By John Clese
Consider how rapidly the world around us is changing. Imagine your life just 10 years ago and notice how remarkably different it was from the way you live today. Technological advancements, coupled with societal change (social, economic, and political) and a globalized market have dramatically changed the way we live. While it remains geographically unchanged, our world has become closer than ever—largely thanks to the advent of social media and networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. These changes have elicited a revolution of sorts; they have spurred a fundamental shift in how consumers use resources to make decision. In just a few short years, associations and other nonprofits have found themselves with an entirely new platform on which to conduct business and reach out to their members, donors, and other constituencies. Organizations which once could get by sending letters and making phone calls are now facing a world where many people prefer to visit a website, use a mobile app, or read the occasional email.
Fundraisers are tasked with not only developing new strategies for donor outreach, but developing a strategy for outreach to new donors entirely. We are, now more than ever, seeing the rise of the biggest generation to date—the Millennials. Born between 1980 and 2001, the Millennial generation is comprised of roughly 92 million people and will, at some future date, substantiate the bulk of the world’s consumer base. Typical traits of this group include: entitled; civic-minded; impatient; excel at multi-tasking; and have often grown up with close parental involvement. While many in this generation have yet to reach a prime donation age, it is still a significant chunk of the population that must be considered in any successful outreach campaign.
Crowd contributing is a fresh new option that organizations can look to adapt to a changing environment and spur constituent engagement. As well as discussing the premise behind crowd contributing and the benefits it can bring to any organization, we will dive into the driving forces behind its implementation and how a group can lift off its own crowd-contributing campaign.
What is Crowd Contributing?
The idea of crowd contributing has quickly become a formidable model by which associations can look to spur involvement and generate interest in their cause. Simply put, crowd contributing is a unique hybrid, looking to apply the principles of both crowd sourcing and crowd funding.
Crowd sourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks to a distributed group of people, effectively using volunteers to accomplish goals that are both in the interests of the company and the volunteers themselves.
Significantly more common, crowd funding is the concept of aggregating funds towards a common goal, usually a deeply supportive volunteer network looking to financially impact the organization.
Crowd contributing is the combination of both of these concepts and includes the donation of money, (volunteer) time, items (supplies, tools, etc.), and even the introductions to connections who could be useful to the success of the project.
What makes crowd contributing unique is that it gives the participants an opportunity to contribute more than just money. Crowd contributing technology platforms offer a one-stop shop for members to take an active role in the project. Creating a robust technology platform is the key to the success, as the majority of people use technology to interact with the real world. Consider, again, the Millennial generation; while they might have very little to offer financially, their help could be more than useful in other arenas and are almost exclusively reached through the technology medium. By securing their involvement, an organization offers its supporters an opportunity to stake ownership in the success of the venture, no matter what their contribution may have been.
For the participant, crowd contributing:
- Is tangible; people know where their contributions are going and can see what they are achieving;
- Provides leadership opportunities for people of all ages;
- Allows groups to partner with others to accomplish something together;
- Lets people pool their resources to accomplish something greater than any one of them could achieve alone; and
- Allows those who are not able to contribute financially to give in other ways.
For the organization:
- Allows it to break down a larger goal into smaller, bite-size projects;
- Can be used for new projects or for specific funding goals;
- Highlights the organization and its mission and extends its brand; and
- Provides an excellent acquisition channel for new (and motivated) donors.
How Can You Get Started?
Before launching your very own crowd contributing campaign, it is important to first evaluate the state of your organization in order to more closely define the scope of what you are looking for in a strategy and, eventually, a technology. During a webinar she co-presented with me, Donna Wilkins, CEO of Charity Dynamics offered some advice for an organization looking to launch a successful crowd-contributing program.
- Take stock before you launch.
- Assess the current state of your organization’s assets and audience.
- Be sure to see where your current constituents are and how they’re helping you.
- Honestly ask: “Are you being social?”
- Take a critical look at your current website. Is it easy to navigate? Is it easy to access and view on a mobile device?
- Review the kinds of materials people are responsive to on your social media sites and website.
- Start to track your social metrics so you can continue to define your scope.
- Make it real.
- Identify where your focus will be and create your strategy.
- Align your crowd contributing with times of needs as well assess constituent engagement momentum.
- Stay flexible and nimble.
- Offer tailored campaign that your donors can move forward with.
- Continue to measure your metrics
- Refine and repeat as necessary. There is no perfect solution, as the situation can be different for every project.
- Donor Acquisition: Using social media will open up interest to a whole new world of people, generating a lot of potential interest. This will only go far enough to get their foot in the door, the association is responsible for pulling them the rest of the way.
Implementing a crowd-contributing strategy is as easy as employing a strong technological platform through which members can interact with the association in a manner consistent with the spirit of crowd contributing. Keep in mind that there has been a fundamental shift in how people want to hear about causes and projects, preferring the occasional email or social media presence over snail mail. Efforts in crowd contributing should be focused on technology platforms that appeal to the social nature of a technology-adept people. So when considering your technology platform options, remember the following.
- Make sure your platform is widget-based so you can drive traffic to your website and brand your organization’s look and feel.
- The platform should be easily customizable to your association’s brand; tailor it to advertise for your association, not for the technology platform.
- Make sure the website is mobile-friendly. So many people (especially the Millennials) are browsing from their mobile devices, it shouldn’t be a hassle to view your site on a phone.
- Make sure the donation page is easy to use and visually pleasing. Difficulty in donating or unprofessional aesthetics can cause someone to change his or her mind in a heartbeat.
- Ensure that the platform is social media integrated, tapping into those networks can help the word spread like wildfire.
- Make sure that the platform you choose offers content creation tools to help you improve search engine optimization (SEO).
- This may seem obvious, but you wouldn’t believe how easily this one can get overlooked. Make sure it is multilingual and that your payment option accepts other currencies.
Simply put, crowd-contributing software is a must-have in a world that has changed so much, so quickly. Organizations not offering their members the opportunity to get involved in a hands-on way to participate are both short-changing their constituents and themselves. Crowd contributing gives everyone the opportunity to spread the word about something they feel is important and contribute time/money/supplies/knowledge.
The main thing about crowd contributing is that you once you have strategized, you should jump in and get started. Start small and then evaluate what worked and improve with each subsequent project. You don’t even know how much interest and support you have until you ask.
John Clese is director of product marketing, not-for-profit, Avectra, www.avectra.com.