Mobile

Smartphones are ubiquitous. They have infiltrated all aspects of people’s lives including how they interact with their favorite charitable organizations.

Not too long ago, all a non-profit needed was a website. Now an organization needs a mobile optimized website because chances are their constituents are checking out their website from their smartphone.

If the site doesn‘t look good or function well on a smartphone they won‘t take the time to come back using a PC. In fact, they might not even have a PC.

Text-to-Give

People want to donate when the mood strikes them and to help people give in the moment, many organizations run text-to-give campaigns. During 2013 new platforms, such as TapFunder emerged that made launching a text to give campaign easy.

Social Media

Like it or not social media is here to stay. People expect an organization to have an active social media presence. Often it is one of the first places they go to learn about the organization.

Also, a large segment of the population prefers to communicate via social media. Prior to social media if a person had a question about an organization’s event they would pick up the phone and call the organization, now they will post the question on the organization’s Face book page.

In addition, social media is often the first place people go to voice displeasure with an organization. Sure, people still write letters but more often then not, they will be posted directly to the organization’s Facebook Page or linked via Twitter.

Which means every organization should have a cohesive plan for engaging in and responding to social media posts. Why is a plan necessary? Because one misstep or out of context remark can go “viral” in a matter of seconds.

2013 brought two more social media sites, Instagram, a photo-sharing site and Vine a video sharing site. Both sites offer organizations a way to show instead of tell what they do.

Organizations use the photos and videos to “pull back the curtain” on their day-to-day operations and show the more personal side of what they do.

Data Privacy and Security

Data security experts believe it is no longer a case of ‘if an organization gets hacked, it is when’. It is no longer just a concern for large organizations. While the recent large-scale hack occurred at a major retail organization, every organization that routinely collects personal information needs to examine their procedures to keep that data safe.

Even the smallest grass roots organization can fall victim to a data breach and the repercussions have the potential to damage an organization’s reputation beyond repair.