Impact of Covid-19 on charities and donations
This article talks about the impact Covid-19 has had on fundraisings and donations and the switch that was made towards digital solutions.
The emergence of Covid-19 has resulted in consequences in all areas of life, one of them being charitable donations. What happened to all those Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) and associations during and after the pandemic? The spread of Coronavirus led to the cancellation of many fundraising events, face-to-face collections became impossible. Many had to re-invent themselves and change their way of operating through digital solutions.
- Impact of Covid-19 on charities
- Digital solutions
Impact of Covid-19 on charities
The pandemic has led to more people needing help from NGOs, a significant growth that has been reported from NGOs, which has also been reflected in the cost of their activities.
The activity of the organisations, as well as the beneficiaries they serve, shows a wide variety, with a significant social contribution in the attention to different focuses and areas. The priority areas are health care, social insertion and disability in three basic groups, youth and groups, youth and children, people at risk of exclusion and people with disabilities.
The NGOs most affected by the pandemic are those considered small or medium-sized NGOs, and to a lesser extent, large NGOs. The way that these results have shown is in a decline of several resources and in difficulties implementing the projects and activities envisaged by NGOs; the lack of resources and the difficulty in organising fundraising events due to the need of social distancing and the new needs linked to the health crisis have significantly reduced an NGOs way of acquiring funds. These new osbtacles led to the suspension or stopping of projects.
Public resources have been, by far, the most impacted by the emergence of the pandemic. Covid-19 has led to the rise of societal issues that has overshadowed other important causes, the attention of the world has been directed towards the pandemic, leading to a decrease in donations to small and medium-sized NGOs. This swift in priorities led to the cancellation of many events planned for the fundraising of other causes. In turn, this impact has led to long-term changes, and it became unclear about the future of many NGOs as NGOs may not be able to meet the commitments made on projects already financed. There has also been a drop in institutional resources.
Overall, although most structure were less affected than others following the emergence of Covid-19, those that were affected have met a significant drop in fundings and thus in long-term projections.
It is uncertain that projects and NGOs will be able to easily and quickly recover from the pandemic, meaning that their commitment to their donors is compromised. Notably, the crisis is not over and will continue to disrupt organisations, that is why it is important to find alternatives to fundraising that go in hand with the current state of the world and public affairs.
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Digital solutions
Online fundraising allows a variety of actors to make themselves known to individuals as well as to large donors and corporate sponsors. Online fundraising allows the emergence of less visible projects, it is an opportunity to publicise an action to civil society, to make the organisation known and to develop communication network around the project. Covid-19 has certainly impacted NGOs and their ability to acquire funding, however, social media becoming more and more prominent by the minute, these organisations are able to reach bigger groups through sensibilisation and marketing techniques.
There are many digital fundraising tools and each has its own specific advantages.
Social media networks allow organisations to mobilise crowds and create waves of engagement, however, those waves are only for a short period of time, that is why the organisation must be persistant in its advertising and exercise continuous communications.
There are existing platforms that allow the funding of certain projects, such as crowdfunding platforms. These platforms are very accessible and allow for a relationship between donors and organisations to be created. However, it does not allow organisations to create a data base as the data of contributos is kept by the platform, and therefore the created community is not in the hands of the organisation.
Crowdfunding platforms are an excellent way to finance projects, and have become more and more popular, they allow for individuals and companies to fund projects. It allows organisations to have their cause known by a large audience. By using the potential of social networks and digital channels, the project leader has the ability to transfrom donors into a significant part of the organisation itself.
With the pandemic, NGOs had to reinvent themselves, especially those that were most affected by the health crisis. The digitalization of the world has developed new tools and ways of acquiring fundings, however, NGOs exposition to the world is challenged by competition and the lack of local communities.
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