Everyone has heard of the NSPCC. It’s the leading children's charity fighting to end child abuse in the UK. They help children who have been abused to rebuild their lives, protect those at risk, and find the best ways of preventing abuse from ever happening.
In the last year alone, Childline provided almost 280,000 counselling sessions to children and young people by voice, email or online chat. The NSPCC helpline responded to over 65,000 contacts from people with concerns about a child's welfare, and it reached nearly 1.8 million primary school children with its Speak Out, Stay Safe message.
We spoke to some of the team about the work they do and about the changing face of fundraising.
In 2016/17 the charity had a total income of £127 million and Head of Partnerships Michael McGrath told us that around “90% of our income comes from voluntary donations.”
Lead Digital Producer, Louise Corden agreed "The vast majority of funding comes directly from donors, so we need to make it really easy for people to give to us online. People use technology in all parts of their lives now. They'll do their shopping online, they'll order their meals online, and pay their bills online, so all organisations – including charities – need to keep up with that.”
As smartphones become the nation’s favourite device for getting online, the NSPCC needed an online payment solution that was both trusted and easy to use for mobile donors.
The charity worked with digital fundraising studio Addition to redesign its online donation journey on their platform goDonate, making it as quick and easy as possible for visitors to support the charity’s work.
PayPal was an important part of the redesigned journey.
“[To support online donations], we have to maintain and support the integrity of the NSPCC's brand,” Michael told us, “but we need to tap into and support the integrity of our trusted partners as well. Giving through portals like PayPal on our website is safe, it's easy, it's fast, and it's something which inspires confidence in the public."
PayPal’s donation solutions are designed with the mobile donor in mind. They simplify the payment process, reducing the scope for error, frustration or abandonment. Importantly for donors on the move or in a public place, there is no fiddly keying in of credit card numbers or other personal details— all they require is their PayPal login.
As Vicky Reeves, Managing Director at Addition explained, “It was vital that we integrated PayPal into our donation platform goDonate as PayPal is great for taking both one-off and regular donations in a fast and frictionless way for PayPal customers.
PayPal is now an option on the NSPCC’s desktop and mobile sites (at nspcc.org.uk/), making it simple for supporters to make donations. The NSPCC also features on
PayPal Giving Fund’s charity hub. PayPal Giving Fund is an independent charity that connects donors and charities.
The new online donation platform has increased donations.
According to Louise Corden, “More than half the visitors to our website access it via mobiles or tablets. We know that lots of people do that on the go, so that was one of our reasons for making sure our donation pages were as short as possible and incorporated methods like PayPal that made it really easy to be able to give.
“Since we launched the new donations journeys, more people are using the online pages and more people complete their donations on our website.”
The charity has found that children often value the convenience and discretion that online channels provide. Its redesigned, mobile-optimised, donations page makes it convenient, simple and safe for people to support the NSPCC’s valuable work.
Has PayPal helped?
Louise Exton, Helpline Development Manager, told us, “A process that allows somebody to click one button and give to an organisation – like the NSPCC – that they feel passionately about will be increasingly important in ensuring that people are still able to donate and fund the work that we do.”
Vicky Reeves agrees: “Ultimately, donors don’t ‘need’ to donate, but they ‘want’ to, so it’s important to make the donation experience as engaging and easy as possible for donors to be motivated to give their donation. It’s important for charities to engage with their audiences and convey the cause they are supporting and the great work they do.”
And, of course, you should visit the
NSPCC website, hit the big, green “Donate” button and check out how easy the new donation journey really is.
PayPal Stories Staff