This blog series is breaking down the numbers from our brand new, The Next 10 Years in Digital Fundraising report and is taking 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. Then, we discussed how smartphones will become increasingly important for digital fundraising, and what future channels donors might prefer. Now, we will talk about what the nonprofit professionals are most looking forward to in the digital fundraising industry over the next 10 years.
Responses to this question were somewhat evenly split, with the majority looking forward to tech-enabled two-way conversations between organizations and their supporters. Social media provides the perfect atmosphere for your nonprofit to interact with supporters and encourage conversation. Data from E-Marketer showed that nearly 75% of US marketers thought customer response management on digital channels was important. This means responding to tweets, replying to comments on your Facebook posts and generally making your followers feel like their voices are being heard. This is critical when managing social media, and should not be overlooked.
Other than conversations, the nonprofit pros indicated that innovation in platform technology was the second most anticipated change in digital fundraising, with grassroots fundraising through constituent led campaigns coming in at a close third.
Constituent led campaigns represent an interesting and exciting trend for the nonprofit sector, which is a topic that ties in closely with the increasing use of social and mobile channels demonstrated in our earlier posts. The ALS association’s Ice Bucket Challenge was such a huge hit because it was fun and customizable for supporters. It allowed them to raise money and get creative at home. One respondent added in our open response question, “The future will be local.”
Our final post in The Next 10 Years series will talk about how to stay ahead of these trends, as well as the prediction that people will give to a larger number of charities.