Written by Gerard Tonti, Senior Creative Developer at Salsa Labs
Nonprofits are using data and digital tools to bolster their missions. Learn about these useful online trends and how they can be implemented across sectors.
Even before the pandemic hit, people were already spending a lot of time online. In 2019, the average American spent 8.5 hours using the internet each day. And now, with in-person activities limited by social distancing recommendations, online tools have become society’s primary mode of interaction.
Businesses, associations, and nonprofits have gone virtual in order to successfully engage their audiences. To rise above the noise, all of these groups must adopt innovative strategies and new online tools. But with so many options available, it can be challenging to know which strategies will drive the most success.
In the nonprofit world, fundraising professionals have found creative, digital ways to cultivate relationships with donors and continue raising money. After all, even in a period of economic uncertainty, their missions are still critical, often even more so than before.
At SalsaLabs, we specialize in helping nonprofits leverage technology to engage supporters and fundraise effectively. Based on our experiences in the nonprofit sector, we’ve compiled a few tried-and-true online practices that any organization can take advantage of!
Forward-thinking nonprofit organizations are implementing new virtual strategies including:
These methods will also continue to offer benefits long after the current crisis is over. Let’s get started.
Even though nonprofit professionals such as yourself can’t interact with donors face-to-face, it’s still important to focus on donor stewardship and relationship cultivation. By hosting virtual events, you can make progress towards your fundraising goals while also connecting with your supporters.
Virtual events also have the advantage of being accessible to attendees in different geographic areas, allowing your organization to have a wider reach than with in-person events. Additionally, virtual events are typically less expensive to host than in-person events, since you won’t need to rent a venue, provide food, or set up decor. These benefits make virtual events a viable option even for “normal” times.
In recent years, there have been many new platforms that make holding virtual events possible and simple to manage. And now, these platforms have become more prevalent than ever.
Consider hosting one of these engaging virtual events that enable your nonprofit to establish community and unite supporters to drive your mission forward:
Each of these virtual events can help your nonprofit to create positive experiences for supporters and deepen your relationships with them. And there are plenty of other options to try out! Get creative and find new ways to engage your supporters as you plan your virtual event calendar.
Now, more than ever, your supporters are getting online via mobile devices rather than traditional desktop web browsers. A whopping 51% of worldwide web traffic comes from mobile devices!
Therefore, mobile responsiveness has become an important tool for organizations in all sectors. Visitors to your website should easily be able to navigate through pages, access key information, and complete their desired actions without needing to squint, zoom, or scroll too far.
To narrow it down even further for the nonprofit sector, a mobile-friendly website is critical to your fundraising efforts. According to Morweb’s guide to donation page design, 25% of donations are made on mobile phones. If your site has a poor mobile experience, you risk alienating potential donors and missing out on those contributions.
Make sure your website and donation pages are constructed with mobile devices in mind. If you’re using a modern CMS, there’s probably a mobile layout built-in already, but you’ll still want to confirm that everything looks right and functions properly on mobile devices. To do this, you can use built-in features on your CMS or your browser’s inspect tool (which you can access either through the menu or with a right-click.)
To create a user-friendly mobile experience, consider the following elements:
These tips will ensure that your website creates a positive user experience on all screen sizes. If visitors can easily find the information they’re looking for, they will be more likely to get involved with your organization and to make a donation.
Automation (especially in marketing efforts) helps nonprofits use time and resources most efficiently. Marketing automation tools allow you to send the right message, to the right person or group, at the right time, increasing the likelihood that your message will have its intended effect.
Plus, automation tech makes it possible to create segments of supporters and incorporate personalized content into each message. These practices will help your content resonate with supporters and lead them to feel more connected to your mission. Better connections lead to increased engagement and higher donations, online and offline.
Automation works best if you already have a well-informed marketing strategy in place. While software automation features can amplify and improve your messaging, it can’t understand your audience for you! If you already have a sound marketing strategy to build on, look for engagement software that includes marketing automation tools.
Automation tools can enable you to:
These strategies will allow your team to cultivate stronger relationships with supporters while saving time. Therefore, you can make a greater impact on your mission with less effort.
The foundation of any successful online strategy is data. From making sense of post-event data to analyzing recent social media metrics, an accurate understanding of your organization’s historical and current engagement data is critical.
Many successful nonprofits use powerful donor database software to make smarter decisions about fundraising campaigns and marketing plans. By knowing what has worked effectively (or suboptimally) in the past, it’s possible to make informed improvements to your overarching strategy.
As you determine how to leverage the data available into your CRM, there are several things to think about. Everything from a broad overview to small details can be analyzed to provide helpful information and context.
Consider incorporating the following types of data into your decision-making process:
Your donor management software should make it easy to view and export this data in easy-to-understand reports and visualizations.
TL;DR – Nonprofits are using digital engagement strategies, powerful tools, and data-based decision making to drive missions forward. These trends can benefit many organizations especially as we continue to spend more and more of our time online.
Gerard Tonti is the Senior Creative Developer at Salsa Labs, the premier fundraising software company for growth-focused nonprofits.
Gerard’s marketing focus on content creation, conversion optimization and modern marketing technology helps him coach nonprofit development teams on digital fundraising best practices.