Digital Fundraising - an effective framework
Strategic and tactical framework guide for nonprofits that includes building a donor-centric organization and investing in organic mediums
Somewhere in the mid of November 2020, when Bengaluru was slightly getting cold in the early mornings and late evenings; Punit Modhgil pinged me on LinkedIn with an interesting opportunity.
He called me and wanted my help. He was in the mid of publishing the insightful Digital 2021 report. For his 10th edition, he was approaching people across the marketing and advertising industry in India to do stories on various topics.
Punit wanted me to do a story on the Nonprofit sector.
I was excited. One the Nonprofit space had kept me alive last year and the second Punit was requesting. I love to say no but Punit is a guy who makes a genuine effort to help people. He is not one of those who will comment on social media - “Commenting for greater reach.” He helps people even though he has no benefits. I envy him for this amazing quality and he speaks awesome Hindi.
Truth be told, I was lazy and hoping the team at Octane Research gets someone else and doesn’t chase me. But Punit and his team made sure that they got the article.
The article is in the report under the section “Expert Talk.” Did you notice it?
Okay, it isn’t a big deal. The article is just a summary of my learnings and observations from last year. So some or maybe most of the things might be repetitive.
Nonetheless, I am publishing it here once again.
There are two kinds of people - one who believes that the world will soon be back to normal as if the pandemic was a bad dream. Others are the ones who accept reality and try to live in the present. This article will add value only if you belong to the second kind. Be it people or organizations.
We are aware of the harsh realities the pandemic has thrown to us. The nonprofit organizations(NPO) is no exception. A recent report conducted by the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy in the months of April and May 2020 highlighted the growing concern of funding. NPOs primarily depend on CSR funding and are grappling with the highest order of anxiety.
The challenge is that the majority of CSR funds are being diverted to the immediate relief work, including the PM CARES Fund. Additionally, with a shrinking economy, it is obvious that the CSR budgets will be on the radar by the corporates. NPOs dependent on Indian philanthropists noted that bureaucratic structures and slow approval processes are bottlenecks.
This is where NPOs have to broaden their horizon of funding and look at individual giving. And digital is one of the ways.
According to the latest 2020 Global Trends in Giving Report, more than 50% of the participants opted for online donations. 52% of donors in Asia prefer to give online with a credit or debit card, up from 51% in 2018. 13% prefer bank/wire transfer, up from 9% in 2018. 8% prefer PayPal, down from 13% in 2018.
Pre-COVID-19 majority of NPOs have looked at social media as just a medium of engagement and getting virality. However, running campaigns and ads on social media isn’t digital fundraising.
Here is a simple guide for nonprofits who are interested in understanding the true nature of digital fundraising:
Strategic guide
Even before we ask for money from our prospective donors as NPO one needs to ask:
Is the cause bigger or the organization?
Why should someone give to your NPO?
The majority of donors really don’t care about the organization with the exceptions of large NPOs. They care about the cause and how the cause is making a difference to society. When an NPO communicates in the same language then it is trying to speak the language of the donor by being a donor-centric organization. So one of the tasks as an NPO would be transforming itself into a donor-centric organization. You are no more about the organization but about the cause, you are supporting.
When you start communicating this from all your respective mediums to your donors and non-donors then you are also addressing the second question from a strategic point - Why should someone give to your NPO?
Additionally, your donors will answer your NPO’s value proposition. So it makes more sense to be a donor-centric organization.
Tactical guide
Addressing the tactical side, an NPO should look at the assets that it owns on the Internet. Basically, they are:
Website + Donation Page
Blog
And Email
You don’t own social media
The top three are your owned assets and an NPO should concentrate on how to effectively use them rather than creating anxieties and problems for a prospective donor.
On digital there are two ways to converse with your audience - one is the classic storytelling way where content drives your initiatives and the second way is where the media budgets drive the campaign and content remains in the background.
I am an old school thinker and prefer content driving the entire initiative. In this case, it will be the blog where you communicate with the world how the cause is making a difference to society. It also informs your nondonors how they can support the cause.
Your blog becomes a strong tool for donor-centric storytelling.
Thanks to the pandemic and the growing problems of social media, Email is finally getting it’s due. There isn’t a better tool than email when it comes to one on one communication with your donors and non-donors. But don’t treat email as a broadcasting medium rather than a channel of personal communication with donors. How do you do it?
The answer lies in - segmenting your email database, building email user journeys, and having a content plan that matches with your overall content plan i.e. your blog
Finally is your website and the donation page. While your website will showcase to the world how your cause is making a difference, the donation page should provide the environment for a seamless donation. The donation page should not increase the donor anxiety by asking for unnecessary personal information, a donation page that works, and provides the security of safe translation.
The majority of NPO’s think that once the money is in their bank account, their job gets over by sending a tax statement and a monthly newsletter. Do you really think that relationships are built like this?
Just like a for-profit brand is judged on parameters like after-sales service, in an NPOs case the stakes are high how it treats a donor after that first payment.
How you build a relationship from here on will decide the donor transforming into a recurring donor and even advocating others to join the cause. You will need to bring the strategic and tactical mindset in synch and patience will play a huge role.
Here is my template of “Digital Journey” that I recently created for a nonprofit with an objective of effective digital fundraising.
Just like any other form of fundraising, digital fundraising takes time and won’t happen overnight. But if you lay the foundations of your digital fundraising properly it will give you compound returns in the coming years. Additionally, you will be investing in your own assets or organic mediums.