Just text giving – just what the sector ordered?

Just text giving by Vodafone allows charities to create their own SMS code then publicise it to make texting donations for any charity direct from your phone fast and simple. It’s a great idea as it builds on the modern need for everything to happen instantly and it’s ultra-simple which prevents a short attention span getting in the way of good intentions.

However, this first version by Vodafone does have some significant limitations for charities. The two major areas for concern are a) a maximum donation amount of £10 and b) the lack of data the charity gets from each donation, which prevents them from re-contacting the donors in the way they would using other media channels.
For a large proportion of charities their average cash donation is in excess of £10 so using this in isolation could mean they would lose money. It also suggests that this approach isn’t a stand-alone income generator but more of an additional income channel. Furthermore, the issue of ‘bill shock’ may mean that the donation amount has to be limited for now. However, the minimum could conceivably increase as the methods involved in the scheme and awareness of the scheme increase.

The re-contacting issue, however, looks like a trickier problem due to opt in regulations and data protection between operators and the charities themselves. The lack of a method to re-contact donors means people can’t be followed up after their initial donation and limits further potential warm income for the charity.

Having said that it has some very real benefits – Its simplicity allows charities to engage with a younger audience, which is something most are very keen to do more of. It also provides high levels of awareness to smaller charities with simple brand strategies, saves charities the cost of building web material such as dedicated landing pages and microsites and it reduces call centre operator costs that would otherwise be needed at off-peak periods.

So, all in all, I feel that ’Just text giving’ is a large step in the right direction and as long as its simplicity doesn’t erode or prevent charity loyalty I think it will develop into a useful tool that can, and indeed should be, used by all charities.

Bodhi Morrison
Head of Digital

The stars come out for Max

Our TV Manager, Vicky Nunn, was at the recent IoF - here are some of her thoughts:

At the this month’s Institute of Fundraising conference, Max Clifford the PR guru opened up proceedings with a presentation dealing with the use of celebrities in the fundraising areana. With 40 years of experience, he talked a lot of good sense such as making sure the celebrity has a real and genuine connection with the charity. Also, you’re more likely to enlist the support of a celebrity, if you ask for their help on a particular aspect of the charities work.

As someone who has been buying TV airtime over quite a few years this has led me to think why it’s very rare to see commercials feature celebrities. Sure there are a few celebrity voiceovers but not a full blown personal appeal. The last one I can remember is Davina McCall, who featured in the Action for Children commercial.

Why is this?

Maybe charities appreciate Mike Masnick (Techdirt.com) point of view that today's consumer is a totally different animal than the consumer of even five years ago. This means that what was effective and influential five years ago is not necessarily so today, as today's consumer is more likely to be influenced by someone in their social network than a weak celebrity connection.

Today's consumer is informed, time-compressed, and difficult to impress, and they are only influenced by ads that are relevant and provide information. They don't want to have products pushed at them, even from a celebrity. In fact, the data show that relevance and information attributes were key missing ingredients from most celebrity ads. There is no reason why this is not true about fundraising commercials.

Oh and there is always the Tiger Woods/Ryan Giggs scenario to put you off...