JustGiving taps into social trend with Care button for charities

Charity giving community portal, JustGiving, has launched a ‘Care’ social button for donation sites in a bid to make the experience more personal for consumers.

Described as a “new social currency”, the button enables a user to show their support for a cause on any charity profile participating in the digital platform.

The Care button will be rolled out across charity pages on JustGiving over the next few weeks, and can also be embedded in a charity’s website to allow followers to express their support. A closed beta trial with several external charity sites will be launched in coming weeks.

“Today’s digital natives interact with organisations through a wide spectrum of online engagement,”

JustGiving product manager, Jonathan Waddingham, said in a statement. “Building these long-term, ongoing relationships with supporters is going to be absolutely critical for charities who want to attract the next generation of givers.

“The Care button allows you to publically express what you care about, and inspire others to do the same, and it is a way for donors to personalise their experience on JustGiving.”

Cancer Research UK is one of the first in a small group of charities to trial the button. Its head of digital, Michael Docherty, saw the initiative as a way to extend social conversations with consumers.

“Cancer Research UK saw the value in building a community on social media very early on and we now have an extremely engaged core of online supporters,” Docherty stated in a blog post marking the launch.

“This is a totally new way to connect with us and show support, forming the basis for a long-term relationship which will help us to beat cancer sooner.”

JustGiving said it plans to give charities data insights into who has clicked the button as a way of further increasing their reach and growing their supporter community.

JustGiving raised $490 million for charities through its digital portal in 2013, and has chalked up 24 per cent year-on-year growth. Since its launch in 2001, it claims to have raised $2.6 billion for more than 13,000 charities. The company is funded by charging a small fee on donations made on the site.

“Care is part of a raft of changes on the way at JustGiving, as we enter a period of high growth in the Asia-Pacific region,” country director, Nikki Kinloch, said in a statement.

Last month, the company opened up global APIs, giving charity app developers the ability to link to its platform and embed digital donations capabilities.

One of the first companies to utilise the API was Australian health promotion charity, Hearts4Heart, for its Million Beats mobile app. Other brands using the API include Spotify’s ‘Guilty Pledgers’ app, and Cancer Research UK’s ‘Race for Life app.

JustGiving also officially launched its GiveGraph proprietary platform, which charts giving behaviours globally, in June.

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