The Future is Now — Charities Must Provide a Meaningful Donation Experience for Younger Donors
The first thing to say is, I don’t want to be preaching to the choir — I know there are a lot of fundraisers out there who already know this, but I think, having attended a few charity conferences recently, that there are a significant proportion of fundraisers in the UK who still believe that having a rudimentary website with a ‘donate now’ button on it means they’ve ticked the box that says ‘online giving.’
Unfortunately, in this age of auto-streaming video, of social media, and of people increasingly living their lives through their phone, simply sending supporters to a page with a ‘donate now’ button doesn’t give enough consideration to the way in which people interact on mobile.
A recent study conducted by the Blackbaud Institute found that Generation Zers and Millennials were the most generous UK givers: giving a total of £2.7 billion to charity in the 12 months up to February 2018*. I’ve seen the internet grow and develop over a number of years, and now the average younger user — a Generation Zer or Millennial — expects so much more from their online experience than those of older generations.
This is what fundraisers need to consider when they are planning their campaigns — how do you tailor your online campaign, so it meets with the expectations of millennials? Is the donation experience quick and easy? Are you sending follow-up communications in a way that suits your supporters? Does your campaign page work properly on different devices?
Let’s look at those questions in more detail. First, is the donation experience quick and easy? Millennials are used to one-click payments and online banking apps — so there’s a good chance they are going to be put off being asked to fill in pages of personal details or to complete a direct debit form on their mobile. Don’t make them jump through unnecessary hoops, but strive to give them what they want: the ability to donate in seconds.
Secondly, are you sending follow-up communications in a way that suits your supporters? The vast majority of people in the UK have a mobile phone on them at all times, and most of these devices can receive email as well as text messages. Forcing donors to give their postal address when donating means that they are less likely to complete the donation, and they may not want to be contacted by post anyway. So always keep in mind how the conversation with each supporter began, and talk to them using a method that is convenient for them.
The final question is particularly important: does your campaign page work properly on different devices? Fundraisers often work in offices on desktop or laptop computers, but millennials, and increasingly older generations, now do most of their internet consumption via their mobile device. So whilst your campaign page might look beautiful and clear on the office desktop or laptop, if it looks jumbled and messy on a mobile device you’re almost definitely going to miss out on donations.
I understand that both the human and financial resources at charities may be hard-pushed to provide an online solution that meets all these criteria but, fortunately, this is where companies like Donr come in. We can provide a bespoke, professional donation experience that’s been well thought-out and optimised to work well across any device.
Now that millennials are making up a larger proportion of the UK giving market and proving to be one of the most generous groups of donors, it is vital that UK charities meet their needs and expectations, in order to harness the huge potential income stream that these young people represent.
*Statistic as quoted in ‘The Next Generation of UK Giving — The Charitable Giving Habits of Generation Zers, Millennials, Generation Xers, Baby Boomers and Matures’ by Blackbaud Institute, 2018
