UK charities could boost their annual incomes by up to £35.5m if they provided supporters with a more personalised online and email approach – in the way Amazon has been doing for years – according to a damning report into third sector engagement.
The YouGov research revealed that 17% of 2,000 consumers questioned would donate up to £15 more a month if a charity provided a better understanding of which areas of the website they had clicked on, viewing preferences, email marketing activity and charity campaigns of interest.
“Consumers increasingly expect good online interaction with websites because the likes of Amazon have done it so well,” said Haylie Oriot, charity sector manager at Eduserv, the non-profit public and third sector IT provider, which commissioned the research.
“Genuinely good web engagement, which understands a donor’s previous interactions and uses this information to provide a more bespoke experience, has yet to take off in the charity sector,” said Oriot.
Not all respondents were convinced, however, with three quarters (72%) of undecided about whether online engagement would encourage them to give long term support to a charity. “That’s because nobody has got it right yet,” claimed Oriot.
Another 21% stated that convenience is a strong factor in donating online over physically, with 11% liking the reassurance of online security – giving out bank details to street fundraisers is frequently being seen as an insecure experience which could lead to fraud or theft, said the report.
