Wonder what the next big shake-up in the fundraising world is going to be so you can prepare and stay ahead of the curve? Frogloop asked some of our favorite fundraising experts to weigh in on this conversation. They looked into their crystal balls and conjured up some great predictions plus a dose of "oldie but goodie" advice that has continued to prove successful over the years in their fundraising initiatives.
The Fundraising Predictions
Sarah Dijulio, M+R Strategic Services: It could be one of a hundred things! Mobile apps that allow you to donate from your smartphone? Breakthroughs with Paypal and Amazon checkout on donation forms? The synchronized campaign that uses mobile text, direct mail, telemarketing, email, social networking and traditional media to create the perfect storm? Google Wave? The one-day, five email series campaign that raises tons of money? Mobile text fundraising for more than just emergencies?
Mikaela King, CDR Fundraising Group: There's going to be some really cool peer-to-peer fundraising tools coming out of Facebook Causes soon that will allow users to advocate and fundraise more easily for the causes they care about.
Eve Fox: M+R Strategic Services: I think the next big thing will probably be integrated mobile giving. I'm sort of surprised by the lag in real success using social networks for fundraising but the tools so far just don't support it well yet, whereas the text messaging companies are pushing mobile giving pretty hard and it seems to be beginning to have an impact.
Karin Kirchoff, Defenders of Wildlife: A world where channels aren't evaluated or even considered in a vacuum - in other words - the convergence of fundraising channels where each is intertwined with the next.
Good Old Fashion Fundraising
Mal Warwick, Mal Warwick Associates: Fundraising is a process, and its true rewards come only with time. That’s why it’s never wise to become wrapped up in the minutiae of any single channel, technique, or specialization. Online fundraising, for example, has to be seen as just as much a part of the overall development picture as major gifts or direct mail. No one who’s working in any one of these fields can maximize success without taking the other fields into account.
Mark Rovner, Sea Change Strategies: Never changing -- giant premium on authenticity and passion.
Madeline Stanionis, Watershed: Individual stories still work. Matching gifts still work. Email still works. And if you’re worried about over-messaging, you probably shouldn’t. You SHOULD worry about over-messaging if your messages are bad.
King also had some great "oldie but goodie" advice. "Email marketing is still the 800-pound gorilla of the online fundraising world. Relevant messaging to a high quality, sizeable list is where it’s at. It’s not sexy, but like duct tape, it gets the job done."
What do you think is on the fundraising horizon?
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