A survey of 8,000 digital donors has identified six digital donor types which may help charities plan their online campaigns more effectively.

The Digital Donor Review, published today by online giving platform Give As You Live, is one of the most detailed reports on the giving habits of online donors yet. Informed by the Donor Survey 2012 which quizzed nearly 8,000 charity supporters on their online habits, its findings have helped develop six donor personas, each with different online use and giving patterns. Give as You Live hopes the personas will help charities make more effective decisions in their fundraising efforts. It also hopes to develop the personas further, by offering charities free reports breaking down their online audience, and using the insights to inform the personas.

"If you think about who you're building your technology for it becomes much easier to pinpoint your activities," said Polly Gowers, founder of Give as You Live.

"Often it's personal preference that tends to drive some really fundamental things but if you can put your feet in your customer's shoes it makes it much easier to say, 'now hang on a minute, don't be stupid, we shouldn't be building it that way'...Things like, do we do a text campaign or do we focus on tablet become much easier to answer."

The six characters: Clive, Jacqueline, Margaret, Marie, Neil and Rachel present very different online habits. Clive, a family man in his 40s is least likely to support environmental charities, while Rachel, a young mum in her late 20s is the most likely to support animal charities. Margaret, the oldest of the digital donors, is the least likely to support human rights charities.

All six are most likely to give through direct debits, while Jacqueline, a professional mother in her late forties is the most likely to give through the post. Neil, a single guy in his mid-20s is the most likely to give via an online giving website and Marie, a married and financially comfortable Mum in her mid-30s, gives mostly through direct debits, closely followed by online giving websites. Click on the images below for more details on each of the personas.

Digital donors most likely to engage with charities via Facebook

The review also poses a wider overview of the digital donor landscape. A key finding is that each donor type is most likely to engage with charities via Facebook than any other social media. It found that 63 per cent of digital donors use Facebook and 38 per cent use YouTube. However, digital donors are most likely to engage with charities via Facebook, then Twitter, where 45 and 22 per cent of digital donors (respectively) follow their favourite charities, compared to 10 per cent via YouTube.

Despite high levels of interaction, only 2 per cent of digital donors said that social media was the primary donation channel. However social media was identified as the second greatest trigger for digital donors to give to charity, including through other mediums, with 30 per cent of respondents inspired this way in the past twelve months. The biggest inspiration for a digital donor is the sponsorship of someone, at 60 per cent. Digital donors gave on average to three charities in the last 12 months. 

Confidence online

A potential barrier to giving through social media channels is donors confidence in data security via this medium. The survey shows that digital donors are most likely to give higher amounts through channels they felt were most secure and while they were most confident in data security through charity websites, they were least confident in data security in social media. Some 62 per cent said they were either very nervous or nervous about data security through social media. 

The full report can be found at www.digitaldonorreview.com and some key insights can be seen by clicking the images below.

How digital donors give to charity	How they engage with charities through social media	What prompts digital donors to donate?
Types of charity donated to	Reasons for visiting a charity website	Access the full report

 

 

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