Last year more than a third of donors stopped giving to their regular charity. In research revealed exclusively to Civil Society, fast.MAP explores why donors stayed loyal or gave up and how they prefer to be contacted by charities. Celina Ribeiro reports.

It is a long standing belief among charity marketers and fundraisers that the civilian population see approaches from charities as a special case. That consumers don’t mind being approached with marketing messages by charities because, after all, it’s all for the greater good.

However, a four-year tracking study of consumer attitudes and attrition by research company fast.MAP found that fundraiser perceptions of what donors want do not always match with what donors actually want. Charities are, however, getting better at communicating with their donors – just 5 per cent of donors stopped giving because of a lack of communication from their charities, a slight drop on previous years’ results.

And, more confusing still, donors do not always react the best to the charity marketing they most prefer to receive.

Of the one third of donors who said they had stopped giving to a charity they normally support last year, half said it was because they could no longer afford it – a straightforward and unavoidable casualty of the economic collapse. However, 15 per cent said they stopped supporting a charity because the charity was not communicating effectively about how their donation was making a difference. {{image:{"asset":"D4FA6ACC-1B07-4067-A98572914EA55DE6","alt_text":"","dimensions":"","quality":"mediumPerformance","alignment":"auto","spacing":"5","copyright":"","caption":"","link":"","link_asset":"","link_page":"","link_target":"_self"}:image}}

More than 1,300 consumers were interviewed each year as part of the fast.MAP tracking study.

Telephone fundraising unpopular

The rules around telephone fundraising have come under significant scrutiny since last autumn, but underlying the various views on whether and when charities are allowed to call donors – lapsed and otherwise – is the assumption that donors do not mind receiving calls from charities. {{image:{"asset":"F45120BF-92E2-4C0E-94F5C996E2EB0859","alt_text":"","dimensions":"","quality":"mediumPerformance","alignment":"auto","spacing":"5","copyright":"","caption":"","link":"","link_asset":"","link_page":"","link_target":"_self"}:image}}

According to fast.MAP’s survey of marketers, only 44 per cent thought that charity fundraising calls may bother consumers. However, four out of five consumers said that they, if allowed to customise the Telephone Preference Service, would specifically opt not to receive calls from charities. More people said they would ban charity calls than said they did not want to receive calls about banking services, broadband deals and health and beauty products.