Donation via Smartphone is growing.

In Italy more than 8 internet users out of 10 made donations during 2018. The confirmation comes from the fifth edition of the study Donare 3.0, conducted by Doxa with PayPal Italia and Rete del Dono. The use of mobile as a preferred tool to donate is growing. Health and research are confirmed as the most interested areas, while education and training capture the attention of millennials.

Connected and at the same time committed. The great heart of the Italians comes out of the new edition of Donare 3.0, a study conducted by Doxa with PayPal Italia and Rete del Dono: 81% of Internet users made donations during 2018, thus allowing Italy to continue a positioning aimed at the positive in the field of solidarity. Donations online and on the move: the use of mobile as a preferred tool to perform them is also growing. Health and research sectors dominate the preferences for the more mature segment of the population, while education and training capture the attention of millennials.

The fifth edition of the study photographs how widespread the donations are in the Italian population connected to the Internet, focusing also on habits, attitudes and barriers that characterize the behavior of users. The quantitative research was carried out with 1,000 interviews representative of the approximately 20 million connected Italians of an age between 18 and 64 years. Goal: to observe how the phenomenon of donations has penetrated the population.

ONLINE DONOR IDENTIKIT – “Occasional” donors are growing (32%), with more Italians choosing to make a donation several times during the same year. And mobile donation is growing through smartphones (24%) to the point that online donation is stated as the second most used mode after cash. There is more. Doxa research photographs how 24% of Italians internet users adopt mobile devices as a preferred platform for donations, while 60% still choose PC mode. An immediate, secure, certified donation. Because for surfers the attention remains high on the use of the collected funds: 66% of Italians surfers say they do not donate to organizations that do not allow to verify how donations are used and the results achieved. Donors connected and with clearer ideas than in the past, a sign of greater awareness. During the past year the connected Italians have opted mainly to donate to a single association: it is 35% compared to 28% in 2017. “The data collected and analyzed by Doxa show well how the attention of Italians to solidarity is stable. We are convinced that mobile is a perfect means to catalyze this sensitivity, adding to the direct contact with the associations as the main way of interaction and offering the possibility to simplify and speed up donations”, says Maria Teresa Minotti, Head of Merchant Services PayPal Italia, a payment platform that involves over 267 million active account holders in over 200 markets worldwide. The associations to which donations have been made in the last twelve months are those mainly related to health and research (58%), social assistance (28%), environmental and territorial emergencies and Civil Protection (25%), protection of the environment and animals (25%) and support for disability services (24%). But be careful. The chronological age polarizes the options: the more mature baby boomers are, the more health-conscious they are, but less active for environmental emergencies. An attitude diametrically opposed to Generation X. Instead, millennials are more active in volunteering, but only 1 out of 4 is a donor. So, they spend more time “doing something good” through voluntary work, rather than choosing to go down the road of donation: 70% of those interviewed were involved in personal fundraising campaigns during sporting events, celebrations or commemorations.

INFORMATION AT THE CENTER – But before donating, you need to know and learn more. Here then is that the Italians ask for more information. “This year we also analyzed the perception that people have towards non-profit associations and what they expect from the ideal association. What emerges is a strong demand for modernization and reduction of the gap in terms of trust, a gap that could be reduced by recounting better and in a more effectively way the results that the associations produce thanks to their commitment”, explains Antonio Filoni of Doxa. Moreover, there are also new methods of donation. Among them, there is the personal fundraising, that is to say, individuals who become ambassadors of a good cause: as many as 70% have heard of it, also thanks to the push of social media, Facebook in the lead. “Internet users are confirmed as excellent donors, but it is equally interesting to note that 22% feel the need to receive more convincing communications. This shows that there is space to work in a “donor journey” perspective, that is, a path to explain the donation. In this way it is possible to strengthen the relationship with the donor. On the other hand, those who donate are interested and want to be personally involved” says Valeria Vitali, founder of Rete del Dono, a crowdfunding donation web platform founded in 2011 and which has raised 8.4 million euros in donations over the years, involving over 7,000 personal fundraisers, about 140,000 donors and going on to fund more than 2,000 projects. Because of the desire to make the difference. Starting from a network that aggregates good practices.