‘Wired Wealthy’ Donors a Missed Opportunity for Nonprofits

The “wired wealthy” donor donates on average $11,000 a year, and more than half say online giving is their preferred channel, but they find nonprofits’ websites to lack inspiration, connection, and opportunity for deeper engagement, according to a recent study, MarketingCharts reports.

Below, some of the findings issued from the study by Convio, Sea Change Strategies and Edge Research.

Eight in ten donors surveyed have made donations online, citing benefits of speed and efficiency, credit card miles, and donation-tracking abilities, according to the study:

• 72 percent said donating online is more efficient and helps charities reduce administrative costs.
• 53 percent cited credit card-based frequent-flyer miles or other reward as a benefit.
• 48 percent said online giving makes it easier to track donations over time.
• 46 percent said five years from now they will be making a greater portion of their charitable gifts online.
• 68 percent said online giving lets charities respond more quickly in the event of an emergency or crisis.

Donors have been online for an average of 12 years, and are online an average of 18 hours a week; they buy products (92 percent), use YouTube (52 percent) and download/listen to music (43 percent do so). Some 17 percent are concerned about security issues.

MarketingCharts has more findings from the study.

About the study: More than 3,000 donors from 23 major nonprofit organizations were surveyed in the fall of 2007; donors represented approximately 1 percent of the participating charities’ email files but accounted for nearly 32 percent of their annual gifts. The “Wired Wealth” are those who donate a minimum of $1,000 dollars annually to a single cause and give an average of $10,896 to various charities each year, with a median gift of $4,500. Giving figures are based on actual giving histories as reported by participating organizations.