I have received some requests over the past year to add “Donate” buttons in prominent places on websites. I am also asked for advice on ways of raising funds. Which are the best partners to work with.
I will try to capture here some of my own thoughts on the subject and hopefully you will understand why I look at things in this way, and alter your approach accordingly.
I need a donation
This is your need, and of course we all understand why in the current climate. The problem is so does everyone else. They all need donations as desperately as you do.
First Response: Put Donate buttons everywhere
I have been asked to do this, I can only assume that I am asked to this because someone else has done it. Home-Start UK does it, so everyone else wants one. However if we think for a moment, if you were walking down a street and saw someone on the side of the street holding a cup up for a donation, most of us would walk by. Why? Because the reason why that person needs a donation has not been established. You have not received or been able to process any “sales pitch”. It is just “I need money”.
Now consider this analogy to viewing websites online to walking down a street and everywhere you are looking people are thrusting donation boxes at you asking for donations. You can now perhaps understand why this may not be successful.
Sell your need
If you watch some of the 2nd tier TV channels like ITV3 and the other commercial channels you will see lots of adverts asking for donations. However they all spend most of their time explaining why they need your donations. If you need donations this is how you need to tackle it. Build your case with some solid examples, place them in a post or dedicated page on your website, add links to the donations portal/ partner. When you have done that, copy the web address of your page or post and paste that around a few social media sites that might be interested to learn what you do. Finally check on the number of hits you got as a result of this activity and whether you acheived any donations or not. Then refine further.
What sort of donations?
Are you seeking a one off amount, or a regular donation? A regular donation of £5/ month is worth a lot more than a single donation of £30. Build a story that you are going to reveal over time about your “need” and how people are helping to make a difference. In this case you could have a “Friends of” page where people sign up and make a regular donation and become an elite group of supporters. If you follow this path, think about how you can reward them for their generosity, make them feel special?
Make it very easy
Someone contacted me asking if I could add a standing order form to a website to help to generate donations. I was curious why this would help generate more donations? As a potential donor, I would have to a) believe in the cause sufficiently to b) download and print out the Standing order form. c) Fill it all in. d) Find an envelope, fill that in, e) find a stamp, f) post it.
Compare that to clicking on a Virgin Money Giving link which allows me to donate online either as a one off payment or a regular payment. I can do all of this online in a few seconds without leaving my chair.
While I do not pretend to know all of the answers here, why would someone fill in a standing order form compared to the online security and ease of use in going via Virgin Money Giving, or some other established fundraising portal a charity is providing in under a minute?
I think the only advantage of having an online Standing Order form which can be downloaded and printed might work with older donors, but for younger people, more used to working with computers and doing things online, I think the online portals offer a very easy path to raising funds.
Other methods
Easyfundraising.org.uk is a great way to raise money. Just think of how much ecommerce is active at the moment with everyone shopping on line? Most of you have EasyFundraising.org.uk accounts but some are more successful than others, why is that?
Keeping promoting
It takes a little more effort to place your orders via EasyFundraising.org.uk. I generally go to Amazon. John Lewis, et al, set up my basket in my account. Shut down the browser, open a new one, go to my account at EasyFundraising.org.uk and then look for a link to Amazon, John Lewis et al. That takes me back to where my basket is waiting. I pay and exit the site. Because I have come from EasyFundraising before I made my purchase a referral fee is paid back to EasyFundraising. That is how the donation is made. The major benefit here is it did not cost me a penny, but I did need to remember to finalise the transaction from EasyFundraising.
At your end, if you have an EasyFundraising account, you need to keep pushing your membership/ supporters / interested parties. You need to keep reminding them to a) signup, and associate their account with your charity, and b) make online purchases via their account. It would also be very useful for you to feedback to your supporters what difference they are making.
You could consider this a campaign; identify and collect subscribers/ supporters, and keep contacting them. Treat it like an exclusive club. There are some small charities that have a dedicated following which will generate several thousand pounds this way.
Fundraising page
Another advantage of Easyfundraising.org.uk is you can point or have a link which points to your account on your website. So there is little risk of losing someone interested in supporting you.
Amazon Smile
Amazon Smile works in much the same way, but only applies to qualifying products at Amazon. You access it by going to https://smile.amazon.co.uk
Unlike Easyfundraising.org.uk Amazon Smile does not allow you to point directly to your account. All you can point to is the smile.amazon address. So your supporters have to locate you before making an association between your account and theirs.
Comparing them both?
As far as I can tell, Easyfundraising.org.uk works with lots of online retail outlets including Amazon. However Amazon Smile only works for Amazon purchases. I have not seen any disadvantages of making Amazon purchases via an EasyFundraising account for example. So I don’t think you really need both.
Final words
Whatever you choose to do, think of it as a value proposition to sell (receive a donation) and hold that mindset. If you are failing to meet expectations on raising funds, it possibly means that other charities are being more successful than you, so you need to up your game to compete.
You do need to keep reminding people though, whether it is easyfundraising, Amazon Smile, or Virgin Moneygiving (or whatever your chosen partner is called). You do need to keep selling the dream.