Emergency appeal donors not getting feedback

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 8 Feb 2011

Charities are not giving most donors to emergency appeals information about the impact of their gift, according to research released today.

Just 43 per cent of donors to emergency appeals last year ever heard back from their charity about what was done with their money, research commissioned by Plan International has found. Just one in 20 (5 per cent) recalled getting any personalised communication at all.

According to Plan’s research, just 9 per cent of donors recalled being thanked at all for their gift.

Director of fundraising at the charity, Jeremy Hooper, said this could have repercussions for the way people view the effectiveness of aid work. “If we don’t thank and inform donors properly, we miss the opportunity to build support and understanding for the fact that aid works,” he said.

But despite the poor stewardship the research discovered, most (51 per cent) donors say they will give again should another natural disaster strike.

Critical to whether or not they actually will give, however, is media coverage with more than a third reporting that they were prompted to donate following television coverage of the disaster. Slightly less, 32 per cent, however, attempt to avoid all exposure to media reportage of natural disasters due to the distressing nature of the coverage.

Former UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, Sir John Holmes said: “The way the world responds to a new disaster largely depends on the way media cover it. Aid agencies need to learn how to communicate more effectively and journalists need to understand better the dynamics of a disaster and what is possible and necessary in aid terms.”

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