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'Slacktivists' - a(nother) new kind of donor? 3

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 3 Feb 2010

We’ve had new philanthropists, philanthropcapitalists, felicity donors and now, strike the drumroll, the sector has a cute new catchphrase to describe another new kind of donor.

Breathe in.

Enter the ‘slacktivist’.

So far as I can tell, a slacktivist is a generally lazy person who, by virtue of the ease of giving and communicating provided by social media, now donates money to, and talks about, charity. Kinda the opposite of a new philanthropist. It’s a combination of the words ‘slacker’ and ‘activist’, you see? Ingenious. Social media is sooo quirky.

But is this slacktivist really new? What is in a name? Would that which we call a slacktivist by any other name still want to tweet?

Well, yes. Slacktivists – although the word grates only more on my nerves with each time I type it – are new. A study by Neilsen in the ten days after the Haiti earthquake found that 39 per cent of Facebook users in the UK, US and Australia had already donated to the relief effort, with a further 21 per cent intending to. Thirteen per cent overall (23 per cent in the US alone) had donated by doing nothing more than sending a text message, a skill which, if I understand this slacktivist correctly (and I think I do), the slacktivist has probably mastered many times over.

Donating and telling people about it has never been so easy, so even these unmotivated, unengaged, sloths are being drawn in to charities. If anyone is rushing to their faithful ‘donor pyramid’ to find these guys, pick a spot on the base. They’ll be somewhere along there.

But while slacktivists may be fickle, they are no doubt many. Charities will need to figure out ways to make donating and communicating as easy for them as it is to send a text declaring that they are ‘LOL’.

Social media has made this all the easier for donors and charities, but the ball is very much still in charities’ court. For some charities fewer than one in ten people who click on to a ‘donate now’ button actually end up donating, which suggests to me that the sector may have to lift its game if it is to unleash the power of the slacktivist. 

Slacktivism is a great opportunity for charities, bringing in previously off-limits donors. Now the race is on for charities to make donating as easy as possible to lure these slack activists. 

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