Are we witnessing the “last breaths” of the donor pyramid?

Over the years, nonprofits have developed various models to explain constituent behavior. Most of the ones I have seen have been very linear. The most famous is the giving (donor) pyramid where a donor moves over time from the first gift to annual giving to major gifts and then planned gifts. Some nonprofits have also used a modified sales funnel. Perhaps at one point the world was that simple. For today's connected constituent, it is no longer a linear path to engagement. 

The connected nonprofit constituent is following a journey of experiences with your brand. The visual is more a loop that includes awareness, consideration, evaluation, mission engagement (donate, volunteer, advocate or participate), sharing the experience, where they start to become loyal and continue engagement through another journey along the loop. This level of engagement requires dedicated monitoring, not just listening, to shepherd people along this delicate journey. In this new world of constant distractions, the journey can go astray without proper leadership.

This is why intentional journey design in creating the experience before, during and after it is experienced is so critical to relationships with connected constituents. If people can’t connect with the intent of your mission, then they won’t contribute to the intended outcomes you desire to see.

Constituent engagement is not about voodoo

Engagement is not about voodoo. It is however as much about art as about science. It also draws heavily from social sciences; psychology, sociology, ethnography, and digital anthropology. The behaviors of constituents are critical to understand. These behaviors expresses patterns that are important to the journey you hope they take with your mission. It highlights for you new touch points and resources for potential investment. Your empathy and creativity are inspired by the decisions your constituents make. This journey is very dynamic and every evolving.

What is a game changer from a research point of view? It is what your constituents are doing online today. Certainly not what they did 2 years ago or perhaps not even 2 months ago. Your nonprofit needs clarity. You can gain it now and learn where to focus investments and scarce resources. There are many moments of truth around something as straightforward as making a donation, volunteering, advocating or participating in an event. The most cost effective journey around those moments of donating truth can be known. Be aware that the engagement path is not linear but more elliptical in nature. Many touch points that create amazing experiences continue to influence the journey. There are very specific factors, strategies, people, communities, and resources that come to influence engagement and loyalty.

This elliptical journey tends to repeat itself and levels of engagement increase. Regardless of how many times the journey is taken, the experience at all the moments of truth always wins greater engagement. As you think about someone taking a journey with your mission, you might envision moments where they become aware, start considering you, decide to evaluate you, become engaged in some aspect of your mission (donate, volunteer, advocate or participate), and hopefully become loyal. The experience at each stage influences the connected constituent to continue on the journey or opt out altogether. Continuing on through multiple cycles creates donors who become advocates who volunteer. Each loop through the cycle creates a level of loyalty that is hard to break. Constituents who opt out after one loop through a cycle probably did so due to a bad experience at one or more points in the first journey.

Here are the core experiences that need to be intentionally designed to be enjoyable, simple and meet constituent needs.

1.  Awareness
2.  Consideration
3. Evaluation
4. Mission engagement (donate, volunteer, advocate or participate)
5. Share the experience
6. Become loyal and continue engagement through another journey along the loop

We used to view these factors as a linear path. Much research has occurred to help us understand that the connected constituent moves in an elliptical path that is tilted in a positive or negative way based on the overall experience. When it becomes negative, they begin to loose awareness, stop considering you, etc. In other words, the brakes are on and they fall out of the path. When the experiences are positive, they continue on.

Whether through social search or traditional, shared experiences, whether good or bad, influence the connected constituent in meaningful ways. Their shared experience will affect others on the same path who are following them.

 
There is a stunning truth to come to grips with about the connected constituent. Before they can truly become loyal and promote you to others, they must experience the journey a second time to validate their experience. If anything comes up different in the second journey, they may consider other alternatives. No matter what, the entire journey is very social and very public. Constituents are more connected than you may be able to imagine and it is this truth that can define the experience for others who may be considering to make the same journey. Shared experiences are fed into the experience loop. Those experiences are now being indexed and extracted by others who are considering the same journey with your mission.

Stunning experiences will lead the way to meaningful constituent engagement

You are ready to open your mind, your heart, and your imagination to create new journeys and experiences for your constituents. These stunning experiences leads the way to meaningful engagement and shareable journeys. This makes all the difference to a connected constituent.

A key is continually walking in the digital footsteps of your constituents to assess how engaged you feel. Does the experience inspire your imagination? It is all about embracing your connected constituents. If you do, they will embrace you in return. Even feelings of empathy, relevance and reciprocity are measureable with traditional business metrics. The impact to your bottom line and mission can be known. It takes courage to decide to find out the results of our efforts.

You should be ready to define the experience your programs deliver that brings your mission to life and how the technologies you employee contribute to that experience. See yourself as the CEO – the Chief Experience Officer. If no one else will appoint you, appoint yourself.

Your connected constituent takes to search engines and status updates to research, ask questions, and share experiences. This presents to you an opportunity to listen, learn, engage and improve the experience. It makes the experience enjoyable, easy and relevant to the constituent’s goals.

Some issues to work through are:

• Now would be the time to  listen to how people are responding to different messages and are guided along a journey. Understanding the steps they take can help you frame the overall journey and intended experience. This can all be tested easily. Do donors become more engaged after becoming an advocate or a participant or a volunteer?
• After listening, learning how the journey unfolds allows you to improve the experience. Who are the experts? What communities are constituents gravitating to? Who is influencing them? What are constituents finding and learning? What technologies and services are they using?
• The constituent expectation of their experience is discoverable. You can engage them at every step of the journey.
• Listening, learning and engaging allows you to adapt your strategy, people, processes and technology.

This is a loop not a linear system.