Being a Fundraising Organisation in a Digital World
What does a fundraising start-up and an established fundraising organisation have in common? They compete for the same resources, particularly when it comes to approaching individuals.
They collect money from donors, for instance private persons, and put it into projects that help people. To this day, established fundraising organisations still largely raise their funds in the real world. To approach new donors, they use bulk mailings, stand places and street campaigns - channels that proved to be successful in the past. Channels that bring calculable and assessable returns of investment.
The advantages of being small
However, the ways people with money to spend could be reached are ultimately changing. Fundraising start-ups may have an advantage because they more likely create a stronger online presence right from the start. They already communicate directly with their target groups through online channels. Ultimately, they mobilize resources online more easily.
I am familiar with the challenges of fundraising of start-ups and established organisations from my consulting activities. Being part of the managing committee of the fundraising start-up Wasser für Wasser I realize that the advantages above are only partly true. In the case of Wasser für Wasser, donations come from intermediaries in the real world, for example from local cafés and restaurants. They sell tap water at a low price. This money is then donated to the organisation. But how could it use online channels when its intermediaries are not online at all? The use of online channels is also one of the urging questions for a large, established fundraising organisation I am involved with as a consultant. How can they attract new donors online and maintain their relations? This is more than trivial as there is no generic “one fits all” approach.
Technological advancement ≠ digital strategy
Money and contact information of donors on the street can be easily recorded through technological tools, e.g. mobile apps. This may increase efficiency, but doesn’t bring any new donors. Even enabling donations via website does not necessarily increase funds. Switching the channel from offline to online donations is not a true change to a successful digital strategy. It won’t attract a completely new donor segment. The customer journey starts with awareness, not with donations.
Essential questions to develop a digital strategy can be: Where can I find my new donor segments? How can I get their attention? How can I win their interest? And how can I keep their attention to my programs? This is one of the hardest challenges for most industries: Real world strategies do not sell 1:1 in the digital world.
Informed donors will seek out programs that speak to them
Not only the channels are changing, but also the whole manner new donors are attracted. There is a new, increasing need of donors to learn more about the programs that receive their donations. Fundraising organisations will have to find new ways to bring people in need closer to the donors. The promise of a direct connection between donors and recipients will be a relevant argument since it increases the personal involvement of donors. By doing so, the distribution of aid will be more and more decentralized, but also the way marketing, PR and sales are done.
As Eric Schmidt and Lared Cohen from Google put it in their book “The New Digital Age”: “Rather than donating to the main office of the Red Cross or Save the Children, increasingly, informed and involved donors will seek out special and specific programs that speak to them directly, or they will take donations to smaller start-up NGOs that promise equivalent services.”
Basically, fundraising organisations should be intermediaries. Two-sided platforms. They are no longer hierarchical organisations but rather the connection between donors and recipients. They will definitely be more successful if they are able to restructure their processes and hierarchies. And it offers great opportunities for those organisations that are close to the people in need of help. They are able to use online options to generate a higher level of interactivity through videos or even live streams to their stories and give the audience good reasons to help. Successful organisations are giving specific reasons to donate, be it a specific purpose (school builds), specific formats (scholarship) or even specific persons (Humans of New York). The latter example also shows how an organisation understands to raise awareness right in their channel of a social network. The channel where people spend time, communicate and ultimately donate (without even being asked for donations).
Established organisations have to move fast. Indiegogo Life, Kiva, Start Some Good and many more platforms are ready to tell others’ stories.
(Photo: Lior Etter)