodri Davies, Charities Aid Foundation (CAF)

Too much choice has affected charitable giving: Finding and selecting charities is still far from easy. Obviously plenty of people have a personal reason to give to a specific charity, or respond to a direct fundraising ask, but for those who have a slightly vaguer sense of altruism that they would still like to act on, it is not always easy to work out how to do so.

Make donating as "low-friction" as possible: so that people can easily act on their altruistic impulses. However, if the focus is solely on the mechanism at the expense of cultivating a proper connection between the donor and the cause the charity is trying to address, then giving to charity could become no more involving than clicking "like" on a Facebook page and that would be a real cause for concern in the long term.

Joe Saxton, nfp Synergy

Face-to-face donations will always be an effective donation tool: There's really no substitute for face-to-face donations, literally asking people for money in the street. To achieve that, we're going to have some costs in terms of staffing and collecting. Some will be motivated to give knowing all their money is going to the charity, but we have to motivate them to do it.

Donors need to know how much of their money goes to the actual cause: Charities need to shout from the rooftops about the proportion of donations that they are spending on the cause and how this is regulated. Social media can very much be a part of that.

Social media gives charities the sheer volume of people to connect to: In simple terms, if Facebook has over 1 billion users and Twitter has over 500m, this cannot be ignored, especially as its free to use. Our research shows that young people are getting more and more involved in charities. How many stories have we seen about a youngster raising money? There are countless and it is great to see. Social media is perfect for the kind of exposure these stories need for people of all ages to connect with the human side of giving.

James Brown, Zone

Inspiring stories and anecdotes will influence potential donors: Give volunteers stories to share on their own networks. If you have inspiring anecdotes from other volunteers or from local groups then pass them on and encourage them to share it in whatever way is natural to them, be it twitter or their blog or when they meet up with their friends. It's a cheap and easy way to spread messages widely. If charities continue to tell great stories and find the right way to ask then I think the potential to give is just as high as it's ever been.

Laura Hamilton, George House Trust

Volunteers through word of mouth can encourage donations: Volunteers are also a fantastic word of mouth promotional tool for organisations. Although this can also work the other way if people have a negative experience of volunteering.

Provide people with a range of options for engagement with a charity: In Greater Manchester a couple of interesting examples of this are Tameside4Good and Forever Manchester, which offer individuals and businesses the chance to fundraise, donate or volunteer for local causes. I think it's good to recognise that people's engagement with a cause or organisation will ebb and flow over a lifetime and to be supportive of people moving between different roles.

Exploring micro-volunteering could encourage continued donations: Some of the developments in micro-volunteering are really exciting and offer people the chance to give to charities in a way that is quick, easy and does not demand a long term commitment.

Steve Bridger, Visceral Business

Is technology's potential to increase donations overstated: It's very true that technology has so far not increased overall levels of giving and so it is often suggested to me that its potential is overstated. I think we should make a distinction between the donations these nascent technologies currently bring in and their promise and challenge. However beyond Comic Relief, Red Nose Day and Children in Need, only 20% of charities fundraised via text.

Charlotte Beckett, The Good Agency

Connect donors with the stories and work that you are doing: People don't care about targets and mission statements. They care about making sure kids go to school, defending people's rights, curing cancer and saving trees. The more we connect them with the work being done, the more they'll do to help us achieve it. Build the story around the supporters, and we'll close the gap between what organisations do and what people care about.

Social media gives charities a platform to emotionally connect with donors: Digital media is a face-to-face channel. It gives us the chance to connect people, and to do it the way, time and place that they want (particularly on mobile devices). Let people really engage and get emotionally involved with your stories, and on their own terms. Then we'll build that trust and loyalty.

One Cent Call

Ask people to contribute the lowest possible amount over a long period: It has been the nature of charities to try to extract the maximum amount in a single transaction or seek a recurring donation that affects many people and impacts on their monthly budget. Ask people to contribute the lowest possible amount (that is affordable to them) over the longest possible term.

Mobile technology is key: Everyone has one, in fact there are more mobile subscriptions than people in the UK. Plus the UK telephone companies are probably the most advanced in the world in terms of set up for receipts of donations.


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