Digital Volunteer

You have decided to start on a hero’s journey. You have a passionate desire to learn how to harness disruption and innovate in completely new ways. Most importantly, you want to transform your nonprofit into a donor focused machine.

You are being introduced to new connected donors. You are seeing how they progress through a dynamic journey. You are discovering how they respond and behave at each moment of truth about your mission. Generation C’ers are different than their traditional counterparts. You can’t reach them through direct mail. Their phone numbers (remember land lines) aren’t published. They may or may not subscribe to your eNewsletter. You can only reach them if they choose to be reached. They are in control of who they do (or don’t) connect with.

We are learning that our donors are far more informed than we ever imagined. They are very, very sophisticated in their decision making. They are extremely savvy in their digital prowess. They have a capacity to multitask across multiple platforms and devices during the day and pick up right where they left off at night. We have to adapt to this new world.

We all want to improve the experience for our donors. We know that experience right now can be very disjointed. We yearn for our leadership to be innovative and visionary. We want it to be meaningful and not fanciful.

We have this sense that innovation starts with something perhaps simpler than transformation. We must go back to the basics of our mission and vision and align them with desirable outcomes and significant experiences.

We may need to invest in programs and services that our 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 that 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 you 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 you. 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 they 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.

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. Transformation follows vision.

Your 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?