Superb Online Giving Study
Just released today is this excellent report on online giving from Network for Good and TrueSense Marketing.
From the Executive Summary:
- The study covers $381 million in online giving through Network for Good’s platform, including 3.6 million gifts to 66,470 different nonprofits from 2003-2009.
- The online giving experience has a significant impact on donor loyalty, retention, and gift levels. The more intimate and emotionally coherent the giving experience, the stronger the relationship between donor and nonprofit appears to be. In other words, online fundraising is all about relation-ships, as it is in offline fundraising.
- Personality matters. The loyalty factor for donors acquired through generic giving pages is 66.7% lower than for donors who give via charity-branded giving pages.
- Analysis of cumulative online giving (i.e., giving added up over time) via different pages powered by Network for Good shows that donors who gave via charity websites started at the highest level and gave the most over time. Those who used giving portals started lower and gave less over time. Those who used social giving opportunities gave the least initially and added little afterward.
- Recurring giving is a major driver of giving over time and should be strongly encouraged in the giving experience.
- Online giving spikes during the month of December and large-scale disasters. During disasters, donors are more likely to consider new giving options, while in December they are more likely to give based on relationships with the charities.
The report is so full of nuggets that I scarcely know where to begin. But the major theme is that online giving is as much about forming and cultivating donor relationships as any other form of fundraising. In that context, I’m struck by the second point in the following finding:
“The average size of online gifts is falling and is attributable to two factors. First, online giving is becoming more mainstream. Early adopters to technology—who tended to be wealthier—represented a large portion of early online giving. Now, a more representative group of donors is giving online.
Second, the recent rise of portal giving and social network giving has pulled down average and median gifts online: When giving was analyzed by specific venue, charitable websites showed a less dramatic drop than when social networking sites were included.” [Echoing the ‘personality’ point made in #3 above.]
The study makes this observation:
Nonprofits should not conclude that giving portals and social networking charity sites are a bad thing. They are a valuable service to donors, and they’re proliferating. They likely funnel gifts to organizations that wouldn’t have received them otherwise. They also probably serve as an “entryway” or “on-ramp” for people who are new to charitable giving or your cause.
I’m not as sanguine. My view … fine, exploit them. But anything that gets in the way of establishing a direct relationship with your donor as quickly as possible is problematic. Get around it!
This is a must read piece of analysis.
Tom
P.S. Do you know where you’re online fundraising team is right now?! Like every other bit of online giving analysis I’ve seen, this study underscores the importance of Super-December … 33% of all online giving occurs in December. Indeed, judging from their chart, it looks like 70% or more of December’s gifts arrive in the last half of the month.
4 responses to “Superb Online Giving Study”
Behavioral Science Q & A
Integrating an individual giving appeal with other communications from a charity can have both positive and negative effects, and the outcome largely depends on how it’s executed. Advantages of Integration Brand Consistency: Maintaining a consistent appearance and messaging across all communications can reinforce the org’s brand identity and strengthen brand recognition and trust among your […]
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I’m not aware of any in-market tests specifically comparing recurring vs. gift frequency language. I suspect the answer might not be the same with all gift frequencies, nor with all people. It sounds like a great opportunity for you to test and find out what works for your audience. Based on the literature, here’s a couple […]
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Based on what we know from existing data, those renewal notices can actually be pretty effective in getting people to donate. They tap into our psychology – creating a sense of urgency, reminding us of past support, and using personalization to make the message hit home. They’re playing on our natural tendencies to feel obligated […]
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Interesting question. I had a quick look at the testing done on this topic. On the positive side, in all cases, over half of donors decide to cover the fee. In some cases, it goes as high as 65%. Not a negligible percentage at all. Here’s another test from iRaiser showing consistent results (see point […]
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There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]
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I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
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“anything that gets in the way of establishing a direct relationship with your donor as quickly as possible is problematic. Get around it!”
Social networking sites, if managed properly, provide charities with a means of directly connecting with their donors – and they do so in a much more personal way than a direct mail does. If a charity manages their social networking presence properly, they can actually talk with their donors… and have real conversations with them in real time. If done well, this should enhance all your fundraising efforts – including direct mail, events, and major gifts.
It’s not about “exploiting” anything. It’s about getting to know the people who care about your cause and connecting, conversing and facilitating their desire to make a difference… directly and personally. As you said “personality matters”. What better way to demonstrate your charity’s personality, than by having real conversations with real supporters.
Hats off to Network for Good and TrueSense Marketing for their work on this report.
What is encouraging is that multiple studies are starting to find similar trends. Some of these are good trends, like how more tailed giving experiences perform better. Some trends are bad, like retention of disaster donors and the giving crunch in December.
I went through the report and blogged about some of the things that caught my eye:
http://www.nptrends.com/nonprofit-trends/analysis-of-network-for-goods-online-giving-study.htm
Just a quick question:
what software is best for online giving? Is there one that is better in terms of forming solid relationships with donors?
It’s good to be able to come back and look at this two years later. Looks like there are still fundamentals where not much has changed with online donors, except now it has been confirmed how online donors give much more if they’re swiftly moved to offline channels.