AFP CEO's Take on Convio's 2010 Holiday Giving Survey Findings

By Joe Boland

"What this research shows us — and I have two daughters who fall into these categories, if they're any indicator this research must be true — young people are very emotional in their giving," she adds. "We could certainly see that in the Haiti [earthquake] response and some of the recent major global disasters that we've had — the text-to-give phenomena that occurred during Haiti. Young people are very emotional. I know this is the one time of year my two daughters do give, whether making gifts themselves or giving contributions to organizations in names of their friends."

Holiday giving is multichannel
Seventy-two percent of donors will give via multiple channels — direct mail, online, at events, store checkout, etc. — this holiday season, according to the survey.

"The one thing's that certainly changed in my almost 14 years now as head of AFP and some 30 years in fundraising is the many types of technologies that are available to make it more convenient and easy for donors, and that's for donors of every age and every generation," Maehara says. "The use of multiple channels of communicating with donors is extremely important and popular among donors because it's easy and it's convenient. And donors, especially younger donors, like to be able to say on their Facebook pages or through Twitter that, 'I've contributed to XYZ organization in your name,' or, 'This is what I've done; why don't you do the same kind of thing?'

"Using every available opportunity at your fingertips and combining those opportunities with very strategic targeted communications to the donor is extremely important, and technology has really allowed us to do that much more efficiently and much more effectively," she adds.

Put a face to your appeal
According to the survey, donors said that appeals that put a face to the donation (either human or animal) and remind donors to help those who are less fortunate at this time of year are the most persuasive.