Your charity being successful online
Often, getting money out of strangers (and regularly) is like getting blood out of a stone, or so it seems. To be considered a success – both online and offline – charities face a number of daunting tasks, not least acquiring new donors, engaging their community, building brand awareness and, ultimately, boosting donations. But too much to do, in too little time, on too tight a budget makes this an uphill struggle.
In many ways, charities are similar to other commercial organisations with familiar customer and strategic growth goals, yet they are held back by lack of resources. However in today’s digital and social landscape, there’s simply no excuse for anything less than a clever multi‑channel online marketing plan backed by the sophisticated tools to make it happen. Can trending commercial tools be utilised for the charity's cause?
Consider whether the advanced functionality justifies the cost and if this investment will produce a good return, or is simply a wasteful extravagance. Charities need the sophisticated functionality that today’s digital world demands, delivered in a way that supports – and doesn’t obstruct – the charity’s goals of raising donations and awareness. It’s a tall order, but if approached in the right way, taking the following points on board, charities will be off to a great start.
Right type of solution
Of course there are some powerful (and free) website tools available from the open source community which look an attractive proposition. But in reality, lack of integration, accountability, stability, scalability and security can cause major headaches and pose risks to your website and its users. Therefore the total cost of ownership (TCO) of open source can surpass that of a premium all-in-one proprietary solution. Going the proprietary route offers superior functionality – and lots of it – so you get to play with the big boys’ toys.
They are usually fully integrated, so all tools are linked for smooth cross-channel management and clear insights. But they are often clunky, over-engineered and difficult to use, not to mention extortionately priced.
Whichever type of solution you consider, it needs to "fit” the charity; what it currently does and what it wants to achieve. But don’t let price tags fool you. Open source and enterprise solutions alike can be more trouble than they are worth. That’s why there are nine other factors to consider.
Price/functionality balance
The price must be right for the size of the charity and must be justifiable to the cause. Sure, it will reflect the functionality it delivers – and you's choice of solution is in getting the functionality it needs at a price it can afford.
Bells and whistles are all very well, but focus on the tools your charity needs to step change to a new level of donation and awareness success. And this is where the real ROI delivers; getting something that will enable you to do an exceptional job at a price that doesn’t eat into funds that could have been spent elsewhere.
Ease of use
As with commercial organisations, it’s common that the people in charities with all the ideas have to wait for the people with all the know-how to make anything happen. This not only wastes the power of web immediacy, but everyone’s very precious time. Moreover charities struggle to attract technical wizards into the sector. Sophisticated-sounding gadgets and gizmos are just going to compound the problem.
A user-friendly system that administrators can control themselves is key and enables quick adoption through the charity and encourages use thereafter. So you can spend more time fighting for the cause and less time fighting with the technology.
Flexibility and customisation
The technology should fit around the vision, not the other way round. You need to be in control of the design so that you can respond to the real world with real speed and maximise on what is actively going on. For example, drag-and-drop widgets can be added to a page to provide static, dynamic or interactive content (including news, banners, online forms and subscription boxes), putting the power of basic design elements into the hands of the administrators.
But if your charity is lucky enough to have developers, you want to know that your solution will allow any customisation option you could come up with – don’t let the technology get in the way of what is possible.
We have covered the more strategic points in this first article. The fit with the charity and vision is crucial, while usage and flexibility must be intuitive – and at a price that delivers real return. Without these as a foundation, a charity's’ more tactical online marketing approach is doomed.
The second article will cover advice on using tools for advanced newsletters, social integration, online communities, customisable online donations, events marketing and more sophisticated techniques. Look out for this in the New Year 2015 edition of Charities Management.
