As we all work to find a path forward in the COVID-19 pandemic, fundraisers, and marketers alike, are looking for more information and support for contingency and recovery planning. We decided to confirm our thinking about how organizations need to market and fundraise in this time of crisis, by taking a pulse of Canadian and American attitudes towards giving. So in late March/early April 2020, we partnered with The Aber Group, a leading digital media and search engine marketing firm to field consumer research among 1,000 Americans and 1,000 Canadians, aged 35+ to uncover trends among potential and current donors and identify opportunities for charities and not for profits to improve the way they communicate and fundraise during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We wanted to understand people’s sentiments towards giving during the COVID-19 crisis, starting with asking the questions: Have donors attitudes towards donating changed? What causes are people feeling connected to and willing to get involved in? What can charities do to raise awareness and connect with their donors through this crisis? Then we wanted to better understand what the answers really meant for charities.
The wonderful news is that 70% of people want you to keep fundraising! In fact, 11% of men and 6% of women think you should fundraise for larger donations.
Even if you are not directly dealing directly with COVID-19, your donors want you to keep asking – in fact, 71% of people who give think you should continue to ask. For organizations who are nimble and can pivot, the possibilities are great.
When we asked people if they planned to make the same level of donations in 2020 as they did last year, 45% of people in Canada and 46% of people in the US said “Yes!” – and 23% and 26% said “more!”
We asked what types of charities are people most open to hearing from over the next 3 to 6 months in order to gauge how people were feeling about those charities on the front line or at risk for closing. We have specific insights on this and interesting cuts by gender and age.
We also asked specifically about giving monthly and whether people would support monthly for organizations who require stability in giving – and the results are good news! We asked which organizations people were likely to give to because of this crisis and the answers were interesting. Food banks and hospitals were top of the list, but other types of COVID-19 connected organizations were too.
Everyone with a cancelled event is moving virtual, so we asked questions to understand people’s attitudes – of course, not everyone is going to be your target audience, so planning is key.
We also asked about added value activities and communications, and as always, they need to be relevant and offer real value. Content is always queen and now more than ever you have a chance to engage more and support better!
What Did We Learn?
The most important learning is that people want charities to fundraise. To learn more about donor attitudes now, download the full research paper. To talk about applying the learning or to ask questions about the research, do not hesitate to reach out!
Click here now to get the full report
Blakely & The Aber Group, will be repeating this survey over the next few weeks and we look forward to providing additional insights on what people are thinking and actually doing, as we move through the crisis – from urgent emergency fundraising into contingency, recovery and opportunity. We believe that COVID-19 will change donor attitudes permanently, and how we engage and connect with donors throughout this pandemic will drive your ability to survive and thrive. We look forward to sharing the journey with you. If you have suggestions for new questions, please send them to learnmore@abergroup.com.
Blakely is a leading agency in the fundraising & marketing industry.
The Aber Group is Canada's only direct marketing firm that uses digital media exclusively.
