Following on from the absolutely refreshing post last week from Paul de Gregorio from Open Fundraising about mobile - I wanted to add my two pence worth. We've been offering Regular Giving via mobile for just over a year now at Sense via Cymba, so still early days, but I wanted to echo and add a couple of other points from my experience to date. I stress this is just one experience of one charity.
- Yes, Mobile Regular Givers will give more if asked by way of another one off gift - and that response varies quite considerably depending on how they joined your organisation
- Previous Mobile Regular Givers who have 'lapsed' are also quite generous if asked for a one-off gift via their phone - again this varies depending on how they were recruited to your cause in the first place
- Retention rates on mobile recruitment are not a million miles away from what you would expect for direct debit recruitment. So attrition for RG by mobile recruited on the street is much higher than those converted from PSMS via the telephone for example. No surprise really.
- One of the barriers to click through on content is people feeling they are going to see more information that could upset or make them feel guilty - so being clear, and upbeat on what people will see when they click through has helped increase engagement or so it would appear.
- As does not holding the link to content to ransom. When we first started we would send the link to a new update to those that successfully made a payment that month - now we send it anyway, and people can choose to make the payment or not after they have had the chance to view. We are still reviewing the figures but that to me is the better thing to do.
- Regular Gift via your mobile is a great drop ask, there are genuinely people who don't want another direct debit and this does appeal to people who would not have other wise converted. I personally would not advocate a direct to Regular Giving via mobile campaign again for now for Sense - though many charities are having success I am sure. It's just not right for us for now.
This is just a year's worth of experience, and one charity example - so please take from it what you will and however many pinches of salt as well. With anything, the best thing to do is test for yourself obviously - but I thought I would share one experience, albeit a limited one of mobile giving. There's much more to test and much more to learn but so far it is has been a positive experience.
Thanks as ever for stopping by.
There is a great song lyric by Barry White 'You always have my unspoken passion,
although I might not seem to care.' Now in any relationship this is not much use really. It's good to know of course (if people ever tell you that), but in terms of relationship building and understanding - well it's all a bit rubbish to be honest.
When you think about it though, it is probably more common than you think.
Life's events like birth, deaths, marriages they all have a profound
affect on relationships - even the strongest ones. Just from my own experience of late - life changes. It throws you curve balls, it means time is something that doesn't exist in the same way as before and your priorities change.
Therefore, how supporters engage with your cause may not be all that different. After all, they are people with lives and life events change things and as a result they may not be able to engage with you in the same way as previously. But I think the worst assumption that we can make therefore is that they all no longer care.
Looking at it from a basic RFV model, in relation to my own commitment to the causes I support and admire based on recent behaviour I would probably be a lapsed cash giver on a few files. The irony is that I like the causes just as much as before, admire the work and am probably still supporting them through Regular Giving - but believe it or not I just fail to get the donation form in the BRE and into the post. I don't think I am alone.
What that means in a lot of cases is that I stop receiving appeals, or I get letter variants referring to the 'past support' I have shown. When if you looked at the data I may have given to every appeal I was sent three years previously.
Now, this is not an argument for continuing to mail or communicate with 'lapsed' givers in exactly the same way as before, of course some people don't want to support you any more - but I think there is an argument for looking at it from the supporter perspective and acting accordingly.
This is where working to know as much about your supporters, their life stages, their giving patterns and appreciating the changes in life stage will have an impact on their giving could provide us with a valuable opportunity. One that allows us to better tailor what we do, how we communicate, how we ask and how we facilitate that support.
DD uplift for one month only as an alternative way of cash giving was something that worked amazingly well when we trialled it at ActionAid - just a tick box. It's still being used. Use of SMS could be so much more than PSMS or RGPSM - it could be a useful way for people to direct and instruct on their giving. My thinking is as much about breaking down barriers to giving as to understanding what the barriers are in the first place.
It can be tempting to give up on friends if they never get in touch or can't ever make your requests to meet - but in understanding those demands and the pressures acting on your friends ultimately makes for a stronger relationships. Of course the challenge is knowing who is worth the patience but it is worth weighing that up before you decide to stop communicating with whole groups of people entirely.
Thanks as ever for stopping by.
