Alan Cooke, Convio

There is little debate that online communication, fundraising, and advocacy have become important parts of the modern nonprofit's fundraising and marketing mix. While system data and trends show online giving is growing, consumer research reinforces the need for nonprofits to focus on how they integrate online and other technology into their marketing and development programs – not just for today, but for the future. 

Some of the key trends supporting rapid adoption of technology by nonprofits are:

1)    Online lifestyle, behavior and giving of consumers and donors leading to success

2)    Mobile technology

3)    Technology that equalizes the playing field for all nonprofits

Nonprofits, Donors and Consumers Adopting Online Lifestyle

As people adopt technology and broadband and wireless access becomes commonplace, nonprofits are buoyed by the ability to use the Internet and technology to communicate quickly and effectively. Nonprofits of all sizes are able to reach millions of donors while simultaneously sharing the need and impact of a donors support.  

Consumers/donors have expectations of an online relationship with their charities of choice that is different than what was expected just 24 months ago. It's a relationship driven by their experiences with their bank, their airline or travel site, and yes, Google, Apple, YouTube and eBay. 

More than $250 million was raised online for Haitian relief efforts in the first 21 days after the quake through Convio powered emails, websites, and other campaigns (up from approximately $120 million in the same period during Katrina). According to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, the amount raised or pledged for Haitian relief efforts, including corporate donations during that period was $575.4 million. When you remove the estimated $122 million in corporate pledges from that number, more than half of all funds raised came online through those organizations. Many of these organizations continue to see 2X to 3X the daily traffic of average days in 2008. (A webinar on lessons learned will be held in Q2 to share some of the key findings with NTEN members. To get your invitation visit http://my.convio.com/forms/Rapid-Response.)

With the tight economy, we see more and more organizations moving annual reports and other key data online to provide transparency while reducing costs and being more environmentally sensitive in their use of paper for materials. Video, social media, and peer-to-peer fundraising and engagement are helping nonprofits leverage the trends and data to be more successful in their communications and fundraising programs. Here are some of the other data points and trends that research and system performance revealed in 2009:

• More than 111 million consumers planned to donate online to charity in the last quarter of 2009.¹
• 63% of online consumers planned to use the Internet to donate to charity in the last quarter of 2009, up from 51% in 2008.¹
• Research into both the "Wired Wealthy" and other consumers shows they visit organizations' websites before donating regardless of whether the gift is given online or offline.
• Email and direct mail from nonprofits have virtually the same influence on consumers' decisions to give at 27% and 28% respectively -- email closed a 10% gap from 2008 to 2009.¹
• In 2009, Convio's clients alone used the online channel to raise more than $921 million (up from $777M in '08), send more than 3.8 billion emails, drive 44 million advocacy actions and power more than 3,500 websites.
• In the days following the Haitian quake, more than $2 million an hour was being raised online while millions of emails were sent.
• More than $32 million a day was raised online by approximately 70 relief organizations in the three days immediately following the quake.
• Many nonprofits not only accepted unprecedented mobile gifts from text messages for Haitian relief efforts, but integration with their online CRM system allowed them to respond and begin to build lasting donor relationships.
• Prior to Haiti's record online giving, December 31, 2009 saw more than $19 million dollars given online in one day. (While donors might claim that the tax deadline does not drive giving, their behavior indicates that it does matter and online is a preferred channel.)
• 39% of consumers reported making an online donation after visiting a charity website.
• Today's online consumer gives through a multitude of channels as 61 percent report mailing a check (most, after checking the website), 38 percent gave at an event, 17 percent used the Internet to sponsor a friend or family member in a run, walk or ride, and 16 percent responded to a phone call in addition to their personal online giving.¹

Consumers' adoption of the online lifestyle is fast spreading to their engagement with nonprofit organizations, and organizations with the infrastructure and strategy in place are reaping the benefits. Yet, organizations cannot forget that people live in a multichannel world and expect to have the ability to engage through any and all their preferred channels.

Mobile (and Open) Creates Future Opportunity

In 2009, more and more organizations started to integrate mobile communication into their marketing and fundraising campaigns. Initially the most successful mobile efforts served to raise additional awareness around fundraising campaigns and/or year-end giving, and proved successful due to their integration into consumers' and donors' multichannel engagement habits.  Since then, organizations have expanded mobile efforts. For example, Hill Country Ride for AIDS teamed with Charity Dynamics to launch an iPhone® application, further equipping event participants with the technology solutions they need to reach more donors and be more successful in their peer-to-peer fundraising efforts.

Due to the immediacy of mobile as a platform, some relief organizations have had mobile integration as part of their strategy for some time. When the Haitian quake struck, many of these organizations were able to benefit from the record setting use of mobile phones to support their efforts. And while the initial mobile gifts were critical, many of these organizations will see lasting benefits as they leverage integration with their CRM system to cultivate relationships with these new constituents. Moving these donors online allows organizations to benefit in real-time as funds are "immediately" available.

"This event represents the first time that mobile giving has had a significant impact on donations in the United States," said Ben Stein, Chief Technology Officer at Mobile Commons a provider of easy-to-use technology for mobile campaign management and  fundraising. "Not only do these nonprofits benefit from the donation, they are able to establish a communication channel with the donor. And because of our integration with the nonprofit's constituent relationship management system, they are better positioned to strengthen those relationships to help fulfill their mission, not just today, but in the future."

Multi-tenant SaaS Equalizes Playing Field for Small & Medium Sized Organizations

Many small-to-medium size and volunteer-driven organizations do not have the resources and expertise to build or worry about the technology infrastructure needed to manage thousands of donors, power flexible, robust websites, and solicit and process hundreds of thousands of donations. The professionals at these nonprofits are experts in providing programs and services related to their cause, but need fundraising and marketing services to help tell their story. 

Multi-tenant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provides nonprofit organizations of all sizes access to the same tools and scale as the nation's largest and best known nonprofit brands. Virtually all of the innovations, new products, and offerings from vendors to the nonprofit sector have adopted SaaS -- including traditional, on-premise vendors in the process of attempting to transition to the SaaS model.

"Email communication and web content management tools delivered via the Software-as-a-Service model, allows nonprofits to be well positioned to respond quickly to the complex communications needs and large volume of donations following a disaster like that in Haiti," said Mark Koenig, Vice President of Saugatuck Technology. "SaaS provides a technology infrastructure that few of them could afford to build and maintain on their own so that they can mount effective communication campaigns and turn donors into sustained supporters who are empowered to do their own outreach and fundraising for their favorite causes."

Data and research continues

It is important that organizations continue to provide data, research into the habits, trends and behaviors of donors, volunteers and other constituents. By providing insight that can be combined with real data and growth rates, analysts can help people make the best decisions to support their mission and continue to grow sector success.

Now, having written all that, I just read that Google is going to offer bandwidth at a hundred-fold increase over what most Americans currently can subscribe to or 1000 times faster than DSL. There is no doubt that the trends and data are coming together in favor of organizations who embrace the Internet as a key channel for constituent engagement.

1 - The North American Technographics® Omnibus Online Survey, Q4 2009 (US), a commissioned omnibus survey conducted by Forrester's Technographics^® on behalf of Convio