How and why are stakeholder loyalties to charities built through disaster related appeals?
With almost every headline screaming about natural disasters, human-made disasters and catastrophes, the rise of charities in our public consciousness is enormous. We are bombarded with endless appeals for donations and support by charities, following colossal crises, across all communication platforms, whenever a disaster occurs. Heart-breaking, shocking news coverage acts as an extremely important, potentially influential call to action.
The purpose of Public Relations is to add value; this can be achieved through having a credible and trustworthy reputation. In order for charity campaigns to be successful, they need to install trust and confidence within the minds of their stakeholders and potential stakeholders. Charity appeals revolve around building and maintaining relationships, they tug on our heartstrings. People's motives for giving to charitable causes come down to a variety of contributing factors, the need for that ‘feel-good’ feeling, public image/reputation or even because of personal experience. Trust is crucial in any disaster or emergency appeal, because without it people probably won't part with money. Without faith or trust in a charities ability to follow through with claims of aid or grandeur, i.e. if people can't see the results of where their money is being spent, they won't donate let alone keep donating... will they?
Did you donate to the Pakistan floods of 2010, or the more recent Japan earthquake/tsunami disaster, 2011? If you only donated to one... why?
Lastly, which charity did you personally put your faith and trust into to actually help the disaster victims?
Spare two minutes - please fill in my survey: http://edu.surveygizmo.com/s3/502060/After-the-flood
Lastly, which charity did you personally put your faith and trust into to actually help the disaster victims?
Spare two minutes - please fill in my survey: http://edu.surveygizmo.com/s3/502060/After-the-flood
I didn't give any money i'm a bit ashamed to say but in an attempt to slightly justify it - i'm not at a point in my life where i can give lots of money to charity, and although my heart and well wishes go out to those affected - i have to watch very penny i spend.
ReplyDelete- i sound so harsh :/
I totally understand where you are coming from! Don't feel ashamed, I need honesty :)
ReplyDeleteA student myself I can't really afford to donate either. I also feel I don't donate (as much as I would like to) because I feel quite removed from the situation despite the fact it's all over the news. Do you know what I mean? You could even argue I have donor fatigue; shocking news coverage of disasters seem to be happening every other day (slight exaggeration, but still).
Maybe charities could change their tactics and approach us in a different (more effective) manner. Shock tactics are becoming less effective; they need to engage us in what they are doing so we know exactly where (or in our case) what our money could be going towards! Then maybe I would give up that Starbucks coffee in reality I didn't need... What do you think?
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it :)
ReplyDelete