There comes a moment where a potential constituent makes a
decision to engage. They may be just “testing the waters” so to speak. In the
digital world, we can see this happen in real time or near real time. Unfortunately
for many nonprofits, this is seen in a linear and transactional way. Please be
aware that to your connected constituent, this is not a transaction. In being
intentional about our design leads to a journey, we can get ahead of the experience to make sure
this first encounter leads to a continued journey.
If the first experience was “Okay”, you may get a second
shot. If the second experience is exactly the same as the first, you have lost the
battle. If the first experience was just “Okay”, you may not get a second shot.
This is why it is urgent that the design of the first experience to be stunning
and that that experience continues consistently across the many mission
opportunities.
It is important to note that your competition is not other
nonprofits. Your competition for volunteer time may be the blockbuster movie
that just came out on Netflix. Your competition for the $50 donation may be the
great sushi meal on Friday night or the book from Amazon. How does your digital
experience compare to Netflix or Amazon or Foursquare or Facebook? That
experience is your competition. It is urgent that you rethink the design (or lack
of design) of the experiences your constituents have.
Now is the
time. Today is the day.
Well i agree and disagree on this one.
ReplyDeleteConstituent Competition: I agree the competition here is what you stipulate. The distractions of the volunteers world or the donors world is a competition for sure. With that in mind, i simply do not know if our nonprofit will ever then be able to attract enough constituents as we place 99% of our time into physically helping those in need not on our website and that experience.
Even if we had the money to hire someone specifically to handle only the constituent experience when coming to our website, well i simply just wouldn't do it. Why? Because i want any monies spent to go to helping hands on those in need. In other words, every person who would ever be in our organization would be required to be hands on with those we assist. If we are paying someone to handle that constituent experience, they will be focusing first on the ones we are formed and incorporated to be helping. I think many nonprofits sway from that by focusing on too many other things.
I know how that sounds, but we are not formed and incorporated to, and we did not receive our 501c3 status to "impress" people or give them a wonderful experience. We were and are formed, incorporated and granted the nonprofit status to help those in need, the underprivileged. That sounds harsh i know. I cannot help that. They are just Facts.
If we focus on everyone else, the beneficiaries of our services suffer. I see it in nonprofits every single day.
My hope is to strike a happy medium where we can appeal to everyone and still focus on the mission, vision and purpose.
Nonprofit Competition. I do feel nonprofits are in intense competition with each other. Wait, not feel, i know. From local city committees i personally have been on to the local ugly competitive spirit we have encountered and been targets of, i know it. We have experienced it if you will.
There should be zero competition when it comes to nonprofit-2-nonprofit. It makes me sick to my stomach when there is. The federal grants that come down the pike are in a great tug of war by nonprofits battling each other, shoving each other out for it. That is one of the reasons why we do not seek any federal funding.
The big nonprofits get those grants first. That is not speculation, i personally have had city officials say it to my face....before i even asked for any funding from them. And to be clear, we have never asked any city for funding or any other governmental entity. Every time i have had that stated to me, i was there to offer our assistance. The first words they state to me is the grants are already spoken for. Why do they say that?
Because of the internal nonprofit worlds competition for those funds.
Linear and Transactional ways: Look at the large nonprofit for a moment. You know who they all are. They have many constituents of all walks of life and types from all over the world. Including donors, viewers/watchers, volunteers etc. Donations indeed become a transaction only because of their organizational size. It does not matter who the organization representative is: Founder, CEO, President, Vice President and so on, they need to be hands on helping the very people the organization is formed to help.
If they are not, then every experience, every donation just becomes a transaction.
For example: Text XYZ Org to 50555 to donate $10
That is simply a transaction to a very large nonprofit and the multitude of reports presented to the executive leadership and the board will show the bottomline. Some of that leadership may never see what is really going on down in the laundry room or in the alley behind the building.
Makes me sad. Sad for the donor. Sad for the organization.
In order for the constituent to have an experience, either way, good or bad, they need to get involved, not just click and run.
**Sorry, i know this sounds harsh, but it is what i have seen and experienced over the last 28 years of doing this nonprofit work.