KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 1 — Much has changed in how charity organisations reach out for public support to their causes since the advent of smartphones spurred Malaysia’s social media boom.
Going digital has enabled many larger organisations better and speedier access to raising funds by tapping potential donors through wider social circles especially when coping with an economic slowdown, or at the very least, put them in touch with potential volunteers and sponsors.
Groups like World Vision Malaysia, the local chapter of a global Christian organisation that gives out aid and disaster relief, said its online donation system has helped boost earnings, prompting it to switch its strategy to woo the Internet’s largest demography—tech-savvy millenials.
“We have definitely seen a shift in fundraising methods with the digital sphere opening new vistas and opportunities.
“With giving simply a click away, crowdfunding and online fundraisers are becoming increasingly popular and the preferred option, especially among millennials,” World Vision Malaysia CEO Ruby Chak told Malay Mail Online in an interview this week.
World Vision Malaysia’s Facebook page currently has close to 200,000 followers with half of them being young donors.
Chak attributed much of the success to social media’s much-touted asset: interactive features that allow organisations like theirs to directly engage donors and keep communications open, which she said gives the charity-donor relationship a more “personal touch”.
“We actively engage Malaysians through our social media platforms. If our supporters and donors opt for digital correspondence, we keep them informed and engaged through social media and electronic mail. It is our preferred method of correspondence as it is not just more cost effective but also speedier for outreach,” she said.
Special Children Society of Ampang (SCSA), a Selangor-based group that helps mentally challenged children, said communication tools like Facebook may not necessarily help raise cash but does help draw important contributions like volunteers and sponsorship.
“Our website and Facebook page does increase outreach opportunities. Example given is universities and colleges and expats find out about us and help us via volunteer work and sponsorship of things such as washing machine, sewing machine, microwave oven, and some therapy equipment.
“We even had a complimentary pest control service. We also receive books, educational toys, sports equipment, and foodstuffs. However, they do not contribute to fundraising,” the organisation’s president Christine QC Wong told Malay Mail Online.
Despite the significant success of social media in helping charities innovate and improve operations and outreach, UK-based digital consultancy firm Reading Room wrote in its 2015 report on the Internet’s potential for charities that many organisations worldwide have yet to jump onto the social media wave.
Some smaller outfits in Malaysia have suffered drawbacks, as high-tech communication tools make their more labour-intensive and slower fundraising methods.
Unlike bigger organisations like World Vision Malaysia or SCSA, these charities too have limited networks and lack the finances or the tech know-how to move their campaign online. As such, they are still heavily reliant on selling greeting cards or holding a jumble sale to generate revenue.
But in an era where almost all forms of communications are conducted digitally, greeting cards too are becoming obsolete, thereby drying up one key revenue stream for these small charities, which include unregistered orphanages and refugee shelters.
“We used to do decently before the Internet era. We sold some cards painted by orphans we helped raise and we did manage to raise enough funds to help support the shelter. But nowadays people don’t buy cards,” a 56-year-old woman who runs an orphanage in Ampang with her mother told Malay Mail Online.
The woman asked only to be known as Maznah for fear of reprisal from the authorities because her orphanage is unregistered.
She said her home occasionally takes in child refugees, which makes it harder to receive government aid. This makes them rely on either donations from sympathisers, often well-heeled nearby residents who donate through the local mosques, or greeting card sales.
But even Maznah recognises the opportunities presented by embracing digital technology. She said the orphanage has set up a Facebook page and believe things may yet improve for the children’s home once they learn how to utilise the popular networking site.
“Most of the kids know about Facebook. So a few of them helped start one for us. Maybe it can help us get more donation,” she said.
In Penang, however, greeting cards remain a popular method for fundraising among some charities.
St Nicholas Home (SNH) for the visually impaired executive director Daniel Soon said greeting cards are making a comeback as they are receiving quite good responses from sending out greeting card packages to raise funds, making RM70,000 from this year’s Chinese New Year card sales.
“We find that our donors are more willing to donate due to the personal touch as we individualised each letter and included our stories in it so they know who they will be donating to.
“Also, due to the common social media way of wishing everyone with a single post, people are now starting to appreciate physical greeting cards now,” he told Malay Mail Online, but added that they too would soon look at social media strategies in the near future.
