Only 20% of charities are able to accept online donations
The majority of charities are not prepared for the next boon in fundraising, a UK banking giant has warned.
Independent research by Barclays found that only one in five UK charities is able to accept online donations - even though the numbers of donors giving that way will increase over the next few years.
And as well as potentially missing out on online business, researchers found 38% of charities are also unable to accept donations via text.
Barclay’s head of charities, David McHattie, warned that charities not embracing technology could be set to miss out on securing a whole new generation of donors – something that could potenially cost them millions.
He said: “Those charities without the ability to process donations via text or online state it is because not everyone uses the internet or has access to a computer.
Organisations that fail to embrace online and mobile payments risk limiting their fundraising potential and could restrict future growth.
“While this may be the case for some now, more and more people are growing accustomed to online and this will only increase.
“Enabling donations via text and online can also draw in younger donors who might not have given to charity before.
“Organisations that fail to embrace online and mobile payments risk limiting their fundraising potential and could restrict future growth.”
Of those charities which do accept online donations, 89% currently use third party sites such as Just Giving and Every Click, many of which charge the charity a fee and take a commission.
The Barclays study found some charities were resistant to investing in new technology as they said there are too few donors to justify the expenditure, while one in four said online giving isn’t relevant to their target market.
Admittedly, the majority, around 80%, of donations to charities are still made through more traditional offline payments such as by cash and cheque but that number is expected to reduce.
Indeed, 78% of the charities themselves said they expected the number of online donors to increase over the next three years.
McHattie added: “The rise of online across all business areas, including the charity sector, is very hard to ignore.
“Over the past few years, online charitable campaigns like the ice bucket challenge for ALS, or the no make-up selfie in aid of Cancer Research have seen resounding benefits from online engagement. So it’s surprising to still see that a fifth of UK charities appear resistant, particularly as most are in agreement that online fundraising is the way forward and that their supporters are more likely to donate online.”
