The centre spread in the Independent today is an article entitled: Charity begins online. It recognises that in these recessionary times, it is becoming harder and harder for charities to get their messages across, which is inevitably leading to them to re-evaluate their approach as to how to connect with people.  Basically any charity that knows its onions is now developing an online strategy, but how well are they doing it?

Expert opinions are provided by John Carnell, Steve Bridger, and our own Rachel Beer.  In Rachel’s opinion: “There are already huge numbers of charities on Twitter, but there’s a lot of uncertainty, and most of them are just trying it out – there might be one person in their office who’s set it up – and it’s certainly not integrated into their overall strategy.”

Steve Bridger can see charities tentatively waiting for the “gloriously disruptive” world of digital media to settle down. “But they should stop waiting for things to be perfect, and just embrace the messiness of the web,” he says. “They have no choice but to change their mind-set.”

John Carnell, founder and chief executive of Bullying UK, points out that “This approach has been at the heart of our work since the beginning, so it’s interesting to watch it become the next big thing. The public appreciate honest dialogue, and that’s one of the reasons our Twitter feed is often ranked in the top 1,000 worldwide.”

Rachel is quoted as saying:  “Charities are much more sensitive than brands.”  The point she wanted to make is that they know their supporters individually, by name, in a way most commercial brands never will, and those supporters are emotionally involved.

These are carefully nurtured relationships.   Charities are in it for the long term and they need their donors to be as well.   It’s not about volume.  As Rachel said: “A community of 15,000 people who are genuinely interested in a cause is worth a lot more than 100,000 people who are only mildly so.”  In other words, quality always wins out over quantity.