Lifestyle giving can be defined as the act of donating through pre-existing habits or channels. The donor can give back to charity without deviating from their original task, activity, or lifestyle choices. The vast majority of the time, it’s free for donors to donate too, opening up a whole host of benefits and opportunities for charities to grasp on to.
Just one example of a lifestyle giving platform is London-based company,
ChariTable Bookings. It donates £1 to a user’s chosen charity every time a table is booked at a restaurant through the platform. With over 8,500 restaurants around the country to choose from, the donation, of course, doesn’t cost anything for the user – which is beneficial for both the donor and the charity.
The ease of use of platforms like these and the real sentiment of giving back at no extra cost or effort to the user is proving fruitful, sustainable, and rewarding for charities both big and small.
Emma Winter, Corporate New Business Manager at
Rainbow Trust Children's Charity said: “Since embracing the lifestyle giving movement, we've been really pleased with the progress. It is a useful addition to our fundraising portfolio as it manages itself and requires very little resource, is easy for our supporters to use, and raises vital funds to ensure families who have a seriously ill child have precious time together when it matters more than ever.”
With
Giving Tuesday just around the corner, we’re presented with a great opportunity to discuss what additional benefits lifestyle giving can bring to the charity table, and how charities can effectively integrate this concept into their fundraising strategy. Giving Tuesday also serves as a reminder to consumers, and charities for that matter, that there are different, easy, and more accessible ways to give to charity. This is where lifestyle giving comes into play.
While charities up and down the country rely on typical funding sources such as government and individual donations, as well as the vital work of volunteers, lifestyle giving provides another, slightly less typical way of fundraising that, in the past, may not have been as widely known about. It’s proving hugely popular among consumers – in fact, according to online fundraising platform
Savoo, it’s risen by 152% since last year. But how can you, as a charity, harness the power of lifestyle giving and use it to incrementally drive your donations across a longer-term period? And what exactly are the benefits?
Convenient – for you and the donor
As well as being time-efficient, lifestyle giving is also usually completely free for both the charity and the donor. So what does this mean for charities? First of all, every penny of every donation raised through lifestyle giving goes directly to the charity – there are no running costs or admin fees associated with lifestyle giving programmes which would impact the overall donations. With such a lack of resources and the struggle for funding that a lot of charities face, free channels like lifestyle giving provide a welcome retreat for charities spending a huge portion of their somewhat overstretched budget on their fundraising strategy.
Another aspect that holds equal importance for charities is the fact that it’s free, or costs very little, for the consumer too. The donor can give back without actually spending extra money, which, in times of rising living costs and consumers being more frugal with their money, can only be a positive for charities. For those who want to give to charity but simply cannot afford it, lifestyle giving provides a free, easy, and convenient way to do so. And because the money isn’t coming directly from the pockets of the donor, there are no boundaries of who can and can’t ‘help’.
Tapping into a new audience
According to research done by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), over-60s are twice more likely to donate to charity than somebody in their thirties. Now, this may be true for traditional methods of donating to charity, such as direct debits, one off donations, giving to charity shops, and sponsoring somebody.
However, when it comes to lifestyle giving, we can see a notable shift when it comes to donor demographics. According to Savoo, an online fundraising platform whereby users can donate to a charity for free while using their online voucher codes to save money on their shopping, the 25-34 age group makes up the majority of their users. And here we return back to the same question – what does this mean for charities?
With the ‘ageing database’ phenomenon becoming somewhat more of a reality for charities each day, harnessing the power of lifestyle giving and the opportunities it presents couldn’t be more crucial. Not only does it allow you to reach a completely new prospective donor base that’s younger and typically more ‘internet-savvy’, but this in turn allows you to engage with this younger donor base and think about establishing a sense of brand loyalty and a legacy for the future of your charity.
How can you get involved with lifestyle giving?
With the concept of lifestyle giving growing and understanding of the term continuing to increase, there are a variety of ways that charities can get involved with the lifestyle giving movement. Similarly to ChariTable Bookings, start-up business, Sustainably, works with forward-thinking banking company Monzo to round up user’s purchases to the nearest £1. This extra change is then donated to their charity of choice, with the ‘little and often’ approach proving more manageable than typical ‘lump sum’ donations. This service costs next to nothing to the user, and means charities can benefit from every day donations.
Another platform that is completely free for both the charity and the user is online fundraising and voucher code website Savoo. With thousands of voucher codes for over 2,000 leading retailers, it donates a percentage of every purchase made to the user’s chosen charity at no extra cost. As well as receiving donations from the use of these discount codes, charities can also benefit from Savoo’s search function, which donates a penny every time a search is made. It’s an easy, low maintenance way for charities to raise vital funds as well as receiving complementary online exposure.
What’s the future of lifestyle giving?
With such a large rise in the use of lifestyle giving channels such as Savoo over the past year, it comes as no surprise that the concept is set to grow in popularity in 2018. If 2017 is anything to go by, we could see tens of thousands more people giving back to charity at no extra cost and while carrying out their everyday activities.
Ed Fleming, Managing Director at Savoo said: “As long as lifestyle giving platforms continue to invest, improve and offer consumers something that's valuable, we think charities can expect to see a bigger percentage of their overall donations originating from this channel in the future. Savoo – and many other innovative and high-profile technology companies who are entering the space – see huge potential in lifestyle giving and collectively I believe we can make a real difference to the charity sector."