Summary: One of the biggest impediments to finding new fundraising options for nonprofits is often their refusal to adapt to a changing marketplace. As you might imagine, this can be an obstacle to growth and can stand in the way of discovering new, more efficient ways to raise money.
Fundraising for Nonprofits with MarketSmart
But the landscape is changing. Nonprofits can’t keep falling back on only the traditional methods of securing funding – be that through a fundraiser, with direct mail, or any of the traditional “tried and true” strategies.
This article will explain to you exactly why the competitive landscape is changing, and how new innovations in technology can help. Specifically, we’ll be looking at a new technology on the market called MarketSmart. MarketSmart is a “tech-enabled donor discovery” program, meant to assist nonprofits in finding the donor data that results in the most promising leads.
New Technology
MarketSmart: MarketSmart is a program that helps nonprofit organizations to identify potential donors. Through the use of surveys, it helps to identify potential donors who hold the values that would make them more likely to give to your nonprofit.
This software helps with the engagement, courteousness, and human element involved with asking for donations. It helps non-profits evaluate how much they should be asking for, and how to ask for it. This system is designed to make donors happier, and also inspires them to give more. Sounds great doesn’t it? But how exactly does this work?
How Does it Work?
MarketSmart helps a nonprofit focus in their energy on the donors that have the most potential to donate. MarketSmart is able to analyze where your efforts should be put to raise more money and maximize donations.
How this works is MarketSmart goes beyond the traditional metrics of evaluating donations, and actually asks the donor what they want. Using a donor survey, potential donors will rank your nonprofit on various factors which can help determine how likely they are to donate.
This is whatMarketSmartcalls their “tech-enabled donor discovery”. They are actually going right to the donors, and finding the ones that are most likely to be interested in your nonprofit, and to donate to your cause.
This is all done automatically, and research has shown that this is how donors actually prefer to initially interact with charitable organizations. Before they speak with someone, they would like to learn on their own whether that company actually represents their values.
Essentially, this service helps nonprofits generate the leads with the most amount of promise. Once these leads are available to the nonprofit, they can interact with these donors on their own and work to motivate a donation.
Relevant Considerations
In this section, we will examine a number of considerations that are very relevant to a nonprofit. These considerations are areas that MarketSmartcan help. You will see how MarketSmart can solve these problems by assisting with nonprofit marketing initiatives, donor relations, and especially with online fundraising.
Big Data vs. Little Data
Nonprofits have a tendency to overanalyze the numbers and get bogged down in all the big picture details for predicting future donations and making a fundraising plan.
MarketSmart helps nonprofits to shift attention away from this “big data” and focus on “small data”. Small data is simple data that goes right to the source. It asks real people how they feel about certain topics, and uses that to create real and actionable leads.
Donors Are Dwindling
Traditional methods are going to stop being as effective, simply due to it being a very different business environment.
Automation
Due to dwindling donor numbers, it can be more and more difficult to even find new donors in the first place. This is where automated programs like MarketSmart can come into play. It allows nonprofits to reach more people than they could on their own. It finds the donors who are actually interested in their mission, and allows the donors to have the freedom to come forward when they are actually ready to make a donation.
This simply offers adegree of scalability that you couldn’t get with your own research and outreach.
What’s Next for Fundraising?
The unfortunate trend for nonprofit leaders is that donors are likely to keep dwindling as they have been. This is due to a multitude of factors, including the American population becoming less religious overall (as religion was a primary indicator of a person’s likelihood to give), an aging Baby Boomer population, and more.
However, there is one encouraging factor in all this that can point toward why this shift might be an opportunity for nonprofits. This is that people are simply tired of being solicited to. They don’t want the traditional nonprofit fundraising campaign; the junk mail, the spam, etc. They see right through it and they crave a more individualistic approach.
This also speaks to why MarketSmart is an opportunity. It reaches the donor on a more individual level and allows the donor to have their say about what is important. It doesn’t tell them where they should donate, it asks them how they would like to donate.
Because, at the end of the day, people give to charity because they want that sense of value. They want to feel like they actually made a difference. So in an era where people are being bombarded by all types of charity advertising at all times, to the point where they don’t even know who they can even trust, it might be time for nonprofits to develop an approach that actually allows them to reach those donors’ value systems.
Key Opportunity
Nonprofits need to understand that the landscape is changing. To succeed in attracting donors, nonprofits need to shift their focus toward individual communications. Mass emails and spam are met with increased skepticism and doubt.
So, of course, to get that individual communication, you need to know who to actually reach out to, which is where programs like MarketSmart come into play. It helps nonprofits solve this piece of the puzzle by showing them the people they should be investing efforts in, and who they can communicate with directly. By focusing their attention in the right direction, the nonprofit organisation can raise money in a much more efficient manner, by partnering with donors who share their goals.
From there, nonprofits can form real relationships with donors through direct communication and individualized attention. People expect more from charities these days, and this strategy can help nonprofits to achieve that.
About The Host Stephen Halasnik, Financing Solutions
Stephen Halasnik is the host of the popular, The Nonprofit MBA Podcast. The Nonprofit MBA podcast’s purpose is to help nonprofit leaders. Mr. Halasnik is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Financing Solutions. Financing Solutions is a leading provider of Lines of Credit to nonprofits and small businesses.
Mr. Halasnik is a graduate of Rutgers University and has an Executive Masters from the MIT Birthing of Giants Entrepreneurship program. Mr. Halasnik is a best selling Amazon author and is considered a leading authority on building great, purpose-driven businesses. Mr. Halasnik lives in New Jersey with his best friend, his wife Gina. Mr. Halasnik’s number one purpose is raising his two boys, Michael and Maxwell, to be good men.
About Financing Solutions Nonprofit Line of Credit
Financing Solutions, an A+ and 5 stars rated BBB company since 2002, is a direct lender that provides lines of credit to nonprofits and small businesses.
Financing Solutions nonprofit financing product is a great alternative to a traditional bank line of credit because it costs nothing to set up, nothing until used, and when used, is inexpensive. The credit line requires no collateral and no personal guarantees.
Nonprofit Organizations use their line of credit to help with emergencies or opportunities when cash flow is temporarily down (i.e. Payroll funding)
Please feel free to fill out the no-obligation, 2-minute nonprofit line of credit application here. The time to set up a credit line is when you don’t need it so that it is ready to be used, just in case.
Note: Financing Solutions donates 10% of its profits to various nonprofit charities