Hitching a ride on the mobile fundraising boom
Mobile fundraising has become commonplace. Anyone sitting on a train, waiting at a bus-stop or even just walking along the street will regularly see posters asking for a donation via text message – perhaps to fund research into much needed medical treatments or to support humanitarian relief following a disaster. As a fundraising channel, mobile fundraising has made huge strides in recent years and there is plenty of scope for it to develop further.
Certainly, the popularity of mobile fundraising is increasing. A survey of charity donors carried out in 2012 forecast that donations made using mobile phones will reach an impressive £150 million annually by 2015 – up from just £15.3 million in 2010.
A similar upward trajectory was confirmed in a report, issued last year by the UK mobile operator Three, which found that phones were increasingly being used as a means to donate to charities – with an increase of 242% recorded between 2011 and 2012. How are we to account for the rapidly increasing popularity of this channel?
A number of explanations come to mind. The amount of people who have mobile phones and who can send and receive SMS/MMS text messages, use the barcode-like Quick Response (QR) codes or take advantage of other methods of giving while out and about has risen rapidly.
There is undoubtedly a convenience factor as well. Making a donation using a mobile phone is quick, hassle-free and convenient. Text donations can be sent from the comfort of a train seat, an armchair at home or just about anywhere in between without the need to fill in forms or click through complicated webpages.
Versatility of mobile fundraising
Another key factor for the growing popularity of mobile fundraising is its versatility. The "text to donate" mechanism uses a "short code" number, a shortened version of a phone number that is easy to read and easier still to remember, that can be printed anywhere – on a coffee cup, the inside of a train carriage or a billboard poster.
The channel’s popularity with fundraisers is greatly increased by the reliability of the data it provides. When a supporter sends an SMS text message to donate to a charity, they are providing a legitimate and instantly verifiable phone number that a charity can use to make further contact with a supporter. There are no missing or wrong numbers to worry about – a supporter’s phone number simply appears in a database the moment the text is sent.
This touches on another reason for the channel’s popularity with fundraisers – namely the useful role that it can play as part of an integrated and "multi-channel" fundraising strategy. It sits well alongside other fundraising methods and text response has become a widely accepted and increasingly important part of direct response television (DRT), face to face, digital and outdoor fundraising channels.
There is a speed and swiftness to the donor’s journey that was previously unheard of – something that is particularly important where you have a fundraising "ask" which lends itself to a quick and impulsive emotional response and where it is important that a charity engages with a supporter while the cause is still in their mind.
Not a magic bullet
Despite its positive attributes, mobile is not a magic bullet. Like any fundraising method it has areas it can improve upon. It is currently the case that donations made through a mobile device tend to be for smaller amounts – usually in the region of between £3 and £5, levels which are lower than the average value of a typical direct debit donation.
Does this mean that smaller donations made through a mobile phone are cannibalising potentially larger donations which could be made through direct debit? I would suggest not. Experience shows that nearly all who donate regularly through their phone state that they are not interested, at least initially, in giving via direct debit and prefer the element of control that phone-based giving gives them – a subject which we will return to below.
There are also questions about how effectively a donor can be engaged through a 160 character text message. There is a clear challenge and skill involved in conveying a succinct message, within the traditional limitations of the mobile format, that will strike a chord with a potential supporter. However, these limitations matter less and less.
Telling a fuller story
The increasing ubiquity of smartphones is an opportunity for charities to communicate with their donors directly through a variety of media. Images, film and other multimedia content can tell a fuller and more emotive story than a plain text message ever could.
As they are delivered directly to a phone that rarely, if ever, leaves a supporter’s side they are more likely to be seen and heard than, perhaps, something that drops through a letterbox or can be glimpsed only in passing on the street. Donor stewardship is an aspect of mobile fundraising which holds real promise and significant progress is already being made in this area.
So where should mobile sit in an overall fundraising strategy? It has proven incredibly effective at making it easier for the public to engage with and first announce their support for a variety of charitable causes in a quick and easy way. It is during the second stage of a donor’s "journey" – when charities and fundraisers are looking to maximise the value of supporters – that other channels, such as telephone, have a critical part to play in converting one-off mobile donations to long term regular support.
Effective for smaller charities
Mobile tends to be a channel that charity and fundraising professionals associate with larger organisations. There is, however, no reason why mobile cannot be equally effective for charities of all sizes as long as there is a strong proposition – ideally a simple and easy to communicate need paired with a straightforward, tangible solution. With the right messaging and a clear call to action, small charities might well be surprised by how successful mobile fundraising can be.
So what about the future? Mobile fundraising is developing in promising directions that should deliver benefits to both supporters and charities. One emerging trend is the placing of control over donations back in the hands of supporters. Regular giving-by-text services allow supporters to skip a monthly donation by sending a text.
For supporters, the option to skip a donation can be a game changer. Just one text and the donor can opt in or out of making a donation in a given month without having to cancel their support altogether. At a time when many donors are tightening their belts, this technology is giving people a much needed flexibility.
The current signs are that that mobile fundraising is here to stay. The next generation of supporters and donors live by their mobiles. In 2011 over a quarter of 18-24 year-olds (28%) said that they donated by text, compared with less than one in ten 45-54 year-olds. The number of young, mobile-savvy donors has undoubtedly increased since then, fuelled by the increasing popularity of mobile devices and the availability of ever-cheaper smartphones.
Not being left behind
Charities which don’t want to be left behind will need to invest in technology so that they can continue to connect with tech-hungry supporters or work with agencies which will enable them to deliver this. Mobile fundraising is one of the fastest developing channels available to charities, which will need to embrace the channel or risk losing out on a valuable additional income stream for their work.
