Connection Café: Is there a silver lining in the economic clouds this year-end/holiday giving season?

	Is there a silver lining in the economic clouds this year-end/holiday giving season?
	Posted by at Oct 26, 2008 10:00 PM CDT Categories: Fundraising, Nonprofit Trends, Research

With the year-end giving season being important to nonprofit organizations that hope to achieve their fundraising goals and the communities they serve, we wondered what the economic climate will do to online charitable giving this year. We also wondered whether more people will use the Internet to give than last year and if there is seasonality around what type of charities can expect to benefit from online consumer donations.

Convio commissioned JupiterResearch, a Forrester Research company, to help gain insight into the online giving plans of the more than 175 million online consumers in the US. The results are interesting and indicate that the silver lining in this economic cloud just may be that nonprofits and consumers are aligning around online giving.

Over the next couple of days, I’ll be posting more insight and feedback about the research, but before we jump in, let’s look at the “elephant in the room” – what the economy is doing to nonprofits.

Things are tough right now for many nonprofits and if they are not already experiencing a slow downturn there is great concern about the future. In October, the DMA Nonprofit Federation put together an informal survey to gain insight into how the economic situation is impacting organizations in general.

More than 60 percent of respondents indicate that response rates for direct marketing are worse than last year,
Nearly 41 percent are seeing “smaller gifts, fewer individual donors.”
These organizations are also making organizational and marketing/communications changes in response to the economy. What was also interesting is that:

More than 67 percent said they are planning to use “newer marketing techniques in the near future (Web 2.0, blogs, social marketing, mobile marketing).”
The associated comments showed an inclination to more effectively use the Internet to reach donors. Are consumers and nonprofit coming together more often and more effectively online?

Let’s look at what consumers told us:

Fifty-one percent, more than 89 million, online consumers say that despite the economic situation they plan to donate online during the 2008 holiday season. This level of online planned support shows that nonprofits of all sizes need to make sure their websites and other electronic communications meet consumer expectations.

In fact, among those who find online resources helpful in selecting a charity, they are 20 percent more likely to donate than the average online user. It is also important to make sure that traditional appeals such as direct mail, television and events provide people with the option to give online.

Here’s some additional insight:

54% of women plan to donate versus 48 percent of men.
64% of people with household income of more than $100K plan to donate online with 9% donating more this holiday season.
46% of 18-24 year olds and 50% of 25-34 year olds plan to donate online, with 13% of 18-24 year olds planning to donate more this holiday season than last. (Are these potential new donors that are not on traditional lists?)
53% of 55-64 year olds plan to donate online showing that it is no longer just for the younger age groups.
46% of the group who said their financial situation became substantially worse over the past 12 months still plan to donate online this holiday season (I personally think this speaks well to the generosity of American consumers.)

While I know organizations are feeling the fall out of the economy, the research indicates that more than 89 million online consumers are a generous lot – if nonprofits are ready to engage them.

With these numbers online giving has become a mission critical part of a nonprofit’s fundraising mix.

The efficiency and effectiveness of the Internet as an engagement, communication and giving platform continues to grow in importance for donors and organizations alike. In this year-end giving season, marked by the difficult economic situation, the Internet can serve as a cost-effective and efficient medium to reach audiences while providing nonprofits:

More flexibility to adjust to the changing market,
The ability to provide more timely access to news and information on their needs and how they are fulfilling their mission, and
Ability to reach more and new donors.

You can download more information about the research and ideas on what a nonprofit can do now to help make this year-end, holiday giving season more successful at www.convio.com/holiday2008

I invite you to read the information and ideas and share your thoughts with us here. I’ll also be back here to share some of the other findings of the research in the coming days. I know there is great uncertainty, but I also think that the innovative ideas and creativity of the nonprofit community combined with insight, ideas and information can help everyone better weather the storm so that we can find the silver lining until the sun shines again.

Is there a silver lining in the economic clouds this year-end/holiday giving season?

Subscriptions

Convio Clients

Categories

Blogs We're Following

Archives