The Tech That Will Change 2016

Social Media and Fundraising
Heading into 2015, our NPTech experts predicted that charities would do more multi-channel marketing and venture beyond email and direct mail into social media. As we look ahead to 2016, it's looking like the emerging "killer apps" may be messaging solutions, like Snapchat, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, that deliver text messages directly to your stakeholders' mobile phones.

At the same time, another emerging trend seems to be the sector-wide realization that social media has limitations when it comes to fundraising. In her most recent Best of the Web post, Idealware's Laura Quinn recommended the NPR piece "A Click Too Far: Why Using Social Media Isn't That Great for Fundraising." (Social media's still pretty great, though, for raising awareness about your nonprofit, communicating with existing supporters and listening to your community.)