What if charities were on Tinder? – How could we persuade the public to swipe right?

If charities and non-profits are to succeed, to thrive, in today’s challenging world, then we need our key stakeholders to see us in the most positive way. But what are those positive ways? Imagine this blog as a dating app blueprint for the charity sector to persuade the public that we are something that they want to date! They should want to ‘swipe right’ for charities. If it isn’t a ‘great sense of humour’ that matters when it comes to our sector, what is it? Here are my first stuttering attempts to answer that question!

Charities’ impact

Message 1: Charities do great work that changes people’s lives

Let’s start with the most important attribute of charities – they make a difference to people’s lives. There are an inestimable number of people whose lives are better because of the work of charities and non-profits (from here I will just refer to charities, but I always mean organisations that are driven neither by profit nor by being the government). We want people to understand that charities change the world for the better.

Message 2: Charities do it better!

There is a strand of thought within the sector that charities only exist because of a failure of government (or the private sector). I don’t believe that at all. Charities are a necessity in society and have a unique role and way of doing things. We want charities because they reach the parts of society that other sectors can’t and do so more effectively. Charities don’t exist because of the failure of government, but because of the power of citizens working together for the common good.

Message 3: Charities are in every community, making the world better.

Charities are everywhere. They are in every community, harnessing the power of citizens as volunteers and donors and building communities and tackling some of society’s most pressing problems. They are part of most people’s lives, whether it is as volunteer, as donor, as user of services or being part of the community charities have created.

Charity’s costs

Message 4: Charities spend money effectively.

We need the public, as donors or volunteers, or users or as voters, to think that charities do a good job and do so in a cost-effective way. They don’t waste money. They use it to do good things.

Message 5: It’s worth paying charity staff a decent salary

One of the knottiest challenges for charities is to persuade the public that it's worth paying some CEOs and senior staff a decent salary (above £100k for the sake of argument). I have watched focus groups and seen how difficult it is to persuade the public that their donation should be spent on ‘fat cat’ salaries. But if we want decent charity leaders, we need at least half-decent salaries.

Message 6: Charities spend a ‘goldilocks’ amount on admin and fundraising

I recently read a piece on LinkedIn arguing that all costs in charities are good costs; there are no bad costs. This is complete nonsense in the eyes of the public, and in my eyes too, if I am honest. It is not good to spend 80% of a charity’s income on fundraising. What we need is to persuade the public that some fundraising costs are good, but not too much, and that some costs to run the organisations are good as well. It’s a goldilocks amount of costs -  not too little and not too much. What is that amount? For me, less than 60% of income going on the cause (ie charitable activities in the SORP jargon) is a source of concern.

Their role

Message 7: Charities do a better job of helping people than the government or the private sector does.

When charities are delivering their mission, I believe they are more effective than either the government or the private sector. This is because charities are not constrained by the profit motive nor by the shackles of government bureaucracy. They are driven by passion, not profit, and put people first, not process or bureaucracy. I will fully admit that this is a mixture of aspiration and assertion.

Message 8: Charities drive innovation and improve the way we help society's poorest and most vulnerable.

We don’t just want people to think that charities spent money efficiently and do a better job than the government or the private sector. We’d also like people to understand that charities drive innovation and affect change in the way that government does its role. That is what campaigning is all about – improving the way government does its work and how society tackles its problems.

There is clearly much to be done in how we persuade people to see charities. There is little clarity or agreement on what we want people to think about us. Nor is it at all clear how we will get these messages across, or who will do it. But none of these hurdles should ever stop us from aspiring to take on these communications challenges and get the public to swipe right for charities – every difficult journey starts with the first blog!