Technology has assumed an important role in better, more effective fundraising - but what is ahead?
We acknowledge that adapting to the new technology requires
a significant expenditure to re-train staff — to make them comfortable with new vocabulary and different approaches to conducting business.
In this issue of Funding Solutions, we highlight two specific areas for all non-profit agencies to address and budget for in the immediate months ahead.
The dramatic increase in the number of non-profit organizations has more than mirrored the spectacular increase in the levels of philanthropic giving in the United States in the past two decades. And most of this growth has taken place in the context of the digital generation. Who can deny the incredible impact of computers — and especially the speed of the Internet — on making ours a very fast-paced life-style?
Every major corporation today is dependent on its Web site, its Internet and Intranet capabilities, and other high-speed forms of communication. Most major retail operations have created Web sites that enable consumers to shop 24 hours per day, seven days a week. And professionals, such as lawyers, accountants, and even physicians, are literally changing the ways they function, based on new technologies that enable them to offer their skills and expertise better and faster.
The "final frontier" for utilizing the new technology appears to be non-profit organizations. Why the lag time in the non-profit sector? There are a number of factors, with cost being the primary reason. Buying new computers represents a significant investment; many non-profits receive older, hand-me-down computers from their for-profit volunteers and supporters. These individuals regularly replace outdated hardware in their offices, stores and factories and receive legitimate tax deductions for donating old equipment, but without full benefit for non-profit agencies.
1. How does your organization manage its campaigns and donor records?
Campaign management is much too complex to continue to use index cards and makeshift software. Every donor record for every campaign is an important piece of information that cannot be taken lightly. It is confidential in nature, and it also has important implications for project implementation and for future support for the agency.
We are amazed that so many non-profit organizations have paid so little attention to record keeping and other aspects of managing campaigns. Today, it is possible for every non-profit organization that seeks financial support to have adequate software for everyday use. User-friendly, low-cost, complete software packages are readily available.
Why do so many non-profits delay or avoid upgrading to new software, even if cost is not a significant factor? Fear of new technology! Too many choices! The frustration of the learning curve!
And some organizations believe that homemade software will suffice or a simple spreadsheet in WordPerfect, Word, or Excel will be adequate! After all, it may have worked ten years ago. Why not today?
The reality is simple: the impact of donors' expectations on campaigns today (and in the future) are too complex, and require much more technological savvy than you can learn by hit or miss. Information technology is a profession, not a hobby, and no business — for-profit or non-profit — can survive without mastering it.
The EHL Consulting Group encourages every organization to rethink record keeping and campaign management on a regular basis. Recognize that what worked five years ago many not be adequate next year — or even tomorrow. Accept the fact that a successful organization must have up-to-date software and trained users as components of effective fundraising today.
2. Using the Internet effectively means more than just having a Web site and "talking" in e-mails.
Non-profit organizations have been extremely slow to create their own powerful Web sites and to take advantage of the power of the Internet. We believe that donors can visit an organization's Web site for timely information that can be compelling and persuasive. But the Web site also opens doors of communication: from the agency to the donor as well as from the donor back to the agency. Too many organizations view their Web sites as passive, promotional vehicles. And without a webmaster in charge, organizations fail to update their information frequently and adequately. We even see situations where non-profits have allowed teenagers who volunteer their time to create Web sites!
Creating an effective Web site and managing it require an investment of time and professional expertise. Each non-profit must establish a Web site that communicates its own individual philosophy, programs, and "business" to donors, constituents, and potential friends. This cannot
— and must not be — an amateur's learning experience!
At EHL Consulting, we are so committed to enabling organizations to take advantage of the power of the Internet that we have partnered with an outstanding provider of web-enabled services, Localvoice.com. We encourage all organizations to incorporate the Internet into their fundraising efforts.
Because so many of our client organizations are faith-based organizations, schools, community centers, social service and cultural entities in the American Jewish community, we have
even gone one step further and have re-branded this effort Jewishare.com© (trademark pending), a targeted service designed to benefit Jewish organizations.
Today, many people have become comfortable in using web-based e-mail, banking and retailing services. These same individuals can be equally comfortable using the web as a vehicle for donations to non-profits. The numbers are very telling: use of the Web, e-mail and the Internet is increasing exponentially. This increases pressure on all non-profits to respond with current technology, and to use their imaginations — to tell their stories compellingly and to communicate well with donors.
Now, more than ever before, we see that donors' expectations will drive all non-profits to join the digital generation and to use the information carefully and strategically . . . so that more philanthropic dollars are secured to benefit the legitimate causes that continue to move our society forward
