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Poll Finds Donors Interested in “Keeping-Up” Through Social Media
04/01/2008
WASHINGTON, DC – April 1, 2008. A majority of donors say it is important for non-profit and charitable organizations to use social media to communicate with their supporters (52%). Higher level donors show greater interest in being kept informed through social media than lower level donors. Half of high level donors (51%) say they are interested, compared with 43% of medium and low level donors.
Supporters cite a variety of types of information that they would be most interested in being updated on by an organization’s blog, social networking site or RSS feed. These include news and announcements (39%), success stories (36%), opportunities to volunteer (35%), and views on current events relevant to the organization’s work (30%).
These are some of the results of The Donor Pulse® survey conducted online by Harris Interactive® between December 27, 2007 and January 7, 2008 among 2,275 engaged U.S. adults, those 18 and over, who volunteered, donated or advocated for a nonprofit or charitable organization within the past twelve months. This survey was conducted in part in collaboration with Virilion.
Michele Salomon, Research Director, of Harris Interactive comments: “These findings suggest that newly emerging outreach techniques are important to keep an organization’s supporters listening. This seems more pronounced among the most financially supportive.”
Dan Solomon, CEO of Virilion comments: “For charitable groups, this survey points the way to remain relevant and continue to engage supporters. The Internets’ ability to build communities and deliver in-depth information on demand is driving this reliance.”
Table 1.
INTEREST IN KEEPING UP WITH NONPROFITS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
“These days, more companies and organizations use social media, by which we mean blogs, social networking sites, and RSS feeds, as a way to keep in touch with their customers or supporters. How interested would you be in keeping up with nonprofits or charitable organizations that you care about through social media?”
Base: Engaged U.S. adults
| Total | Donor LevelHigh Spending | Donor Level Med/Low Spending | |
| % | % | % | |
| I already do | 6 | 11 | 6 |
| Somewhat/very interested (net) | 30 | 40 | 30 |
| Very interested | 4 | 6 | 4 |
| Somewhat interested | 26 | 34 | 26 |
| Not at all/somewhat interested (net) | 64 | 49 | 63 |
| Interested | 13 | 10 | 13 |
| Not at all interested | 51 | 38 | 51 |
Table 2.
TYPES OF INFORMATION ENGAGED ADULTS ARE INTERESTED IN BEING UPDATED ON VIA SOCIAL MEDIA
“What types of information would you be most interested in being updated on by a nonprofit or charitable organization’s blog, social networking site, or RSS feed? Please select all that apply.”
Base: Engaged U.S. adults
| Total | Donor LevelHigh Spending | Donor Level Med/Low Spending | |
| % | % | % | |
| News and Announcements | 39 | 46 | 39 |
| Success Stories | 36 | 47 | 37 |
| Opportunties to Volunteer | 35 | 41 | 36 |
| Views on current events and issues relevant to the organization, work written by general org staff | 30 | 39 | 30 |
| Information about policy or legislative issues | 26 | 36 | 26 |
| Information about the financial health of the organization | 25 | 42 | 26 |
| Views on current events and issues relevant to the organization's work written by the organization's CEO or President | 24 | 36 | 24 |
| Donation information/Requests | 22 | 28 | 23 |
| Other | 4 | 6 | 3 |
| I would not be interested in being updated by a blog, social networking site, or RSS feed | 36 | 21 | 36 |
Table 3.
IMPORTANCE OF NONPROFITS USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO COMMUNICATE WITH SUPPORTERS
“How important would you say it is for nonprofit and charitable organizations to use social media to communicate with their supporters?”
Base: Engaged U.S. adults
| Total | Donor LevelHigh Spending | Donor Level Med/Low Spending | |
| % | % | % | |
| Top 2 Box (Net) | 23 | 30 | 23 |
| Extremely Important | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Very Important | 16 | 23 | 16 |
| Important | 29 | 31 | 28 |
| Bottom 2 Box (Net) | 48 | 39 | 49 |
| Somewhat Important | 38 | 31 | 40 |
| Not at all important | 10 | 8 | 9 |
About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a long and rich history in multimodal research that is powered by our science and technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.
About Virilion
Virilion is a full-service interactive agency and, since 1997, has helped its clients build awareness for their issues and ideas, engage and educate people and inspire them to take measurable action. Its work on behalf of corporate and non-profit clients has been recognized for excellence by the Direct Marketing Association, PR News, the Public Affairs Council, and the South-By-Southwest Festival among others. The firm has offices in Austin, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, DC. More information about Virilion can be found at http://www.virilion.com
Methodology
The Donor Pulse® was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive between December 27, 2007 and January 7, 2008 among a nationwide cross section of 2,275 adults (aged 18 and over) who volunteered, donated or advocated for a nonprofit or charitable organization within the past twelve months, also referred to as engaged adults or nonprofit supporters. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the U.S. adult population as needed for age, sex, race and ethnicity, education, region and income, except for results from questions related to online use, which are representative of the respective online populations of US adults. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.
All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.
Press Contact:
Mimi Carter
Virilion 202-521-4430 (direct) , 202-627-9748 (cell)
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