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Half of Donors Would Give More if Charities Made Their Online Experience Easier, Study Says

By  Julian Wyllie
October 11, 2018

If your charity isn’t making it easy for supporters to donate online, you’re probably missing out on a lot of gifts, according to a new study.

Almost half of all people surveyed said that if it were easier or more convenient to donate to their favorite nonprofit, they would definitely or probably give more often.

Furthermore, the majority of donors in their 30s or younger said the ease of giving to causes online is the decisive factor in whether they’ll trust a nonprofit. Fifty-four percent of millennials and Generation Zers said a difficult experience in making an online donation would make them more skeptical about how that nonprofit will use their money. Only 20 percent of baby boomers said they felt the same.

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If your charity isn’t making it easy for supporters to donate online, you’re probably missing out on a lot of gifts, according to a new study.

Almost half of all people surveyed said that if it were easier or more convenient to donate to their favorite nonprofit, they would definitely or probably give more often.

Furthermore, the majority of donors in their 30s or younger said the ease of giving to causes online is the decisive factor in whether they’ll trust a nonprofit. Fifty-four percent of millennials and Generation Zers said a difficult experience in making an online donation would make them more skeptical about how that nonprofit will use their money. Only 20 percent of baby boomers said they felt the same.

The survey of more than 1,000 adults by Classy, an online fundraising company, was conducted in September. The company plans to release another survey after the midterm elections and ahead of Giving Tuesday to measure changes in donors’ priorities. The annual day devoted to philanthropy, which takes place on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, has come to represent a kick-off day for many charities’ year-end fundraising.

Midterms and Hurricanes

Current events will likely have some impact on Giving Tuesday and beyond, the survey suggests.

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As many as a fourth of people who responded to the survey said the outcome of the midterm election will have some impact on their Giving Tuesday donations.

However, 45 percent of donors said they are more likely to support charities than political parties, political action committees, or candidates.

But the top priority for nearly half of all survey respondents was a nonpartisan one: disaster relief. The same share, 48 percent, reported that they have already contributed to Hurricane Florence-related relief efforts. Of those, more than a third said they were likely to donate again for hurricane relief.

The support is bipartisan: Forty-seven percent of Democrats and 42 percent of Republicans said disaster relief is their top giving priority. It placed ahead of health and of environmental and animal-welfare causes, which were both about 10 percentage points behind, the report said.

The fact that there hasn’t been any “hurricane fatigue” this year among donors of any financial and political background is both a surprise and a positive finding, said Scot Chisholm, chief executive and co-founder of Classy.

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“A third of all donations are given in December,” Chisholm said. “Disasters tend to attract repeat donors, and in large part new donors. We found it interesting, still, that it sort of outweighed political concerns given the state of things in the country.”

Family and Friends Matter Most

Another factor nonprofits should consider ahead of the holiday season, Chisholm said, is who is spreading their giving messages.

Participants said that recommendations from friends and relatives were a big reason they give, especially if they’re directly connected to the issue. Recommendations from social-media influencers — 26 percent — outpaced nudges from professional athletes, entertainment celebrities, or politicians. Politicians and entertainers were least influential.

More findings from the study:

  • Higher-earning households are far more likely to be guided by politics when they give. Nearly half of households with an annual income of $150,000 or greater said their political beliefs definitely dictated which organizations they supported.
  • Thirteen percent of men said they were “most likely” to support causes related to political parties or campaigns, compared with only 4 percent of women.
  • Though 65 percent of survey participants who said they plan to support Giving Tuesday expected their donation to be $100 or less, many of the more affluent household said they plan to dig deeper. More than a fourth of respondents with a household income of $150,000 or greater planned to donate more than $5,000.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
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