It goes without saying that fundraising of any type is central to the work of charities and local communities. Just how important is online fundraising for charities and communities? It’s the kind donations of benefactors and members of the public that go a long way in helping charities to continue and make a meaningful impact in their area. Fundraising exists in many colourful and creative ways, from bake sales to auctions, but online fundraising is now an integral part of modern fundraising.
With most people spending a few hours every day online, charities are right to focus a lot of their attention towards advertising campaigns online and engaging with potential donors. Online fundraising can help you to start a conversation with the public and find out what issues are most important to them and where they want to see their donations go. One of the reasons why it’s a great idea to establish a presence through online fundraising is because it’s a constantly expanding platform. Across all sectors, online charitable giving is increasing and we can expect that trend to continue.
Online fundraising gives charities the chance to vastly extend their reach and create campaigns that spread the word and get people talking. Traditionally charities and communities would have to heavily rely on the donations of people in the immediate area and concentrate on building up relationships with the local vicinity. Overheads can be high for print and postage when sending out information to the public. Online fundraising gives charities the chance to get their message out and provide vast amounts of information in a variety of forms, so that the public can make informed choices about their charitable donations. With a few clicks, a donation can be made.
Over the last few years, there have been lots of examples where the power of social media and online fundraising have combined and made a positive impact. Cast your mind back and remember the popular ice bucket challenge, which raised awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and saw the public and celebrities up and down the country dumping a bucket of ice cold water over themselves. The daring task went viral and helped to raise millions of pounds. A fun task created a buzz and there was an instant response from the public.
The instant nature of online fundraising is one of the biggest benefits. In an information age, we are always aware of new and devastating global challenges. New fundraising campaigns can be set up in response to these occurrences and donations can begin to pour in within a few hours of an event. An instant response is possible.
Here at TheGivingMachine, we’ve taken all of these points on board and have created a way for people to take an everyday task like online shopping and turn it into an opportunity to donate. We’ve teamed up with thousands of online retailers, such as House of Fraser and Amazon, so that when you buy anything through a participating store, we’ll convert a percentage of the purchase total into free donations. All someone needs to do is decide on up to 4 charitable causes that mean something to them and donations will benefit charities and their local community, every time they buy.
We’ve found the perfect way of harnessing the power of online shopping and turning it into online fundraising. We can only see charitable contributions growing in the future and with the help of online fundraising, charities and communities can benefit even more from the public’s kindness and continue to make a difference to worthwhile causes.
