![](bg2.png)
definition: "fundraising is what the organization
does to create relations of interest between those
seeking economic, material and human resources
and those who are potentially available to give
them" (Melandri, 2011).
It is important for non profit organizations to
understand when it is actually worth investing in
fundraising campaigns. Bradley (Bradley, Jansen et
al. 2003 ) argues that charities spend at least 18% of
their profits in fundraising but that most of these
investments turn out to be quite inefficient.
According to the latest approaches, fundraising,
rather than simply being tied to the culture of charity
or philanthropy and patronage, is based on social
responsibility that drives the community to invest
resources to achieve common social benefits. The
term "fundraising" itself includes all the theories and
techniques required to ensure the sustainability of a
social cause and of the organization that supports it
and to promote the constant development towards a
multiplicity of public and private actors.
The advent of ICT has provided new
opportunities for fundraising. Not only Internet
represents a great challenge but also mobile phones
(becoming increasingly smart and multifunctional)
are excellent tools that, if wisely used by non profit
organizations as part of the fundraising mix, are able
to support fundraising strategies. Cell phones can
then become an exercise of brand-building for large
private business and of fiduciary pursuit for non
profit organizations (Dumlao 2005).
Currently it is estimated that only 14% of the
charities are already using mobile phones as a
communication tool while 30% say they are
interested in adopting such a tool. In both cases we
consider large organizations only.
In February 2010 Kaptivate (Vassallo, 2010) has
worked with many partners to assess the level of
adoption of mobile phone in non profit and to
understand what is their attitude towards this
technology. The sample was made of 162
organizations, heterogeneous as for size, category
and life cycle. Results showed a general interest in
the potential of mobile with 22% of respondents
expressing "very strong interest”, 27%" strong
interest", 43% "interest" and only 8% "no interest ".
In addition, 36% of respondents stated that they
already use the mobile or want to start using it
within 12 months, while over 50% said that their
organizations will adopt forms of fundraising
through mobiles over the next two years.
At the same time, a kind of frustration has
emerged because organizations feel they do not
possess information regarding the implementation of
fundraising campaigns. There is a lack of awareness
on the potential and on best practices. This means
that more than 45% of the fundraising campaigns via
mobile is not fully understood and therefore is not
perceived as a real opportunity within the
organization. This lack of information brings
resistance by organizations: 40% of them considers
mobile fundraising simply a cause of additional
expenses to already limited resources, 34% think it
is a very expensive channel and 28% think it can’t
be integrate with the existing system of donations.
Despite this, over 30% of respondents want to
explore the mobile world, but the biggest fear lies in
the belief that being small precludes participation in
such projects.
The study also allowed to capture those who are
perceived as the main advantages of using the
mobile phone to raise funds and also the main
disadvantages.
On one hand, the phone for the donor is a useful
tool (82%), which offers one more way to
demonstrate participation (74%); on the other hand,
it allows organizations to attract new donors (69%)
in a way that is perfectly integrated with the
activities of social media. At the same time it is
difficult for a non profit to communicate its mission
with a short text via mobile furthermore 32% of
respondents know that normally through phone just
very small amounts of money are allowed.
The three following aspects were emphasized in
order to improve the experience of donors: greater
participation thanks to integration with social media,
a better service through easy, quick and transparent
solutions and increased affordability.
It was also confirmed that better trading
conditions, lower dependence on wireless devices
and the availability of data on the behaviour of users
would help the adoption of mobile solutions
(Vassallo, 2010).
Any discussion on ICT and fundraising must
explore not only the use of specific devices, but also
the databases that enable organizations to build and
maintain long-time relationships with their
supporters. These databases provide data about the
interaction between the donor and the organization
itself in order to understand the power of the
different systems of fundraising to develop an offer
increasingly aligned with the needs and the values of
donors. But unfortunately their full potential is often
unexploited and the organization still finds difficult
to understand the donors’ motivations and
behaviours and to build strong relationships by
customizing specific strategies for the different
targets. To this extent, two cost items have
ICE-B2013-InternationalConferenceone-Business
210