Understanding the New Breed of Digital Donors

Understanding the new breed of digital donors and how to maximise your fundraising through their networks
Bryan Miller
Head of Strategy & Consumer InsightCancer Research UKbryan-miller@hotmail.com @millbry
Jonathan Waddingham
Charity ChampionJustGivingjonathan@justgiving.com@jon_bedford

Bryan Miller
(Former) Head of Strategy & Consumer Insight at Cancer Research UK
First Computer: Research Machines 380Z
Favourite website
Spezify.com
Jonathan Waddingham
Charity Champion at JustGiving
First Computer: ZX Spectrum
Favourite website:
failblog.org

Understanding the new breed of digital donors and how to maximise your fundraising through their networks

Let’s begin…with a (true) story

Jenni Ware
Carolee Hazzard
… with a lost purse
It all began…

Realtime community storytelling

And looks set to continue growing
- thanks to the multiplier effect of social network fundraising
$93 is now $22,000!

Trader Joe’s also donated over 350lbs of groceries - nice!

Donations continue being made at the Second Harvest site
but it really doesn’t have anything like the community vibe
of the 93 Dollar Club Facebook Page

The moral of this story?
Donors are doing it for themselves!

Second Harvest didn’t approach Carolee to ask her to support them - her Facebook friends suggested them
Carolee didn’t need to approach Second Harvest to ask them how to fundraise or to ask for promotional materials or advice
The first Second Harvest knew about it was when the money and food started rolling-in!
Carolee and her friends probably don’t know it - but they represent a fast emerging ‘new breed’ of digital donors

So… what is our role in all this?

Our traditional role

Our new role…
Content
Community
Commodity
Cause Impact
Within the 4-Cs of social network fundraising

Community
The first ‘C’ = Community
The ‘new breed’ of digital donors - like Carolee Hazzard - have their own online communities who they choose to spend time with
Time spent on Facebook by US consumers was up 700% year on year to April 2009*
Despite technological advances we still only have 24 hours in each day - so more time spent online in one place means less time to come and visit our charity websites (or do other stuff)
We need to get used to people actively fundraising for us through their own community networks - but not necessarily wanting to join our community
*Source Nielsen: http://bit.ly/1AJ7ni

http://www.buzzpoint.com/
One social network to rule them all?

The online world got excited when Facebook hit 250m users in July 2009
By September 2009 it was up to 300m
Various analysts suggests its growth is now slowing considerably - but it’s still around the same ‘population’ as the US!
http://img41.yfrog.com/i/facebookwqi.jpg/

All of which means that earlier this month it passed Yahoo! to take second place in the global ranking of sites by Alexa
(Twitter is currently 13th! :-)
http://www.alexa.com/topsites

However, on a country-by-country basis things can look very different
Facebook is only 10th in Holland - where Hyves is where it’s at for social networking
(Twitter is only 16th;-[)
http://www.alexa.com/topsites

You can check the profile of Facebook users in your own country at checkfacebook.com
http://www.checkfacebook.com/

The rise of free Social Network sites like Facebook, YouTube, etc - plus easy to use online giving sites - means that online fundraising platforms are increasingly a freely available commodity
The ‘new breed’ of online donors simply choose the sites and tools that work for them - and then get on with their fundraising
This leaves charities with a feeling of losing control , but there’s no getting around it - it’s just how the new breed want to do it!
Commodity
The second ‘C’ = Commodity

Great fundraisers are great storytellers - bringing the cause and the opportunity to make a difference to life, through all sorts of media
This is still a very important role for us going forward - providing ‘portable content’ that supporters can use on their own sites
But the ‘new breed’ are also telling their own stories - about our work and the efforts they are making to support it
They may not always say what we expect - or even want - them to say. But, it is them that their community is more likely to listen to - not us!
Again , we may feel we are losing control - but we need to learn how to handle this concern
The third ‘C’ = Content
Content

There are times when we can help these supporters tell better stories - particularly when it comes to explaining specialist aspects of our work
Cancer Research UK creates ‘portable content’ that fundraisers can embed in their profiles, blogs, etc. to help explain the work they’re helping fund
This also helps provide a degree of brand and messaging control out in the Web 2.0 ‘cloud’
The third ‘C’ = Content
Content
http://myprojects.cancerresearchuk.org/projects/pancreatic-cancer

This is why we do what we do - to make a real difference in the world around us
The relationship between our organisations and our donors is a partnership - we can’t do it without them, they can’t do it without us
While they can get-on doing their own fundraising - they rely on us to use the money their hard work and passion raises to best effect
So, look for ways to better serve them through the way we communicate the cause impact our partnership has
improving the way we ‘package’ opportunities to make an impact
better measurement and reporting-back on the impact of their efforts
The fourth ‘C’ = Cause Impact
Cause Impact

Our new role…
Content
Community
Commodity
Cause Impact
Within the 4-Cs of social network fundraising

Getting to know the new breed

Insight from Cancer Research UK supporter research undertaken early 2009 as part of supporter segmentation project
Survey distributed by mail and email to large sample of supporters, chosen to be representative of all key supporter types
Total response comprised over 30,000 completed surveys
Survey included questions on both ‘tradigital’ and social media use

Online activities

Email usage only really starts to tail-off at 65+ - and almost one third of 75+ use it

Online shopping peaks across the 18 to 54 age bands
Less than 1 in 5 75+ supporters shop online

Online banking peaks in the 25-34 age group - with fairly rapid decline beyond that

Overall 40% of our supporters have donated to a charity online
Again, 25-34 sees the peak - at approaching 60%

Data for ‘Sponsored a Friend Online’ similar to overall online donation
However the youngest age groups seem significantly less likely to sponsor a friend than just donate online - as does the oldest age group

Online event sign-up relatively equal across <18 through 44
Understandably lowest in the 75+ age band

Supporters using social networks reflect the overall UK norm - over 50% under 35 then decline
But largest growth now being seen in 35 to 54 groups

Overall just 5% of our supporters said they had used social networks to interact with a charity - compared to over 25% overall who have joined a social network

Advocacy

Overall around one third of our supporters say they actively encourage others to support - which is brilliant!

Quite a lot more are happy to talk about their own support for us, but don’t actively encourage others to do the same

And a significant number would consider talking about their support for us
Interestingly, consideration tails-off in the older age groups

A trend confirmed here - with older donors more likely to display a belief that their giving is private

An even stronger age-related trend to the belief that giving is a private thing shown here

Details of Just Giving research
People were prompted to take survey after making a donation online through a fundraising page
Donation could have been made to any size charity in any category
Survey carried out from early August to end September 2009
2820 people took the survey

Is this your first online donation?

Which gender is giving more?

What’s the spread of ages by gender?

How much do people donate online?

Donation share vs revenue share

Percentage (in revenue) that comes from donors over 45 who donate more than £50
25%
33%
11%
Percentage (in revenue) that comes from donors over 55
Percentage (in revenue) that comes from donors over 65
Key stats

Donation spread by age and gender

accessible
email
advertise
targeted
integrate online/offline
user-friendly
How do you help these people?

What was the source of the donation ask?

Let’s look at the overall trends...
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/robin-goad/2007/09/facebook_and_charities.html

Let’s look at the overall trends...

http://icanhaz.com/emailstats
Is email use increasing or decreasing?

Do the tools used vary depending on age?

Percentage of Facebook visits from Facebook home page
60%
2%
Percentage of Facebook visits from Facebook inbox
Facebook – where the new breed lives

Who is using Facebook Connect?

Facebook Connect

Who is using Facebook Connect?

http://twitter.com/serafinowicz/status/1321093848
Community fundraising through Twitter

14% of referrals on 13th March to JustGiving were from Twitter
www.justgiving.com/peterserafinowicz
Community fundraising through Twitter

1,106 donations
£4.86 average
Current total: £5,396.07
Fundraising through Twitter – micro donations

The new breed of social media fundraisers is growing in importance
Newsfeeds are the single most valuable real estate on Facebook for charities
Different segments require different channels, as well as different messages
Test online donation prompts by age and gender (as well as RFV)
Ignore your older online donors at your peril
Email is still the king of comms for many people online
So what does this all mean?

The moral of this story?

www.365challenge.co.uk & @365er
The 365 Challenge

“In 2007, I was diagnosed with a soft tissue sarcoma and underwent surgery, followed by radiotherapy. Then in 2008, my sister, Brenda Carr, died after a long battle with breast cancer. Following on from this, I knew that I wanted to raise money to support Cancer Research UK, because I felt that they were supporting important work in the fight to overcome cancer.”
This is Colin’s story

Colin’s strategy

“With a group, I found that I could engage with a target audience who had expressed an interest in what I was doing – what any advertiser dreams of, really!”
Colin’s strategy

The ripple effect…

What would’ve helped Colin
more guidance on how FB can be exploited
an explanation of what Twitter is all about
guidance on how following someone can give you access to their followers too
tips on keeping your message out there – how regular blog updates can be tweeted about so others get to know that you’ve written something new,
changing your Facebook status regularly and using these status updates and tweets to draw people in, teasing them into reading more …

“As I posted Tweets about hitting milestones or new blogs, these connections were Re-Tweeting them, and my message spread further and further.”
“These enthusiastic strangers... I now count as supporters and friends”
The new breed

Contact us
Bryan Miller
bryan-miller@hotmail.com
@millbry
http://givinginadigitalworld.org
slideshare.net/bryanmiller
Jonathan Waddingham
jonathan@justgiving.com
@jon_bedford
http://charities.justgiving.com
slideshare.net/jwaddingham
http://icanhaz.com/PFJW

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Understanding the New Breed of Digital Donors

by Jonathan Waddingham

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