Trent Riker – CEO – Pursuant Group

Today’s article comes from Trent Ricker. Trent (@TrentRicker) currently leads Pursuant as chief executive officer, where he brings more than 20 years of senior management and consulting experience, with a heavy emphasis in the nonprofit sector and emerging fundraising technology. He is actively involved in client fundraising strategy development with a pronounced emphasis in the nonprofit application of business intelligence services.

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The digital landscape has completely changed the way nonprofits engage today’s donors. In many ways, it has created more challenges. In other ways, it has created new opportunities.

What was once limited to a few key channels has exploded to include social media, online shopping, social gaming, new entertainment platforms, and mobile devices. This vast new marketing landscape has created some complex challenges for organizations aiming to connect with individuals.

While changes in technology may have created more channels and splintered audiences, they have also created new opportunities for marketers to personalize messages and reach people directly.

How to Optimize Donor Engagement in Today’s Digital World 

So how do you effectively engage donors in an increasingly noisy world? Here are four principles you should put into practice.

• Use data to inform your donor engagement strategies and decisions. Advances in data, modeling, and analytics allow precise measurement and management of customer/donor decisions and more targeted spending.
• Create exceptional experiences for your donors. Marketers today can go beyond traditional messaging to directly shape the customer experience and the development of customized products and services. Share relevant information that is consistent with the needs, obstacles, and questions of the people you want to reach.
• Create an “omni-channel” experience that consistently engages your audience across every channel. This is important for communicating your meta-narrative and driving deeper levels of understanding. The ways to tell a story are morphing continually, drawing on richer digital interactions and more powerful communication tools.
• Balance effectiveness and efficiency. Relationships aren’t efficient—they are mandatory for building capacity to advance your mission. Be patient. Let your donor move at his or her own pace. At the same time, the more you can define your processes and develop predictable habits, the quicker you can maximize marketing opportunities as they arise.

The fundraising landscape has changed and the expectations of today’s donors have changed. As nonprofit leaders, you must embrace these new realities. You must find ways to overcome the challenges they create and maximize the new opportunities that exist. The future of your organization depends on it.

What are some ways your organization is adapting to the new rules of donor engagement in today’s digital world?