A report on how fundraising is being transformed by mobile technology.

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Powerinthe
PalmofYourHand
A SPECIAL FUNDRAISING TECHNOLOGY REPORT BY PROGRESSIVE MEDIA GROUP INC.

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Fundraising Technology Report:
Power in the Palm of Your Hand
by Peter Zehren, XMPA
Everything Mobile
Most of us see and connect with the world through our phones. Every day technology offers us
new ways to shop, locate a restaurant, fact check or kick in a few bucks to a friend raising funds
for a cause. Steve McLaughlin, Blackbaud Director of Analytics says this year “…we’re really
seeing the emergence of mobile from a donor perspective.” He adds, “Research at the end of
2014 showed 10% of online gifts happen on a mobile device.”
Donor Perfect Vice President of Fundraising Products Jon Biedermann agrees mobile gifts are
increasing; but he cautions, “The real challenge with mobile is…your donors are over the age of
65 and can’t see their phones so they’re going to make donations back at the office on a large
screen.” Biedermann is quick to remind us online donations comprise only 6% of all giving with
mobile only 10% of that.
When asked if nonprofits have a choice in whether or not to use mobile, Joel Hill, Director of
Development for iGiveHere admonishes, “It’s really one choice, going the route of mobile. If you
haven’t done it now, that train has left the station.” Hill continues, “The millennial demographic,
20-40 year olds, that’s who the nonprofits should be targeting, …don’t do anything without
phones.”
No matter what demographic you’re targeting, McLaughlin (Blackbaud) agrees, “Mobile is no
longer an option—newsflash.” Research at Blackbaud shows, “a website that’s responsive to
mobile devices combined with a responsive donation form has a 34% higher conversion rate.”
Caryn Stein, Vice President of Communications and Content at Network for Good says they’ve
seen a spike in mobile giving. She points out, “Even if you don’t have a mobile strategy, you’re
mobile if you’re sending email, or on social media because that’s where people are using these
tools.” With around 50-60% of all emails opened on phones, Stein suggest nonprofits should be
mobile friendly in messaging and where they’re sending donors.
Erin Shy, VP, Product Management and Product Marketing for Abila, says being mobile friendly is
about responsive design—for staff as well as donors, “Everything you can do on a laptop you can
do on an ipad, you can do on a mobile phone and that’s it. Giving you that toolset wherever you
are and not being chained to your desk.”
Analytic Aftermath
Cloud-based tools may free you from the desk, but they complicate our world with a myriad of
analytics. While it may be hard to discerning which way to go, Sanky Communications Owner
Harry Lynch says “with the tracking and analytics online …[you can] trace someone through their
entire online experience—where they start, where they end up, where they act—and there’s real
data to show value for organizations acquiring donors online.”
Technology provides data mining and allows us to put all these connections together. Something
we couldn’t do five years ago. And “…it’s technology that’s available for everyone,” according to
Bloomerang Vice President of Marketing Steven Shattuck. “There’s a lot of tools helping smaller
nonprofits especially do things only large corporations could do; things like data insights,
segmenting and personalization that are so critical to effective fundraising.”

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A new feature to track website visits was launched by Bloomerang this year. Shattuck says the
tool will, “…give insights about what donors are looking at and how often they check out your
website before making a donation.” These analytics can give insight and direction to hone page
optimization.
Once someone visits your webpage you can re-market them by placing ads on sites they visit
next. Corporations have done this for years, but it’s now becoming affordable for nonprofits,
especially through FaceBook, Yahoo and Google Ads.
Sanky Communications Executive Vice President and Creative Director Paul Habig reports,
“These channels have proved their efficacy…paid-per-click advertising, search engine marketing,
ads on Google and Yahoo, those have been pretty successful for the last ten years.” Habig
recognizes, “The challenge now is how do we get everybody to do this on mobile.” Habig says
FaceBook with its billion followers is doing well but Google and Yahoo haven’t figured it out yet.
Platform Panacea
Social media, email, crowdfunding or peer-to-peer, auction sites and donation pages are just
some of the platforms available to nonprofits. Amid all these choices Ken Miller, President of
Denali Fundraising Consultants, suggest nonprofits start by determining if using technology is the
right place to spend time and resources.
If so, Miller recommends four strategies:
1. “Get the best website you can.
2. Spend time setting up Google (Google nonprofit, Google grants and Google analytics).
3. Make sure you have a good FaceBook presence because it’s an opportunity to drill down
to specific, tailored demographics within the platform.
4. [Focus on] acquiring email.”
Has email replaced direct mail? Interestedly, Ahern Communications Ink President Tom Ahern
admits direct mail will eventually go out of business, not because of mobile, but “…because
postage will kill it.” He adds wherever you connect with donors it all boils down to having effective
touch-points, “…anyplace a donors eyes and the organization cross paths.”
Today, those paths may not be through typical channels, according to Shattuck (Bloomerang).
“You’ve got social media, peer-to-peer, etc. and nonprofits need to keep up on that. It’s a brave
new world and there’ll be something next month that we hadn’t thought of.” However, Shattuck
believes, “Jumping on every channel can waste a lot of effort and money.” Target constituents
and then invest in platforms they use.
Targeting various online platforms may work extremely well for an organization. For example:
Pinterest might be a great cultivation tool for an arts organization, YouTube can highlight
humanitarian programs in the field, and crowdfunding may work well for reaching a university’s
alumnae.
Kimbia builds templates to help organizations launch peer-to-peer pages. Senior Principle
Fundraising Strategist Miriam Kagan says crowdfunding is particularly good for foundations, big
umbrella organizations with affiliates and institutions of higher education. Kagan points out
universities can tap into alumni on several levels, “There’s loyalty to your class, school and clubs
you participated in. All of that can create a great friendly competition element for crowdfunding
days.”
While traditional fundraising focuses on one person’s capacity to give, Blackbaud Digital Strategy
and Operations Executive Andrew Shoaff says, “Crowdfunding is not about net-worth, it’s…about
the network. The size, scale and strength of a person’s relationships become far more important
than their capacity to make an individual donation.”

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Imaginative Integration
Abila Senior Product Manager of Digital Fundraising Rich Dietz reminds us its not just mobile, it’s
being cloud based for ease of access. Dietz says, “mobile responsiveness means fundraisers
have data in the palm of their hands when they need it. They’re about to meet with some donor;
they pull them up on their phone and get pertinent information. It gives them that ability to react
quicker.”
In addition to reacting in the field, integrated technology can create a seamless donor experience
that increases revenue; just look at the corporate sector. “We need to look at corporate platforms
like Amazon, Apple and other industry leaders for solutions, inspiration and innovation,” according
to Ray Gary, CEO of iDonate.
Gary advises nonprofits to provide various ways to make giving easy, “With so many smart
phones in peoples hands you don’t want people pinching and zooming and trying to figure it out,
you need a mobile friendly giving page.”
Yet a study done by Dunham Company and Next After revealed less than 50% of all nonprofits
have a mobile friendly giving page.
Most software platforms are mobile friendly. For example DonorPro’s CRM (Customer
relationship management) provides total data functionality that integrates modules for events,
auctions, volunteers and membership. Sales Executive Shannon Arnold says, “DonorPro CRS is
our content management system for the website…[where] we can build online event registration,
membership and volunteer sign up pages, any webforms as well as full public facing websites
(and micro sites) as well.”
Responsible Roadmap
Targeting mobile and online constituents has become more challenging, according to Lynch
(Sanky). He points out, “Online giving is a mature channel with a dizzying pace of change. You’re
fighting more competition, there are more channels, more tools that are flying at you.”
That competition includes the corporate sector. “Even though charitable giving is a $316-billion
industry, giving as a percentage of personal disposable income has been stuck at 2% for 40
years,” according to Gary (iDonate). He says iDonate developed a unified platform because they
were, “…looking for ways to unlock generosity and move that 2%.”
Stuck or not, online donations topped at $23 Billion last year with a 8.9% growth rate, nearly
double the 4.5% growth rate for all donations. With all the channels and options online Lynch
(Sanky) believes, “the big question for nonprofits is: What really does make sense for you? How
should you spend your limited budget, resources and time?” Lynch adds separating good ideas
from bad can be a real challenge.
The biggest challenges, according to Miller (Denali) are “Lack of knowledge, lack of application,
lack of a goal, lack of analytics, metrics and … a lack of donations in the bottom line.” He
maintains nonprofits need to have a plan to navigate which options will best reach your donors.
Back-end Bliss
Nitin Khosla, Business Development Executive with FrontStream, reports it’s important to, “…
integrate systems, like peer-to-peer, online and workplace giving with CRMs (Customer
relationship management systems)…that speak to one backend.” If a donor is forwarded to
another page that doesn’t look like your site to give, donation rates drop.
However, taking donors to another site is crucial to “control the security and privacy donor
information of as well as the nonprofit,” according to Stein (Network for Good). Although pages

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cannot be embedded, Stein ensures their customizable pages allow nonprofits to “…come in at
any time and customize the look and feel of pages with their own branding, images, colors fonts
and language as well as all of the donation options.”
Arnold (DonorPro) says DonorPro offers two interfaces for, “…two types of uses. The heads
down user, data heavy people…managing the back-end, running the reports, managing the
queries, batch entering gifts.” Arnold says ‘heads down’ people are more comfortable on a
desktop where multiple screens can be opened.
DonorPro Go accommodates the second type of user with a browser-based mobile interface for
major gift officers and board member who’re never in the office. Arnold underscores the interface
allows them to, “…pull up information on a donor and have it in their back pocket, or add a quick
note to a record.”
Fundraisers Future
What does the future hold? According to Stein (Network for Good), we’re seeing new
combinations, like social and mobile coming together to drive giving days and peer-to-peer
fundraising. Stein says, “The explosion of social media and mobile technology…enables anyone
to become a fundraiser, that democratizes fundraising.” In an era where anyone can fundraise,
what does that mean for the profession?
Kagan (Kimbia) agrees the profession is getting blurred, “Everyone is ‘fundraising.’ I want to open
a bagel shop; I’m going to fundraise money for it; but it’s not really charity. Everybody’s giving
money to me as a small investment…but it’s not a charitable deduction.”
Kagan believes the biggest challenge facing fundraisers today is this blurred concept of
fundraising, “With crowdfunding fundraising becomes more ubiquitous and nonprofit’s have to
fight to re-own that word [fundraising].” She adds donors don’t really see the difference between
micro investing through crowdfunding and giving to a nonprofit cause, “Fundraising has been
highjacked”
While mobile technology makes our work easier, it also opens windows for donors to fundraise.
Fundraisers have to meet people where they’re at segmenting approaches and appeals. As
marketing guru Seth Godin told an audience of 4,000 fundraisers recently, “the average has
flattened. More people are interested in niche markets, you have to segment messages to them.”
Our job is to use technology to tap into those micro-segments. And realize that technology, for all
of us, puts power in the palm of our hands.
Biography:
Peter Zehren, XMPA of Zehren Consulting is a fundraising consultant who has staged major
appeals of all kinds, working with and on boards to raise millions for various causes. He holds an
executive master’s in public administration from Baruch, NYC. Peter serves on the AFP of
Southeastern Wisconsin as the VP of Communications and on the membership committee of
Community Shares of Greater Milwaukee.
Peter consults for various nonprofits and has been Vice President of Development at several
organizations in New York City. His career includes establishing grant funding and partnerships
with fortune 100 companies (Chase, Citi, Bank of America, MetLife, Prudential, Deutsche Bank
among others).
In 2010, Peter traveled to India as a United States Delegate representing the nonprofit sector and
sharing best practices with NGOs. He has spoke/presented at 2014 BoardSource Leadership
Forum, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee. His work in
public radio journalism has won various awards from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting and
the Wisconsin Broadcaster’s Association to awards for his work in Canada.