Oxfam, one of the UK’s biggest charities, plans to harness the power of the smartphone to bring donors closer to its work.
The global poverty reduction charity is launching an app, My Oxfam, that it says will make donating easy and rewarding. The app will also bring supporters closer to the charity’s projects, offer a new level of transparency around its work, and aims to help regain donors’ trust after a rocky couple of years for the charity sector.
Trust in charities fell last year to the lowest level since records began in 2005, a Populus survey of 1,000 people conducted for the Charity Commission found, after a series of scandals including stratospheric executive salaries, the collapse of Kids Company, and the suicide of Olive Cooke, who died after receiving 3,000 mailings from charities, prompting questions about data-sharing and fundraising techniques. The commission’s director called the findings a “call to action” for the sector.
International aid and development has also seen damaging headlines around wasteful spending, high salaries and questionable initiatives. An Oxfam spokesman told the Guardian: “People want more transparency from humanitarian agencies about where their money’s going.”
The app aims to build trust among supporters by giving them an insight into the charity’s work and the way funds are spent, through video diaries from Oxfam staff on the ground, stories about the people the charity is supporting, and live updates on emergencies.
Oxfam’s head of fundraising, Paul Vanags, said: “Charities are striving to meet the public’s demand for a closer, more modern and responsive relationship with the charities they support … My Oxfam provides a window on to the lives changed by our supporters’ generosity and allows users to control their giving from the palm of their hand.”
Users can track how much they have donated through sponsorship, items donated to shops, or cash payments, and can adjust their monthly donations. When there is a humanitarian emergency, Oxfam can issue an appeal through the app, and then allow donors to follow the charity’s work on the issue long after the initial crisis is over.
Oxfam says the app is the first of its kind. Previous charity apps have focused more heavily on fundraising, such as the UN World Food Programme’s ShareTheMeal app, which encourages people to make an on-the-spot donation of 50¢ through their phone to feed a child. The app recently passed 10m donations.