Tag Archives: regular giving

Why are charities using text-to-donate?

I am sure you often wonder when you’re working within your charity or fundraising role, what is the best way to go with your next campaigns? Or why are charities starting to use SMS donations more and more now?

We have put together a few of our main thoughts as to why charities may choose text-giving over other methods, or else to add to their list of donation collection methods.

User-friendly

Our first thought is that text-to-give is incredibly user-friendly. There are no forms, fuss or verification checks required. The donor simply texts their chosen charities “keyword” to the 5 digit shortcodes and a donation is made.

People don’t often like to partake in anything that takes up too much of their time or requires long-haul forms. It is also user-friendly for the charity. Text campaigns can be created and inactivated in a matter of minutes. This helps to reach deadlines that little bit easier.

Quick and Easy

SMS Giving is also quick and easy to do. It takes around 60 seconds or less to send a donation by text. If someone wanted to give a charitable donation without much effort – SMS is the answer.

Most people within the UK today either own or have access to a mobile phone, therefore, it is one of the most effective ways to make a donation. If you are at an event with no change in your pocket, no problem – you probably will most likely have your phone with you so the donation can be made easily through your phone. Donations can be as little as £1 too.

Detailed reporting on progress

Reporting is so important when it comes to SMS fundraising, you need to be able to monitor the progress and measure the success of your campaigns.

Mobile Fundraising and Engagement with InstaGiv has a realm of various reporting functions from your inbound campaign report, consent and opt-in report, Gift Aid collection report and much more.

Our regular giving reporting displays everything from the number of subscriptions per month, number of new sign-ups, gross donations per donation, number of skips and stops, retention percentages and much more. This is essential and is readily available with InstaGiv campaigns.

These are just to name a few; the reasons are endless as to why charities continue to choose SMS giving as part of their fundraising efforts. Other thoughts we had include:

  • It’s cost-effective
  • Has a fast turnaround
  • Works in real time
  • It can be accessed 24/7 among lots of other benefits

We hope you enjoyed this week’s blog if you have any thoughts you would like us to focus on we would be happy to hear them. Reach out to us at help@instagiv.com.

More from instaGiv

Top Tips for your SMS Campaigns

Charities and Social Media

The Growth of SMS 

 

A Look at UK Charitable Giving in 2017

The latest CAF report reveals a lot of info on Charitable Giving

The most recent Charitable Giving report from the Charities Aid Foundation has revealed some interesting information about how people in the UK choose to donate to charities.

They interviewed around 12,000 people to build up a picture of the charity sector in the UK in 2017.

The CAF UK Giving 2018 report reveals the extent of charitable giving and provides information on the most popular methods and frequencies of donations.

The report shows that the total amount given to charity in 2017 was £10.3 billion, an increase from 2016’s figure of £9.7 billion.

Charitable Giving – When and How

The CAF also found that November and December were the months that saw the most donations, continuing a trend from 2016. They believe that this can be attributed to various popular campaigns during these months, including Movember and appeals during the Christmas period.

Donating cash continues to be the most common way of giving money to charity, with around 55% of people using this method in 2017. Yet this is slowly becoming less popular.

The report shows that most donors tend to give “from time to time”, around a quarter donate monthly, while just 4% give weekly. Around 13% of those interviewed said they rarely give to charity and about 5% said that they never donate.

Giving online or via text both saw increases over the year, particularly in April, November and December. These increases tended to be related to popular appeals like Comic Relief and Children in Need.

There remains a consistent number giving less regularly, with 13% saying they give to charity rarely and 5% stating that they never give.

Charitable Giving – Who Gives?

Some of the most interesting information in the report concerned the donations of different age groups. The data shows that 16% of people aged 16-24 have not donated or worked with a charity in the past year, compared to just 8% of people aged 65 and over.

The stats also showed that of the younger group of donors, they were significantly less likely to donate on a regular basis compared to the 65+ group.

The older group tend to give the most money and generally donate by direct debit (42%), membership fees (24%), cheque (17%) or by credit card (8%). The youngest group were more likely to support charities through a fundraising event (31%) and by debit card (15%), while those aged 25-44 are the most likely to give via text (14%).

Charitable Giving via SMS

Looking at the stats, text giving is a great tool for charities. The use of cash is decreasing, while younger groups are more likely to donate via text.

Donating via SMS is a really quick and easy way for supporters to donate. There’s no fuss around bank details, or debit and credit cards, as their donation is simply added to their monthly phone bill.

Better yet, it’s a great way for charities to increase the frequency of regular donations. With a simple text, a supporter can sign up to make regular donations either monthly or weekly.

With instaGiv, charities can easily set up customised text giving campaigns using the fully-equipped self-service platform. This gives you the tools to organise competitions via SMS, send mass outbound SMS messages, organise Gift Aid and much more.

On top of that, you’ll get expert support and guidance on campaigns from the instaGiv team.

New Year, New Ideas at instaGiv

Start the new year right with instaGiv's Text Giving Products

Start 2018 Right with instaGiv’s Text Giving Products

Any regrets of Christmas parties or Christmas overindulgence is fading and people everywhere are starting 2018 with earnest resolutions. It’s a great time to think about how to boost your charity’s donations.

SMS Marketing could be just the thing. It was predicted recently that it will become very big in 2018.

The State of SMS report revealed that 93% of people in the UK now own a mobile phone and if sent a text message, 98% of them will read it by the end of the day.

The report also said that around 50% of companies use SMS Marketing at the moment. This is expected to continue to grow, reaching as high as 92% by the end of 2018.

Why not get ahead of your competition by sorting out your SMS Marketing with instaGiv’s range of Text Giving Products?

Text Giving Products – Single Giving

Single Giving involves texting a code to make a one-off donation. This proved to be one of the most popular products with clients in 2017.

It really comes into its own at big fundraising events. Instead of dealing with loads of forms and cash, you simply ask people to send a single text to short number.

It’s also great for raising funds in response to emergency situations.

Text Giving Products – Regular Giving

Regular Giving is a quick and easy way to sign up donors to donate a specific amount to your cause at regular intervals.

It’s a feature that doesn’t take much time or effort to get ready and can be fully automated once it’s all set up.

Visit our blog on Regular Giving to find out more.

Text Giving Products – Ready for Gift Aid

Our system also makes it easy to manage Gift Aid. This allows charities to receive an extra 25p from the government for every £1 they receive in donations.

Using instaGiv’s platform it only takes 90 seconds for a supporter to donate and sign up for Gift Aid.

Check out our Gift Aid blog for more information.

Text Giving Products – Competitions

Our Competitions feature gives supporters the ability to create and customise contests via SMS. The system can even automatically pick winners for you.

If you have some prizes which you think will peak your supporters’ interest, take a look at our blog on SMS Competitions.

Text Giving Products – Consent

Our Consent Feature helps to ensure that charities have documented consent from their supporters for all of their campaigns.

This is particularly important ahead of the General Data Protection Regulation. The GDPR, which comes into effect in may, will mean that companies need to rethink how they deal with the personal data of EU residents.

Read more about how instaGiv can help with GDPR Compliance in our blog on our Consent Feature.

Find Out More About instaGiv’s Text Giving Products

We are of one the UK’s leading providers of mobile and digital fundraising solution, working with more than 300 UK registered charities.

InstaGiv are passionate about securing as much funds as possible for charities using our mobile and digital tools.

That’s why we have simple and transparent pricing structure that allows charities to scale their fundraising efforts to suit their needs.