4 Ways Digital is Accelerating Real-Time Giving

Jan 9, 2017 10:15 AM ET

Cone Communications Insights

With the holidays firmly behind us, many organizations are breathing a collective sigh of relief, making it through the busiest philanthropic time of the year. Yet, nonprofits shouldn't turn their eyes off of fundraising. In fact, in recent years we've seen a shift in how and when individuals wish to give to causes they care about. The 2014 Cone Communications Digital Activism Study revealed more Americans prefer to give online throughout the year when asked (29%) instead of only during the holidays (12%). Now, digital is making it even easier to give in the moment. Here are four organizations advancing the real-time giving movement:

  • Instagram Stories: Although Instagram Stories debuted in April of 2016, nonprofits are just now beginning to reap the benefits of the change to the platform. It wasn't until recently that the app allowed organizations to connect the dots between storytelling and donations. Now, nonprofits can "create swipe-able pages inside those tales, which can re-direct viewers to outside sites," seamlessly driving donors from Stories to fundraising pages.
  • Apple Pay: This past November, Apple overturned its previous ban of iOS apps from collecting funds for charities or fundraisers via Apple Pay. With the touch of a fingerprint (using TouchID) or click of a button, donors can easily make donations without having to go through the process of entering credit card information.
  • YouTube Donation Cards: User-generated videos are now generating big dollars for nonprofits. Although YouTube previously allowed nonprofits to create "donations cards," or pop-ups sending viewers directly to donation screens, it wasn't until last January that the online video platform made this function available to all users. Now, anyone can embed a donation card to more than 1.8 million nonprofit organizations – and as TechCrunch reports, "home grown" videos are sometimes more likely to drive donations than a highly produced video from a nonprofit.

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