For small charities, donor loyalty is an essential source of funding. This is especially true in these hard times due to rising living expenses. Although the total amount raised has increased, the amount of individual small charity donations has declined. As a result, this suggests that organisations have a chance to get past-due donors to give again.
The recruitment of new donors has increased in the charity sector, but donor attrition has also increased. Between 2021 and 2022, donor attrition rates increased from 22% to 30%, while regular giving rates decreased. Research has presented a huge challenge for small charity donation to keep loyal donors interested and returning to help causes they care about. This article will discuss how charities can inspire loyalty among their supporters and raise more money as a result. In addition, there is insight from contactless donation experts GWD.
Small Charity Donation: Creating Loyalty
Prioritise the Needs of Supporters
We already live in a culture that is constantly becoming more and more contactless. Debit cards accounted for half of all payments in the UK in 2022. On the other hand, cash payments only accounted for 14% of all payments. Compared to 6.4 billion cash payments, around 17 billion contactless payments were made.
One of the best methods of making it as simple as possible for people to donate to your charity is to entice them to do it again. This includes having the ability to use donation kiosks and receive contactless contributions from donors wherever they are. Engaging contributors in the dialogue is an excellent approach to determine their requirements. For instance, this could be via a survey – an approach that is far too frequently disregarded. GWD has stated that, “If you want more people to give, you’ll need to explore how they want to give.”
“Twice as many charity donors see contactless as a good idea than those who dislike it, so the more methods you provide, the more demographics you appeal to and the more likely visitors are to give.”
Offer Flexibility in Small Charity Donations
Maintaining a grasp of the demands and behaviours of donors is necessary to keep them involved. Small charities must think about obstacles to giving and how they may get rid of them in the future. However, they must also make sure that donors can give in ways that work for them.
For instance, donors’ capacity to make charitable contributions may have been impacted by the cost-of-living crisis, especially in recent months. Nonetheless, charities are able to confront a possible support shortfall if they have determined what may have caused it. The greatest answer to this would be Gift Aid. Using this gives charities a 25% increase in donations without adding any further fees to the donor.
GWD suggests providing flexibility in fundraising. “If a supporter needs to pause their giving, keep in touch with impact messaging and success stories,” rather than continuing to ask for funds.
Consider posing gentler questions to donors, such as “Do you want to know how your donation will be spent?” or “Would you like to hear more about our work?”. The ‘Conversation Starter,’ as it is called by GWD, is an optional component of the Donation Station. This increases the possibility of conversion later on or when the donor is ready by maintaining contact with one-time contributors.
Through this, supporters can stay in touch with you without feeling compelled to donate money immediately. It keeps donors motivated for the future while increasing awareness of your cause.
In general, when considering the requirements of donors, small charities should give priority to sensitivity. Ensure that supporters can modify the amount of their donation via contactless payment methods and online. GWD advises considering proper positioning, visitor journey planning, dwell time, and foot traffic when designing physical donation kiosks. Locations that get a lot of traffic but little dwell time, for instance, are not good for donation stations. Moreover, this is since they will result in long lines and discourage people from using the equipment.
Connect With Your Charity Donors
Recent years have shown charities that the economic and societal conditions can have a significant impact on donation behaviour. Therefore, identifying the requirements of various supporters and demographics in terms of giving is a continual process that necessitates ongoing study of current donor data and industry trends.
Thankfully, charities now have much easier access to more data regarding the activity of their supporters. This is mostly due to the rise of digital small charity donation. Among other things, small charities can see the most frequent times people give, the stage of the gift they leave at most frequently, the demographics that give the most, and the causes or campaigns that donors are contributing to.
These observations are an important component in motivating donors. If not now, how can charities make their experience better so that donors will give later? Once more, charities can use GWD’s Donation Station to question their supporters. Here, prospective donors can input their information, reply to inquiries about the charity they are corresponding with, and make a donation.
Charities should make sure that their data is legible and easy to export for fundraising teams who will be utilising it to make judgements when selecting a new digital fundraising solution. As well as this, reports can point out areas where contributors might want additional assistance. By following this, charity organisations can develop enduring relationships with their supporters that they can rely on, especially during difficult times. Enable the public to donate as easily as possible—they want to!
Click here to discover contactless with GWD