We all know that the world is changing rapidly, and this has seen a flow-on impact on how society thinks about charitable giving. Social media, technological change and our day-to-day cost of living means that Not-for-Profits need to think differently to ensure they remain relevant to this new socially conscious generation and how Not-for-Profits invest their funds to continue to benefit their ongoing mission and values.
According to the 2020 Australian Communities Report, Australian givers are looking for a more personalised experience and to build relationships with organisations that they donate to or partner with. This may mean being practically involved in the organisation (volunteering) or even as simple as understanding the impact that their donation makes.
The 2019 Community Trends Report shows that Australians seek transparency and impact from charitable organisations. The key issue that Australians want transparency over is administration costs with seven in ten Australian givers rating this as an extremely important charity essential. Most believe that charity administration costs should comprise 20% or less of the organisation’s total revenue. For those younger Australian givers, having a website is also seen as an important part of the engagement and communication process when dealing with a charity.
The report also highlighted how much the cost of living is impacting on Australians’ ability to donate to charities. More than half of Australian givers agree that the cost of living and changes to housing prices have significantly or somewhat decreased their ability to give to charities.
Some key takeaways from these reports that NFPs should consider:
• Focus on local causes as Australians prefer to support charitable organisations with a local/national focus
• Consider how your charity can highlight a specific issue that people can directly donate to, rather than just raising awareness generally of an issue
• Ensure you can provide givers with a detailed breakdown of where donations are allocated
• Consider how you currently report on the impact donations are having on your charity’s goals and mission, can you improve or change the way you report?
• Simplify your organisation’s mission and ask “will this help achieve our purpose?”
• Where possible, invest in developing effective leaders and communicate leadership wins of the organisation to donors
.jpg)
