1. New methods of supporter stewardship

As it becomes increasingly difficult to reach supporters via email and social media, charities are keen to explore new ways to keep in touch with supporters. Text message marketing has a 98% open rate, compared to 25% for charity emails, so is a great way to reach supporters.

Hope Rescue spent £40 sending text messages to supporters and attracted £432 of regular donations - quite a return on investment! Meanwhile, Pancreatic Cancer UK sent over 62,000 text messages to raise awareness of a TV documentary.

2. The renaissance of the QR code

QR codes have been around for more than 25 years. However, they exploded into the mainstream in 2020 and are now an essential requirement, rather than a 'nice to have'. This is because people have grown accustomed to being able to quickly scan a code, rather than having to type in a website URL.

Because QR codes are so important, we automatically generate a code for every Giving Page created. As we cautiously return to in-person fundraising, charities are finding that QR codes are a great way to collect donations whilst minimising social contact.

3. Text-based competitions

The shift to virtual events led to one unexpected headache for charities. Running a raffle at a physical event is dead easy to organise within rules and regulations. However, once that raffle is virtual it becomes much more challenging.

As a result, we saw a huge rise in charities enquiring about text-based competitions. Last year, we launched Text Raffles to give a simple means for charities to run virtual raffles without having to jump through lots of hoops. Since then, we have had charities like CHUF running a simple raffle to win a holiday to Marbella!

4. A focus on mobile optimisation

Did you know that up to 70% of web traffic is now via mobile devices? In the past, websites have been built for computer users first and mobile users second. However, now, we collectively demand a flawless experience when browsing the internet, it's no longer sufficient for a website to 'work' on mobile, it needs to be built for mobile users.

Many charities have noted this trend when it comes to donation pages. The donation experience on mobile needs to be flawless, otherwise high drop-off rates can be expected as supporters grow frustrated. This is why we have developed our Giving Pages templates with mobile users in mind, and not as an after-thought.

5. The future is hybrid

Hybrid events enable charities to benefit from the relationship-building opportunities that come from physical events, whilst maintaining the inclusivity offered by virtual events.

Which fundraising solution to use has proven to be an important consideration with hybrid events. It's important to find a solution which works for in-person attendees and virtual attendees. For example, we have found that Text Raffles has provided a simple way for charities to run an in-person and virtual raffle.