Updated 10/6/23
Technology is always changing and it’s nearly impossible to keep up with every new privacy update or algorithm change. Your nonprofit staff is trying its best to keep up with rising trends in nonprofit technology to ensure your fundraising and advocacy efforts are primed to succeed. Understanding the dominant trends in nonprofit technology will help you raise more money and win more campaigns.
Despite public financial struggles and geopolitical unrest, nonprofit organizations can still drive significant fundraising results and social impact through inspiring everyday people to support worthy causes within the nonprofit sector around the world. According to the Charities Aid Foundation’s World Giving Index, which surveyed 1.3 million people in 125 countries, donors actually grew more generous during the pandemic. Next year, it’ll be time to keep that momentum going.
Nonprofit organizations and charities have expanded their digital fundraising efforts and found ways to connect with a whole new group of donors and supporters. So what’s next? Here are six trends in nonprofit technology that you’ll want to keep an eye on:
1. Inclusive Digital Marketing
Inclusive digital marketing and improved accessibility practices will be one of the most important trends to follow in 2024. All of your website copy, forms, social media, and other marketing should be fully accessible and welcoming to all.
Representation matters — in race, gender, class, and many other viewpoints. Whether they’re recurring or potential donors, your audience will be expecting these messages and visuals as they interact with you. A study by Adobe highlighted that 61% of Americans think diversity in advertising is important. According to Pew Research, Gen Z is the most diverse generation in history and future generations are only growing more diverse.
Focusing on accessibility and inclusivity within your digital transformation will help create more loyal advocates and supporters for years to come. It’s a nonprofit technology must.
2. Rise of SMS Messaging
With open rates of 99%, it’s no wonder SMS sending is being adopted by so many nonprofits as a core part of their marketing strategy. More and more national and community organizations are using SMS to drive action and raise funds within a time-bound campaign. And though email is still extremely important, SMS messaging doesn’t have to compete with hundreds of other promotional emails in an email inbox.
This highly personal form of communication is best used as part of your marketing automation journeys. But there can be too much of a good thing — you’ll see your opt-out numbers increase if you aren’t selective in quantity and quality of the SMS messages you send.
3. Alternative Payment Methods
Between cryptocurrency and peer to peer mobile payment services like Venmo, you have to wonder what the future looks like for supporter donations. (We won’t get into crypto just yet in this nonprofit technology overview, but there are already countless P2P mobile payment apps your donors likely routinely use for everyday purchases.)
In fact, more than 50 million Americans use Venmo in P2P transactions. Adoption of the app is only increasing among individual users, small businesses and organizations, and larger national charities. Other payment methods like Paypal, Stripe ACH, Zelle, Apple Pay and countless others are not far behind.
The social media factor behind these payment methods is integral to their rapid success and adoption. Fun captions and emojis often accompany each P2P transaction as it’s shared to the user’s social feed within the app. Consider fun ways to make use of this social space when making these payment methods a part of your fundraising strategy.
4. Connected Social Media
We all know social media strategy by now, right? You likely have a pretty good idea of what works on your organization’s channels or at least what you hope to do more of in the coming year. But have you really taken a step back to consider how much social media has changed since the onset of the pandemic? Yes, algorithm changes have made it harder for your content to be seen without a substantial budget, but there are other factors to consider for future campaign success.
Following the rise of remote work, the tie to social media is stronger than ever. There are over 4 billion social media users worldwide. It’s time to start thinking about how you can better monetize your social media engagement. Setting up a social commerce campaign within your social strategy will be extremely important in coming years. And with that eCommerce model, you’ll want to make sure all of your shipping and production employs sustainable practices — another important factor your donors and supporters will expect.
Outside of social commerce, don’t sleep on TikTok. The mega-popular app now sits comfortably at the top of app stores and is one of the most used social media platforms by the rising generation (though older generations are also taking to it quickly).
Social media is the primary way a large portion of your donor or supporter base stays connected with family, friends, and the causes and organizations they care about the most.
5. Personalization
We’ll call this one an oldie but a goodie. If you know nonprofit technology, it shouldn’t be news to anyone that personalization in nonprofit marketing has been on the rise for some time. But are you really capitalizing on the many opportunities your organization has to personalize donation forms for returning donors, next suggested gift, landing pages, emails and thank you communications?
Investing in personalization for your donor and supporter base will only create a more loyal, consistent audience for your future campaigns. 70% of Generation Z surveyed believe websites will eventually know what you are looking for automatically.
Now would be a good time to reference our sister company, Accessible Intelligence, which utilizes artificial intelligence for social impact. This smart technology tool integrates seamlessly with Engaging Networks and can tell you the most effective messages to send your donor segments, make recommendations on content that will resonate with these supporters, suggest the giving level and more.
6. Cybersecurity and Data Responsibility
The adoption of CCPA and GDPR in recent years has put increased attention on data responsibility practices. Only 39% of Gen Z say they trust organizations to keep their data safe, the lowest rate of any generation. Knowing this trend will only continue, now is the time to sure up your data governance policies.
There are larger cybersecurity tasks your IT team is likely focusing on, but consider implementing more commonplace practices in nonprofit technology, like single sign-on (SSO) and email list hygiene, as well as other responsible data habits. It’s also extremely important to have a dedicated page or blog on your website that explains your data governance or cookie policy.
Your winning digital strategy for 2024
The work your nonprofit or charity is engaged in is extremely important! We hope these nonprofit technology tips and trends help you raise more money and win more campaigns as you find creative ways to work digital technologies into your 2024 digital marketing strategy. Engaging Networks addresses a wide range of nonprofit technology solutions and will ensure your nonprofit’s success in the year to come.
