Ethics in Digital Fundraising and Marketing

Digital advertising has allowed us to have a greater reach with lower investment. But how can we ensure our approach is ethical?

Ethics in Digital Fundraising and Marketing

Building your brand, promoting your cause, and selling products can be done online by virtually anyone, often times at a more affordable rate than a “traditional” advertisement on TV or the radio.

We’ve seen brands and organizations go viral with small budgets - the ALS ice bucket challenge, or Wendy’s Chicken Nugget Retweet Challenge. Even big budget viral campaigns, like Dollar Shave Club’s Our Blades are F*cking Great or SickKids Vs. still manage to do a lot with relatively little, compared to a direct response or primetime ad on television.

The popularity and accessibility of online advertising grew quickly and reached so many people, that a lot of us dove right in with little training or preparation. And while I’m a big fan of learning on the job, what we missed in our excitement to get online was the ethical parameters to the work. This, of course, is largely due to the fact that guidelines simply have not existed for us as digital marketers, and the pace of the industry surpasses the pace of legislation. So it’s up to us, as conscious and ethical digital marketers to set the standards.

I believe in setting standards not because it will make you more money or bring in more donations (but it won’t cause you to lose anything either), but simply because it is the right thing to do. We cannot claim to have a company or organization that improves lives, does right by the community, improves society, and then run ads that exclude certain audiences or hurt certain demographics.

So how can you tell if you’re an ethical digital marketer? Here are three key things ethical digital marketers do, and how to do them.

1 - Text-free images and/or alt-text:

Using text as an image, that is to say, designing your ad/image so that text is a part of it, means that the text will not be picked up by screen readers for those who have low visibility. Yes, it may make the image look great to YOU, but remember that you are not the audience. You have a multitude of people who are going to be seeing your ad (hopefully!) - why alienate those who do not access the internet in the same way you do?

So what’s the better way to go about this? You have two options:

A) Use alt-text. When you upload a picture to most platforms these days, you’ll have a section that will ask for alt-text. In this space, put in the text that’s on your image, or a description of your image. A screen reader will read out that text to the user. For this reason as well, be as engaging and exciting as you are on the image. Don’t just say “running shoes” but say “best quality running shoes, now 25% off!”

B) Build the ads within the constraints of the system. This is what I most recommend. The majority of larger online advertisers, such as Facebook and Google actually give you an accessible template in which to build your ad. You are prompted to upload an image, and then you have space to add text and a call to action. A lot of inexperienced advertisers choose to build outside of the template in order to have access to things like brand colours or font, but it’s just not worth sacrificing useability and reach. If you’re a talented designer and marketer, you should be able to still run a killer ad campaign within the accessibility guidelines outlined here.

2 - Be mindful of where your ads appear:

Anyone can monetize online content by allowing ads to appear on their site or videos. That means your advertisement could show up on any of those sites or videos. Sounds great, right? But think about the types of videos and content that exist online. Do you want an ad for your health-based charity to appear on an anti-vax video on Youtube? Should your brand’s pledge to social justice appear on a white supremecist blog? Take some time to think about your strategy and, while you definitely want to think about where you DON’T want to appear, also take some time to think about where you do want to appear! Just like you would research magazines or newspapers in which you’d run print ads, think about the sites and content creators that are doing great work. Within the Google Ad Network, you can choose broad topics for where to show or not show content, but you can also specifically request certain websites or creators. This will also allow you to spend your budget more efficiently - by precisely targeting users with similar affinities to your brand or product, you can ensure a higher click, engagement, and conversion rate.

3 - Eliminate biases in advertising

Take a look at who is creating your ads imagery, copy, and the overall messaging strategy. Odds are, the group isn't as diverse as you'd like it to be right? This isn’t anything to feel ashamed of! If you’re reading this, it means you’ve started down the road of further equity and accessibility in your organization - this is great news. And we know change doesn’t happen overnight. Don’t fire all your designers! Rather, bring more voices into the conversation and be sure to pay those people for their time. Listening to the voices within different communities can be a powerful tool to move us towards greater inclusion and equality. A focus group or brainstorm is not the time to question what you’re hearing. Instead, take note of what is being said And honour the various truths around the table/zoom screen. Not only will this lead to more inclusive advertising practices, but you and your team will learn a ton, grow as creatives, and meet great folks - and who knows, they may be your next customer/donor!

As you can see, the road to equitable and accessible digital advertising is actually pretty simple! There are no-and-low-cost things you can do today, right now, to make your work more equitable.

But, if you still need help, if you have questions, if you want a focus group, or you want to toss some ideas around in a judgement-free zone, us here at Press Pause Collective are always happy to help.