All about Giving

I’ve started doing Instagram Lives at 11am GMT on a Friday with the team at Ema Giving. Why? Because we think that it might be good to show the real people behind the smart digital fundraising tech we’ve been developing, we’re approachable and we can demonstrate why we are passionate about raising money for good causes.

That’s the theory. Do stop along and see if our fledgling practice match up to our ideals! Or enjoy our less than polished attempts at overcoming internet and geographical boundaries. We’re a remote team and some of us have never actually met in person!

Anyway, we hope our attempts to grow an audience will benefit the causes we can help in some way or at least show that we’re doing our best to understand the challenges of connecting with people, and making those connections meaningful.

Ema have spent over a decade making bespoke Visual fundraising pages for charities, mainly Hospices at the start and we have data to share when it comes to when people are most generous. I'm a fundraiser and like to recommend great tech to not-for-profits and tell techies what I want from their solutions.

So when are we most kind? Here in the UK, it's midmorning on a Tuesday, as it happens. Or at least that’s the case for when people give the largest average donations online via Ema visual pages. In terms of volume? The most traffic we get is 5pm on a Friday, the rush hour of charitable giving. People have finished the week, begun to anticipate relaxing and get generous. Isn’t that lovely to know?

It’s not just Ema that sees trends in kindness, Starbuck and other food outlets will traditionally tailor their menu options according to various times of the week, with tasty pastries being stocked up more on a Friday and healthier, post weekend yoghurt pots and fruit on a Monday. Apparently, Monday is also the most popular day for online wills being completed. We think that giving, both to others and being kind to ourselves is fascinating.

Massively meaningful too, the biggest single donation we have had via Ema Giving is over £3k which is a lot of kindness and would have been excitedly received by the lucky cause. Upon average, people give between £32 and £34 in single donations, but if you run a similar appeal on an annual basis, we know that people come back and give again.

Interestingly, while the majority of gifts arrive via mobile, we find that a gift given via a desktop or laptop, tends to be larger, more like an average of £49. Almost as though the process of logging on to a more substantial machine makes the transaction more secure, or people have their details stored there more accessibly.

Research has shown that lots of people are willing to make donations to charities, digitally. It also shows that a substantially large number of people forget who they donated to. This could be a commercial payment gateway thing, where shoppers are asked to tip a good cause and they do but don’t really pay attention to the exact name of the charity. Or it could be a more concerning thing for brand recognition. At Ema, by adding additional engagement, where you make a dedication on our pages and then upload a photo of a loved one, we hope those additional steps register more strongly and so people do remember who they are supporting, why and then share so we’re community building. Or that’s the plan. Do let us know the various ways in which you’d like us to help your causes.

And pop along next Friday to our weekly Live.

Similarly, if you'd like tech advice or want me to chat about your digital stuff, you know where I am!