Why are religious charities lagging behind in digital fundraising, asks Fundraiser editor Jenny Ramage

“It is a big challenge for faith-based charities to implement digital strategies. But our donors are embracing the digital revolution faster than we are, and if we are not keeping up on Google and elsewhere, we will become invisible” -Hassan Imtiazi, digital media specialist at Islamic Relief UK.

On the whole, faith-based charities are still very strong in ‘offline’ fundraising - shaking the tin, receiving cheques and legacy pledges, etc. It figures: the majority of their supporters are older, they are deeply committed to the cause, they donate large amounts compared with other causes, and of course a lot of faith-based activities are face-to-face and personal by their very nature.

Branislava Milosevic, digital consultant and strategist at Digital Leadership Ltd, thinks many religious organisations have been slow to regard digital as immediately necessary or even all that relevant: “They have been very comfortable with the supporters they have and didn’t feel that digital can add to that.”

But is it enough to keep doing what you’re always done? “The last thing these charities will get from these people are legacies, and then what? What is going to happen with younger generations? Because they are definitely not capturing them”.

Beyond faith

Indeed, the world is changing - and with it, people’s giving behaviours. Increasingly, these charities will find themselves appealing to a very different type of supporter, whose motives for giving will be driven by more than just their faith.

“Younger people who are religious are also interested in the more mainstream stuff too - the same kind of stuff that everyone else is interested in - and are not necessarily going to church to the same extent as their elders”, says Branislava. “So while those charities may still feel they have the same captive face-to-face audiences they’ve always had, they are increasingly out in the open and competing with the Oxfams and Macmillans and Cancer Researches of this world.”

And that, she says, is where they will fall down. “Most religious charities are years behind these guys. They need to wake up to the fact that they do need to start thinking about this new generation of supporters, and that the religious affiliation on its own is not going to be enough to attract these people to the cause.”

Anna Couper, church fundraising manager at Christian Aid, says it’s not just competition from the mainstream charities that faith-based organisations need to worry about. “Many churches want to engage digitally, now. I recently visited a church on the south coast with Just Giving posters all around, for example. These churches will want to work with charities that get it right”.

“It’s very simple”, says Carol Price, development and fundraising manager at Barnabus Manchester. “Other charities that have a digital strategy will be speaking to your potential supporters, and you will lose out.”

Why the urgency?

Of course, this older generation of givers is still around, and will be for some time to come. Certainly it will be a good few years yet before the legacies dry up. So why the great sense of urgency to ‘go digital’?

“Some faith-based organisations have perhaps seen themselves as having an older audience than is typical for the web - however that is a misconception, for which those who have been slow to scale up digital activity will now be suffering”, says Christian Aid’s Colin Kemp, head of individual participation at the charity with responsibility for individual giving.

Digital has given rise to an expectation to be able to interact with charities in different ways - and this applies not just to the younger crowd. Indeed, older people are adopting technology at a much faster rate than younger ones. “Now, many people in their 70's, 80's and even beyond are embracing digital in some ways, because their grandchildren have taught them how to Skype, email etc”, says Carol.

Karen Toftera, digital manager at CAFOD, thinks that even if faith-based charities traditionally have a very strong ‘offline’ supporter base, “they have to get their head around that most people’s lifestyles are not entirely offline anymore. We’ve got 97% penetration of broadband, and pretty much everyone has a mobile device these days”.

The danger is, then, clear and present. So too is the evidence that digital fundraising is already providing an important income stream in some of the more forward-thinking religious organisations. “We have seen that online donations to Muslim charities now contribute anything between 20% and 60% of income, depending upon investment and expertise”, says Hassan Imtiazi, digital media specialist at Islamic Relief UK. “Charities that are not investing in digital marketing and integrating it into their overall marketing strategy will lose a big share of their annual income.”

Leading the way

Change has to be led from the top, of course. “But some top management in charities don’t fully appreciate the value of digital marketing, so they don’t prioritise it strategically”, says Hassan.

Branislava thinks this can be a particularly tricky issue for faith-based charities. “When your management board is made up of people whose appropriateness for the job is often based on their theological background, rather than their business or technical skills, this can hold things back.”

And Karen says that to get things moving in a digital direction, “you need to make sure everyone from the directors to the board of trustees is up to speed with digital - if not in terms of skills, then certainly in terms of interest in and passion for it”.

Where to begin?

While it's true that some religious organisations still consider digital unnecessary to their cause, many others acknowledge the need to have a digital presence, but are finding it hard to implement.

The issues are manifold, and include lack of relevant skills and resources.

“It’s difficult, when you have to start from the very basics, to choose where to go in”, says Karen. If you only have one person working on this, do you choose to go through the social media route, have someone who can develop your website, or work on an email marketing campaign? So there are some very difficult choices for organisations to make, and then depending on how strong they are in their digital leadership, it can be hard to get up to speed in all the different digital areas and make sure they work together.”

Data management presents its own set of problems, as Karen has experienced first-hand. “Because we’ve been so strong offline in the communities and parishes around the country for so long, the challenge is to align the data as well. We’re trying to get the well-known 360 view and make sure our database is up to scratch to take on the brave new digital world.”

There are challenges externally too: “It’s difficult to find experts in this area who understand the faith-based market and its audiences and have expertise in the digital field” says Hassan. “There are mainstream companies that can offer charities strong backing with tools and technology, but that are heavily lacking in understanding of the audience.” He thinks, however, that things will improve "in the next five to ten years, as new digital companies emerge with niche expertise to cater this market".

‘Too worldy’

Carol thinks religious belief itself might play a role in some faith-based charities’ reticence to go digital. “Perhaps some Christian charities don’t feel it's appropriate to embrace digital communications because they see it as too worldly. In the case of social media, it can be misused; people can say what they like without being accountable, it can be used negatively to bully, slander, gossip or defame someone's character. It can also be self-absorbed, or even fake.”

But, she says, “while all of this is true, it can also be used for good. It gives us a chance to speak on behalf of the marginalised, the abused and those who can't speak for themselves. God doesn’t want us to be lukewarm; he expects us to be a voice for him, for transformation, for good. With digital, we have an incredible opportunity at our fingertips to reach into people's hearts, homes and workplaces, and we’re not limited geographically.”

And quite simply: “We need to meet people where they are at, if we want to have an impact.”

Believing in digital

In the second part of this focus next month, we will explore how some of the most forward-thinking faith-based charities are using digital to raise their profile and income. We will also ask what smaller religious organisations can learn from them, and how they themselves can get started with some simple digital fundraising tools.

As CAFOD’s Karen Toftera says: “It’s not a concern, it’s an opportunity. As soon as you get on the bandwagon and make this work, you become a forerunner and a competitor for the other charities.”

Jenny Ramage is editor of The Fundraiser