Charities miss out if they are not online

Charities that don’t accept donations online or communicate using social networks are losing valuable ground, new research shows.

One in five 18 to 24-year-olds surveyed by Accenture claimed they were more likely to donate to charity or follow their favourite causes using social media such as Twitter and Facebook. More than half said they had been encouraged by new technologies to make spontaneous donations, such as sponsoring friends online.

The research – conducted as part of Byte Night, an IT industry fundraiser for the Action for Children charity – found that a third of 18 to 24-year-olds would switch charity if theirs did not allow them to donate digitally.