The digital space provides a tremendous opportunity for Irish charities to reach large audiences quickly and easily, which is great.
However many Irish charities have limited resources and succeeding in the very noisy place that is the digital space requires Resources. Compelling images, compelling stories, the time to create them and ways to share them that allow the right audience to hear the right message, none of this is cheap or easy to do.
The fact is, it is very difficult to succeed in the digital space. For charities with limited resources, it is absolutely critical to put those resources in the right place and be realistic about what you try to do online.
The latest figures show that the majority of Irish consumers are very active online, we are slightly ahead of the EU average when it comes to using online as a shopping tool, but we lag far behind UK consumers. The "money" online can be found in clothing, and sportswear, ticket sales and household goods, FMCG products. For Irish charities selling any of these products, the Google Adwords element of the Google for Nonprofits programme provides an extraordinary opportunity to generate revenue that you should immediately investigate.
For Irish charities not selling FMCG products, the Google for Nonprofits programme still offers incredibly powerful tools to help you reach the audience that you need to in order to share your message with the people that matter.
I am not employed by Google to promote the programme, however, I encourage any Irish charity not yet familiar with the programme to investigate it and see how it can benefit you.