by Jim Abernathy
From -
The Founding Fathers Write a Proposal - {Centered}: August 2013 (Vol. 6, No. 8)
Online donations to charity rose 14% in 2012, while the amount charities received from foundation grants, corporate support, and individual giving through more traditional avenues rose only 1.5%.These figures come from a survey conducted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy and discussed in its June 27, 2013, issue. In "$1 Out of $5 Could Soon Be Donated Electronically," The Chronicle's Raymund Flandez and Emma Carew Grovum report that while most of the organizations surveyed received little more than 2% of their total contributions online, some brought in as much as 30% that way. Many respondents expect to see online donations amount to between 10% and 20% of total contributions within the next few years.The Chronicle's suggestions for getting the most benefit from online giving:- Try to convince your donors to give every month or every quarter.
- Make monthly payments the default option on the donation section of your web site.
- Encourage donors to use Twitter and Facebook to tell their friends about their gifts.
- Promote monthly giving in all your print solicitations and other non-electronic contacts with donors.
Flandez and Grovum also recommend ways to make giving easy for donors who use mobile devices:- Take advantage of events to promote giving by texting or using quick response codes that take the event participants to your website's donation section.
- Send mobile phone users easy-to-read email messages that link to your website's donation pages.
- Design your campaigns to play into the ways people view and share information on their mobile devices.
