Sometimes in the nonprofit world, we get consumed with the specific details of online fundraising, advocacy and education for our causes and forget about the bigger trends at play.
Let’s take a quick look at three really big trends that will affect everything you do online, including fundraising. Think about all the pieces in the online experiences you are creating, including your website, email, social media and other third-party sites like crowdfunding or peer-to-peer fundraising pages. These three trends affect how people will feel about the experiences you are providing.
The Amazon Effect
Because of the customer experience Amazon provides, people now expect a frictionless online engagement process with instant gratification.
Where is there too much friction in your online experiences now? Where can you provide more instant gratification?
The Facebook Effect
Because of the way Facebook works, people expect you to understand them and to deliver customized, engaging content they want to see.
How can you learn more about who’s in your community and give them content that feels like you developed it just for them? How can you demonstrate that you know who they are and what they care most about?
The Google Effect
Because Google is always right there to help, people expect accurate answers and instant help whenever they have questions or problems.
Where might you have old or outdated information on your website? Be sure that Google is sending people to the 2018 versions of your event information when people search for your event name, for example, not to years past.
How can you make answers easier to find and your staff more accessible?
What This Means for You
I recently gave two keynote presentations on these three “effects” and their impact on online fundraising in general and peer-to-peer fundraising specifically. My message included a warning that while nonprofits may not be online titans like Amazon, Facebook, and Google, you are operating on the playing field they created.
For better or worse, you are expected to play by the expectations they’ve set. Identify some easy fixes to your online experiences and work on those first, while budgeting time and money to work on the harder elements later.
I’d love to hear what you think about these trends in the comments!
