RCS technology has been available since 2023. Compared to SMS, it offers richer, interactive, and more engaging messaging experiences through the inclusion of high-resolution photos, videos, GIFs, and interactive elements, making it useful for marketing purposes. Unlike SMS however, which uses cellular networks, it requires WiFi or mobile data to work.

RCS technology already offers numerous advantages for nonprofits, such as an enhanced experience in conversations with donors. However, until now it had not been possible to integrate a payment component into the conversational channel to simplify the process for donors making one-off donations or committing to long-term support for charities.

France générosités first raised this issue with Google and mobile operators in 2023, leading Orange to put forward the idea of combining Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) with the RCS channel.

France générosités, and member organisations SPA, French Red Cross, Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale and Sidaction have been working with Orange, SFR, and HighConnexion to develop the system since March 2024.

Successful first trials

The first trials took place in France in July and will continue until the end of 2025. The first campaigns saw nearly 80% of donors’ phones compatible with RCS. They received an enriched message offering more information about the donation and tax reductions, and integrating official visuals, multiple choices regarding donation amounts, and sharing the identity of the message sender – verified and secured by the operators and Google. France générosités is currently working to expand these initial experiments.

France générosités says the innovation offers significant added value for the fundraising sector. It is primarily available to member associations and foundations, offering the option of requesting a one-off donation or a monthly commitment, with confirmation also integrated into the same conversational channel.

Together with HighConnexion and the operators, France générosités is now working on developing the system to make it available to all operators and so it can be offered in pull marketing (at the initiative of donors).

On February 14, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament adopted the proposal for a regulation 2023/0210(COD) on payment services in the European international market. This proposal aims to review the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) in order to improve its functioning. The proposed Regulation lays down rules applicable to payment services providers related to payments.

The European Fundraising Association (EFA) through its members, mobilized European MPs in France and Ireland to urge them to maintain, as in the PSD2, the exemption of payment transactions by a provider of electronic communications to a subscriber to make a charitable donation. Indeed, the deletion of these provisions in the draft regulation, bringing SMS donations within the scope of the regulation, would have consequences for consumers (loss of a simple and secure means of payment), for beneficiary organisations (a considerable loss of resources) and for operator (obligation to create a new entity registered as a payment institution).

Consequently, the proposed regulation adopted by the Committee, provides an exemption for:

• Payment transactions consisting of the non-professional cash collection and delivery within the framework of a nonprofit or charitable activity (article 2, par. 2, point. c)
• Payment transactions by a provider of electronic communications to a subscriber performed from or via an electronic device and charged to the related bill to purchase charitable donations (article 2, par. 2, point. k). It will only apply when the value of payment exceeds 60 euros or the cumulative value of payment transactions for an individual subscriber exceeds 360 euros per month. This constitutes an improvement, compared to DSP II, which threshold were limited to 50 euros per payment and 300 euros per month.

These exemptions ease the burden on nonprofit organisations that collect charitable donations and contributes to the generosity of the public. The donations through SMS represents a growing resource for NGOs due to the number of humanitarian crises that call for urgent donations.

The Committee having given its opinion, the proposal must now be adopted in plenary session by the European Parliament and by the Council.

If you have insight or numbers on SMS giving in your country, please send them to news@efa-net.eu.

Picture by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels

Currently, more than 4,000 donations are made every day through the Vipps/MobilePay mobile app, but identifying the actual donors is currently very difficult for charities.

The company is now working to enable charities to see the mobile numbers of donors, so that they can both thank donors, and gather information about tax incentives. The plan was announced to Fundraising Norway members at its annual meeting in late May.

Fundraising Norway is supporting Vipps/MobilePay to ensure a solution which is compliant with Norway’s opt-out approach to GDPR. The solution should later be rolled out to Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

This is part of a wider collaboration between the fintech and the fundraising body, the ultimate aim of which is to develop new tools and solutions to help nonprofits improve both their profile and their income. An announcement from Fundraising Norway says:

“Our common goal is to strengthen the voluntary and non-profit sector in Norway and make it easier for people to donate to the causes they believe in.”

Fundraising Norway secretary general Siri Nodlands adds:

“This is a unique opportunity to explore new ideas and collaboration possibilities.”

Vipps/MobilePay has more than 11 million users, including 4.3m of Norway’s 5.4m population. The company was created by the merger in November 2022 of Norwegian company Vipps and Danish firm MobilePay.

Picture by Pexels on Pixabay

It has been particularly successful in collecting donations relating to the Covid-19 crisis in 2020 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to a new report from France générosités and af2m, a membership body of the country’s four largest mobile operators.

SMS donation was made possible in France by a legal change in 2016. In 2018, the first year covered by the report, a total of €504,000 was donated through this channel. This grew to €520,000 in 2019, before pandemic-related giving saw the number jump to €3.31m in 2020.

While this income dropped back to €1.29m in 2021, in 2022 it rebounded to just under €4m, from a total of 670,000 individual SMS gifts.

Nearly half (48%) of the SMS donations given in 2022 were made in March, the time when Ukraine was invaded. The second busiest month of the year, with 12% of donations, was November, thanks in large part to a TV appeal in support of environmental nonprofit France Nature Environnement.

The average donation during the year was €5.95, although this figure varied significantly from slightly less than €5 in January, March, May, June and August, to more than €9 in September, October and November.

Pierre Siquier, president of France générosités, says he is “proud” to see the growth of SMS donations in the country, and comments:

“SMS is truly a channel of the future which helps facilitate acts of generosity by the French people, and the figures show that the country is already responding to it.”

Picture by Anna Shvets on Pexels

Payment or ‘digital’ wallets have shot up in popularity across Europe, especially since the onset of the pandemic and the growing preference to avoid cash payments. In fact, according to one report they accounted for just over 7% of point-of-sale payments in 2020. While that may still sound small, year-on-year it was a 63% rise.

With contactless payment limits also increasing across Europe, it’s a phenomenon the charity sector should not ignore. As people increasingly choose to pay using digital wallets and contactless means, donations via these methods will of course increase too. In the UK alone our own research shows that Apple Pay donations increased last year by 60% compared to 2020, while in Sweden a study by Novus showed that 53% of people donating in 2020 did so via Swedish mobile payment method Swish.

Data & security benefits

Offering these as donation options then will become increasingly necessary for nonprofits as adoption continues to grow. But there are further benefits too, specifically in terms of data and security.

By the time a donor is ready to hit submit with an online donation, they may have already been asked to answer multiple questions. Address details for example, can be mandatory to protect against fraud – and charities that try to remove that element of friction often face higher rates of fraud or declined payments. This is particularly the case where fraudsters deliberately use charity websites to test stolen card details.

Payment wallets help to reduce this lengthy ‘paperwork’, reducing the friction involved in giving, whilst still complying with GDPR and remaining secure. Not only can they authenticate and supply the donor’s details on the donor’s behalf but they also act as intermediaries between the donation site and the bank processes, and are able to detect what options the user or the country can support.

PayPal is probably the best-known example of this. Charity sites that integrate with the platform receive their funds through it and generally need not know how it receives them from the donor. PayPal in turn can supply the charity with the donor’s name and address details, removing the need for the charity to ask for this information themselves.

24-hour fundraising

The use of QR codes – accessible to anyone with a smartphone – is also growing throughout Europe, with just over half of internet users in Switzerland and Spain using them in 2021.

Another low-cost addition to the fundraising toolkit, they are an incredibly effective marketing medium to use through many channels; on donor boxes / buckets at events, shop-window posters, door-drops and even tv adverts. And, complete with attribution IDs and potentially pre-filled user data, they once again simplify the journey for the donor, getting them directly to the point of donation without any form filling.

One good example is The Royal British Legion in the UK, who in 2020 implemented their use on posters, collection boxes and direct mail. The QR code linked directly to their platform, and overall the Legion received 20x the number of online donations compared to the previous year.

In summary

Friction when donating is one of the key problems for charities and the use of digital wallets is more than likely to increase as cash use falls. Donation sites that accept them not only remove a lot of that friction, so helping to streamline the giving journey and remove donor fatigue, but will future proof themselves as cashless donation preferences develop. QR codes are also increasingly becoming an integral part of the fundraising toolkit, providing a one step approach to giving that also simplifies the process for donors.

Vicky Reeves, WPNC Digital

About Vicky Reeves

Vicky is managing director of goDonate and WPNC Digital and works with charities to create digital experiences and digital fundraising products. She works across digital from website and mobile applications, voice technology and digital marketing. She also pioneered next generation donation platform goDonate, which handles the online donations for many charities across Europe such as NSPCC, YMCA and The Royal British Legion.

One in five respondents were from Europe according to the report, which is sponsored by the Public Interest Registry and researched by Nonprofit Tech for Good. The 2018 Global NGO Tech Report questioned 1,021 European NGOs in 41 countries with the majority based in the UK (24%), Spain (14%), Portugal (9%), Switzerland (7%), and Germany (6%).

The top five causes represented in this year’s report were: children and youth (13%), community development (10%), education (10%), international development and relief (10%), and health and safety (9%).

Key European findings

– 97% of NGOs in Europe have a website. Of those, 86% are mobile compatible.

– 59% of NGOs in Europe accept online donations on their website. Of those, 74% accept credit card payments. 59% accept PayPal. 57% accept direct debit payments. 5% accept digital wallet payments. 1% accept Bitcoin.

– 35% utilise an online peer-to-peer fundraising service.

– 26% participate in #GivingTuesday.

Text & email

57% of NGOs in Europe regularly send email updates and fundraising appeals to supporters and donors. Of those, 59% use an email marketing service. 16% send email via their CRM. 8% send email using the Bcc field. 9% send email through another method and 8% don’t know.

11% regularly send text messages to supporters and donors. Of those, 50% also utilise a text-to-give service for SMS fundraising.

Social media

94% of NGOs in Europe have a Facebook Page and 30% have a Facebook Group. 80% have a Twitter Profile. 58% have a LinkedIn Page and 18% have a LinkedIn Group. 45% have an Instagram Profile. Other social media used are: 64% YouTube, 23% Google+, 11% Flickr and Vimeo, 10% Pinterest, 2% Tumblr, 1% Reddit, and 1% Weibo.

17% use messaging apps to communicate with supporters and donors. Of those, 65% use WhatsApp. 57% use Facebook Messenger. 3% use Snapchat, Viber, and WeChat. 2% use LINE and Signal.

Data

39% use CRM software to track donations and manage communications with supporters and donors. Of those, 57% use a cloud-based CRM.

40% use encryption technology to protect data and communications. Of those, 31% to protect organization information. 26% to protect donor information. 23% to protect the privacy of email communications. 11% to protect the privacy of mobile communications.

Global results

In comparison, globally, 63% of NGOS regularly send email updates and fundraising appeals to supporters and donors, and 72% accept donations on their website. 33% use an online peer-to-peer fundraising service with 33% of donors worldwide having donated to a peer-to-peer campaign. 47% participate in #GivingTuesday.

With 99% now having a website, 93% are on Facebook, with 41% having used it to report live from an event or to showcase their work. 77% are on Twitter, and 50% are on Instagram, with 71% agreeing that social media is effective for online fundraising. 18% use messaging apps to communicate with supporters and donors with 64% using WhatsApp and 58% Facebook Messenger.

The collection box enables people to donate to charities quickly and safely with a contactless debit card or with their mobile phone.  It was co-developed with Whydonate in ING’s innovation lab ICEC and is being introduced as a pilot in 2017 in the Netherlands.

Contactless payments continue to rise across Europe. According to ING’s Economics Bureau, 52% of consumers don’t usually keep cash in their house. Figures from Visa’s 2016 Digital Payments Study, released last October and surveying 19 European countries, also show that the number of consumers across Europe regularly using a mobile device to make payments had tripled from 18% in 2015 to 54% in 2016, while in In the UK, more than half the people surveyed (58%) had used contactless cards, up from 20% in 2015.

Niels Corver, cofounder of Whydonate said:

“Charity collections are decreasing and finding collectors is also becoming more difficult. With this in mind we have developed the contactless collection box, linking the collection box with the Whydonate platform.  Collectors can immediately see how much they have raised for their charity. This makes collecting easier and above all fun.”

The challenge for charities is to use digital techniques to deliver fundraising activity that will resonate with the donors of today and move them to act.

Essentially, this means fusing the very best creative and strategic thinking with technology that will drive response and engagement. We must tap into existing human behaviours (rather than trying to change them) and think how to maximise the use of existing technologies rather than build new technologies, which is expensive and risky.

With this in mind, how can we mobilise support through digital channels?

Think mobile
Mobile phones! We’ve all got one, we all keep them close and we are increasingly dependent on them for all aspects of our private, professional and social lives. In fact, I’d go so far to say that some of us are obsessed with our phones. In the UK, typically we look at them around 150 times a day. It sounds incredible, but it’s true.

If you don’t look good on a mobile you might as well not exist. Expectations for user experience on a mobile are set at a very high level and if you don’t provide a good experience, your existing or potential supporters may look elsewhere and give to the charity that makes it easier to give.

Focus on community
We seem to be reaching a phase in fundraising where some traditional channels are not as well received by the public as they once were: in the UK and in other places for example we have seen a public reaction against telemarketing and face-to-face fundraising. As we strive to establish other fundraising models, the use of digital techniques to build online community and enable engagement is an approach many charities are set to start testing.

Having the internet in our pocket means we’ve become a content hungry species. Essentially, we need to provide thumb-stopping content that inspires our crowd. And we need to explore how we can use authentic, real, fun, and inspiring content to create and grow a sense of community that will harness the inherent power and connectivity of social media to drive change.

Humans of New York, is a fantastic example of this, featuring photos and stories of 10,000 New Yorkers. The project has attracted a huge following on social media, including more than 17 million Facebook followers. Brandon Stanton, the founder, activated his crowd and was able to raise 1.4 million US dollars in less than 20 days when he met Vidal a young boy from NYC and wanted to help with a project that would show Vidal and others what was possible in life.

This goes to show that truly engaging content can quickly build a community or crowd online, which has huge potential for fundraising.

Integrate messaging apps with traditional social networks
The fact is that the use of messaging apps is now overtaking our use of traditional social networks. Instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are rapidly growing. Charities need to consider the messaging platforms that will drive the highest levels of reach, engagement and interaction, and how best to integrate these messaging platforms with other communications (digital and otherwise).

A fantastic example of this is how MSF uses social platforms in the field to report back on their work. The charity communicates with supporters via WhatsApp and a brilliant Twitter feed focused on the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean that updates directly from the boats that are rescuing people from the sea.

Increasingly, charities are using chat bots to engage with the public and provide a more personalised but deliverable supporter experience. You can see our most recent example for Unicef’s World Children’s Day here.

Understand how social media is changing
The potential for fundraising via social media is changing. The power of Facebook alone is phenomenal, particularly now Facebook Donate is available in 16 European countries. Integrating Facebook Live and Donate means any charity has the ability to ‘go live’ whenever they have something to say – and provide a seamless way to give without users even leaving the platform.

But we can’t raise money without an audience, so a key focus for fundraisers is still the creation of great content and engaged communities online so we have the crowd to crowdfund from.

Make it easy
And we need to make giving fast and easy: once we have moved someone to give, the actual act of giving should be as simple as possible. Enable mobile payments and make it frictionless to make a donation on the small screen or risk losing revenue.

We have seen incredible technologies that make giving easy deployed in the US presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Strategies were focused on getting that first (often low value) donation and connecting the vaulted credit card to an email address or mobile phone number. This meant securing that all-important second donation later in the campaign was as simple for the donor as hitting a button in an email or replying to an SMS message. (Think Amazon one click).

Applying these technologies for ‘one click’ donations and the introduction of Facebook fundraising tools to other markets could be transformational in terms of strategies for mass mobilisation and product development – and the use of email in fundraising.

We need to place equal focus on making giving as easy as possible for donors as we do on developing the creative, content and messaging to use in these tools. If we do, we will surely create a successful and exciting new phase of fundraising innovation.

About Paul de Gregorio
Paul de Gregorio is the director of digital engagement at Open. He has worked with many UK and international charities and membership organisations including Cancer Research UK, ACLU, Humane Society of the United States, Amnesty International, Oxfam, Greenpeace, WarChild, The Labour Party, UNICEF UK, Save the Children and Friends of the Earth – to deliver fundraising and campaigning activity that inspires people to take action. He tweets, blogs & curates an email newsletter focused on the intersection of fundraising, campaigning, politics and technology.

Used by 92 nonprofits in Spain, the two step donor acquisition service enables charities to fundraise for text donations and gives those charities access to the mobile phone numbers of their supporters, enabling them to conduct follow up telephone calls and convert donors to regular givers.

The programme was introduced in 2013, after the Asociación Española de Fundraising (AEFr) and the nation’s nonprofits came together, led by Unicef, to lobby Government and mobile phone companies for better text donation services.  Together, they secured a deal that would see the introduction of two unique donation numbers, which would allow supporters to give quickly and easily to registered charities.

While any charity can apply to access the charge-free donation numbers themselves, it can be a lengthy process. AEFr enables its members to bypass that process.

AEFr’s two-step acquisition model is available to all its member charities, enabling charities to integrate SMS donation numbers into their fundraising programme. On receipt of text donations, charities can then contact their supporters by mobile to convert those supporters to regular givers through a telemarketing programme. Typically, four to nine per cent of donors become regular supporters.

Speaking about the service, Javier Ruiz, President of the Asociación Española de Fundraising, says:

“Over the past three years, the SMS service alone has generated 1.2 million text donations, raised €1.6 million and, even more significantly, generating a databank of supporters which can be converted into regular givers.”

“New technologies, including mobile phone, are rapidly evolving and always offer NGOs new ways to recruit and to engage donors. But we believe that SMS will continue to be a key channel for giving in the years ahead, particularly when integrated effectively with other mass media channels.”

The Spanish Government has now approved a new number that will allow donors to use SMS to make regular gifts and this service will shortly be introduced to AEFr’s existing text giving platform, serviced through technology provider Altiria.

For more information, see Fundraising Europe’s interview with Javier Ruiz.