Improving donor engagement and trust with the Ripples Impact Feed

A 2021 Charity Commission report found that just 17% of people trust that the majority of their donations reach the intended beneficiary. The report concluded that EVIDENCE of impact will be the key to increasing trust in the third sector. Indeed, research from Ripples found that ~80% of donors would like to track the impact of their donations but either do not or cannot.

Information about charities’ impact is usually readily available through websites, magazine, newsletters and impact reports. Most donors just don’t engage with this content. Why? Most stewardship comms come in a long format and, in the age of information overload, it’s difficult to get consumers to stop the ceaseless scrolling, never mind read an impact report. The Ripples team built a new communication channel in the Ripples app called the Impact Feed. It delivers succinct, hyper-personalised and tangible Impact Updates via Push Notification. Unlike traditional stewardship comms, the updates can be absorbed in 5 seconds or less. A case study was conducted with ActionAid, Rainforest Trust, New Hope and The Rossendale Trust. 100% of participants preferred this method of contact, 80% showed an increase in trust and affinity with their charity and qualitative feedback was overwhelmingly positive.