Embracing Accessibility and Alignment

Once a nonprofit has made the commitment to be a true donor-centric organization, they must then make decisions on systems and tools that enable that decision. 

For some, my point of view may be a controversial one, but I think it’s grounded in sound principles and logic. I’m not discounting the mission or value proposition. For the sake of this discussion, I’m assuming it’s well done. Attracting new online donors, delighting them, and asking for deeper engagement is largely based on the donor experience. Unfortunately, nonprofits have spent too much time and capital investing from an organization/database mindset. Now I certainly believe databases are important, and most nonprofits need a modern one that’s easy to use. I just don’t think it’s the most important decision for today’s nonprofit. As a technologist for over thirty years, I’ve never been more convinced that the investment in donor experience is more important than ever.

For far too long, nonprofits have settled for a “get the job done” approach, when the entire world has fast-tracked towards creating experiences for their customers/donors that delight and engage them.

 I like to describe it as the difference between a plain exercise bike and a Peloton. Exercise bikes can “get the job done” but often end up being a place to hang clothes. However, Pelotons get used on a much more consistent basis and create the desired result on a much more consistent basis. It was because it was designed for delight and engagement. 

Unpacking this in our world, there are many examples of great execution in the for-profit world. Can you imagine if Amazon managed separate customer systems for all of their businesses? I would have an Amazon merchandise account, an Amazon movie account, and Amazon book account. Each account would have a different “check-out” experience, different password, different user portal, and the inability to track all of your Amazon activity without “reconciling” all your account activity. And what’s worse, I might have three different user experiences. Maybe my book checkout has four steps and my movie account has seven. Can you imagine my frustration? And how quickly do you think they would have ramped their success if that was the case. Now this may sound silly, but it’s what I see nonprofits do every day. They select a web giving system from one company, a P2P from another, a text from another and an event system from another. They’ve created a different donor experience, a separate donor account, and on top of that, a different branded experience.

While we’re talking about the donor, think about the Frankenstein back office you’ve created for yourself. Different accounts for customer service to manage, different payment gateways to reconcile, and different systems to learn for your team. There’s a better way and that’s what we’ve done at iDonate. A fundraising suite of products built and aligned to work together from day one. Stop stitching things together that don’t delight them and create nightmares for your team in the back office.

It’s time to embrace systems that embody this principle and start your journey for delighting your donors.

In summary, focus on the donor experience first. Make those investments your priority. And when selecting tools and infrastructure, make sure you have a unified and holistic approach to your toolset. Don’t make the hard decision to be donor-centric, then go backwards with tools that don’t enable that. When you get this right, you can start to offer Connected Giving Experiences that increase donor retention and drive deeper engagement.