Opinion: Embracing the season through the joy of giving

They say it’s the most wonderful time of the year, but for many charitable nonprofits it’s also the most critical time of the year.

Charitable fundraising platform Donorbox finds nonprofit organizations raise up to a third of their online revenue in December alone, with a large chunk of those gifts coming in the last week of the month.

This influx of year-end giving during the Giving Season, what fundraisers call the last two months of the year, has become a vital time for charities to appeal to donors’ holiday spirit and/or financial sensibilities – certainly the tax benefits of giving cannot be discounted in these trends.

I’m sure, like me, you’ve received year-end appeal mailings and emails and read many heartwarming posts on social media about the missions of area nonprofits. In a season known for consumerism and amassing things, giving back to something bigger than oneself has a strong attraction, bringing balance and meaning to the holidays.

Thinking broader than the Giving Season, a study from Habitat Communication & Culture in partnership with Community Foundation of the Ozarks Inc. recently researched giving trends and donor attitudes of more than 430 southwest Missouri residents, with segmented data to look at habits of donors ages 40 and younger.

While the full study is yet to be released, I got a preview from Habitat’s Paige Oxendine. It shed light on what will motivate donors to give this month and throughout the year and how nonprofits can build the much-needed trust to secure donations.

Emotional or catchy year-end appeals seem to be working with those under 40 as the study finds 82% of survey participants between 31 and 40 say they have been moved to give “in the moment” after being prompted by a social media post or commercial.

Oxendine says ease of giving is a factor here – noting participants in the focus group talked about the importance of seeing an appeal and having a quick method to give to it. Nearly 50% of survey respondents, she added, reported abandoning giving at least once because it was too hard or cumbersome.

Direct appeals from a trusted nonprofit or colleague, for example, are also key to securing donations, as 71% of survey respondents agree they are more likely to give when asked this way.

Knowing exactly how a gift will be used is also critical, the survey finds, with 87% of respondents saying they are more likely to give to a cause that has made it clear how the gift will be used. This is where Oxendine says there is work to do by nonprofits and with donor education, as she noted many in the focus groups acknowledged the importance of nonprofits’ overhead and paying living wages, but noted they wanted their money to go directly to programming rather than operations .

“If everyone feels that way,” she says, “that’s not going to work. That was why we really started to explore what we learned in that trust section.”

The survey finds the best chance for nonprofits to bridge the gap between giving to overhead and programming is to focus on building trust.

Nearly 90% of respondents said it is important for them to trust nonprofits will effectively use funds before they give. Respondents under age 40 indicated trust can be built through having a strong brand, keeping websites updated and easy to navigate, making annual reports available online, maintaining an active social media presence, publishing success stories regularly and highlighting executives and board leadership.

Building trust is also where nonprofit ambassadors come in. Nearly 80% of survey respondents report that having a friend or family member who works at or volunteers with a nonprofit leads them to trust that organization more.

So, it seems this Giving Season that those of us who care about a nonprofit or a cause have a role to play in year-end giving beyond making a personal donation. Sharing the stories of why we care about an organization and asking others to join us in support play a big role in securing donations and building trust. Truly, there’s no better way to embrace the joy of the season than to give a gift that will make an impact.

Happy holidays, and happy giving.

Springfield Business Journal Executive Editor Christine Temple can be reached at ctemple@sbj.net.