How do charities use the Internet?

There was general agreement that online information is overwhelming for most people and they often can’t find what they are looking for.

A useful tip is to think about keywords that best describes an organisation, and not just to look once and then give up when an immediate result is not forthcoming.  Users should try lots of combinations, and write down the combinations so that you can build up which keywords relate to your organization. Keywords are important to search engines.  Most people had heard of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) companies, but distrust them.  There is a lot of free advice on this subject anyway.  If in doubt, spend some time looking on the Internet, or designate someone else to look. Also try and look for own charity and what you regard as keywords and see what comes up.  You may be pleasantly, or unpleasantly surprised.

Some organisations said they did not have a website, however this need not mean they do not have a web presence.  If a charity is registered, it will be on GuideStar UK and searchable on The Charity Commission site.  You may, and several people found this, be mentioned on directories, or name-checked in other charities’ articles.  This can occur in many formats, for example, if your charity is a grant-making charity, you may find your name appears in the list of donors on another charity’s website.  If that site is highly ranked by the search engines, you may find you have a better web presence than you thought.

Some people were aware of these secondary or tertiary sources of information, and could see how they could be explored by using the concept of the Charity Information Landscape.  However, most were not.  There was a general feeling that the Internet is a way of thinking, and the mindset of most of the sector is still catching up, although some participants thought charities were way ahead in their use of the Internet.  It was felt a website was an excellent way to show what a charity was doing, as opposed to telling.  Charities are about “doing things not talking about doing things”.

However, others were not keen on the fact that their information could be produced on a website without their permission.  It was noted that public information, by its very nature, is free to air, and that freedom of speech meant opinions could be expressed about organisations.  It was also pointed out that in some cases charities could augment their public information, and in fact use other sites, such as GuideStar UK, as free advertising.  All agreed that the Charity Wall is also an example of free advertising.

Another source of web presence is the sharing of documents with other charities in the same fields, for example through advice, newsletters, directories and specialist web portals.  These are sometimes only available on the Invisible Web*.   It is estimated there are at least ten times, if not a hundred times, more information that is not indexed and therefore not shown in the Internet Search engines results.  Charities can draw attention to these sources by putting links on their site.  It is also a way of displaying specialised information that only your charity users might need. 

Most participants agreed this was something to look into, but of course, it was a matter of time, and money, and had to be directly linked to the performance of their charitable activity.  At least one participant was sceptical about talk of performance, and several felt the Internet was irrelevant, however, over 85% felt that they could now improve their web presence.  We were all reminded that although the Internet might appear to be primarily a visual media, there are ways and other methods of accessibility that should not be forgotten.

When asked, there was general agreement that further research would be useful, and the majority of organisations would be willing to answer questionnaires and take some part in focus groups.

© charityinformation.net (Awareness Consultancy Ltd) 2006

Summarised from seminars held between May 3^rd and June 8^th 2006.  As per the terms and conditions of the seminar format all information is confidential.  15 organisations expressed opinions, of which four had a turnover of £1m and rest below £1m. 

*The Invisible Web can be defined as information that does not appear in search engine results because it is not indexed by search engines, and is therefore invisible when you to search.