Nonprofit Fundraising and Cause Engagement by Gender

Different approaches to cause engagement and nonprofit fundraising by gender

Over the past few months I have covered several reports specific to nonprofit fundraising that provide some great understanding of the current climate of professional fundraising. Some of these reports include The 2011 donorCentrics™ Internet and Multichannel Giving Benchmarking Report, The Nonprofit Research Collaborative (and Part 2), the Millennial Donors Report 2011 (and Part 2), the 3rd Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report 2011, the Nonprofit Fundraising Effectiveness Report and The Blackbaud Index on Charitable and Online Giving October 2011.

Over the past two weeks I have been writing about the different findings of a study conducted by Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication with Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. Thus far I have covered the Dynamics of Cause Engagement and the most effective method of cause engagement. Today I am continuing this cause engagement series with a focus on the differences in gender and how it relates to supporting causes.  The study was based on the responses of 2,000 American adults 18 years of age and over and was conducted in late 2010.

Study on Gender Response to Cause Engagement and Nonprofit fundraising

Key findings include that over 80% of female respondents believe that supporting a cause can make a difference, makes them feel good and creates a sense of purpose and meaning in life while only 68% of male respondents agreed.  Instead men believe that supporting a cause is mostly a fad.  45% of Americans support causes actively with women making up the larger part of the group.

Overall engagement for both women and men tends to be stronger through traditional channels like television and newsprint as well as word of mouth through personal relationships with family and friends.  Although social media channels ranked lower on the list as a source of information to learn about a cause, it plays a larger role in women than it does men.

Although both genders tend to agree that donating money and engaging others in the cause personally are ways to support the cause, mostly women tend to donate clothing, personal items and their time.

Both men and women equally rank feeding the hungry and supporting the troops as the cause they most support.  Gender specific health related causes like breast and prostate cancers factor high on the list for each gender respectively.  Supporting the Troops ranks as the number one cause (at 38%) that both women and men believe to be prominent in 2011.  Feeding the Hungry and the Tea Party Movement rank 2^nd and 3^rd for men, while child related causes like Bullying and Childhood Obesity rank 2^nd and 3^rd for women.

Corporate sponsorships and involvement factors are very low overall (under 20%) when it comes to learning about causes and purchasing products or services. However, women do tend to be slightly more engaged when it comes to paying attention to marketing from companies that support a cause.

When it comes to cause engagement through social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, more women than men strongly agree that these channels increases a cause’s visibility, facilitates support more easily and allows them to help spread the message related to the cause.  Almost equally both women and men feel that ‘Liking’ a cause on Facebook doesn’t really mean anything.  Cause fatigue in regards to engagement through email was very prevalent.  The same findings remain true amongst both genders, citing that email engagement tends to be regarded as spam and that often too many emails are being received from the cause.

There are other interesting details in this report and the findings are particularly important for nonprofits as they provide insight into the different approaches to consider when engaging supporters. The more informed the nonprofit fundraising outreach effort, the great chance for success. You can read the full report outlining the gender impact on nonprofit fundraising and cause engagement via this link
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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services and mail house operations and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.