Our newest study, The Next 10 Years in Digital Fundraising, has already been a big hit! This blog series is breaking down the numbers to take a deeper look at the overall trends represented. The first post in the series talked about the overall growth of digital fundraising, and the second predicted an increase in social media’s role. This post will discuss how smartphones will become increasingly important for digital fundraising, and which future channels donors might prefer.
Mobile is more important than ever before, and the nonprofit professionals agree. When asked which device would have the biggest growth for digital fundraising over the next 10 years, respondents overwhelmingly chose smartphones, with tablets as a distant second. As always, these predictions are founded in strong evidence from current trends. Data from The Custora E-Commerce Pulse found that mobile shopping on Black Friday accounted for 30.3% of all orders, a growth of more than 8% from last year. Giving Tuesday received 17% of online donations through a mobile device, further proving that donors and consumers are not just feeling confident giving online, but giving on their smartphones or tablets as well.
Related to this confidence in both general online and specifically mobile donation channels, we asked the nonprofit professionals what digital channel they expect donors to prefer to gather information about their favorite nonprofit 10 years from now. Behind websites, a significant number of respondents believed the answer might be something new we haven’t even heard of yet, followed by mobile applications.
This answer really shows that nonprofit pros are well aware of the rapidly changing nature of technology, but many still see today’s favorite information hub, the website as a long-term viable option for supporters.
Don’t fear! This uncertainty is nothing to worry about, so long as you take the right steps to ensure your nonprofit is optimized and responsive to any online channel. Blackbaud research indicated that websites with mobile responsive donation forms have as much as 34% higher conversion rates. That’s huge! Make sure your website design is responsive, and you’ll have no problem adapting to technological changes over the next decade. Also, we’ll offer some tips and tricks to stay up on technological and industry trends in part 5 of this series.
The next post in our The Next 10 Years blog series will talk about what nonprofit professionals are most looking forward to in digital fundraising.