The Discussion
I have set up this page to allow you to share your thoughts on these questions related to building trust over the Internet. These questions were originally intended to provide a starting point for the follow-up interviews to my on-line survey for fundraising charities.
The questions are:
- What is your view on trust and its importance for fundraising charities to attract donations?
- How do you think can a charity build trust over the Internet without direct face-to-face contact?
- How do you make people aware of your website and how does this help you to build trust?
- Is there anything about your website you would change?
You can answer these questions directly in the comments box below without the need to make any reference to you or your organisation (you can use anonymous in the name), or you can drop me an email at daniel.guth@student.anglia.ac.uk.
Many thanks for your input!
Hi Daniel, well done for setting this up. There is a new piece of research (Mar 08) out by nfpSynergy that shows trust in charities is at an all time low. Only 2 in 5 adults say they trust charities. It’s true that consumers generally are tired of marketing tactics and disenchanted with brands, but all the same this is worrying. Charities typically ride on the greater goodwill of the public where they are concerned. I think the web can help address this however, in basic ways like a strong experience interacting with their websites and in subtle but powerful ways by creating better connections between charities and their supporters using real stories, voices and social networks. Here is a link to the item/article – http://www.nfpsynergy.net/pressandmedia/presscoverage/2012/?PHPSESSID=5c45459e79bfdf4a3ed119035b6afd43
Sarah
April 2, 2008
Thanks for letting me know. I’ll have to carefully think about it. But here’s a quick reply and my opinion on it.
I personally believe that the web can help creating these connections you mention but more with already existing supporters, Where it might struggle is showing real stories to attract new supporters. Using social networks is one possibility, show that your organisation is more than just the name, show the impact it has, having videos readily available as well as blogs with comments turned on seems to be helping with all of that.
Daniel
April 2, 2008