Boosting online giving via hashtags

A raft of charities including Shelter have signed up to an online fundraising tool that aims to boost online giving by allowing charity supporters to donate direct from hashtags.

 

This makes the process of giving via social media much easier for supporters and could lead to a significant increase in revenue for charities. A key focus is to boost donations among young adults.

 

The # initiative launched in 2022 and has been developed by online fundraising platform ThinkDonate. For charities taking part they can activate # campaigns across Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

 

Here we look at how the scheme works and how charities can benefit from hashtags.

 

 

How it works

 

Through the initiative charities can set up and activate campaigns via hashtags through an online dashboard created by ThinkDonate. This gives charities access to QR codes that allow supporters to donate direct through a hashtag. In addition, supporters can cover ThinkDonate’s payment and platform fees through the scheme.

 

Once signed up charities can set up and personalise hashtag campaigns as well as invite corporate partners and influencer supporters to join in.

 

Social accounts are then connected, which triggers the ability for supporters to donate instantly using the hashtags. Payment methods used include Apple Pay and Google Pay and donations are processed securely by Stripe.

 

Charities can then monitor the performance of the hashtag campaign as well as collect donor data via the dashboard.

 

According to Think Donate Founder Johnny Pitt: “The # was once just a marketing symbol. Now it’s a fundraising one.”

 

“We’ve talked a lot to charities over the last 18 months and know that leveraging social media to reach younger audiences is a massive focus for them right now.”

 

Other charities to sign up include arts charity Chickenshed, Mintridge Foundation, StreetVet young people’s support charity The Mix, Crisis, and the Jubilee Sailing Trust.

 

Michael Thelwall, head of fundraising at the Mix, added: “This innovative approach to social media fundraising will become an important part of our fundraising campaigns to help The Mix remain as the UK’s digital lifeline for young people.”

 

 

History of the hashtag

 

This latest innovation shows how far the hashtag has come on social media. In the US, the # symbol is called the pound or number sign. While in Britain and Ireland it is called a hash.

 

Its development as ‘hashtag’ online originates in programmer culture, which tended to use the British version to describe the symbol, according to researcher and journalist Stowe Boyd, who is credited with coining the term.

 

Early on # was used on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to label groups and topics on the network.

 

It was first adopted by users for Twitter in 2007, although was not endorsed by the social media platform at the time. Two years later, after its use grew in popularity across the platform Twitter embraced their use with a search tool for people to find hashtags. By 2010 Twitter introduced its “trending topics” function, which displays the most popular hashtags.

 

Since other social media platforms including Facebook began adding hashtags.

 

Now they are an integral part of social media use to guide people to relevant topics, people and organisations.

 

Charities are not just benefitting from hashtags in terms of donations. They have also proved an effective tool in sparking movements and campaigns in the charity sector.

 

Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) campaign #CharitySoWhite for example started life as a hashtag for charity workers to share their stories of workplace discrimination in the sector. It is now an influential organisation in the charity sector, with more than 17,000 followers on Twitter and a regular voice on EDI issues.

 

#CharitySoWhite’s success has been to create an accessible community on social media in an engaging way. Tailoring hashtags to different platforms is also recommended.

 

 

Different platforms

 

According to JustGiving the best way to engage supporters with hashtags is to use two for each post on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Many more can look like spam, warns the online giving platform. Also, in Twitter’s case they can eat up the slender character limit.

 

In contrast, it is recommended to use around 10 hashtags for promoting a post using Instagram, where there is no character limit and posts with multiple hashtags are more common and accepted by the platform’s younger user base.

 

 

Best fundraising hashtags

 

Tailoring a hashtag to an individual campaign is important to help create a community around it. There is also a raft of successful hashtags to help a charity campaign. Simplicity is key, especially on Twitter with limited characters.

 

Most popular fundraising hashtags on social media

• #fundraiser
• #fundraising
• #charity
• #donate
• #nonprofit
• #community
• #support
• #help
• #giveback
• #love

Source: Best-hashtags.com