Charity Marketing Out of Sync - Report

A new report shows that Australian charity marketing spend does not match with the media channels customers nominate as the most effective for the acquisition and retention of donors.

Despite the dramatic increase in digital marketing budgets, Australians overwhelmingly nominated traditional channels as the most effective ways to reach them with catalogues and flyers taking the top ranking.

The new marketing research by Australia Post found that when considering donating to a charity not previously supported, Australians say the three most useful channels are websites, TV advertising and personalised direct mail.

The study called Creating Connections that Matter: Charity Industry Insights was conducted by an independent research company in conjunction with the Association for Data-driven Marketing and Advertising (ADMA) and included nine focus groups. A survey was then used to canvass advertising preferences on a sample of 9,641 Australians nationally.

In terms of being kept informed on how their donation is being spent, Australians find personalised direct mail (65 per cent) and websites (57 per cent) are the two most useful channels, followed by email marketing.

When considering changing support to a different charity, Australians say that websites, personalised direct mail and TV advertising are the most useful channels.

Australia Post says the research reveals which advertising channels key audiences seek out when finding out about donating to a new charity or keeping informed on how donations are being spent.

The survey asked respondents about the role of advertising in the various stages of engagement including service evaluation, decision-making, retention and education, and loyalty communications in 10 industry sectors including the charity sector.

The charity research suggests that those most receptive to advertising tend to be younger in age, women with families, living in metropolitan areas with higher household incomes.

Those least receptive to advertising tend to be male retirees, living in rural areas with lower household incomes.

The report found that in order to encourage people to start donating to a charity, marketers need to demonstrate that each donation is being used wisely and makes a difference.

“Donors are increasingly aware of what charities spend on administration. This means Not for Profits must balance two imperatives: the need to advertise to raise awareness and to raise funds; and the need to keep current donors satisfied that the bulk of the money is going towards the good work of the charity, rather than administrative costs,” the report said.

“The survey shows that the marking spend for charities is out of sync with their customers preferred channel choice,” Chief Executive Officer of ADMA Jodie Sangster said.

“This challenges Australian marketers to think differently about the channels they use and how they allocate their budgets.

“Both online and offline channels are able to compliment each other , making a multi-channel media plan far more effective.”