Does the charity you work for have a website that is maximising its online fundraising potential?
If you're not sure then it might be best to attend two Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) workshops on February 17th and March 5th which promise to address the topic of online fundraising.
The organisers of the workshop guarantee to help you identify whether your website is "earning its keep" and, of course, help you raise money online for worthwhile causes in what is an often-competitive market.
Fundraising websites such as Everyclick can help you collect the money kindly given to you by online donors with its secure payment collection system.
But first you have to publicise your campaign and attract donors.
Sarah Hartley of the Manchester Evening News has just written a list of ten tips for online fundraisers on the community pages of the newspaper's website.
She suggests using modern networking media to draw attention to your campaign's website. Facebook is used by politicians, musicians and people from all generations and walks of life, so why not have a presence on it? Such sites are excellent for issuing bulletins on the progress of your fundraising events.
Blog sites such as Twitter can also make donors feel involved and up-to-date with your charity's activities. If it's good enough for Stephen Fry, it should be good enough for your charity.
A video presence can emphasise the message that your charity is trying to put across and YouTube is ideal for this.
Photographs can also have their use in generating traffic for your website. Upload photos relating to your cause on systems such as Flickr to find a new audience of potential donors.
Of course, traditional mediums such as press releases also still have their place in publicity campaigns.
As with all websites, content is vital. At the beginning of December the Nonprofit Times (nptimes.com) published its own list of online fundraising tips (seven this time instead of ten).
It urged online fundraisers to make their website's pitches "compelling" and to "consider providing stories or images of specific people you've helped, or examples of past projects that were successful".
It is worth putting yourself in potential donors' shoes? Why should you give to one cause and not another? How will your donation make a difference?
Drawing up a list of existing supporters' email addresses is often a good way to get the online fundraising ball rolling. Send them an email with a link to your website and remember nptimes' advice that "if you send an email to 1,000 people, expect about ten of them to donate".
If that doesn't sound like very good odds, console yourself with the thought that online donations tend to be more generous than offline ones.
All your valiant efforts will be in vain unless you are set up to receive online donations. Donors want a straightforward, secure payment method to be offered to them, which provides speedy acknowledgement of their donation.
Organisations such as Everyclick can make this a pain-free process for website organisers, leaving you more time for the other administrative tasks associated with website maintenance.
Showing posts with label charity website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label charity website. Show all posts
Monday, 12 January 2009
Thursday, 30 October 2008
The problems faced by small charities in an online environment
A new breed of website helps people donate online for free, even if their chosen charity doesn't have an online presence, but why is there such a demand for its services?
In this electronic age surely every charity should have a website accepting online donations?
Part of the reason for the success of fundraising platforms, such as Everyclick.com, is the fact that it is becoming understandably difficult for charities to find the funds to run their own website.
It is a cruel fact of life that some charities have more resources and higher-profile supporters than others. Not all charitable organisations can have celebrity backers like Ian Botham who has just gained much well-deserved press coverage for completing his remarkable trek across Britain in aid of Leukaemia Research.
Charities can feel that they're competing against each other to try and attract attention and donations from consumers who are finding it increasingly hard to meet the rising cost of living.
There are 200,000 charities in the UK, all, in the nicest possible way, trying to stand out from the crowd to make a difference to people's lives.
Only two per cent of the £8 billion that Britons donate to charity each year is given online, according to recent research from NFP synergy.
This makes charities the poor internet relation of sectors such as travel, banking and shopping where a significant proportion of transactions have migrated online.
It is also proof of how many charities are reluctant to invest in websites to accept online donations, considering that it is more cost-effective to pursue other methods such as employing people with clipboards to solicit direct debit contributions from passers-by.
But there is no escaping the fact that online donations are the way forward. Recent research from internet media and market research company Nielsen Online found that Britons are spending four per cent more time online per month than they did a year ago.
The relatively low proportion of online donations could also be explained by consumers' fears that their contributions might not be secure. A reticence about becoming a victim of fraud when you are trying to give cash to an honourable cause is understandable.
Which is why sites such as Everyclick can be a God-send for charities as it has a secure payment system.
While money is one factor deterring charities from setting up a website, another is time. Websites need to be maintained so that they retain their relevance and don't have outdated information or old news stories on them.
Someone could be put off from supporting a charity by seeing an unprofessional website.
The charities which don't have websites are often the smallest ones with the least resources - the very organisations that might need your support the most. So don't be put off if you can't find a website representing a cause close to your heart. Visit a fundraising site which will accept online donations for them.
In this electronic age surely every charity should have a website accepting online donations?
Part of the reason for the success of fundraising platforms, such as Everyclick.com, is the fact that it is becoming understandably difficult for charities to find the funds to run their own website.
It is a cruel fact of life that some charities have more resources and higher-profile supporters than others. Not all charitable organisations can have celebrity backers like Ian Botham who has just gained much well-deserved press coverage for completing his remarkable trek across Britain in aid of Leukaemia Research.
Charities can feel that they're competing against each other to try and attract attention and donations from consumers who are finding it increasingly hard to meet the rising cost of living.
There are 200,000 charities in the UK, all, in the nicest possible way, trying to stand out from the crowd to make a difference to people's lives.
Only two per cent of the £8 billion that Britons donate to charity each year is given online, according to recent research from NFP synergy.
This makes charities the poor internet relation of sectors such as travel, banking and shopping where a significant proportion of transactions have migrated online.
It is also proof of how many charities are reluctant to invest in websites to accept online donations, considering that it is more cost-effective to pursue other methods such as employing people with clipboards to solicit direct debit contributions from passers-by.
But there is no escaping the fact that online donations are the way forward. Recent research from internet media and market research company Nielsen Online found that Britons are spending four per cent more time online per month than they did a year ago.
The relatively low proportion of online donations could also be explained by consumers' fears that their contributions might not be secure. A reticence about becoming a victim of fraud when you are trying to give cash to an honourable cause is understandable.
Which is why sites such as Everyclick can be a God-send for charities as it has a secure payment system.
While money is one factor deterring charities from setting up a website, another is time. Websites need to be maintained so that they retain their relevance and don't have outdated information or old news stories on them.
Someone could be put off from supporting a charity by seeing an unprofessional website.
The charities which don't have websites are often the smallest ones with the least resources - the very organisations that might need your support the most. So don't be put off if you can't find a website representing a cause close to your heart. Visit a fundraising site which will accept online donations for them.
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