Gift Aid Donation Envelopes remain one of the most effective and easiest methods of raising and collecting funds from patrons. Gift Aid Envelopes are fully customisable and can be branded with logos, images, custom text, and social and website links. However, there’s much more than simply circulating a handful of envelopes to try and raise money for a charitable cause – designing and structuring your envelopes to incorporate both visual and informative elements is the best approach. The eyes are drawn to images before they are drawn to text so your logo may well be the first part of the envelope your potential donor will see. Developing recognition of your logo is a great advantage as donors will be more inclined to support a charity they know and trust. The basic information of gift aid envelopes can include your registered charity number and a standard gift aid declaration form, allowing you to claim back an extra 25p from HMRC for every pound that is donated by a UK taxpayer.
However, this should be considered the first stage of engagement and the launching point for how you redirect donors to discovering other important information about your cause and regularly interact with you online. This can be done simply by including key information about your online channels on your envelopes, such as links for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and website domains. An even easier method of pushing potential donors to your digital platforms is through the inclusion of a QR code on your envelopes, which allows people to scan the printed code with the camera of their phone and pull up information about your organisation instantly. We print thousands of envelopes with QR codes and can provide advice and assistance for including this print on your gift aid envelopes.
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Interesting UK Charity Statistics:
• Online giving increased in 2018 by 17% compared to 2017.
• 31% of offline-only first-time donors are retained for over a year, versus 25% of online-only first-time donors. This demonstrates the value of using an offline/online combination approach to your charitable campaigns and donation requests.
• Female donors are more likely to make a donation because of social media marketing, while male donors are more likely to give because of email messages.
• Most donors prefer cash donations: 55% of donors made a cash donation in past 12 months. Other popular methods of donation include: buying goods (43%), raffle/lottery (40%), direct debit (32%), online (26%), or fundraising event (23%).
• Religious organisations receive the largest share of donations by monetary value: 19%. The average donation to religious causes is £59. The overall average donation was £44.
Read, Watch, Follow:
You don’t have to be a top fundraiser already to be an expert. Reading (and watching) a wide array of content will help you to understand the sector and pick up tips on good practice. Read as much content in as many forms as you can – a blog in the morning and a book on the way to work can go a long way. Knowledge is a process and digital content is the perfect way to obtain mass amounts of information in a streamlined way. Twitter, Youtube and other streams of media provide a fountain of knowledge that can be applied to strategy. Start with watching the Five Minute Fundraiser on YouTube if you need a good starting point for what to focus on.
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Multi-Channel Experience:
Using donation envelopes will allow you help circulate your cause with a tangible effect, and the benefits of this are well documented and time-tested. However, what happens after this? How does the customer know what exactly happens with the money they put inside that envelope? This is why continuing the dialogue with your donors is critical to ensuring future donations from first-time givers by enabling them to follow up and see how their donation has contributed to the cause. A consistent message across all forms of media, pushing regular content through your online platforms and focusing on your key demographics should be the primary focus when developing your campaign.
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Relevant and Personalised Content:
Donors expect content that is relevant to them and will immediately unsubscribe to anything that they deem as unaligned with their personality or general interests. Pay close attention to your supporters and use the data available to you by talking to them directly and building content around their needs. The inclusion of a personal touch has also proven effective at retaining your audience, by incorporating the information provided by the customer (on envelopes or gift aid declaration forms) into future targeting and contacts. For example, people are much more likely to open and read a digital mailing that uses their name in the subject line.
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Trust is Currency:
Over the last few years, people have become much more reluctant to provide sensitive data to organisations, and only tend to give information to brands they trust as they also expect that in return for this data, they will receive a better experience. Ensuring your data protection policy is up to date and robust is demanded from both regulators and consumers and partnering with established brands is a good way to communicate your commitment to transparency and privacy. GiveWell is an independent reviewer of non-profits and aligning your charity with independent bodies like this can assist you in receiving third party endorsement from trusted charity-related institutions.
