Cubate

Cubate
Limited Mobile Giving Research Paper December 2010

MOBILE GIVING

Exponential expansion of mobile technology is a predominant trait of
modernity but what are the major opportunities for those operating in the
Third Sector?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Coalition Government has focused its attention on the Big Society

The idea of Big Society relies on the basic prerequisite of a healthy, active and
empowered Civil Society. As Stephen Bubb, Chief Executive of ACEVO, has warned a
number of transitions must take place to move the present Government’s concept from
‘romanticism to reality’. One such action is to re-‐evaluate the vehicles that we allow and
encourage people to give through therefore contributing to society. As Phillip Blond,
Director of ResPublica, recently highlighted, “giving is the essential transaction of Civil
Society”. The vehicles we open up for mass giving engagement have become pivotal
catalysts in the activation of the British populous.

This paper will outline the ways in which David Erasmus, CEO of Cubate Limited and a
founding member of the Ambassadors for Philanthropy programme, envisions the Third
Sector utilising the latest advances in technology and communication to modernise
giving for a digital and mobile age. Charities are facing a multitude of challenges from
funding shortfalls due to stagnant recession level donations and cuts in public spending
to a growing apathy amongst younger members of society and the difficulties in engaging
them for the future. It is vital, therefore, for Third Sector leaders to understand and
fully utilise new and innovative sources for fundraising. People need to be empowered
to ‘give as they live’, making instant low friction donations a reality for a notoriously hard
to reach and ‘on the go’ younger demographic.

David Erasmus uses this paper to introduce the concept of Givey. Givey aims to provide a
solution to the problems faced by charities in the modern era of philanthropy and also
engage with a new generation of donors by providing a centralised giving account. Givey
will provide a technical infrastructure to charities so that they can integrate donation via
new media channels such as SMS, Mobile Web, Twitter, Facebook and email.

1
Cubate Limited Mobile Giving Research Paper December 2010

Contents:

Executive Summary............................................................................................... 1

Contents............................................................................................................... 2

The Giving Landscape
Financial austerity and the impact for the Third Sector......................................................... 3

Key Giving Problems
Modern challenges facing charities today.............................................................................. 4

The Givey Solution
Engaging and enabling donation to achieve Big Society objectives....................................... 6

The Vision to Provide Solutions
David Erasmus and his journey into modern philanthropy..................................................... 8
GetGiving: The First Step......................................................................................................... 9

Mobile Living
Growth of mobile and projections for 2012.......................................................................... 10
Generation Y: The Mobile Generation................................................................................... 11
The Third Sector and the Third Screen................................................................................... 13

Concluding Remarks and Recommendations........................................................ 16

2

The Giving Landscape

“We should be in no doubt that the coming years will hurt for many of our beneficiaries
and many of our organisations. Some will go under, many more will contract.”

Stephen Bubb addressing the ACEVO National Conference, on the 11th November 2010 1
Leaders in the Third Sector are very aware that the coming years will contain the biting
effects of arguably the worst ever peace time recession and subsequent cuts to public
spending under the coalition Government. This climate of financial austerity will produce an
enormously challenging environment for charities.
New Philanthropy Capital, in its recent report ‘Preparing for Cuts’, warned that the charity
sector could be facing drops in income of between 3.2 billion and 5.1 billion post the
comprehensive spending review. Nearly one quarter of charities in the UK are currently
funded by the government, and 13% get over half their income from this source. 2
We have little doubt that this sector will show its innate strength, responding and arising to
gain predominance over these challenges. However, in order to do this it will need to attract
greater support from non-‐government funders.

1
http://www.acevo.org.uk/Document.Doc?id=1174
2
Iona Joy, ‘Preparing for cuts’, New Philanthropy Capital Perspectives (October 2010) pp.2
3

Key Giving Problems

Charities battle a myriad of challenges everyday from attracting new donors and interacting with
a younger generation to encouraging Gift Aid donations and preventing social obsolescence by
understanding and integrating new or developing communication channels. Every organisation
within the Third Sector operates under immense pressure and could benefit from new digital

partnerships.

A number of key problems have already been widely identified from within the charity sector:
Engaging the Next Generation of Philanthropists
Many charities rely on an older demographic for the main base of their support. As The Chronicle of
Philanthropy recently noted, fundraisers ought to spend more time on a younger demographic that
are traditionally harder to reach but are less likely to have made decisions about which charities to
support.3 It is these younger donors that will grow to become the next generation of philanthropists.
How best do you introduce a younger generation to philanthropic acts of giving? A good start
would be to answering the following questions:
What is the profile of the modern giver (18-‐35)? What are their expectations and wants? What
tools are they are using?
The future is all about charities evolving to be more donor-‐centric and customising the ways in
which they reach individuals.
Philanthropic giving has to be shown to be relevant and break down barriers by providing fresh
concepts that connect with this audience such as rewards and links to social networking.
Integrating the Mobile Experience
Third Sector leaders need assistance to fully understand the fundraising potential encapsulated in
the mobile world. Many leaders are held back by unanswered questions and lack of knowledge of
how best to harness it.
A recent Kaptivate market survey highlighted that 62% of non profit organisations did not know how
to market via the mobile channel, but that there was also a strong desire to learn how.4

3
http://philanthropy.com/article/Do-Donors-Size-Up-Charities/65749/
4
Ron Vassallo, ’Are we there yet: Non profit adoption of mobile giving’ Kaptivate Research (April 2010) pp.4
4

The conservative nature of the charity sector has been revealed through their treatment of the
online world. This is a time in which 50% (28 million) of people shop online5 but only 2% of the £2.9
billion donated to charity is being given using online donation tools. The Third Sector needs to
understand the technological paradigm shift that has already occurred and respond to a new
engagement behaviour.
When charities have tentatively approached mobile, they have not harnessed this space to its full
potential. Mobile donors frequently have to ‘break the flow’ from native in-‐app experiences to a
browser based environment. Swapping platforms loses the confidence and trust of the individual,
making them much less likely to follow through to complete a donation. Charities need to
streamline continuous donation processes and increase the functionality of the mobile
experience.
Maximising the Potential of Gift Aid
Gift Aid is an essential economic infrastructure, which raises an extra £1 billion each year. However,
monetary loss ensued by unclaimed Gift Aid is estimated by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) as
£750 million per year.6 As The Economist recently highlighted, this lack of uptake at roughly 40% of
the British public, is unacceptable, especially as the Prime Minister has made statements highlighting
his desire to see giving increase.7 It is evident that donors need to be more effectively encouraged
into claiming Gift Aid and the system guiding them simplified.
It is also currently very difficult for Gift Aid to be claimed on Mobile Text Donations. A recent
report produced by ResPublica on ‘Digital Giving’ focused attention on the urgent need to reverse
this.8
Gift Aid is claimed on less than 5% of text donations. If Gift Aid was claimed on just 60% of
donations, it would create a further £1m for charities annually.9

5
http://www.internetretailing.net/2009/03/uk-retail-and-travel-sales-to-reach=54bn=by-2014
6
Charities Aid Foundation, ‘The Public Bond with tax efficient giving in the UK: A survey of the awareness of and attitudes to
tax efficient giving’ Research Paper (April 2009)
7
http://www.economist.com/node/17259045/print
8
Asheem Singh and Samuel Middleton, ‘Digital Giving, Modernising Gift Aid; Taking Civil Society into the Digital Age’ ResPublica
Publications (September 2010)
9
Ibid pp. 8
5

The Givey Solution
Your Giving Account. Giving whenever, wherever, however you want ... tax efficiently.

Givey encapsulates a brand new creative big idea for fundraising, going part of the way to meet
the ever growing expectations of a technology driven mobile generation. It offers charities the
opportunity to meet people inside a paradigm in which they are already established and can
operate comfortably within.
Thus charities will walk out to meet the new mobile user and greet them as a donor.
Givey is an innovative, centralised giving account designed for a confident mobile generation.
Connecting with a new generation
With streamlined functionality, the Givey platform optimises low-‐friction giving through multiple
touch points. Using their Givey account, a user will be able to donate through any modern means of
communication from an SMS text message to a tweet on twitter or even an update of their facebook
status. This reaches out to the younger generation and allows them to engage with charities
through a channel they use everyday meaning they can integrate giving into their lives seamlessly.
Added value from spontaneous giving
Giving is increasingly actioned on impulse as an emotional response to a crisis. Givey will allow more
people to give complete donations in the flow in a matter of minutes. For example, a donor sees an
emotive advert or poster they will be able to respond to that stimulus and give at the point of
impact. In this way the charity is ensuring it utilises its marketing budget to its full potential by
gaining maximum value from the money it has spent on an expensive advertising campaign, as
Givey capitalises on and facilitates the desire to contribute. It enables users to effectively make a
response at the point you evoke an emotion in them.
Givey also eliminates the upper limit imposed by some traditional forms of spontaneous donation
such as SMS texts. Using a PayPal pre-‐ approval system, it allows payments from 50p up to £1000 to
be donated through your mobile handset. As confidence increases, so will donation amounts and
Givey will facilitate this.
Sharing causes through social media
Givey will also allow for effective Social Media integration with Facebook and Twitter to allow for
social sharing of the user’s choice of favourite charities and causes. This is essentially the digital
version of a wrist band, empowering givers to flag up areas they feel passionate about mutually
encouraging friends to take an interest. Knowledge will be spread on a peer-‐to-‐peer basis rather
than being directed from the centre. Social sharing has already proven its value when you consider
that for every 1 person who shares their JustGiving page on Facebook, one person comes back to
JustGiving.
6

Investing for the benefit of the Third Sector
The Givey platform offers charities and organisations the opportunity to integrate new technology
such as mobile web, SMS and social media without having to invest heavily in or adapt their own
technological infrastructure. With access to Givey, the Third Sector would no longer have to risk
obsolescence of their donation strategies and channels or struggle to assimilate new developing
communication tools as they can rely on Givey to invest and respond to any new trends on their
behalf. This is especially valuable to smaller charities who often can’t afford the luxury of large
scale investment in new means of donation.
Rewarding donors in a new dialogue
Givey is specifically designed to meet the needs of the mobile generation and donors. As a result, it
will help charities evolve to be more donor centric and also facilitate rewards for giving, for
example offering vouchers or coupons to loyal donors to redeem with associated brands. This also
reaches out to Generation Y and replicates the current trend for consumer rewards and vouchers
but for the purposes of encouraging social philanthropy and contributing to the community,
whether it be globally or locally.
A user will be able to track their donation history and any rewards by using the dashboard of their
Givey user account. It will record the number and amount of donations that the user makes per
year, which is an extremely helpful function for tax purposes. Here is an example of how this could
look:

Maximising Gift Aid
Each user will complete a one time Gift Aid Declaration on creating their Givey account made to
MissionFish who represent 20,000 charities worldwide. This declaration will be a necessary
prerequisite to setting up your account and mean that all donations made by the user will be Gift-‐
Aided. Givey, thereby displays choice architecture at its best, and will allow charities to benefit from
the maximum possible amount from donors as givers are compelled to include gift aid in their
donation.

Givey will optimise people’s ability to give on the go and as they live maximising the amount of
giver convenience.
By being platform agnostic, Givey efficiently allows giving to enter an instant age whilst
responding to and answering existing key giving problems, facilitating the dawning of a modern
era of philanthropy.

7

The Vision to Provide Solutions

“It is vital to investigate new ways to enable digital giving to be included so that we can bridge the
gap in charities' finances at a time when our services are needed the most."

Steven Bubb, extract from a letter sent to the Prime Minister David Cameron.10

David Erasmus has been in the online marketing space for five years. For two and a half years, David
built Broadplace Advertising Limited, selling the company in December 2007. Following this, David
helped set up and serve as a non-‐executive director for online marketing businesses in South Africa
and Brazil. Since 2009, he has been predominantly concentrating on the development of the mobile
space.

David’s vision is to build bridges between the charity sector and a technologically mobile
generation, helping charities not to lose out but capitalise on mobile developments. The Mobile
Web and M-‐commerce is a brand new topic and charities should be positioned at the forefront of
this, before it takes off with speed in 2011 and 2012. Charities need to be ahead of the game and
reactive to mobile currents, staying engaged and relevant to a younger donor audience. David
wants to help charities receive their maximum number of donations, yet also catalyse transparent
communication between a vitally important ‘on the go’ supporter base and Third Sector
organisations.
The desire to help forward a technologically competent sector is incredibly apt for the demands of
the present climate. This is a time where charities must adopt new levels of innovation,
professionalism, and business competence, in order to survive. Organisations must utilise new
emerging areas of donor activity and gain the attention of a fast moving mobile generation. Third
Sector leaders will need assistance when learning how to approach this effectively.
“David Erasmus’ work is a fantastic development for the future of philanthropy, a cutting edge
opportunity for charities big or small to engage with a growing mobile generation. I have been
impressed with David’s passion and expertise in the area and I have no doubt that David will
continue to innovate and lead the way.”
Dame Stephanie Shirley, the UK Government’s Ambassador for Philanthropy.11

10
http://www.acevo.org.uk/Page.aspx?pid=2214
11
During the past year David has been working alongside Dame Stephanie Shirley and the other Ambassadors for Philanthropy.
He is featured on the website: http://www.ambassadorforphilanthropy.com/d_erasmus.html
8

GetGiving: The First Step
GetGiving was created in 2009, in partnership with PayPal and Ebay for Charity, and sought to
introduce a revolutionary Mobile Application which allowed for low-‐friction micro donations to be
made on an iPhone, moving things on from text donations.
The aim behind this was to connect both large and small charities with a smartphone orientated
generation, and transform the convenience and speed of giving to charity. It was all about opening
people up to the first point of giving, enabling them to seamlessly integrate giving to charity into a
‘time poor’, on the go lifestyle.
However, Apple declined the app, on the basis that they do not allow in app charitable donations
to be made, despite allowing commercial apps to use the same payment system. Apple insist that
users must be forwarded to a website based solution, defeating the point of low friction, on the go
donations, which challenges mobile users’ spontaneous psychology. This is a massive obstacle for
charities to overcome when wishing to move to mobile.
David Erasmus made an official complaint to Apple and called this to the attention of the
Government, writing to the Prime Minister David Cameron. In return he received an agreement
from Rt. Hon. Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society that he would back David’s complaint and write a
letter to Apple.
9

Mobile Living
The Growth of Mobile
In 2010 there were 80.375 million mobile subscribers in the UK, which means a penetrations rate of
130.55%.
The number of smartphone owners in the EU-‐5 (UK, France, “The Mobile payments market
Germany, Spain and Italy) grew 41% between 2009 and 2010, to is expected to quadruple by
60.8 million subscribers, according to a report from comScore.12 2014, reaching $630 Billion in
About 15 million of those users were in the UK, where value.”
ownership leaped 70% between 2009 and 2010, reported the
Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB UK).13 Mobile Commerce Daily
The IAB calculated that mobile access accounted for about a quarter of time spent online by UK web
users in mid-‐2010. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also showed healthy gains in
mobile web usage. Overall, 31% of UK web users ages 16 and older said they went online via mobile
in 2010.14
Mobile Apps and m-‐commerce sites are also becoming more popular with UK consumers than
conventional home shopping catalogues to browse and buy retail products, according to a new study
from leading market research specialist’s eDigitalResearch, and eBusiness consultancy Portaltech.15
Research carried out by Lightspeed showed 48% of mobile owners surveyed had made a purchase
via their mobile phone and that mobile shopping was most popular with 18-‐34 year olds.16
Taptu has highlighted that due to huge growth rates there will be roughly 1.1 million touch friendly
websites available by the end of 2010.17 As touch screen phones become the norm, the Mobile Web
will become increasingly important. However, research has found that Mobile Web users are
typically prepared to make fewer clicks on a website than users accessing from a PC, “websites not
optimised for small screen formats will become a market barrier for their owners -‐ many sights
will need to be reformatted and rebuilt”.18

12
Alister Hill, ‘The State of Mobile: EU5 Mobile Media Landscape and trends’ (June 2010)
http://www.comscoredatamine.com/2010/10/european-smartphone-market-grows-41-in-past-year/
13
http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/markets-by-country/18-uk/154-interactive-tv-and-mobile-devices
14
Bryan Miller (Strategy Research) ‘Digital Fundraising Hot Topic: Smartphone Fundraising’, Slideshow, IOF National
Conference 2010: http://blog.justgiving.com/charities/digital-insight-from-the-iofnc-iof-national-convention/
15
http://uk.prweb.com/releases/2010/08/prweb4385464.htm
16
http://www.lightspeedresearch.com/press-releases/the-mobile-shopping-revolution/
17
Taptu, ‘The State of the Mobile Web’ (April, 2010) To view the report see: http://www.taptu.com/metrics/
18
Gartner Research, ‘Top Predicts for IT Organisations and Users: 2010 and Beyond; a new Balance’ Revised (January 2010):
http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/reports/predicts_2010.jsp
10

David Erasmus’s Projections for 2012

“2012 will be the big year for mobile commerce, a majority of the young population will be using
their mobiles to browse the web. People will be more continuously connected than has ever been
the case with their conventional PC’s. There will also be a lot more social education and confidence
about the security and simplicity of buying via mobile.”

An extract from David Erasmus’s summary of mobile web opportunities, this video can be
accessed via YouTube.19

David is not alone in this estimation. Research bodies, such as Gartner, also predict that mobile
phones will overtake PC’s as the most common web-‐access device worldwide in 2013.20

Increasingly, people and payments will be mobile centred. At Cubate, we do not want the mobile
space to be an exclusive sphere, dominated by successful private sector companies. There are great
advantages attached to being first in this mobile space and capturing “on the go users” before the
market is flooded. The Third Sector should not miss out on such a fantastic opportunity to become
recognisable leaders. To do this it must start looking at the mobile space now.

Generation Y: The Mobile Generation
People born between 1981 and 2000 are often referred to as ‘Millennials’ or ‘Generation Y’,
spanning the age range of 10-‐29. In this instance, we will focus on the young adults, aged between
18-‐29. To many charities, this age group can appear elusive and hard to reach. However, as a recent
study carried out by eMarketer and Pew Research has displayed, this generation have been born
into an age of technology and mobile usage.21
90% of 18-‐29 year olds own a mobile

100% 89% 90%
90% 85% phone, text messaging usage surpasses
82% 80% 79%
80% any other age group and 65% of mobile
71% 72%
70% 67% users access the internet via their phone.
60% 57% Hereby, mobile clearly resents a long-‐
50% term opportunity to engage with this
40% group.
30% Millennial
20% 80% of 18-‐29 yr olds are confident to buy
10% consumer products online, however,
All Users
0%
website functionality matters to this age
Use Watch Social Buy Mobile
Internet Video Media Online
group.

19
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80v5dmok8h4&feature=related
20
21
eMarketer Blog, eMarketer Webinar playback: Tips for reaching and engaging elusive millennials, posted 01/10/10 (accessed
2/12/2010) http://www.emarketer.com/blog/index.php/category/demographics/
11

“The unique factors (high rate of social networking and technology) make them very savvy
consumers...and they require a very different way to interact with brands”.22
A recent survey carried by JustGiving which aimed to find out more about the typical new media and
online donor found that online donations were most popular with those aged between 25-‐34 years
of age, this representing 25% of the total community. However, 68% of JustGiving donors are over
35 years of age. Interestingly, JustGiving pages get 43% of their 18-‐24 yr old traffic via Facebook
and 20% of sponsors on JustGiving shared their page using Facebook Connect. 23
As the graph to the right illustrates, a surprisingly

small percentage of 18-‐24 year olds give online via Donahons by Age
JustGiving. However, this is an age group in which
30% 25%
70% say that they “could not imagine life without a 25% 22% 21%
24
mobile phone.” Combine this with research by the 20% 17%
Charities Aid Foundation that found 58% of 18-‐24 15%
10% 7%
year olds expressed interest in using their mobiles to 5%
give to charity and suggested charities could have 0%
found a new, more effective tool for engaging with 18 -‐ 24 25 -‐ 34 35 -‐ 44 45 -‐ 54 55 -‐ 64
25
this demographic. Young donors and the donors of
the future are accustomed to connecting and
communicating via their mobile phones. Exploiting this trend is critical if charities want to capitalise
on the benefits that internet enabled mobile phones offer. Effectively, we currently have a mobile
shaped giving space and this should be filled.
Source: Jonathan Waddingham, ‘Discover the Secrets on Online Fundraising’, Justgiving (July 2010)
Third Sector leaders ignore this emerging generation’s habits and lifestyle at their peril.

22
eMarketer Blog, eMarketer Webinar playback: Tips for reaching and engaging elusive millennials, posted 01/10/10 (accessed
2/12/2010) http://www.emarketer.com/blog/index.php/category/demographics/
23
http://blog.justgiving.com/charities/research-charities/justgiving-online-donor-demographic-research-in-fundraising-
magazine/
24
Bryan Miller (Strategy Research) ‘Digital Fundraising Hot Topic: Smartphone Fundraising’, Slideshow, IOF National
Conference 2010: http://blog.justgiving.com/charities/digital-insight-from-the-iofnc-iof-national-convention/
25
Asheem Singh and Samuel Middleton, ‘Digital Giving, Modernising Gift Aid; Taking Civil Society into the Digital Age’
ResPublica Publications (September 2010) pp. 44
12

The Third Sector and the Third Screen

The expected surge in donations via new media has already started. When the Indian Ocean
Tsunami disaster struck in 2004, the DEC appeal raised over £1 million via 650,000 text donations
and online giving, this representing 8% of overall giving. By 2009/2010, this percentage of overall
total had risen to 18%.26

Mobile Advantages as Percieved by Charihes contacted by

Kaphvate
90%
82%
80% 74%
70% 64% 69%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

Convenient for Ability to Intergrate Another access point Ability to aoract new
Doners with Social Media for donor Doners
acnvines engagement

Tony Elischer, a senior figure in fundraising from Think Consulting Solutions is confident that mobiles
will take off with speed as a fundraising method in 2011. Speaking to 1,000 fundraisers at the
opening plenary session of the 2010 International Fundraising Congress, Mr Elischer commented
“2011 will be the year of the mobile ...but the majority of charities have not cracked digital yet".27
Washington based Kaptivate Group carried out a Third Sector market survey in April 2010 which
predicted that over the next 12 months, 36% of respondents would have deployed mobile giving.28 It
also concluded that 50% of non-‐profit organisations will adopt mobile donor engagement and
fundraising techniques by 2012.
“Third Sector respondents see a medium that can do more than capture small transactions, they
believe it has the power to engage and mobilise supporters in ways they’ve only begun to
appreciate”.29
Source: Kaptivate Research, ‘Are we there yet?’ April 2010

26
27
http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/news/archive/1036264/2011-will-year-mobile-Tony-Elischer-tells-fundraising-
congress/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH
28
Ron Vassallo, ’Are we there yet: Non profit adoption of mobile giving’ Kaptivate Research (April 2010) pp.4
29
Ibid. pp.8
13

Case Studies – The Rise of Mobile Donations
Sport Relief
For the first ever time Sport Relief 2010 raised £3.4m through allowing £1, £5 and £10 txt
donations. This generated approximately 10.6% of their total income. Caroline Lien, Operations
Director of Sport Relief, commented "Mobile has proven to be an extremely popular channel for us
as it appeals to a wide audience demographic, and enables an instant donation at various price
points”. 30 This is a huge achievement and one which could potentially shake British charities out of
their reluctant attitude towards mobile technology.

The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army has also just introduced a mobile component to its traditional Red Kettle
Christmas campaign for December 2010. “Mobile can certainly help the Salvation Army reach a
different demographic mix than has been the trend in the past” said Matthew Pochily, Director of
Public Relations. As their average supporter gets older, the Salvation Army has realised the need to
find new mediums in which to engage a younger generation and “make it as easy as possible for
anyone to give anytime... right now people are only giving £10 or so via mobile, but that will change
soon”. 31
The American Red Cross

The American Red Cross have been trail blazers in their adaption of mobile technology. In a recent
interview, Joshua Kittner, Senior Marketing Consultant for Digital Engagement, drew attention to his
belief that mobile technology acts as a compelling, relevant and engaging choice for the public,
also noting that campaign costs remain low in comparison to the
value that mobile giving provides.
In 2011, The American Red Cross expects that “the love affair with the
mobile phone” will continue and accelerate as more phones enter the
market.
“We’ll see more charities entering the mobile giving space, more
competition for the public’s attention, and more creativity in
marketing campaigns...Mobile campaigns will become more deeply
integrated with organizations’ digital strategies .“
“We expect to see continued support from the wireless community to evolve charitable giving
guidelines so that consumers are confident that their donations are being put to work as
intended”.32
The Red Cross have also realised that while mobile is a powerful addition to charities media mix; this
could be compounded through integration with social media channels. During the Haiti crisis, they
identified a need to use mobile and social technology to give the public a more involved role in
disaster response.

30
http://www.fundraising.co.uk/news/2010/04/12/sport-relief-raises-%C2%A334m-through-text-donations
31
http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/salvation-army-ramps-up-mobile-giving-leading-into-holidays/
32
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/banking-payments/8239.html
14

Case Study – Mobile, Twitter and Facebook users respond to the Haiti Crisis
During the Haiti crisis in January 2010 appeals in America witnessed overwhelmingly high response
rate fuelled by ‘the power of social media’. In less than 48 hours, the American Red Cross received
more than $35m in donations, including $8m directly from texts. Gloria Huang their spokeswoman
commented "this breaks all records for a mobile giving campaign...people have donated more to
Haiti than the tsunami in Asia...and Twitter has played an extremely significant part".

In the race to fundraise, social network sites gave aid agencies the power to appeal directly to the
public. For example, Haitian musician Wyclef Jean raised $1m through his Yele Haiti foundation,
after appealing for help through Twitter. After tweeting asking for donations through his
foundation his 1.3 million followers answered and passed on his appeal with a message: "Spread the
word". Meanwhile on Facebook, hundreds of thousands of people joined awareness groups, such as
Earthquake Haiti, which offered a link to Oxfam's Haiti relief fund. Mass Mobilisation was well and
truly achieved.33

During the Haiti crisis the Disaster Emergency Committee also encouraged people to text ‘Give’ to
70077. This raised over £161,000 for their Haiti Earthquake Appeal despite being promoted almost
exclusively on Twitter. Brendan Gromley, Chief Executive of the DEC noted “with technology and
particularly social media developing so quickly there are new and extraordinary things we can do
in engaging people to respond to a disaster. This feels like the first truly digital response to a major
overseas emergency and the support we have received from online communities has been
amazing”.34

However, the DEC Haiti Earthquake Appeal was able to reclaim Gift Aid on less than 5% of its text
donations.35
The Charities Aid Foundation, the Institute of Fundraising and nfpSynergy calculated in 2009 that if
the barriers of high charges by network operators, and so-‐called charity sector ‘ignorance’ were
overcome, text donations would be worth £96 million per year by 2014.36 However, the lack of
uptake on Gift Aid is clearly another stumbling block for a mobile giver.

33
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11518820
34
Rachael Beer (Beautiful Word), Jacqui o’Beirne (Dogs Trust) Jonathan Waddingham (Justgiving), ‘The Role of Twitter in
Fundraising’, Slideshow, IOF National Conference 2010: http://blog.justgiving.com/charities/digital-insight-from-the-iofnc-iof-
national-convention/
35
36
Ibid.
15

Concluding Remarks and Recommendations

We have arrived in a period where developments in new media technology, and their
implications for giving, can no longer be fought by the Third Sector. Young individuals are
becoming increasingly mobile and social. The adoption of technology which helps facilitate
meaningful, transformative dialogue and monetary exchange between charities and this
new donor group is a necessity. The ability to attract greater support is not a hypothetical or
future problem but something that deserves immediate action due to this winter of austerity.
The approach to risk taking and exploring new media’s fundraisings potential will be a
critical factor in ensuring the medium term survival of charitable organisations.
Givey offers a new innovative vehicle through which to stay engaged and relevant to a
younger audience, capitalising on and not losing out through evolving mobile technology. It
is a timely and topical solution, which fits with accuracy into the current giving puzzle.

We would also agree with the warnings from fundraising experts such as Richard Fox that charities
should move quickly to establish a presence on the Mobile Web and capitalise on this as a
fundraising tool before the tidal change occurs and the market is flooded. In 2011 and 2012 more
marketers will enter the mobile giving ecosystem, driving up competition and innovation levels.
From everything that the Cubate team have reviewed in this paper these are the Key Points and
recommendations we would like you to take away:
• Online via PC’s only goes so far – but Mobile access and the Mobile Web is growing fast.
Gartner Research predicts that Mobile phones will overtake PC’s as the most common Web
access device worldwide in 2013.37
• Charities need to be relevant. Mobile is shown to be most relevant channel when reaching a
young demographic (18-‐ 34). This is currently a ‘mobile shaped giving space’ and a relatively
untapped income source. While younger donors are less likely to donate large lump sums,
they are happy to give multiple smaller donations. However, by embracing mobile, charities
would not be alienating higher end, older donors as a surprising number of +55 year olds are
also purchasing goods on their mobiles. A recent Lightspeed study found a third of this age
bracket are currently buying more costly purchases such as hotel accommodation on their
mobile devices.38
• Younger donors and professionals (18-‐34) are constantly ‘on the go’. Charities must
encourage giving which is as ‘low friction’ as possible. Consistency of experience, speed and
donor ease is critical to ensure a completed donation follow through. Standards are set high
and charities must invest in new channels, and most importantly mobile, to ensure a donor-‐
friendly and consistent experience. People must also be facilitated to give at the point
compassion is evoked.

37
38
http://www.lightspeedresearch.com/press-‐releases/the-‐mobile-‐shopping-‐revolution/
16

• Charities need to be engaging and informative. The expectations and desire for authenticity
in the younger generation is tangibly evident and giving platforms must evolve to facilitate
further transparency and two way dialogue between the charity and donor.
• Philanthropy must be integrated with Social Media brands like Facebook and Twitter to
maximise giving potential. This will also reach across a wide giving demographic as the
average Facebook user is 38 and average Twitter user is 39 and 71% of the adult population
are on Facebook.39
• The issue of Gift Aid must be addressed with immediacy especially in relation to mobile
donations. The DEC Haiti Earthquake Appeal was able to reclaim Gift Aid on less than 5% of
its text donations.40 This is a needless waste of resources which could have brought real
change at ground level.
Our belief that Givey responds to and answers the above priorities means that we feel confident
to recommend it as a strong candidate in the Mobile and Social Fundraising Solution.
Thank you for reading our paper. For more information about our work, please contact Natalie Lloyd
on 0203 189 0909 or email David Erasmus on era@me.com. The Cubate Team would like to
acknowledge the valuable writing assistance of Anna Caffell for the introduction and conclusion of
the paper.

39
http://www.thinkcs.org/2010/07/what-can-we-learn-about-donors-from-justgiving/
40
17

Cubate - Mobile Giving Paper

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Cubate - Mobile Giving Paper

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Limited Mobile Giving Research Paper December 2010

Engaging the Next Generation of Philanthropists

Integrating the Mobile Experience

Maximising the Potential of Gift Aid

Connecting with a new generation

Added value from spontaneous giving

Sharing causes through social media

Investing for the benefit of the Third Sector

Rewarding donors in a new dialogue

era of philanthropy.

Generation Y: The Mobile Generation

90% of 18-‐29 year olds own a mobile

As the graph to the right illustrates, a surprisingly

Mobile Advantages as Percieved by Charihes contacted by

The American Red Cross

You might also like

Cubate - Mobile Giving Paper

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Cubate - Mobile Giving Paper

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Cubate

Limited Mobile Giving Research Paper December 2010

Engaging the Next Generation of Philanthropists

Integrating the Mobile Experience

Maximising the Potential of Gift Aid

Connecting with a new generation

Added value from spontaneous giving

Sharing causes through social media

Investing for the benefit of the Third Sector

Rewarding donors in a new dialogue

era of philanthropy.

Generation Y: The Mobile Generation

90% of 18-­‐29 year olds own a mobile

As the graph to the right illustrates, a surprisingly

Mobile Advantages as Percieved by Charihes contacted by

The American Red Cross

You might also like

90% of 18-‐29 year olds own a mobile