Social Donor Giving Behavior

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30563
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• Date: 01 March 2019

MARCH 2019 NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR

3

© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

Of course, getting the word out through ambas-

sadors is just the rst step in the process. Getting

people to ask on the content they’ve seen or received

from someone in their social circle is another chal-

lenge. According to OneCause’s research, there are

three things most critical to motivating these donors

to give: explaining the mission of the organization,

demonstrating the impact their donation would have

on that mission and making the actual giving transac-

tion as easy as possible.

“Nonprots need to look at all of this from the

donor’s perspective,” said Velasquez-Hague. “They

need to truly understand the organization, and how

their donation will make a difference.”

As far as making the giving process easy, increas-

ingly that means incorporating mobile technology

and ensuring that donors can complete the transac-

tion as efciently as possible—ideally, in just a few

clicks. And, the opportunity to donate should be

evident—nonprots should make sure this part is

integrated with the other components, such as social

media posts and other digital communications high-

lighting the organization’s mission and the impact a

donor can have.

In short, if there’s a social media post or email that

tells a compelling story but doesn’t include a link to

donate, you’re doing it wrong, Jameson said.

“The ask and the ease of donating need to go hand

in hand,” she said.

Finally, we come

to follow-up. Accord-

ing to OneCause,

follow-up commu-

nications—namely,

Thank Yous—are

critical for all three

types of social do-

nors. On the one

hand, nonprofits

seem to understand

this. Per the report,

nonprofits met do-

nors’ expectations

regarding follow-ups,

in terms of standard

Thank You letters,

Thank You emails

and even handwrit-

ten Thank You notes.

The downside is that

many of those communications failed to offer what

is by far the most important thing social donors are

looking for: information on impact.

Per OneCause’s survey, some 28 percent of event

donors, 26 percent of sponsor donors and 32 percent

of challenge donors want to hear about the impact

their donation has made. But only about 15 percent

of social donors of all types had actually gotten that

information in follow-up Thank Yous.

On this front, Jameson said, your ambassadors

can also help a great deal. After all, these donors

are already accustomed to engaging through social

channels. It’s a great opportunity for your ambas-

sadors to reach out afterward with information on

impact, and hopefully help deepen their engagement

with the cause.

For more information

Kelly Velasquez-Hague is vice president of content

and brand engagement and Jenna Jameson is cor-

porate communications manager for OneCause, an

Indianapolis-based provider of fundraising software that

helps nonprots engage donors. The company offers a

suite of cloud-based fundraising solutions used by some

5,000 organizations and over 20,000 fundraising events,

and helped nonprots raise more than $1.5 billion. For

more information, visit https://www.onecause.com. ■

Social Donor Giving Behavior

Event

Donors Sponsor

Donors Occasion/

Challenge Donors

Donated Before?

Ye s 67% 61% 46%

No 31% 36% 49%

Amount of Donation

Average $382 $113 $99

Mean $100 $50 $50

How They Donated

Cash or check in person 64% 53% 46%

Online donation 27% 42% 45%

How Familiar They Were Before Donating

Very familiar 56% 47% 43%

Somewhat familiar 35% 38% 39%

Not too familiar 5% 9% 12%

Had only heard of the name of the org. 1% 1% 2%

Had never heard of the org. before 2% 4% 3%

Source: OneCause Social Donor Study: Understanding Motivators & Giving Behaviors ■