Meet Eric Pratum - father of two young kids and a decade-plus experience in fundraising for nonprofits.
He also has a pretty uncool LinkedIn title: “I’ve been everywhere, man.”
These days on LinkedIn - lockdown experts, work from the home ninja, and empathy experts are some of the cool titles.
After being in touch with Eric for three months over the Internet, earlier this week I finally got a chance to have a long conversation over a wide range of topics including the pandemic, the politics around the pandemic, why he believes that it is very difficult to find people who can disagree as humans and of course online fundraising.
“Roughly I have lived in 3 countries, 15 states and moved into 20-25 houses. I have moved a lot and also had a talent for language. When I was in high school I studied German and Spanish. During my college, I went for German as my degree, along with French. I completed my master’s with both languages. So I have been fortunate to travel, live, learn the different languages and cultures,” says Eric while joining me over an early morning video conferencing call.
He plans to start his traveling diaries in the next two years or so. By then his younger kid will be a bit old. His wife wants to cherish traveling too. And definitely by 2022, we will have the vaccine. If not before the forthcoming US elections.
2 weeks ago, I approached Eric to check if he would be interested in having a conversation with me. To my surprise, he said yes. This isn’t the first time he has surprised me by his humane nature.
June 2020, I randomly I covered a report - State of NonProfit 2019. The report was conducted by Bigwidesky, a human business consultancy firm ( it is pronounced as three separate words: Big Wide Sky)
Eric the major brain behind the report not only spoke to me on LinkedIn but also had a 30-minute video conversation. It is quite rare to find people who are willing to have free-flowing conversations without any agenda.
Over the last few months, we have exchanged emails and the pandemic always found a space. So when Eric joined the call at 8:00 A.M. CDT from his home office, the first 15 minutes were spent discussing the situation in the US and India and the underlying problems of the pandemic.
With 60 minutes in my hand, I shifted the course of the discussion to the nonprofit world.
To begin with, I was curious to find what motivated Eric to join the nonprofit world. I was hoping for some drama but there isn’t one. “In 2008 by accident I went to the first Twitter conference since the owners of the social media agency couldn’t go. The event gave the audience a chance to speak about different topics for a minute or so. I submitted a topic on how a big nonprofit was using social media. The topic was selected, I gave a quick talk and in the evening I met a guy who was running digital for a nonprofit. Six months later he joined the largest fundraising agency and I was looking for a new role. So the next thing I knew I was hired. Just that two people couldn’t end up going to a Twitter conference, I ended up into the serious business of nonprofit.”
“I never had a plan to raise money for a cause or helping people get off the street or poverty or drug addiction. It just happened by accident.”
Eric has spent more than a decade in the nonprofit sector. Understanding both worlds of fundraising - traditional and online. If Grizzard Communications gave him the initial opportunity to implement his digital knowledge, Bigwidesky has made him the complete marketer.
By this November it will be 2 years for Eric at Bigwidesky where he has been responsible for marketing and communications.
“By the end of 2018, I was looking for a new opportunity and I came across a job posting by Bigwidesky on LinkedIn. The agency was looking for someone to integrate different disciplines with digital and I fit the bill,” remembers Eric.
Like any business, the conversations post-pandemic has changed for good and bad. The case isn’t different for Bigwidesky. “Most of the clients today expect consistency and higher levels of flexibility. While things are changing at a faster pace on the ground, my clients know that they can come and expect us to be the rock. At the same time, because the budgets are changing, countries are opening and closing back some clients don’t seem to be flexible themselves and go by the contract.”
Today the agency has been working with nonprofits that are into faith, funded by the government, and nonprofits that run on a subscription model.
In addition to this Eric has been involved in publishing two large reports to understand the state of nonprofits. The one they did in 2019 selected 100 U.S. based nonprofits. “We made donations, signed up for email, followed them on social media, and opted into calls and text messages when offered.”
Eric and his team are working on a similar report that is going to be out by mid next month. I asked him if he can share some of his observations comparing the previous one.
Technical errors are consistent and they are not going anywhere replied Eric. “Even this year quite a few nonprofits had technical errors during the donation page or during the online donation process. 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%.”
To solve the budget issue, Eric remarks that nonprofits can allocate a certain budget to test out the donation process. “Either you eat the cost or budget the cost for the process. Additionally, if donation software can provide credit card numbers that can take care of the entire process without getting billed would be a great feature. That way you can see the entire process, the thank you page and you are not getting billed for the transaction.”
This year's report has some good enhancements on the communication front. He states it was surprising to see that few nonprofits called back or texted after a donation process to have a general conversation.
“Being able to have a conversation is immensely valuable. I think of the organization now. Compared to last year it was after 60 days of my donation, I received text messages and it was an automated text. So I see this as a positive change.”
Most of us would be quick in pointing that a small nonprofit can have the liberty to make personal communication. This is true but smaller nonprofits are already grappling with a lot of issues from funds to resources to knowledge.
Both Eric and I believe that in the end, it is the intent that is followed by technology and processes.
And just like that 60 minutes were over.
So before I finished I had to ask the most important question:
What are the major steps that a nonprofit should follow to initiate its online fundraising?
Quoting the thoughts of Darren Shaw, Eric says that today almost every business(brand/nonprofit) is an online business. “They might not have a website but they will have a Facebook page. They might not think that they were doing business online but they are online already. Like I said earlier online fundraising is anything that happens online and has an impact on fundraising.”
He further listed down the four important aspects that a nonprofit should focus:
Start with what you have: Rather than finding new ways of investing in new technologies, start with what you have in your hand. Do old school research. Find out where your employees are spending time and where are people talking about your organisation.
“Once you have done the basic survey, go out and invest in the platforms where you are being talked about. Rather than just opening up pages or accounts on platforms just because people are saying so.”
Website: To start with the basics of online fundraising one needs to put the best foot forward which starts with building a website. “If you are going to build a website, don’t build it with all ‘ME’ focussed. Your website, email, and social media caters to answer people's questions and address concerns.”
Communication: Additionally Eric also thinks that your organization should enable ample opportunities for communication. “Communication doesn’t always mean asking for a donation. For example, if you're a nonprofit feeding people then you can give me an option to signup for email. And your email communication should highlight the various aspects of work which could then seamlessly ask people to donate if they want to make an impact or support such a great cause.”
Next, when a donor is ready to take any action as a nonprofit you should be really clear with what is going to happen next. “If you are a small nonprofit and on click of the donation button you are going to take me to some other third-party donation platform that doesn’t look like your website. Just make it clear to the donor what is going to happen next and how the transaction is secured.
Deliver what you can: Finally, Eric says that we all know but we tend to ignore and run towards the fancy tools and trends.
“If you create an email program, you better be good at delivering an email experience. If you create social media accounts, you better be active in those places.”
By now I have added an extra 10 minutes to our conversation. Eric is cool but his dog has started stretching. A good indication to end our long conversation.
Before signing off he quotes Steve Jobs: “Do not try to do everything. Do one thing well.”
Thank You! Eric.