Techy top-ups and turning on the “philanthropy tap”

Here at NCVO we’re very conscious of the fact that a decline in statutory grants will mean that many voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) will be forced to rethink their income options.

Generating income through cash or in-kind gifts, alongside trading, is a key part of developing a more flexible and balanced income mix, and we were lucky to have lots of speakers at our recent Sustainable Funding conference to take us through some or the major trends and opportunities out there in the gift economy.

Giving 2.0+ . . ?

Our morning giving session focussed on long-term giving trends, and whether tech-enabled giving has the potential to reach a wider range of donors.

Professor Cathy Pharoah, Co-Director of Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy kicked off this session by taking a look at some of the initiatives outlined in the recent Giving White paper. While the White paper talks of using nudging theory to encourage people to make small donations as a part of their daily lives (through ATMs, Round the Pound options etc), Cathy felt that it’s still unclear whether this will reap the promised rewards.

Cathy also pointed out that despite recent technological advances, tech-enabled giving remains a fairly low percentage of total giving (even in USA, generally ahead in most respects, online giving still only made up 7.6% of total fundraising in the most recent stats).

Steve Bridger, who is collaborating on the Big Society Network's Spring project cautioned against VCOs getting too comfortable pursuing direct debits and payroll giving, pointing out that many younger donors are likely to want to give using similar technologies that are being used now, rather than the mechanisms being used by an older generation.  He also touched on the way social media has made regular supporter contact much easier and more natural than before, making it possible to create online communities of interest around your cause.

Both speakers agreed that there is potential for smaller local charities to capitalise on their community credentials and instigate local giving campaigns. This could be a particularly rich source of income for organisations able to take advantage of ‘intelligent’ technologies that can help donors give easily, quickly and in an integrated way.

Learn to earn online

As well as skilfully chairing our morning giving session, CEO of MissionFish UK Nick Aldridge and colleague Ria Fleming a (Head of Campaigns) also ran a lunchtime session based on findings in the recent report Passion, persistence and partnership, summarised here.

Emphasising the role of social media in cultivating supporters and advocates, Nick and Ria ran through some great examples of really effective online campaigns that used eBay for Charity to drum up engagement and funds. You can take a look at their presentation here and read the full report ‘Passion, persistence and partnership’ here to find out more about how voluntary and community organisations are currently using social media to raise money.

More giving resources

• The UK Giving 2011 Report is now out - take a look here.
• NCVO Foresight’s driver analysis bank has lots of drivers related to the potential impact of technology-enabled giving – browse the technology section for more info.
• We have more guidance on how to build up your gift income in the advice and support section of our website.
• Coming soon - my next blog on conference sessions that dealt with the trickier aspects of asking for donations, from legacies to negotiating for useful in-kind gifts, and getting your board to do the asking for you.