Untapped Potential of Online Fundraising - Confidence Index

Despite Australian Not for Profits using social media to market themselves effectively, there is a huge missed opportunity when it comes to generating donations via online and mobile technology, a community confidence survey has found.

Westpac’s Community Confidence Index says while consumers and would-be-donors are increasingly using mobile and online technology to pay for purchases, it appears NFPs don’t have the support they need to actually implement a mobile compatible payment system.

The survey looked at the use of social media by NFPs and found there was “significant untapped potential” in online and mobile channels as avenues for future funding.

Thirteen per cent of participants said they currently used online donations as a form of funding while only 1 per cent used mobile donations.

Only 10 per cent of organisations would look to online donations as a source of future income and only two per cent would look at mobile donations.

Social media was still an increasingly well-used tool for NFPs when it came to promotion.
The use of social media to promote NFP organisations increased from 36 per cent in 2011 to 50 per cent.

But still only three in 10 said they use social media at every opportunity.

A third of participants would still like to learn more about social media. As well, one in five NFPs are considering partnering for growth in order to share resources and improve operational efficiencies.

The Community Confidence Index also found that a large number of Not for Profit organisations remain in the dark about the Government’s planned reforms in the sector.

Westpac’s Community Confidence report revealed that almost half of the small-to-medium organisations surveyed were not aware of the Federal Government’s plans to reform the social sector.

But of those who were aware, 38 per cent said they believed the reforms would have a positive impact on their organisation.

More than half (54%) of the organisation said they felt indifferent about the impact.

The report also looked at the minor drop in Government funding across all levels ranging from a three per cent drop in local government funding to 12 per cent at a State Government level.

The Westpac Community Confidence Index measures and tracks the mood of Not for Profit (NFP) organisations.

The 2013 Survey was the follow-up survey which was conducted in November 2012 to February 2013.

Seven hundred and eighty nine NFPs in Australia were interviewed between November 2012 and February 2013 via an online survey.

For the full report visit:
http://www.westpac.com.au/business-banking/community-not-for-profit/community-confidence-index/