3 key areas Nonprofits should invest in 2021
Effective communications, Online donation infrastructure, and Data security should be the focus areas for Nonprofits
2021 is already four days old. Time is funny. Anyway, now that we are in a new year let’s face it.
Last year one of the good things that happened was my introduction to the Nonprofit space. Initially, I wasn’t interested in working in the space because the sector pays peanuts and the whole donation mindset never excited me.
Anyways 2020 got me excited about the dimension of Digital or Online Fundraising for Nonprofits. (That’s why 2020 - Thank You! ) So much that I gained clarity that I would like to dedicate the rest of my life to working with Nonprofits and enabling digital fundraising for them.
Clarity comes at a cost. My traffic became half because I was writing about Digital Fundraising - a boring subject but I found greater peace in doing so. And every time I can’t pitch a personal anecdote to justify a data story.
This also meant that I refused to work with agencies. Not being arrogant but it has been a tough call especially when your bank keeps reminding that its been months without any salary deposited into my HDFC Salary Account.
Thanks to my dad, who would smile and say keep working hard and don’t worry about the result.
P.S. In 2021 I have chucked clarity. I am open to work on anything and for anyone. Peace won’t pay my bills. So if you have any opportunity that I can add value then please ping me - prasantnaidu@gmail.com
Okay back to my story.
My shift to the Nonprofit space happened at an interesting junction - First, the pandemic hit the sector forcing everyone to adopt digital and second the Indian government going hard on the Indian Nonprofit sector. The BJP led NDA government hasn’t been too happy with the way international funds have been flowing into the Nonprofit world.
In other words, the Indian Nonprofit sector will have to look for new sources of funding beyond the regular ones, and approaching the common man via digital is one of the ways.
Whether you accept it or not digital fundraising will co-exist with other modes of funding. But till we discover the perfect time for “post-pandemic” digital is the savior.
Generally, with any new medium, marketers run around like a headless chicken. The same happened with TikTok in India, then it got banned and marketers were left clueless. With a new year sitting right on the face and budgets being decided I was flexing my mind muscles to find the key areas a Nonprofit should invest or focus on.
So here are the three key areas Nonprofit should invest in 2021.
Effective Communications
Before you ask for money from donors, tell them why should they donate. This is a simple logic that everyone gets it but I fail to understand why Nonprofits keep ignoring it.
Communications will create the difference and the missing trust in the donor’s mind.
Trust has been a big factor for people keeping a distance from Nonprofits. I have already shared my thoughts on the same while discussing - Is the average Indian giving.
Communication should be divided into two layers:
One before asking for money, telling donors the WHY. Let’s talk more than just donating for a good cause. This is where your organisation's “Value Proposition” will come into play. Courtney Gaines shared extensively on donor relationship, value proposition, donor-centric mindset while talking to me last year.
Second, starts when you have received the donation. Most Nonprofits go silent once they receive money. Irrespective of the donation amount as a Nonprofit, it is your responsibility to keep the donors in the loop. From telling them how the money is being used to the impact the donation is creating.
If you speak to any fundraiser, Donor Retention is one of the challenges she is always dealing with. I see communication as a crucial deciding factor. In fact, these days every Nonprofit is talking about Recurring Donations. Again the whole concept lays on the basis of trust and effective communication is the only remedy.
Online donation infrastructure
Once the donor has made up his mind for donation, the last thing you want to do is make it impossible for him from a technical aspect.
This again has three major aspects:
The donation page where the donor initiates the donation after filling in the personal details. Make sure you ask the donor only relevant personal information and don’t end up asking about marital status. Besides being an online donation, people are scared because it is their hard-earned money so provide the required security assurance.
Integrating a reliable payment gateway is expected. Make sure you test the payment process at your end and do it from time to time. It is not rocket science but will save donor frustrations.
“How hard it should be for you to just visit your own website to just click on the link and test the donation process,” said Eric Practum. Talking to me in an extensive interview he had informed me, “Last year 8% of nonprofits had a donation page either didn’t work or when you click on the donate button it ended up into a 404 page. This year the percentage is around 5% or 6%.”
Finally, think mobile-first. If you don’t then dig a grave for your organization. Don’t spend your money on another celebrity endorsement or campaign idea but push that money into developing a mobile-first website. Meanwhile, you can integrate third-party fundraising platforms but don’t rely on them. Most don’t share the donor details which makes no sense as you will not be able to communicate with your donors.
Strengthen data security
Recently, it was reported that “The personal details of a database of 125m records, including 930,000 email addresses of US students were exposed to hackers after a database was left unsecured by Get Schooled, an education charity set up by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Viacom.” The incident occured when the Nonprofit overhauled its website.
Mid last year when the US was battling the pandemic, People Inc., one of western New York's largest non-profit agencies, revealed a data breach that has exposed sensitive medical information belonging to 1000 current and former clients.
The first compromised account may have permitted entry due to a weak password and could have been susceptible to a brute-force attack, as People Inc. said that a password reset was enough to secure the email account. The second account was disabled outright.
And then there was the massive data breach at Blackbaud - the world’s leading software provider that serves the social good community.
Not just Nonprofits, even bigger brands have ignored cybersecurity time and again. But we can’t ignore it anymore and now is the best time to review all the securities in place.
According to DonorBox, small non-profit organizations can make attractive targets for hackers both because they may have valuable data on donors and because resources are so limited that cybersecurity often falls by the wayside.
After reading numerous reports, articles, and listening to sharp minds I believe that online fundraising is an ongoing process or program. It is not your campaign idea for engagement spikes. I believe both are required but to gain compound results one needs to invest in the above three for effective digital fundraising.
For more tactical inputs on digital fundraising, read - Digital Strategy Guide for Nonprofits.