Online Fundraising
Increasingly more people are finding out that they can use the Internet to do good. They turn to platforms such as betterplace.org to support projects that are transparent and which match up with their particular interests. Changing the world has never been so easy, efficient and engaging. We help aid organizations and projects to harness this potential.
Abstract
The goal of the Online Fundraising project is to enable social organisations to present themselves optimally in the Internet in order to win new, sustainable supporters as well as to strengthen the relationship with existing supporters. We want to help them to understand donation platforms and social media in order to use them more efficeintly.
To this end, we analyse the online donor market in Germany and internationally, observe the donation behaviors on the betterplace.org platform, conduct online surveys and hold expert interviews with project managers, donors and non-donors. We hope that our results can help organizations to create better strategies and to increase their donor acquisitions. In addition we are continually developing and adapting tools from our research in the form of checklists and how-to guides.
Current Activities
Online Donor Study: there is currently no significant study in Germany about the behaviors and motivations of people who donate online. We want to change that. That's why we are working on a study with the working title "Online Donors – The Unknown Species"
At the current time, 6-8 % of all private donations in Germany are given online. This amount is growing and many German organizations have started taking advantage of the potential of the Internet and social media in the last months. Fundraising training programes are more and more often asked for courses about online content, aid organizations are hiring online-experts and redesigning their online presence. The earthquake in Haiti was the first time that significant sums of donations were gathered over the Internet.
Online Fundraising is growing by 50 percent in the USA
If one applies the dynamics that are occuring in other markets, such as book-trade or real estate, to the social sector, it seems safe to assume that the internet will play an increasingly important role in fundraising in the next years. In the USA, it is expected that the online donations will grow to 50% of total donations received by the year 2013.
The goal of this study is first to understand the behaviors and motivations of online donors in Germany – using as an example the members on the donation platform betterplace.org. Who are the people who donate online? How are they different – in age, education, income, geographical location and value systems – from the classical donors, of whom there are already some available – if incomplete – studies (Haibach 2002, West 2008, Priller/Sommerfeld 2009)? On what grounds do online donors choose to donate online? Which offers are taken up and which not? Based on the segmentation of the online donor market, we then offer incentives to increase donations and social engagement over betteplace.org as well as in general.
Study looks at the donation behaviors of 30,000 users
This study is based on the quantitative and qualitative survey completed by donors and non-donors on the internet platform, betterplace.org. The survey in 2009, to the currently 30,000 betterplace.org members (of whom only a portion are active donors) with a donation volume of almost 1 million Euros constituted the basis for the research of German online donors.
Tracing user-clicks, and analyzing survey results bring to light various representative data about the behaviors of donors, which are then deepened by follow-up qualitative interviews with chosen betterplace donors. These members are then categorized by type of donors. The knowledge gained about donor motivations and behaviors is then further tested through rewards systems that are posted, and later evaluated, on the betterplace.org platform. The resulting insights are finally developed into guidelines for effective online fundraising.
Results
We have already finished the following studies on online fundraising:
- Development of online fundraising and comparison with the U.S. market. This study shows that donor demand for online giving opportunities are growing but also that online donations are continued less often than those performed offline.
- Success factors when using betterplace.org
What should users do to use betterplace.org especially well? We've gathered together success factors and further tips in a guide here. - betterplace.org Study "Project Activation"
This study shows which projects on betterplace.org have been especially successful... - Web 2.0 & Sozial Media for my organization
This slideshow gives an overview of social media and can be found here, or right in the media column. - An article from cultural anthropologist, Dr. Joana Breidenbach, on "Revolution in the Donor Market"
- Joana Breidenbach also wrote the afterword in Alexander Glück's book The Marketed Responsibility. Titled "Fundraising and the disruptive power of the Internet," Breidenbach describes the potential of digital technologies for the social sector. Read it for yourself...
- Current research and thesis: we begin by gathering all the available data, studies and information. By looking at the international market, we draw comparisons and use the furthest-developed markets as the standard. Then we prepare our thesis on the behaviors of online donors.
- Data: the foundations of our research are primarily based on numbers and statistics from the donation platform betterplace.org, which provides us with information regarding the click-behaviors, anonymous user profiles, donation volumes, project activities, and more. We are planning to broaden this data set through an online survey, personal interviews or group discussions in order to gather additionally valuable knowledge about non-users and non-donors or offline-donors.
- Evaluation: we thoroughly evaluate our data in order to either confirm or adjust our theses. In addition, we test any deviations and produce good and bad practice examples as guides.
- Publication and Tools: we prepare the results of our studies and publish them for the project managers and everyone else with interest. In addition, we create tools in the form of guides, or implement new functions on betterplace.org that make it possible for social organizations ot optimize their online fundraising.
- Testing: we test and optimize the effectiveness of new functions on the betterplace.org platform. In this way, we assist nonprofit organizations and projects in their best use of betterplace.org and in general online, in order to experience more sustainable support.
- Internal Evaluation: we evaluate in which ways our results are used, for example, which changes and hopefully, which improvements are made. Was the effort worth it? If so, it motivates us to start more studies.
Methodology
Our research methods follow the principles of the betterplace lab and how we work. In the Online Fundraising project, this process follows with six steps:
You may contact , from the betterplace lab team, with any questions. Or just use our contact form.