What makes someone donate online, and who are those people, anyway?

Those are two of the questions the non-profit fundraising group Convio set out to answer in a report it released two weeks ago. In 2007, Convio, along with a couple of research partners, surveyed and interviewed 23 major North American non-profits along with 3,443 online donors they called the Wired Wealthy. The report is an analysis of that data.

The wired wealthy? According to Convio they’re folks who say they give over $10,000 each year to causes. More than half have a household income of $100,000 a year or better. They’re the one per cent of your donors who give you nearly a third of your donations.

They’re baby boomers who have been using the Internet for the past twelve years. On average they’re cruising the Web 18 hours a week and use it for banking, buying and giving. They don’t seem to be that worried about identity theft, misuse of email or a lack of security online – or at least, the convenience of online giving outweighs those misgivings. All good stuff to know. But here’s the really important part: they don’t think much of Web 2.0 and social media.

As I mentioned in an earlier column, social media, while important to explore, understand and get a toehold in, is not, by any means, a mass medium and is certainly not the purview of most folks over 30.

According to Convio’s report, while some wired wealthy have dabbled in Web 2.0 applications and sites, they’re not early adopters. And they are all but absent from Facebook and MySpace (the latter demonstrating they have both money and taste).

The possible exception to social media avoidance, according to the report? Online video. About half of the surveyed wired wealthy had watched video online, often on You Tube. Watched, but rarely contributed.

According to Convio, the wired wealthy aren’t asking for much from cause-based websites. They want easy-to-use e-giving forms and interactions. They want access to financials. And, for the most part they’re pretty happy with those aspects of the sites. What they don’t get enough of is inspiration, emotional attachment and opportunities for deeper engagement with the organization.

This is especially true of one cluster of the wired wealthy Convio calls “Relationship Seekers.” They also were the ones most interested in video.

The other two clusters, “All Business” and “Casual Connectors,” had more meat and potatoes expectations. All Business folks make up about 30 per cent of the wired wealthy and just hit cause-related sites to donate. They don’t want an emotional connection, don’t spend a lot of time online and are generally the oldest in the wired wealthy group.

They like email and real mail best of all. Casual Connectors are the largest cluster and are in-between the other clusters in their expectations.

The wired wealthy are also under-whelmed by the emails causes send. Most don’t think they inform or are clarion calls to action. In fact only eight per cent of respondents “strongly agree” with the statement: “Emails I receive from charities are generally well-written and inspiring.” Convio calls the failure of cause-based communication (on websites and in email) an “inspiration gap.”

The report is well worth reading all the way through. I found it both heartening and depressing. The insight that the wired wealthy aren’t into social media didn’t come as a surprise, but I was heartened to hear that online video may be the exception. I think short videos, used as a two-way, conversational medium can compel action, donation and engagement. Even if, as Convio suggests, the wired wealthy won’t themselves engage in the conversation, they will see that a vibrant community is growing up around a cause.

On the other hand, I found it depressing that so few causes bother to tell their stories well online or in emails. Many charities and non-profits have dramatic, human-centric tales of courage, obstacles, adventures and victories. Many have powerful images, voices and narratives that could open hearts and purse strings. Why aren’t those stories getting out? Why is there thirst when our aquifers are full?

Too often, I think, we forget that we are in the midst of remarkable stories. Or, in the case of some health-related non-profits, we are too patronizing and protective to ask our clients to share those stories.

Maybe, sometimes, we forget what a great story is. It’s a journey where there is true risk, real obstacles, change and learning. It is not didactic, maudlin or bathetic. It is told with the simple magic of common words. It doesn’t club, it caresses. It shows, but never tells. It lets the listener make it a part of themselves.

Sometimes we think that data can change minds. That’s rarely true. Visuals do, well-told tales do, music does. Numbers don’t convince, they only support. Clear headed arguments don’t always hold sway and you never change someone deeply by simply telling them they’re wrong.

What the Convio report tells us is that our major donors are waiting, like small children around a campfire, for the great stories to begin. If we can learn to use the electronic glow of the Web to tell those stories, the wired wealthy will be captivated and we will all benefit from the tales we share.

wayne

Wayne MacPhail

Wayne MacPhail has been a print and online journalist for 25 years. He was the managing editor of Hamilton Magazine and was a reporter and editor at The Hamilton Spectator until he founded Southam InfoLab,...