Nonprofit Constituent Experience

Customer centricity and customer experience is often associated with steps that companies in the private sector can take to build closer relationships with their customers and to deliver products, services, and experiences that are designed with the customer in mind.

But customer experience excellence doesn’t just apply to the business world. Whether it is a customer, a client, a constituent or a donor, the strategy is the same.

As a Peppers & Rogers Group white paper points out, a growing number of governments, associations, and nonprofits around the world are adopting best practices from the business community and designing citizen-centric offerings and experiences for its constituents.

We have this sense that innovation starts with something perhaps simpler than transformation. Nonprofits must go back to the basics of mission and vision and align them with desirable outcomes and significant experiences for the donor or event participant. Nonprofits may need to invest in programs and services that donors may not even know they need yet.

Here is a summary of some of the things we know:

1. The new reality is the “connected donor” who is opening up new touch points for our mission.
2. How connected donors are influenced and influence isn’t anything like our traditional donors are.
3. Donors expect something different. They are aligning with our missions for different reasons than we think. Think quality of experience. Think about how we treat our employees and donors. Consider how sustainable the footprint we are leaving is visible. Obsess over engagement. This is what is important to our new donors.
4. The channels donors use may never cross other channels. They can be fully contained from beginning to end on one device in one network. My children will sit in front of a very nice iMac searching for content on their smartphone.
5. On the other hand, sometimes donors will hop channels. They may look something up on the web and call us. What they expect is a seamless experience. It must be integrated. We have to bring these donors with common goals together and intentionally design a seamless experience.
6. Connected donors value highly being valued. How can we find a new way express value and measure it?
7. What does it take to connect with connected donors?
   1. An understanding of how donors behave and what they prefer.
   2. Some ability to read between the lines and innovate programs and services.
   3. Define the donor experience and what it will look like across every channel and journey.
   4. A blueprint on how to change the philosophy, culture and technology to lead (champion) a new era of donor experiences and engagement.

Simply saying we need to change probably isn’t the most helpful statement. We know that. Change takes, at a minimum, at least two things. First, you really have to want to. Desire and aspiration are essential. Second, it takes determination, stamina, fortitude and sheer will. It all however starts with a vision for a new donor experience.

Most nonprofits are exploring new media, different technology, and alternative channels for better donor engagement. To start with vision may sound trivial. Without vision, I would advocate, there probably won’t be any significant transformation of the donor experience. Transformation follows vision. Our next step may be to be the one to press pause. We can easily fall into the trap of chaotically rushing to the next big thing with understanding “Why are we doing this?” Be the leader to stop and ask why?