Donation via SMS is easy and quick...

If prompted to donate to charity every time you withdrew money from a cash machine, would it make you more likely to give? Or would it irritate you as just another ploy urging you to spend more money?

The option to donate every time you pay by bank card is part of a new plan by the UK Government to boost philanthropy and give charity a more prominent position in British society than ever before. Others proposals include encouraging public services to take on more volunteers, opening up government buildings for charity events, and enabling donations to preferred charities via mobile.

But will inundating the public with opportunities for giving really increase overall donations? With half of the population of Western and Southern Europe already giving money each month, is charity’s important role in society set to grow to new heights?

Giving Differently Today

The way we contribute has changed drastically over the last decade, largely thanks to wider global accessibility and evolving media platforms which enable ever-easier ways of giving and greater information sharing.

For example, Breast Cancer Care launched a hugely successful Facebook flashmob this October, where supporters wrote a suggestive ‘I like it on…’ as their status, with end of the sentence being wherever they keep their handbag: ‘Olivia likes it on top of the piano/under the stairs/over the chair’. The subtle but intriguing campaign swept through Facebook’s millions of users, ensuring excellent coverage for the cause.

The popularity of this kind of viral campaign illustrates just how tuned in we are to charitable ventures. These days we all know that November equals Movember, that red ribbons support HIV campaigns and pink ones are for breast cancer, and that we will receive at least three requests this year from friends with Just Giving sponsorship sites asking for support of their marathon/chest wax/bungee jump/sponsored silence.

Donating to charity has come a long way since the days of cake sales and shaking buckets in the street. Businesses, particularly, want to be seen doing their part, with networks such as CSR Europe providing an essential platform for companies to share ideas and set up projects to boost their social responsibility.

Philanthropy 3.0

So with charitable giving at all levels ever more present in our daily lives, what are the donation methods and philanthropic trends of the future?

Matthew Bishop and Michael Green suggest one answer in their book, Philanthrocapitalism: How The Rich Can Save The World and Why We Should Let Them’. The title encompasses one response to solving some of society’s problems, from poverty to climate change, and it involves moving away from total reliance on our governments. Philanthrocapitalism is about ‘the winners from our economic system giving back’, enabling business to ‘do well by doing good’. In other words, it is a way of giving which ‘mirrors the way that business is done in the for-profit capitalist world’, with time, energy and an entrepreneur’s drive for success behind every investment. Bishop and Green’s book sets out to explore the power of such a movement.

One response to society’s problems?

If you don’t happen to be a major economic winner (at least not yet), the internet provides multiple ways that you can donate, for free, during your daily browsing sessions. Set up a quick account with Every Click and you can send an average of 2.5% from every pound you spend online to your favourite pre-set cause. You can also donate every time you sell on eBay, by clicking ‘Advanced Sell’ and selecting the percentage of your earnings you want to give straight to your chosen charity.

Got five minutes to spare? Head to One Click at a Time, a round-up site for all the click-to-donate charities on the web. Most satisfying is Free Rice which shows a handful of rice building up in a bowl for every simple question you get right. These click-to-donate sites work because sponsors, who advertise on the site, donate money every time their banners are displayed after you click. Giving at its very easiest, and free.

If you want to do more but don’t have the time to volunteer in a charity shop or run a marathon, several charities look for pro social networkers to help publicise their work on Twitter and Facebook – for example, Women and Children First (UK). All charities benefit from any kind of promotion, so sharing a logo on your networking pages or re-tweeting information about charitable events could be just as beneficial as making a donation.

Care International has set up a fantastic site called Lend With Care, where individuals and businesses can invest microloans into small projects in some of the poorest countries in the world, helping entrepreneurs get started and transforming their futures. A true grassroots project, it starts with a business plan from someone living in a developing country who approaches their local MFI (micro-finance institution). If their plan is approved, the MFI will provide an instant loan, upload the business’s plan to lendwithcare.com where it hopes to pick up support from investors to pay back the original loan, and the business can begin to grow under the support of Care International. As an investor, you are regularly updated on the project’s progress and the timescale for recovering your investment.

People’s endless enthusiasm for supporting charities is evident in the incredible variety of imaginative and fun ways to donate seen every day on the streets as well as online. With Indian philanthropist Azim Premji leading the way with his pledge to donate $2 billion to improve education in India, and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation having made grants totalling a massive $23.91 billion since its inception,  it’s clear that a new dawn in terms of charitable giving is just beginning.

TED’s Katherine Fulton sketches out the new future of philanthropy