Thanks so much to everyone who joined our recent Digital Fundraising Virtual Chat, the first of a series of free, Zoom based sessions we’ll be running on a regular basis. Missed the session? Or joined us and keen to recap? There were some common themes discussed which we’ve summarised here.

#GivingTuesday - the annual day of global giving - was discussed and the general consensus was that charities in attendance at the session weren’t planning something specifically for this year’s Giving Tuesday, on 29 November, although for some it would be featured in other fundraising plans that fall on or around this date. Such as existing Christmas fundraising campaigns and messaging, or those taking part in The Big Give Christmas Challenge - the UK’s matched funding campaign - running from 29 November to 6 December. It’s too late to sign up to join as a charity in this year’s Challenge, but if you’re interested in joining for 2023 you can register your interest on their system to be notified when entries open to start their application process for next year.

Talking of Christmas, there was a mix of charities joining us who’d been planning their Christmas fundraising plans for months, and some that haven’t got plans in place - both absolutely understandable stages to be at! If you’ve not yet had chance to think about Christmas fundraising plan but have capacity to set aside some festive planning time it’s not too late to get your Christmas fundraising messaging and ask ready. It doesn’t need to have reindeer bells and whistles and a huge budget, a simple fundraising idea to suggest to supporters or a clear and strong call to donate can elevate your festive income. To get you started Donor Box have some Christmassy fundraising inspiration for charities.

Changes in Instagram were touched on, with reels becoming more and more prominent on that platform, and charities testing out adding donation asks on Instagram alongside story telling content. Story telling on digital channels like this is an area that attendees were keen to find out more about and chat about further, so look out for a future virtual session expanding on this!

We also chatted through ongoing updates and changes to Facebook and Instagram advertising - administered through Meta - including queries on best settings to use and how to maximise impact in line with Meta algorithms. There wasn’t one magical solution to this one, as what can work best one month can change the next, but Meta has a large online resource centre including information about ad creation and management that can help guide you and your charity in setting up and running your ads.

On the subject of Meta and advertising on the platform, attendees touched on the boycott of advertising on Facebook which took place a couple of years ago to take a stand against hate speech on social media, which Charity Digital reported on. Attendees also discussed a recent thread on Twitter about lotteries run for / by charity and the ethics of this method of income generation in view of the negative impact of gambling.

We touched on analytics including Meta Pixels - code that allows you to do some tracking around who is interacting with your Meta ads and going to your website - and also Google’s planned move from Google Analytics to GA4 in 2023, which collects event-based data from both websites and apps. More information is to come from Google about GA4 and for now attendees were keen to chat more about Meta Pixels and learn how this can be used effectively, and so we’re looking to host a future virtual ‘lunch and learn’ type session on this.

Issues around the accessibility of PDFs on charity websites - or rather their inaccessibility - was discussed, including issues PDFs cause for screen readers. For those attending Think Consulting Solutions’ digital forum earlier this month they heard from Chloe Tear who made some great alternative suggestions to PDFs including lockable Word documents, online forms and webpages.

Charities were having mixed success using QR codes, with these typically used alongside offline methods and other digital methods too. Some used QR codes with calls to action to donate or fundraising, whilst others were using to engage audiences in story telling about the cause. An attendee made the really useful point that some free QR codes can be time limited, so that’s one to watch out to ensure you’re not using codes that are no longer active!

One charity shared they’d used digital only fundraising options at an in person event and in hindsight they would also use offline options such as taking cash donations, which we’d really recommend to give people choice to support in the way that best suits them. Digital poverty was also touched on as part of the QR code discussion; Digital Poverty Alliance define this as “The inability to interact with the online world fully, when where and how an individual needs to” and this is a very important consideration for all charities and causes to consider, not only when making fundraising plans, but in their wider work to ensure a fair access for all, especially as the cost of living crisis deepens.

The cost of living crisis is one that many charities are concerned about, primarily due to the detrimental impact this crisis will have on beneficiaries, and also for the impact this will have on charities, with increasing costs for organisations and many supporters needing to be cautious with spending meaning fundraising and donations could be impacted. Attendees came back to storytelling and authenticity of the cause to stay engaged with our audiences, and fundamentally making sure we’re here to support our beneficiaries through this crisis.

We touched on stewardship and welcome journeys and how important these are to valuing your charity’s supporters and donors and providing them with the best possible supporter experience. There was lots of interest in discussing this area further so look out for a future virtual session delving in to this topic!

We discussed watching out for jargon, such as anacronyms, in your charity communications. Emily, Co-Founder here at Flourish, shared that she has a jargon buster guide to make sure we all keep our communications simple, clear and jargon free! We’ll be sharing this guide soon with attendees of the session and keeping this updated as a live document.

We also chatted through how valuable it can be to have someone outside of your charity, be it a professional peer, or a family member or friend, to look at the donation page(s) of your website to provide some feedback on how easy it is to navigate the process of donating and to quickly and simply understand the impact their donation would have on the charity and it’s beneficiaries. Here at Flourish we’ll soon be offering free 30 minute virtual chats, and if you’d be interested in a free basic review of your donation page(s) you can get in touch with us at hello@flourishconsulting.org.uk to discuss this with us further.

On the topic of communications, Ethical Storytelling was highlighted by an attendee; a community of non-profit practitioners & storytellers learning how to integrate a new standard of storytelling, which you can find out more about here.

A member of the Making a Difference Locally team joined our session and shared a funding opportunity, although be quick! It closes Wednesday 19 October at noon. If you are fundraising for a cause helping people in crisis, especially during the cost of living crisis, Making a Difference Locally have £150k funding available, with £3k available per cause via Nisa retailers. You can find your nearest Nisa store here or the MADL team are happy to help connect you to retailers. You can email makingadifference@nisaretail.com with information including your charity’s primary postcode, what your cause does and how the £3k would be used.

Thanks again to everyone who joined October’s session, we’ll be sharing upcoming dates of future sessions soon and like this month’s session, you’re more than welcome with cameras and microphones on or off, whichever you’d prefer. In the meantime, come and join the Third Sector Digital Support group, a welcoming, supportive Facebook group for those within charities and the third sector to share and learn all things digital with your peers.