Digital transformation is a buzz word now in the social good space. But what does it actually mean? And why is it important that nonprofits and other social good organizations digitally transform?
In this episode, which was recorded live at bbcon, you’ll hear from Jim Daniell, the Chief Transformation Officer for NetHope, which works with nonprofits and other social good organizations to change the world through the power of technology.
Jim talks about what NetHope is doing with its Center for Digital Innovation, the non-technology related changes that are required for digital transformation, and how social good organizations can leverage technology to have a bigger social impact. Listen to the episode to hear more about how organizations can undertake their own digital transformations that push them and their impact to the next level.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
Video: What is Digital Transformation?
Quotes:
“It turns out that international relief, the relief workers, the number one thing you need is data.”
“Information is a form of aid.”
“We often say, digital transformation is not about technology. It’s about people, process, and technology, and it’s mostly about people and process.”
Research has found that charitable donors who also give to political campaigns are more generous than donors who don’t give to political campaigns. But how do elections impact charitable giving overall, and what effect does gender have?
In today’s episode, we’ll hear from Jacqueline Ackerman, assistant director for Research and Partnerships at the Women's Philanthropy Institute at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Listen to the episode to hear about the key findings of the Institute’s research, which types of organizations saw a spike in giving after the 2016 U.S. election, and how women and men give differently – and what that means for how nonprofits should target donors.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
Jacqueline Ackerman
Women's Philanthropy Institute
Charitable Giving Around the 2016 Election: Does Gender Matter?
Infographic: Charitable Giving Around the 2016 Election: Does Gender Matter? -
Notable Quotes:
“Our third key finding is that charitable giving after the 2016 election increased significantly for these relevant progressive charities.”
“What we tried to do was piece out the election effect from the typical end-of-the-year increase in giving that we would see anyway.”
“We know that women and men are motivated differently. Women tend to give to help others, men tend to focus on the benefits they accrue from giving.”
The end of the year, or the “season of giving,” is important for all types of social good organizations. Year-end appeals are powerful fundraising vehicles, create additional exposure for your organization, and offer an opportunity to connect with donors on how they’ve helped you throughout the year.
In this episode of The sgENGAGE podcast, Tanya Fitzgerald, Senior Customer Success Manager at Blackbaud, talks with Steve MacLaughlin about what organizations can do now to have successful end-of-year giving campaigns. Listen to the episode to hear what Tanya has to say about telling your impact story, using digital channels to drive end-of-year giving, and stewarding donors into 2019.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
End of Year Fundraising Toolkit
Preparing for the Season of Giving: Steps to Ready Your Year-End Appeal
Tip Sheet: What to Do After End-of-Year Fundraising
Quotes:
“Everyone’s expecting to hear from you, so why not share your information with them?”
“I believe that immediately, as soon as that gift comes in, that stewardship plan should be in effect.”
“If you can continually steward throughout the year, your campaigns are going to go smoother as they come up.”
Nonprofits and social good organizations rely on volunteerism, making volunteers are one of the most important assets that an organization has. Today’s guest emphasizes the importance of volunteers and talks about how organizations can best manage and leverage those valued assets.
In today’s episode, recorded at bbcon 2018, Points of Light CEO Natalye Paquin talks about how the critical role that volunteers and volunteerism can have on advancing social good and achieving the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. Natalye also talks about the role of technology in facilitating and tracking the impact of volunteers, and how Points of Light and Blackbaud are collaborating to advance data, insights and measurement for volunteerism.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
Notable Quotes from Natalye Paquin:
“We are really focused on better leveraging the power of people.”
“…over 30 percent of the workforce in the nonprofit sector is really contributions by volunteers. 58 percent of the output is by volunteers. Volunteers understand your mission personally, so they can be champions as well as donors.”
“This is really about creating a common language, a taxonomy, of how you measure and manage volunteers.”
Storytelling is important in the social good community. It’s through stories that donors become interested and engaged in an organization and its cause. It’s not enough to just tell the stories in words. Visual images help donors visualize and understand what the organizations they support are doing, and how their contributions make a difference.
Today’s guest joined the podcast to talk about how organizations can better incorporate visual elements into their storytelling. Ira Horowitz, the founder of Cornershop Creative, has worked in communications, fundraising, and advocacy for nearly 20 years. Listen to the episode to hear what Ira has to say about why visuals matter in storytelling, how to demonstrate to donors that they can be the heroes of the story, and how to match copy with the right visuals for maximum impact.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
Ira Horowitz
Quotes:
“Everybody knows the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. That’s actually wrong, though. A picture is worth about 60,000 words because studies have shown that the human brain processes images about 60,000 times faster than plain text.”
“The studies I’ve seen have said that text accompanied with images actually do a lot better. People process that information three or four times faster if they’re looking at both images and text.”
“Don’t be afraid of using emojis, actually.”
Donors want to help when disaster strikes, but they often don’t realize how long disaster recovery can really take. Donors often contribute toward disaster relief when the news of the disaster is fresh, but months or even years later, the recovery is still in progress and a variety of needs still require funding.
In today’s episode, recorded live at bbcon, Bob Ottenhoff, president and CEO of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, talks with Blackbaud’s Rachel Hutchisson about disaster philanthropy and what it means to have a strategic and holistic response that considers mid- and long-term needs. Listen to the episode to hear what Bob has to say about the funding “mosaic” involved in disaster relief, how donors can make sure their funds are having the greatest impact, and the role that community organizations play in disaster recovery efforts.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
Notable Quotes from Bob Ottenhoff:
“There were 16 disasters in 2017 that caused a billion dollars or more in damage.”
“We find consistently that about 70% or more of all dollars are given within 30 days of a disaster…by 60 days or so, we're pretty much at the end of the giving cycle for that disaster.”
“So, the philanthropic dollars become really important. They’re not the biggest in terms of dollars, but they have the ability to do things nobody else could do.”
“There’s a lot of funds that have gotten into serious trouble because there were misunderstandings about the purpose of the fund, how decisions were going to be made, when the money was going to be disbursed.”
Community foundations are doing critical work to create change at the local level. They play a convening role in the community and engage community members in philanthropy to address pressing local issues.
In this interview recorded live at bbcon 2018, Javier Alberto Soto, president & CEO of The Miami Foundation, talks about the important work the Foundation is doing to improve the quality of life in the Greater Miami area through philanthropy, community investment, and civic leadership. Listen to the episode to hear what Javier has to say about the role community foundations can play in advancing civic engagement, why community foundations can be effective conveners, and the role of technology in enabling mission delivery.
"I think we've demonstrated the deep generosity that exists in Miami through new power."
"We have the ability - because we're seen as an independent actor whose only agenda is to improve the community - to really empower people at a grassroots level."
"Miamians are from so many different places - it's such a diverse area - but when you get at those stories, particularly "how did you get here?" it's amazing how similar they are across geography."
"We've invested significantly from day one in all of our communications tools, but with a deep emphasis on our technology first to support our fund holders."
"At the core of everything we've been doing is injecting new power, or civic engagement."
"I think all of us in the community foundation world are grappling with how we define impact beyond asset size."
#GivingTuesday is approaching rapidly. What should your organization be doing to get ready? What should you be planning for the day of #GivingTuesday, and do you have plans for the day after? This episode explores these questions and more.
In today’s supersized three-part episode of The sgENGAGE Podcast, you’ll hear from several different guests who will help you have a successful #GivingTuesday. In the first segment, Mel Rancour and Jackie Zimmerman from Blackbaud University discuss the things that organizations should be doing before, during, and after #GivingTuesday. In the second segment, you’ll hear from Erica Burroughs, Director of Annual Giving and Family Engagement at High Point University, about how they engage supporters and how #GivingTuesday works together with other fundraising events. Finally, in segment three, you’ll hear from Andy Schroeder, Director of Development at Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, about how a funny video helped his organization earn three times their donation goal, and how they plan to build on that success for this year’s #GivingTuesday.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Segment 1 [00:01:49] - Mel Rancour and Jackie Zimmerman, Blackbaud University w/ host Steve MacLaughlin:
Segment 2 [00:20:04] - Erica Burroughs, High Point University w/ host Sally Ehrenfried:
Segment 3 [00:37:20] - Andy Schroeder, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary w/ host Sally Ehrenfried:
Resources:
Proven #GivingTuesday Strategies for Higher Ed Institutions
Creating a #GivingTuesday Strategy that is 'Just Right'
Six Free Webinars for #GivingTuesday Success
Blackbaud University's Organizational Best Practices curriculum
The Ultimate #GivingTuesday Toolkit
Connect with: Mel Rancour, Jackie Zimmerman, Erica Burroughs and Andy Schroeder
Quotes:
“Flexibility is going to be important. Because sometimes everything goes as planned and then you can have a little party, celebrate – but in my experience that almost never happens.” –Jackie Zimmerman
“It’s never too late. You can put together a campaign, you can implement software, in a time frame that you just frankly wouldn’t believe.” – Erica Burroughs
“One of the things that I think organizations do well is ask for money. The thing that they don’t always do as well is tell people how the money was used and be able to show the impact in some way, shape, or form.” – Andy Schroeder
New power. What does it mean? Who is using it? How is new power changing the world, and how can it be used for fundraising and social good? Today’s episode will explore those questions and more with Jeremy Heimans, co-author with Henry Timms of the book New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World—and How to Make It Work for You.
Rachel Hutchinson is your host for today’s episode, which was recorded live from bbcon, the leading tech gathering for social good. Listen in to learn what new power is, how it differs from old power, what’s different about fundraising in a new power world, and how your organization can begin to embrace new power.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
Article: Understanding “New Power”
Book: New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World--and How to Make It Work for You
Quotes by Jeremy:
“One really easy way to think of that difference between old and new power is the difference between power as currency – that’s old power, the kind of power you hoard up – and power as a current.”
“All the evidence is that if you can empower patients to organize around their own challenges, you can get far better health outcomes than by kind of imposing solutions to them from the top down.”
“It's absolutely true that the most effective players today are the ones who actually know how to blend old and new power.”
“You've got to be able to find a way of not just appealing to elites but appealing to everybody.”
Follow Blackbaud on Twitter or Facebook next week for exciting news about the evolution of the Raise & Engage Podcast!
For many organizations, if you are not in a capital campaign then you are likely planning for the next one. But is the capital campaign as we know it working, or is broken? Today's guest is an expert in university fundraising, and has done extensive research into what's working and what's not when it comes to capital campaigns and fundraising strategies.
Andy Reeher is the founder Reeher, the industry leading provider of fundraising performance management software for higher education that is now a part of Blackbaud. Learn what Andy's research has uncovered about the evolution of capital campaigns, from being used mainly by large universities to now being run by smaller colleges and universities as well as how the age and total gift concentrations of the top 100 donors has changed over the last forty years. Andy discusses how campaigns have moved from being a concept that got donors excited to a framework that boards use to fund the fundraising organization for seven years, and why universities need to make a change and move from seven year plans to rolling needs-based approaches.
Topics Discussed in this Episode:
Resources:
Capital Campaigns are Broken: What Happened and How to Fix Them
5 Capital Campaign Myths Debunked
"Capital campaigns have gone from a concept that motivated donors to a concept that motivated the staff."
"Even if we don't have any information about a constituent, we can make some basic assumptions about the types of things that might engage them [based on their life stage]."
Some organizations call it monthly giving, while others refer to it as regular giving, recurring giving, or sustainer giving. No matter which name it goes by, one thing is clear – donors who participate in regular giving programs are an important source of donations for nonprofits. Today’s guest understands that importance and how organizations can harness the power of monthly giving.
Erica Waasdorp is an author, presenter, and the president of A Direct Solution, a company that helps nonprofits develop and manage monthly giving campaigns, among other things. Listen to the episode to hear what Erica has to say about why US-based nonprofits have been slower to switch to monthly giving, how organizations can get started building a monthly giving program, and what happens when annual or one-time donors make the switch to monthly donations.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
“If you can move a donor from giving $25 or $40 dollars a year to giving $5 or $10 a month, then you’re not only generating more money, but you’re also keeping them much, much longer.”
“There is definitely that potential to try to upgrade monthly donors and try to get them to the next level.”
“I recommend you join your own program. You’d be amazed at how few people actually do that. You would want to join your own program because how else can you promote it to other people?”
One way to define the word "brand" is to think of it as a promise. Branding is a way of letting the world know what an organization stands for. It's easy to think of branding as a commercial tool, but it's important for nonprofits as well.
Today's guest is Sarah Durham, CEO of Big Duck, a communications and marketing agency that has helped hundreds of nonprofits improve their branding, campaigns, and fundraising efforts. Sarah is an expert on the ways that branding can apply to nonprofit organizations and how branding affects communications with donors, activists, and others. Listen to the episode to hear what Sarah has to say about developing a consistent brand and voice, aligning branding and organizations strategy, and embracing branding in a digital world.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
"There are a lot of aspects of brand development, whether you like that word or not, that are not only really useful for nonprofit advancing of the mission, but are also particularly useful for fundraisers."
"The opportunity for you as a nonprofit is to really think about how you want your organization's voice to be shaped, and to speak with one clear and consistent voice at all points of contact."
"The brand strategy is an expression of that organizational strategy."
How well do you really know your donors? Do you know what differences exist between your donors that live in different parts of the world? Do you know what cultural characteristics influence how much your donors give and how they choose to give?
Today’s guest is Mark Phillips, the Managing Director of Bluefrog Fundraising. His work involves doing deep dives into the motivations of donors to better help charities understand their donors wants and needs. He does this by conducting extensive interviews with donors in different parts of the world. Listen to the episode to hear about how these conversations can inform and improve charity organizations. You’ll hear about how Mark got started with this kind of research, which countries he’s conducting interview in, and how charities have changed their behavior thanks to Mark’s research.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
“One of the very lucky things in my career was I worked for people who had a focus on what donors needed and what donors wanted.”
“Some organizations, their most valuable donors they are not giving because they’re receiving postal appeals that are not appropriate to the way they want to support the organization. And that is not a rare occurrence.”
“Because donors weren’t seeing their money making a difference, people were assuming that these organizations were incompetent.”
Most people are aware of the differences between public charities and private foundations. However, donor advised funds, or DAFs, are often not understood as well. Donor advised funds have been around for many years, but they have changed and evolved significantly over the years, and many nonprofit organizations and fundraisers could benefit from a greater understanding of how donor advised funds work and what their pros and cons are.
Today’s guest is Brian Mittendorf, the chair of the accounting department at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. Brian joins the episode to help explain how donor advised funds work, what controversies surround the practice of using donor advised funds, and where this segment of charitable giving is headed in the future. Listen to the episode to hear what Brian has to say about why donors choose to use DAFs, what a commercial DAF is, and how the new tax laws affect donor advised funds.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
“Most individuals probably don’t have the resources to set up an entire private foundation, but if you think of them as the resources as a bunch of individuals being pooled together, then it’s going to be worthwhile.”
“There’s not one person who’s really rich, but if we pool together a lot of different people with the same mission in mind, we can achieve a lot. Kind of what a private foundation could have.”
“If I want to talk about a broad controversy, it’s that donor advised funds are typically used as vehicles that are really convenient for donors, and people who are concerned with them are concerned that they’re focusing more on donors than they are on the mission.”
Men and women both give to charity, but they tend to give differently. In order to engage with donors more effectively, it’s important to understand how gender affects giving. The role that women play in philanthropy is not as well understood as it could be; however, new research is changing that.
Today’s guests help explain and contextualize the latest research into women’s philanthropy. Andrea Pactor of the Women's Philanthropy Institute and Kathleen Loehr of Kathleen Loehr & Associates join the podcast today to discuss women and philanthropic giving. Listen to the episode to hear what they have to say about the importance of understanding women’s philanthropy, the goals of the Women's Philanthropy Institute, and some of the differences between men’s and women’s motivations for giving.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
Research that grows women’s philanthropy
How Women & Men Give Around Retirement
“The Women’s Philanthropy Institute is the only organization in the world in a research and academic institution that focuses solely on this topic of the role of gender in philanthropy.” – Andrea Pactor
“We now have some substantive data points that look at this intergenerational transmission of generosity – it probably won’t come as a too much of a surprise that moms are a critical piece of all of that.” – Andrea Pactor
“Part of the research that is really clear is that women are often giving more than men and they’re very influential in the household giving, and we miss that when we go and do meetings, if you will, with just the male in the household.” – Kathleen Loehr
It’s easy to see building websites and designing forms as an onerous cost for an organization, especially when there are any number of social media channels that are free to use. But it’s important to ask if those free options are serving the purpose that your organization needs them to serve, and to remember that forms and websites built specifically to help your donors find and support your organization may have a cost, but they also have a value.
Today’s episode was recorded at the Ask Direct Fundraising Summer School, held in Dublin, Ireland. Tune in to hear an interview with Beate Sørum, an international public speaker and a fundraising consultant based in Norway who brings some unique perspectives on form design and UX optimization. Listen to the interview to hear what Beate has to say about why forms are a good investment, how to engage with your donors through follow-up questions, and how social media is affecting fundraising efforts now.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
The Ask Direct Fundraising Summer School 2018
“My task is kind of to get people to stop looking at websites and forms as a cost and start seeing it as an investment.”
“Not everyone is going to fill out all your follow-up questions, but that’s OK. You’d rather actually have them as a donor than know everything about them.”
“A form is just a piece of code. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to put it within the emotional story that you’re telling.”
You’ve probably heard the phrase “behavioral economics” before. Not only is it the subject of several best-selling books, there have also been two Nobel prizes awarded that centered on the topic of behavioral economics. But what is behavioral economics, and how does it apply in the social good community?
Today’s guest is Bernard Ross, Director of The Management Centre. He’s the co-author of the book Change for Good, written with UNICEF’s Omar Mahmoud. In today’s episode, he’ll discuss behavioral economics in the context of fundraising and social good organization. Listen to the episode to hear Bernard talk about why humans make seemingly irrational decisions, how behavioral economics is at work all around society, and how to use the lessons of behavioral economics ethically.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
Stop Listening to Your Supporters
“Behavioral economics says, “what if people are not like that? What if experience and the data tells us that we are all irrational?””
“There’s a whole science of restaurant menu design.”
“We are engaged in a moral business. There’s a moral responsibility to think about “am I using this technique fairly, properly, ethically?””
In this age of social media, activism is becoming more accessible to the masses. But, it's essential that the social media activism is connected to change makers working on the ground. How can philanthropic organizations harness social media activism to create change locally? This episode of Raise & Engage features an interview between Rachel Hutchisson, vice president of Corporate Citizenship and Philanthropy at Blackbaud and Darrin Goss, president and CEO of the Coastal Community Foundation, about social media activism, community engagement and more. Listen to hear how movements are being created by social media channels providing information and engaging people around causes they might not be directly impacted by are coming together with deep local involvement on the ground working to impact lasting change. Topics discussed in this episode:
Resources:
"I think the biggest threat facing philanthropic organizations is a lack of understanding of how real social change takes place in the age of social media." "Philanthropic organizations have far more at their disposal than just the financial capital that we all know and understand." "When funders resolve that they need to work with communities, then they can have the courage to go out and do what the promise of philanthropy is all about."
Big data and data science are hot topics everywhere these days, and the social good sector is no exception. As nonprofit organizations continue to increase their use of data to answer questions about donors and fundraising and drive performance improvements, it’s important to understand as much as possible about data science.
In today’s episode, I’ll speak to Carrie Cobb, Vice President of Data Science at Blackbaud. We’ll do a deep dive into the subject of data science. Listen to the episode to hear what Carrie has to say about the specifics of what a data scientist does, the techniques they use, and the variety of ways that data science is applicable in the social good community.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
“When you’re a data scientist you kind of dive into the unknown to find patterns and build connections and make predictions.”
“From a technical perspective, data scientists are highly educated. Almost 90% have at least a master’s degree, and almost 50% have Ph.D.’s.”
“I would say it is an art and a science put together. Depending on your paint and your canvas and what you’re trying to display, you’re going to choose different tools to get you there.”
Now more than ever, nonprofits need to ensure that they have high-quality, up-to-date data. However, a lot of nonprofit organizations struggle with the issue of data health. Why is data health so important in the nonprofit field today, and what can organizations do to bring themselves and their data up to speed?
In today’s episode, I’ll be speaking with Adriene Chisholm and Alan Dix of Blackbaud’s Target Analytics about the new report from the Blackbaud Institute for Philanthropic Impact, Untapped Potential: The Case for Data Health. Listen to the episode to hear what Adriene and Alan have to say about the biggest struggles nonprofits face with their data and how it affects fundraising, what first steps organizations can take to move in the direction of better data health, and how to avoid those dreaded “yellow stickers.”
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
Download Untapped Potential: The Case for Data Health
Connect with Adriene Chisholm and Alan Dix
“We’re all trying to be C+ students by limiting our ability due to poor data health.” – Alan Dix
“Maintenance is always easier. It’s a lot easier to maintain your car than it is to get it fixed after it breaks down.” – Adrien Chisolm
“Data health is easy, it really is. It’s like getting your oil changed. You know you have to do it every 3,000 miles, just go and get it done.” – Adriene Chisholm
We often hear about the need for organizations to take about taking a donor-centric approach to engaging supporters. But is that enough, or do nonprofits need to go even deeper to attract and keep donors over the long term?
Today’s guest is Kevin Schulman, founder and managing partner of DonorVoice, a retention and donor experience company. Kevin talks about why understanding donor identity can help organizations better understand the motivations of donors. He also explains how organizations can use donor segmentation to strengthen their relationships with donors, leading to long-lasting relationships that are beneficial for both nonprofits and their donors. Listen to this episode to hear the keys to leveraging a donor identity approach that results in improved outcomes.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
“If we want to be donor-centric, you have got to get some level of understanding about who these folks are and what makes them tick.”
“In order to get the kind of data that you need, guess what? You’ve actually got to ask these people.”
“There ought to be massive perceived risk with status quo, but oftentimes there isn’t.”
Coming up with strategies for fundraising can be difficult. However, if there’s a culture in place that promotes and encourages giving as a norm, an important chunk of the work is already done. That’s why it’s so important to create a culture of philanthropy, especially in the nonprofit sector.
On today’s episode, Alia McKee and Mark Rovner of Sea Change Strategies are here to talk about their report, Inside Out Fundraising: How to Create a Culture of Philanthropy by Treating Systems Instead of Symptoms. Alia and Mark explain what it means to have a culture of philanthropy, the things that get in the way of creating that culture and how nonprofits can overcome the challenges to doing do. Listen to the episode to learn why culture is an important part of fundraising success and hear the big takeaways from their research.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
“Fundraising has become like driving a car with the emergency brake on. The car moves, but it’s not pretty and there’s a lot of friction.” –Mark Rovner
“I think the biggest “aha!” was that only one in five fundraisers say that their organization has a strong culture of philanthropy.” – Alia McKee
“Don’t get overwhelmed with all of the change that needs to happen. Think about how you can shrink that change.” –Alia McKee
Online fundraising has been around for nearly 20 years, and it continues to grow in both size and revenue amongst nonprofit organizations. In light of the increasing importance of digital fundraising and online giving, it’s important to look at what the field has learned about what works and what doesn’t, and how to implement proven best practices to ensure that nonprofits are making the most out of online giving opportunities.
Today’s guest is Jennifer Abohosh, the chief digital strategist for Dunham + Company, which recently released their second Online Fundraising Scorecard. Listen in to hear what Jennifer has to say about what’s changed in online fundraising over the last five years since their original Online Fundraising Scorecard, what types of organizations are seeing better performance in online giving than others, and how nonprofit organizations can start implementing best practices to improve their digital performance.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Resources:
“In email specifically, five years ago 46% of emails were mobile-responsive and now 90% of emails are mobile responsive.”
“How can we craft language around an email signup that will make it both exclusive and desirable to the end user?”
“Organizations should be doing some testing to continue to see what works and what doesn’t work for their particular organization, then continue to optimize the donation process along the way.”
You can’t pay attention to the news without hearing about the concerns and issues around data privacy and data protection. It affects every type of industry, government, and nonprofit organization out there. As of May 25th 2018, new laws will go into effect in the European Union that attempt to address these concerns for European citizens.
In today’s episode, I’ll speak to Cameron Stoll, a member of Blackbaud’s legal counsel team and the chief data protection officer for Blackbaud’s European companies. We will discuss the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and what they mean for NGOs both in and outside of the EU.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Links and Resources:
“We have to have contractual relationships with these processors to make sure that they will abide by our instructions and to make sure that they can’t take that data and analyze it and sell it to another company, for example.”
“Ultimately it really comes down to very general principles: protect the data that you have, give people choices about how you’re going to use their data, and be really transparent about how you’re using the data you collect.”
“I think it can be seen as an extension of consumer rights on a really large scales across all industries in Europe.”
We all know that acquiring and retaining donors is one of the most important things nonprofit organizations must do to improve their fundraising performance. The question is how to do it – and do it well. This requires that we take a broader look at trends across the non-profit sector to help us better understand how our organizations are performing but also understand more about our donors.
To help us explore this and some brand new research from the Blackbaud Institute is Chuck Longfield, Blackbaud’s Chief Scientist and author of the Vital Signs Report. In today’s episode, he’ll share some of the changes that he’s noticed since the last Vital Signs Report and talk about what those changes mean for the future of the non-profit world.
Topics Discussed in This Episode:
Links and Resources:
Blackbaud Institute for Philanthropic Impact
“I sort of put it into three categories. You could have more people giving more money, you could have fewer people giving more money, or you could have fewer people giving less money.”
“A big driver of this – not the only driver, but a big driver – is what some people are calling rage-giving.”
“If you can get over that initial hurdle and retain these new donors, these are pretty good donors to retain.”