Free survival toolkit for digital fundraisers

The Access Group have enabled thousands of Not-For-Profit organisations run more efficiently and raise more money. Whether you’re attracting supporters or members, fundraising, managing visitors, controlling finances or dealing with staff, their integrated not-for-profit software makes it easy to do more.

2020 was the year that the whole world went digital. When COVID-19 struck, people turned to the internet in record numbers to access news, work, entertainment and everything else. Internet activity soared – with users spending a record average of four hours and two minutes online every day.

This has had massive ramifications for the charity sector. Most charities rely on donations to continue to operate. With traditional fundraising avenues no longer viable, charity workers turned to digital –many of them for the first time.

This coincided with an uptick in social media use. Before the first lockdown, the average person spent almost two and a half hours a day across their chosen platforms. During this initial lockdown, 54% of younger users reported spending more time on social media.

They aren’t alone. People of all ages began moving their social lives online. In fact, 27% of baby boomers (people aged 56–74 years old) report spending more time on social media because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The charity sector has been quick to respond to these changes and embrace the world of digital fundraising. Charities were able to ride the social media wave and cash in on changing donor habits. 2020 saw the number of donors making cash donations (traditionally the public’s favourite way to give) drop from 34% to 13%. This is not to say that giving stopped. In fact, online and app-based giving almost doubled in the same period of time.

We are now at a point in time where most charities have had their new digital fundraising systems and procedures in place for some time. This is an opportunity to evaluate: to assess what is working well and what could be done better.

If 2020 showed us anything, it is that digital fundraising is here to stay. It doesn’t matter if you’re a specialist digital fundraiser, or a fundraiser that has found themselves unexpectedly specialising in digital, we all need the right tools to improve our work.