NonprofitDigital Trends

2019 witnessed a multitude of significant events and an often unpredictable political climate for the U.S.: from the Mueller Report and the impeachment hearings of President Donald Trump to wealthy elites unfairly influencing the college admissions systems, political unrest unfolding across the world and the devastating effects of climate change. At this turbulent turn of a decade, many Americans have shifted their hope toward nonprofit organizations that champion the causes they care about—advocating for the environment, for education, for the arts, for civil rights, and for social justice.

Amid this atmosphere of uncertainty, there was also continued acceleration of technological growth. The nonprofit sector adopted many of these tools and techniques into their strategy and development. The result?

Much of what we predicted in our guide, How Technology Will Shape the Nonprofit Sector in 2019, was accurate. Notable examples included the importance of developing an omnichannel approach, updating social media strategies, building robust email campaigns, streamlining the online donor experience, and exploring voice command technology. While these continue to hold true, 2020 is going to be a different year with its own unique highlights. In addition to the latest information you need to revitalize your fundraising efforts, we’ve put together a recap of last year’s trends and the steps nonprofits should take to start the coming year with success.

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Improvement and innovation in how organizations engage with trusted supporters and new donors alike.

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Predictions That Stood Out

OMNICHANNEL APPROACH

Still not sure what an omnichannel approach is? In short, it means maintaining consistent messaging and branding across digital applications—email, websites and forms, and social media—while also working in conjunction with direct mail, telephone, and other types of offline contact. By 2019, adopting an omnichannel approach has become an expectation for nonprofit communication and, in fact, research has found that 90% of people prefer an omnichannel experience.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Using social media has long been an integral part of modern digital programming standards. The strategies behind social media, however, continue to evolve. In 2019, more and more organizations used social channels as a way to promote their brand and participated in peer-to-peer fundraising on their respective platforms, such as using Facebook Fundraising or the Instagram donation button. Another consistent best social media practice? Planning for rapid response moments, or pre-emptively drafting copy for possible scenarios, especially in the age of instant news reporting.

90%

of people prefer an omnichannel experience

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Predictions That Stood Out

OPTIMIZING THE ONLINE DONOR EXPERIENCE

It’s incumbent on nonprofit organizations to streamline the donor experience. This means meeting them wherever and whenever convenient, as well as eliminating any potential barriers. In the busy lives and crowded spaces we inhabit on a daily basis, it’s imperative for nonprofits to get the donor from point A to point B without any issues. This means having a well-designed, technically robust donation form that’s mobile responsive and able to pre-fill form fields.

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EMAIL

In a nutshell, personalization makes perfect. Nonprofits need to ensure that they’re segmenting and targeting their lists to identify events or donor behaviors that can trigger an automated email program. It’s also mandatory to move beyond just A/B testing and to always check deliverability rates to take any necessary actions.

VOICE COMMAND

While not a disruptive trend, voice command was and is still something that nonprofits should keep an eye out for. As voice-based tools, like smart speakers, become more commonplace, these functions can become more widely implemented. Voice command isn’t currently essential to a nonprofit’s digital programming, but it is the future.

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What’s Ahead in 2020

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What trended in 2019 isn’t all simply a fad. In fact, moving into 2020 will mean fine tuning the angle and focus.

What’s Ahead in 2020

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HONING YOUR OMNICHANNEL APPROACH WITH NEW PLATFORMS

With an omnichannel approach being adopted by more and more organizations, in 2020 other channels are being added to the mix, and so it’s important to understand the emerging platforms and identify which your audience is engaged with. One area we expect to see continued growth in for all nonprofits, regardless of size, is text-based or SMS programs. This year, expect more innovation in the capabilities of text message programs, as well as an increased expectation of text-based communication.

INCREASED DATA SCRUTINY IN PEER-TO-PEER AND ONLINE FUNDRAISING

The nonprofit sector at large will benefit from increases in the popularity of peer-to-peer and online fundraising, however, there is definite cause for concern regarding data collection and long-term donor management. Currently, when donors give through Facebook, Instagram, Amazon Smile, or other online fundraising services like these, nonprofit organizations are unable to collect donor information from it. Capturing that data will likely have to happen through other innovative methods, such as offering incentives for donors to provide it. This year, look for increasing discussions of how nonprofits can encourage peer-to-peer giving without ceding donor data to social media companies.

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TAILORING THE DONATION EXPERIENCE

Moving into 2020 and beyond, optimizing the donor and donation experience is going to continue growing in importance. “It’s incumbent on nonprofits to really start to figure out how to meet the donors where they are and make sure they can accept donations where they are,” says Ben Miller, Chief Analytics Officer at DonorTrends. Nonprofits should make it as easy as possible to give in whichever way they want to give, moving beyond credit cards to PayPal, Apple Pay, ACH, Venmo, etc. Providing a seamless process where giving is easy no matter which method is selected will definitely continue to be a trend. This also goes for sustainers and recurring donors; nonprofits will continue to explore innovative ways to increase effectiveness of their sustainer recruitment and retention.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are only going to gain importance in the nonprofit sphere. What most organizations should focus on, however, is what uses of this technology will yield the most value with the least effort. The challenge right now lies in distinguishing between which machine learning algorithms are useful and worth the investment.

Miller offers this three-question framework to help:

1. Does this save me time and make my job more efficient?

2. Will I use it?

3. Can I raise any more money?

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An example of a valuable feature with a light lift might be the use of modeling information in the database that will indicate whether or not someone is likely to be interested in monthly giving. On the other hand, a more labor intensive example could be using machine learning to determine the preferred content to send a supporter based on the causes they care about, etc. As technology advances and becomes more widespread, integrating AI into everyday operations will become increasingly common—this year, look for more interest in the direction that these advances will take for nonprofits.

DATA

To incorporate personalization, you need data. As a result, collecting data in a more intelligent fashion isn’t going out of style anytime soon. You might already be collecting data well, but for instance, if it is stored in multiple separate databases, it will be much more difficult to use quickly and accurately. What organizations should do to manage data better this year is take all the existing data on how their supporters are interacting with them, and get it into one place or usable format that can then be integrated with the email tools, so emails can be sent using that data. Or with direct marketing tools, you can reach out with targeted insight. (Hint: EveryAction Digital can help you with this).

In addition to how data is used, nonprofits will need to be mindful of how they’re protecting their donors’ data privacy, especially with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) rolling out in effect beginning January 1, 2020. CCPA will essentially grant ownership, control, and security of personal information to the consumer. Need to brush up on your data security knowledge? Check out our guide.

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PERSONALIZATION

Along with artificial intelligence comes increased sophistication of techniques for incorporating personalization, which has moved far past simply including a first name in an email salutation. In the coming years and with emerging technology, nonprofits will expand and find innovative ways to personalize the content sent to supporters. A prospective trend is personalizing communication based on how an individual has interacted with an organization.

“Things like being able to send an email to somebody and say, at the end of the year, thank you,” Mike Liddell, General Manager, Digital at EveryAction said. “Here’s what you did for this organization this year, and it includes the hours you volunteered, the events you attended, the donations you gave, and the impact you had. That sort of thing.” We’ve come to expect this type of personalized data from corporations (like Spotify’s annual Wrapped feature), and nonprofits are not far behind.

“Really effective personalization is coming in the form of showing your supporters that you know and appreciate all the things that they’ve done for your organization and can kind of reflect those back to them as a way to get them more and more involved,” said Liddell.

To ensure the best personalization experience, it’s important to first have quality data. To do this, you need to:

1. Have the data in one location where it can be actionable.

2. Maintain good data hygiene, excluding duplicates and tracking changes correctly.

3. Ensure its accuracy.

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EMAIL

Email is definitely not going anywhere in 2020, but how it’ll be used will change. Nonprofits are transitioning toward superior quality email content, characterized by high production value, increased creativity, interactive design, and strong copywriting. With more and more emails continuing to flood our inboxes, nonprofits will continue to have to develop innovative strategies for standing out from the crowd. Developing a pattern of regularly sending quality emails, both in substance and style, is key to standing out and increasing your open rate.

CHANGES IN ADVERTISING

In October 2019, Facebook made a decision to not subject ads related to policy and advocacy to fact checking. There will definitely be continued conversation about these policies in the next year, so nonprofits should be on alert for further developments on how social networks and websites (including Google and Twitter as well) manage their advertising policies.

DOMAIN REGISTRY

With the dot org registry being recently acquired by a private equity firm, nonprofits may be concerned. While it might not be the biggest issue, it could affect the cost rate for domain registry. Liddell suggests that nonprofits keep their eyes peeled for any updates, and recommends that anyone with serious concerns extend their registration now before any changes in rates are implemented.

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ClosingWhile there’s a lot to look forward to in the new year, along

with the different exciting trends, it’s important to make sure you have the basics locked down. One way is to have a reliable, integrated CRM to manage your donor database to stay on top

of things and to be the top nonprofit for your supporters.

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