The season of good will and giving is just around the corner – and many charities will be reaching out to donors with their key appeals and campaigns. We know Christmas is one of the most important and valuable times of the year for charities, yet we think it is going to become increasingly difficult to engage donors during this time. We are entering the period with severely dented levels of trust, following many negative media stories, and are going to have to compete with the evermore powerful and emotional heartstrings already being tugged by marketing in the commercial sector.

This December we want to ask donors what this crucial period of the charity calendar is like for them. To do this we are launching the Market Research Online Community (MROC), and conducting our first major social investment project using this emerging and developing methodology.

The community will be active in the two weeks before Christmas day and will comprise 40 members who will be given various tasks and activities to do. We will be publishing a free report of the findings in the New Year.

MROC is combination of seeing participants in their social context (how they talk to each other, exchange ideas, why they answer like they do), and gathering responses over time (i.e. different points in the day or week when they actually see a charity ad or receive a direct mail) make this an ideal methodology to understand the donor experience this Christmas.

In turn this will help us understand how charities can maximise the period around Christmas to raise awareness and donations. Our intention for the research is to evaluate what is working this year, in order to help charities to plan for next Christmas as well as helping to leverage the impact of Christmas activities so that the benefits can be felt across the year.

If you would like to receive a copy of the free report – please click here. 

Should you have any questions, please email insight@nfpsynergy.net or call 020 7426 8888.