New donor mentality means more switching between charities

Fundraising | Becky Slack | 2 Jul 2008

Donor development needs to undergo the same revolution as that already experienced in donor recruitment if charities are to stem the increasing number of lapsing supporters.

This is the message to come out of research by Bluefrog into why people cancel donations, which found that as society grows more comfortable with switching between commercial suppliers so too do they grow more comfortable with switching charities.

“We’re dealing with a new donor mentality,” said Amber Nathan, head of research at Bluefrog. “Consumer society says that it’s okay to be fickle; if you’re not happy with your telecoms or utilities provider, you’re supposed to switch. This is being projected onto all consumer-brand relationships, including those with charities.”

She said that the most startling discovery was the large number of donors who planned to switch charities right from the very start of the relationship, some because they feel unsure about how much they trust an organisation, others because they think it is more fair.

Overall, the research into the motivations and behaviours of 210 current and lapsed donors, found that charities are poor at strengthening relationships and that more needs to be done to develop techniques to understand supporters better. Whereas new recruitment mechanisms have been invented over the years, such as DRTV, face-to-face and SMS, little has been done to improve development.

“It needs to catch up and become appropriate to the audience that we’re speaking to,” says Nathan. “We can do this by making a charity-donor dialogue whereby we truly listen and where we truly respond to donors’ behaviours.”

Who's Who: Becky Slack

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