Richard Craig, CEO of the Charity Technology Trust, talks to Figaro about some of the issues facing digital marketers and organisations operating within the third sector
If digital communication is all about giving users' greater control, enabling access and sharing information, then charities stand to benefit from it as much – if not more - as commercial organisations. Not-for-profits have two key objectives: soliciting donations and spreading the word. Social media, video, mobile technology, targeting and NFC are all ideally suited to achieving those aims, but for smaller organisations the expense and administration involved in making the most of digital technology can be a barrier to effective entry.
Support network
Richard Craig is CEO of the Charity Technology Trust (CTT), an organisation dedicated to helping charities make effective use of technology. Established in 2001, CTT is currently working with over 11,000 charities in the UK, helping them with everything from email marketing to software systems, website development, mobile access and new media strategy. So how does Craig see the impact of digital technology on the way charitable organisations currently operate, and what sorts of issues are relevant to marketers working in this field?
"About 20 per cent of donations are made online," says Craig, "but it depends on how charities have embraced technology - whether they've put it at the core of what they do and made it easier for people to donate."
With UK causes struggling through the economic downturn, making it easy for supporters to donate is vital. CTT has its own IP which enables charitable organisations to accept card payments and Craig estimates that the Trust put over £30 million through the books during 2011. But the business of giving faces broader issues, particularly when it comes to the biggest growth area of all: mobile.
Giving on the go
"SMS has made it significantly easier for the right types of causes," says Craig, who points to Comic Relief's effective use of text donations. "But in terms of mobile, the big challenge is getting all the data into the right environment. If you want to put your credit card into a mobile site and donate, it's horrendous at the moment. It can take forever to get your details through."
This isn't an issue unique to charities, of course. UK retailers generally have been slow to adapt to NFC and incorporate mobile payment, but 2012 – driven, many hope, by the Olympics – could be the year that changes. "When we start using mobile devices to physically make payments inside a store," says Craig, "we may find there are some clever things that go on with that: communicating with a particular store, specifying how you want to donate and so on."
Another significant rising trend, says Craig, is the issue of micropayments: small donations given by selected vendors when users are actually shopping for something else.
"Giveasyoulive.com is a great example, because the people who donate are the people you buy from. This is effectively solicited marketing. You have an applet installed in your browser. Then when I go and buy my flights, for example, a box pops up and says if you agree, we'll donate as part of the process. Or if I do a Google search and want to book a flight, it'll tell me which companies will donate if I buy from them. So there's a lot of innovation happening – not just around giving, but around how I can do my normal day-to-day activities, and give as part of that process."
Social conscience
As in the commercial sector, social media has thrown up massive opportunities – and significant challenges – for charities seeking to promote their causes and nurture communities. "The message we're giving out to every charity now is you need to be in there," says Craig. "It's a case of how you resource it and how you spread. The challenge for charities is they may not have all the resources to do what they want to do. If you're going to put out a Facebook and Twitter feed, you need to do something with them, and a lot of charities are struggling with really useful content that makes people want to be there."
Facebook, says Craig, is ideally suited to making individual connections, promoting storytelling and providing campaigns with a strong personal voice. "Particularly," he says, "if you really illustrate the impact of donations and show what the money's going to be spent on, if you can introduce an element of fun into that and – critically – if you can then persuade people to actually donate in that environment. Much of the drive in donations is for users to be able to tell friends that they've donated. That's the feelgood factor for users – going out and telling people that you've given money."
Thinking outside the collection box
Apps are another area which charities, just like everyone else, are keen to make the most of. But Craig cautions against steaming on in there without a clear idea of what you want them to achieve.
"This is still an area that's evolving," he says. "There are lots of people developing apps which never really return on the investment. We're getting lots of charities who say, 'We want to develop an app.' So we say, 'What do you want it to do?' And they say, 'We don't really know. We just want one.' Charities know there's an opportunity. They just don't know how to make best use of it. I'm always asking people, what is it that you can develop through an app that you couldn't develop through the web? Why do you want to deliver this to a mobile environment? Why do you think people are going to want to use it?"
Sometimes the answers to questions like this involve a bit of lateral thinking. "I went to donate some clothes recently and I got to my usual place," says Craig, "which was closed for decorating. Now, I had two big bags and I could not, on my iPhone, find anywhere else to take them. So there's a service that would be ideally suited to the mobile environment. Or, if you want to donate your time - say I've got a couple of hours free and I'd like to help a charity – what can I do? There's almost a crowd-sourcing element to things like that. We see a lot of examples where people deliver an app that simply replicates what already exists in another environment. It doesn't really add any value and I think that's where people are struggling."
Heading into 2012 then, what sorts of issues does Craig see facing charities seeking to maximise their digital profile?
"As I say, micro-donations are important. It's difficult to get accurate stats on this, but we think the number of donations is remaining the same, but the average value has dropped. So we have to attract people to make those donations, and the challenge with smaller donations is the hassle of giving, technically. How do we ease the process of entering credit card data and make the whole process less painful for smaller values?
"More generally, we've been encouraging a lot of charities we speak to to take a more holistic approach to marketing. A lot of them still put technology in a separate strand, but there's been lots of good research indicating that if you integrate technology into your more traditional marketing, the average value of donations can improve significantly."
That doesn't mean, however, that social media can serve as a quick fix. "We say it isn't a replacement to what you were doing before," says Craig. "It's a supplementary path, which for a lot of charities is still quite challenging. They're still struggling with traditional marketing without thinking about how to integrate new technology. Increasingly, we find people are asking now, what is the difference between charities and commercial organisations? I think it's getting less. We're very much approaching marketing as we would if we were selling a commercial product. Charities are starting to behave the same way and when it comes to social media I think the same rules apply."
Article by Jon Fortgang
http://www.ctt.org/