Fundraising in a Digital Age
I remember when I was a young kid, we got a box from school to take along trick or treating with us to try and collect some extra change for Unicef. We would get our candy and then try and ask for some donation. It didn’t really work too well, but as my parents explained, that is how fundraising used to be done.
​In today’s world, this type of fundraising may still go on, but more likely, they have gone digital like most fundraising efforts. The world of fundraising has benefited GREATLY from the ability to fundraise via digital technologies. These benefits can be large scale efforts such as Red Cross disaster relief, Cancer research, and other major charitable organizations, or it can be local like school senior trip, team uniforms or Go Fund Me for someone that had some kind of tragedy or emergency.
AWARENESS
The reason I chose this topic for my blog is because of something that happened back in the summer of 2014...the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. I was young, but still couldn’t stop following it on Facebook because it was interesting, funny, creative, and important. In case you don't remember, participants were challenged to pour a bucket of ice water over their heads to promote awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and encourage donations to research associations (Zhang, 2023).
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Facebook told TIME that a whopping 2.4 million unique videos related to the Ice Bucket Challenge had been posted on the social media site. As TIME put it, “most of us know about the Ice Bucket Challenge as a way to raise awareness for ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. People have been challenging everyone from their grandpa to Bill Gates to either dump a bucket of ice water over their head or donate $100 to an ALS-related charity. The movement has raised more than $112 million for the ALS Association, compared to $50 in the same period last year.” The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge allowed the ALS Association to increase annual funding for research around the world by 187% (Stampler, 2014).
Photo from USA Today
DIGITAL IMPACT
When looking at how this happened, Facebook’s Data Science team found that the Ice Bucket Challenge’s spread was structured around Boston.“ Each line in the map represents at least 10 connections between nominators and nominees for the challenge,” Facebook told TIME. “Many attribute the challenge to former Boston College baseball player, Pete Frates, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2012, which could explain the concentration in Boston.” Frates’ disease took the athlete’s ability to speak and move his limbs, so he challenged people in his social network with the help of the song “Ice, Ice Baby”. It went viral (Stampler, 2014).
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One of the reasons this worked so well was that people had to actually “TAG” other people so that the ask could not be ignored. In this way, you could not just scroll past it, it held people accountable (Ognyanova, 2023).
This example is packed with proof that when you fundraise online, you can exponentially increase awareness and reach which can result in significant funds being raised. The use of photos and video, sharing and tagging, the ability to collect funds online, the comments and the community all led to this being a successful fundraising event, that obviously left an impact on me and others.
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GROWING UP WITH FUNDRAISING
With the use of social media to get the word out, hashtags to unify the messages, digital technology to collect the donation, and things like donation trackers and engagement tools, fundraising looks very different today than even 10 years ago.
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All of this has led to a new way of thinking. According to Fidelity Charitable, “charitable giving is charitable living.” As an example, Millennials consider themselves philanthropists. 40% made a donation after learning about a cause on social media and 43% encouraged family or friends to make a donation to the same cause. For them, donating is about finding a solution to a problem, not just sitting on the sidelines (2022). The Gen Z generation is right behind them with even more passion for problem solving and spending where they know they can make a difference.
ONLINE IS THE FUTURE OF FUNDRAISING
Fundraising is all about getting your cause in front of potential donors and showing them how their support could drive your mission forward. But you can’t make your case if you aren’t in the same space as your visitors. Meeting your prospects where they are is key, and, as you might expect, they’re online (Donorly, 2022).
The 2021 Charitable Giving Report showed the vital role that online engagement and giving play in donors’ lives and nonprofits’ goals. We continue to see that the digital landscape is transforming the social good sector (MacLaughlin et al., 2022).
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Online giving in 2021 grew 9% year over year (Blackbaud)
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As of 2021, online giving has grown 42% over the past three years.
DIGITAL FUNDRAISING
So what is digital fundraising? One good definition comes from the website Donorly which says that “it is the use of online platforms and media to spread awareness for your cause and gather donations” (Donorly, 2022).
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Digital fundraising provides the opportunity to build a community, both online and offline. Instead of being limited to your local supporters, you can reach audiences around the world who are passionate about your cause. Using digital platforms like social media is affordable, user-friendly, and can generate impressive ROIs (Donorly, 2022).
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Plus, online platforms provide the flexibility to offer hybrid and virtual events so your distant supporters can still engage with your organization (Donorly, 2022).
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Besides providing the means to reach a larger audience, the digital space allows you to transform your storytelling strategy. For example, instead of simply using the written word on your mission statement, you can create a video on your website or include photos of your beneficiaries. Images and other digital content can make a more immediate and emotional impact than words alone (Donorly, 2022).
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They suggest using the various social media platforms to drive awareness and garner engagement from donors and potential supporters.
IMPACT OF ONLINE
There are many newer types of peer-to-peer fundraising efforts that are coming about online that involve more “interactive” tactics to engage potential donors and skew a little younger as well. One study showed that over $154 million was generated for charity in 2021 by these “digitalcentric” peer-to-peer fundraising, a 30% increase over 2020, according to data from 44 nonprofits (Hessekiel, 2022).
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That same study revealed that digital-first peer-to-peer fundraising is being explored by organizations widely ranging in size and approach: .
â– The American Cancer Society generated $19.5 million from Facebook Challenges in which supporters pledged to take on an activity (e.g., walk 10,000 steps daily for a month) and enlist connections to donate.
â– “Stream For No Kid Hungry” raised $753,000 for the anti-hunger charity by recruiting 390 primarily video gamers to raise money from people who watch them stream online.
ONLINE DONATIONS + RECURRING DONATIONS = MORE FUNDS
According to doublethedonation.com, online donations also make it easier to keep donating driving recurring donations rather than just one-time giving which adds up to more funds (2022).
Per doublethedonation.com, the overall revenue from monthly giving has increased with 63% of donors preferring to give online with a debit or credit card. 34% of donors contribute to crowdfunding campaigns, 47% support through online raffles/sweepstakes and 45% purchase through online stores that benefit nonprofits. 38% of donors that contribute to a nonprofit will contribute again the following year.
These statistics illustrate the power of digital fundraising. And the numbers keep growing year over year.
RAISE FUNDS QUICKER FOR DISASTERS
With crowdfunding, major global events can receive donations and relief within hours or days rather than weeks and months. This is relevant and meaningful when time is of the essence and calls for aid can be answered.
The Red Cross’s Haiti Earthquake Relief Effort. This digital fundraising campaign was held by the Red Cross in 2010 to help Haitians affected by the earthquake by providing food, water, shelter, medical care, and other essentials. This campaign implemented a text fundraising strategy by asking supporters to “Text HAITI to 90999” to donate $10. The Red Cross raised tens of millions of dollars to help more than 4.5 million Haitans, making this digital fundraising campaign a huge success (Zhang, 2023).
Today, you can go online and donate as soon as you learn about these disasters or hear about how people need more help.
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There are always local teams raising money or someone doing a fundraiser as a project, but one thing that I think is MOST beneficial about digital fundraising on a local level is the crowdfunding aspect, specifically as it relates to community and people in need.
An example that hits home for me was an accident which involved 5 kids from my high school. While the whole accident itself is a story, these five kids were lucky to be alive, but that meant that they were going to need a LOT of care and their families were going to need support, especially financial support. Within 24 hours there were Go Fund Me accounts set up for each kid so that we could donate and raise funds quickly. We were able to share these on social media to get even more funds. It was said that people who didn’t even know these kids donated because the story was so horrible. This shows the impact of online fundraising because in traditional methods, these people would never even have known about it, let alone donated. These funds were considerable and were raised so fast that it was remarkable.
LOCAL EFFORTS
At the local level, there are some major advantages to crowdfunding over traditional fundraising according to Verticalraise.com:
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Less time investment to set it up and run it.
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Usually raises more money than traditional fundraising
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Fewer costs so more money is retained for the cause.
“Civic crowdfunding brings to life more democratic, open access and transparent community engagement and offers new opportunities for smaller organizations who have limited resources for robust fundraising campaigns” (Hartay et al., 2021).
Photo from give.org
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ONLINE OR BUST
In the end, online channels provide unprecedented opportunities to reach new audiences, lend value to the donor journey, and ultimately raise more money for your nonprofit (Donorly, 2022).
And because we are all online a lot of the time, this makes giving a part of our daily lives not just something we need to be asked to do or something we may think about doing.
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I think that digital fundraising is one of the largest benefits of the digital age because we can help so many more people and organizations. We can see the impact of our donations. We can build community or strengthen community by helping those in need.
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To quote Nick Black, the cofounder and CEO of GoodUnited, “social giving is the highest and best use of social media. The billions of dollars raised on Facebook signals supporters' desire to converse and convene in the channels where they spend time. Increasingly, that’s online. It’s not an overstatement to say the economics and virality of digitally-native fundraising has the power to save the world” (Hessekiel, 2022).
REFERENCES
Donorly. (2022, August 15). Digital Fundraising: Take your strategy to the next level. Donorly. https://donorly.com/thedonorlyblog/digital-fundraising
Double the Donation. (2023, October 16). Nonprofit fundraising statistics to boost results in 2023. Double the Donation. https://doublethedonation.com/nonprofit-fundraising-statistics/#:~:text=Online%20Fundraising%20Statistics%3A,28%25%20of%20all%20online%20giving
Fidelity Charitable. (2022). Fidelity Charitable. fidelitycharitable.org. https://www.fidelitycharitable.org/content/dam/fc-public/docs/resources/2021-future-of-philanthropy-summary.pdf
Hartay, E., Strecansky, B., & Achler, M. (2021, March). The potential and risks of using digital technologies in Fundraising: A Comparative Research. European Center for Non-for-Profit Law. https://www.nonprofit.hu/tudastar/The-potential-and-risks-of-using-digital-technologies-in-fundraising-a-comparative-research
Hessekiel, D. (2022, March 3). Digital-first peer-to-peer fundraising has arrived Big Time. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhessekiel/2022/03/02/digital-first-peer-to-peer-fundraising-has-arrived-big-time/?sh=6f3c33fe2b0f
MacLaughlin, S., Perrotti, E., Thompson, A., & Salmony, L. (2022, February). Charitable Giving Report. https://cms.blackbaudcdn.net/media/docs/default-source/industry-insights/reports/bbi_cgr_2022.pdf?sfvrsn=39cf7d24_4
Ognyanova, K. (2023, October). Communication and Technology. Class Lecture. New Brunswick; Rutgers Canvas.
Raj. (2023, September 19). A guide to different types of fundraising: Pros and cons. Nonprofit Blog. https://donorbox.org/nonprofit-blog/different-types-of-fundraising#:~:text=It%20can%20introduce%20your%20organization,when%20compared%20to%20traditional%20fundraising.
Stampler, L. (2014, August 15). Als Ice Bucket Challenge: 2.4 million videos on Facebook. Time. https://time.com/3117501/als-ice-bucket-challenge-videos-on-facebook/
Vertical Raise. (2023, January 23). Crowdfunding vs. traditional fundraising: The differences. Vertical Raise. https://verticalraise.com/crowdfunding-vs-traditional-fundraising-the-differences/
Zhang, C. (2023, August 15). Nonprofit Digital Fundraising Campaigns: 7 best strategies. Getting Attention. https://gettingattention.org/digital-fundraising-campaigns/#:~:text=With%20a%20well%2Dplanned%20and,far%20corners%20of%20the%20world.