maximising gift aid using online tools

© 2009 Fundraising UK Ltd

www.fundraising.co.uk

Maximising Gift Aid using online tools

Presented at ‘Effective and Innovative Gift Aid’5 May 2009

Howard LakeFundraising UK Ltd

[email protected]

01206 579081



New media is a very high-reach, low-cost medium driven

by content. The great advantage for charities is that

they have a great story to tell… New media allows people to participate, so

they're not passive recipients of advertising.

Joe BarrellHead of Communications, Save the Children

Collecting by Clicks, by Trina WallaceSocietyGuardian.co.uk

17 May 2007



Online opportunities

Using your own website/email communications

Using third parties’ services Using social media sites and

services For existing and potential

supporters



Why bother?

Almost a third of UK adults don't know they can give to charities tax effectively and

only one in three could name Gift Aid, unprompted,

according to a new report from CAF.

UK Fundraising24 April 2009

www.fundraising.co.uk/node/178212



1. On your site Do all relevant donation forms feature

Gift Aid declaration? Interactive and downloadable forms?

Plan to update them three times from Jan-April 2010.

Explanation of Gift Aid? For higher rate taxpayers? Links to HMRC advice?

Mention of Postal Orders? Trumpet your Gift Aid income and

conversion rate?



Check again


www.fundraising.co.ukIn your email

communications Feature Gift Aid and need for

declaration in all email signatures Occasional email to supporters

about Gift Aid Feature in email newsletters



Triggers for email

Approach of end of financial year Filling in personal tax forms with

donation option Report back on Gift Aid

successes/totals 2010 Gift Aid reclaim period

reductions



2. Use third party tools


www.fundraising.co.uk3. New media, new

opportunities



Why? Numbers!

More than 200 million active users

More than 100 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day

10 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute

More than 3 billion photos



Supporters have friends…

Ease and speed of sharing ideas, thoughts, requests…

Twitter – retweet Email – forward Facebook – status

updates etc


www.fundraising.co.ukSocial networks deliver

people

Since launch, Facebook has become our second

biggest referrer, after Google. And it's getting ever closer to number

one. Simon Doggett, Justgiving

22 August 2007whitewater.biz/journal/archives/2007/08/catching_up.html


www.fundraising.co.ukSocial networks deliver

people

4.98% of all traffic to Bmycharity has come through Twitter in the

last month

Ben Brabyn, Bmycharity.com27 April 2009

www.facebook.com


www.fundraising.co.ukFirst steps on social

networks See which sites other charities are

using, and how Explore, use it yourself Search for your charity’s name: who

is talking about you? Register an account in your

charity’s name, if only to protect yourself e.g.– twitter.com/britishredcross



www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHBXaOHH_2I

Humour



Flickr.com

Photo: Mmm, Gift Aid…www.flickr.com/photos/justgiving/



Using Flickr.com

Create a photo that shows you what Gift Aid reclaims have let your charity achieve in past year

Encourage supporters to share, forward, embed the picture

Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/bidwiya/



Social networking sites [are] so important for charities… they essentially represent the future of community

fundraising – Web 2.0 enabling Community

Fundraising 2.0.

Bryan Millerwww.fundraising.co.uk/blogs/bryanmiller

21 July 2007

Significance of Facebook



Offers audience and its own tools

The Children’s Trust announce challenge event on Facebook.

16 August 2007



Using blogs

Even the Director, Barbara Stocking

March 2007



Micro-blogging


www.fundraising.co.ukCustomer service

(public/private)

Twitter.com/wateraid06/02/2009



“The story continued to unfold at breathtaking speed - live, in real time - and Mara Triangle were answering questions from Twitter users throughout; providing donors and prospective donors with unique insights into the challenges they face and the incredible work they do”. Rachel Beer, www.thecharityplace.co.uk



What are widgets?

… small applications that can be incorporated into anyone’s

web page… They can help companies sell their wares,

effectively creating shop fronts in millions of new locations.

Rosie Swash and Paul MacInnesThe Guardian

24 March 2007, p.16


www.fundraising.co.ukLet fundraisers promote

you/them



Putting them all together

For a lesson in using social media to... connect people and causes, you couldn’t get a much better

example than Mara Triangle, who have integrated content on

Facebook, Flickr, and Vimeo, and are microblogging updates

regularly using Twitter

Rachel Beerwww.thecharityplace.co.uk

7 June 2008



So, what should you do? Check your website and email

communications promote Gift Aid Use third-party online fundraising

tools Explore using social networking and

tools to promote Gift Aid


www.fundraising.co.ukA practical approach to

success

Oxfam’s Web site is moving from being

‘about Oxfam GB’ to ‘being Oxfam GB’

Andrew HattonOxfam GBJune 2001



Find out more

www.thecharityplace.org beth.typepad.com/beths_blog www.fundraising.co.uk/taxonomy/term/

2493 www.fundraising.co.uk/news/new-media www.fundraising.co.uk/blogs/bryanmiller www.fundraising.co.uk/forums/giftaid



Thank you

Howard LakeFundraising UK [email protected] 579081

www.twitter.com/howardlakewww.twitter.com/ukfundraising

maximising gift aid using online tools

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