by Michele Donohue
It might be time to check if your online donation page is working because a potential more than 111 million people plan to use the Web to give to nonprofits this holiday season. And, Austin, Texas-based online marketing firm Convio estimates this year more than $4 billion in donations will be made online.
More than 63 percent of online consumers said they would donate via the Web during the holiday, compared to 51 percent in 2008, according to an omnibus survey conducted by Forrester Research for Convio. The results are developed from a nationally-projectable, weighted sample of people with Internet access.
Of the respondents, 37 percent said they did not plan to give online, from last year. There is not statistic regarding overall giving, simply online donations.
Tad Druart, director of marketing and communications at Convio, explained that nonprofits should pay attention to how much time and energy they put into the online sphere. “Consumers are going there. You have to integrate offline and online campaigns because there are a lot of numbers and dollars in play,” he said.
Nearly 57 percent of respondents said they plan to donate the same amount or more this year, down from 67 percent of respondents in 2008. Another 23 percent said they would give less this year and 20 percent are still undecided about how much they will give.
According to the survey results, 44 percent of respondents who said they planned to give claimed that a nonprofit’s Web site is the most useful resource in choosing which organization to give to, followed closely by “word of mouth” at 40 percent.
“No matter how they give the gift, they are going to go online to make sure the organization is doing what they say they’re doing and are compelling,” said Druart.
Those surveyed who said they planned to give said emails or enewsletters (27 percent) and direct mail (28 percent) also influenced the decisions, the first time the two channels have been almost equal. Peer-to-peer fundraising is still making its mark – 23 percent said an email from a friend or family member encouraged them to support a fundraising efforts.
Druart said some nonprofits want to restrict what is said about their organization and brand, but most people are talking about their experiences both online and off. Word of mouth, peer solicitations and information found on social networks (9 percent) show that a large amount of influence isn’t coming from the nonprofits. “The more that starts moving online, I think we’ll see friends and family play a really important role in how people give and who to give to,” he said.
Consumers are also showing more engagement online, with 39 percent reportedly making an online donation after clicking through a nonprofit’s site and more than half decided to engage in another way, such as giving their email (36 percent) or registering for a newsletter (23 percent).Less popular actions after visiting nonprofits’ Web sites included using content from the site on personal social network pages, such as Facebook and Myspace (5 percent), signing up for an event and using organizations’ site to solicit donations (6 percent), and listening to a podcast or audio (6 percent).
Nonprofits should also further evaluate their multi-channel donation strategy. As a result of visiting nonprofits’ Web pages, 25 percent said they shared personal information, such as their name and mailing address.
Online consumers are not simply stuck in front of the computer – 61 percent said they mail a check; most do so only after checking a nonprofit’s Web site.
Respondents also gave at events (38 percent), used the Internet to sponsor a friend or family member in a run, walk or ride (17 percent), and responded to a telefundraising call (16 percent), in addition to online giving.
“What the online consumer is saying is, ‘I’ll engage with you in a variety of ways, but it has to be easy.’ We live in a multi-channel world, and nonprofits have to accept that and make sure that all their channels are working together as efficiently and effectively as possible,” said Druart. “If your Web site isn’t consistent with the other things you are doing, [donors] are going to question whether this is an organization that has it together.”
Nonprofit Web design probably still needs a little work, according to survey results. When asked if nonprofit Web sites make it easy to get information that donors needed when deciding to give, only 46 percent either strongly agreed or somewhat agreed. Only a slight majority (56 percent) responded that they strongly agreed or somewhat agreed that nonprofit Web sites make it easy to actually make a donation.
Druart recommended nonprofits explore whether they can integrate ecommerce into sites and holiday asks. He said that within focus groups, separate from the survey respondents, people don’t want to make the tough choice between a present and a donation.
An ecommerce ask makes the donation tangible to donors. Druart said nonprofits should also try to equate donation amounts to tangible actions, such as how many animals will be saved for $20, because “consumers want to know their dollars are actually helping.”
The top five categories respondents plan to give are human and social service organizations (37 percent), disease and health organizations (36 percent), faith-based organizations (36 percent), animal welfare organizations (26 percent), and disaster and international relief organizations (15 percent).
The survey asked more than 5,000 respondents about their giving plans this holiday season. When asked how often respondents access the Internet, 74 percent said several times a day, 17 percent said once a day, 7 percent said several times a week, 1 percent said once a week and 1 percent said several times a month. Other answer options for amount of online time, including logging on once a month, less than once a month and not going online at all, did not receive any responses.
Of the respondents, 66 percent of Younger Boomers, categorized as ages 44 to 53, said they would donate online this holiday season, followed by 65 percent of Generation X respondents, ages 30 to 43; 64 percent of Generation Y, ages 18 to 29; 60 percent of Seniors, ages 65 and older; and, 59 percent of Older Boomers, ages 54 to 64.
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This article is from NPT Instant Fundraising, a publication of The NonProfit Times.
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