Insights from the Charity Digital Online Fundraising Conference October 2023

The Charity Digital Online Fundraising Conference in October 2023 brought together industry leaders, experts, and charity fundraisers to explore trends and ideas in digital fundraising.  The sessions included looking at a range of topics from essential digital tools, to harnessing the power of storytelling.

The New Generous Generation: Engaging Gen Z with Ashley Fontaine

According to recent research Generation Z is the age group most likely to donate to charity. Ashley highlighted the unique characteristics of Gen Z and their preferences in giving.

Generation Z comprises people born between 1996 and 2010. This generation’s identity has been shaped by the digital age, climate anxiety, a shifting financial landscape, and COVID-19.

Social fundraising, powered through social connections, was a key focus of Ashley’s talk. The session explored platforms such as TikTok and highlighted the importance of building emotional connections to attract and retain Gen Z donors.

Ashley recommended creating an audience profile to help identify key patterns of behaviour.  Gen Z giving trends include:

• Flexible giving
• Gripping storytelling
• Mobile friendly donations
• Charity authenticity
• Social giving
• Charity cause research

40% of GenZ donors learn about new causes from social media.  The top 3 platforms are:

• You Tube
• Instagram
• TikTok

A TikTok example is the British Red Cross which utilised the donation sticker on TikTok. They raised £90k in 12 months and kept things current, for example by linking in with the new Barbie film and the trend for thrifting.

A storytelling example was Mind’s 2022 #SpeakToUs campaign where a relatable character candidly shared their mental health journey.  It was intended as an awareness campaign that resulted in donations.

Ashley also highlighted that Gen Z is likely to want to have a relationship with the cause they donate to, they respond to well-managed stewardship and share stories around impact.

Maximizing the Donation Funnel: Insights from Fresh Egg

A presentation from Jake Lambert from Fresh Egg, a donation platform. He highlighted five things you can do to maximise donations:

• Talk to your users – understand their needs don’t just rely on analytics it doesn’t tell you why they do things. Segment those who currently donate/used to donate/don’t donate to you but may donate elsewhere – Consider user testing e.g. usertesting.com or ask people to engage with you and run your own tester sessions.
• Build and maintain an emotional connection – maintain this throughout the donor’s journey, and keep them engaged particularly when they reach a hurdle – such as filling in a donor form.  Use strong consistent imagery and phrases.  Remember a key reason people give is because it makes them feel good – reinforce this at every stage.
• Test your default levels – Fresh Egg experimented and found that when using suggested donation figures it can be effective to set an ‘anchor’ figure at the high end – this encourages people to be more generous.
• Nudge to regular giving show one-off donors what they could help you achieve if they donated regularly, but still be suitably appreciative of one-off donations
• Show your impact for example – £10 could answer 2 calls to our advice line for isolated older people needing support.

The importance of talking to users, building emotional connections, and reducing hurdles in the donation process were key takeaways. The session emphasized the significance of maintaining a consistent and engaging narrative throughout the donor journey.