70 Nonprofit Trends for 2015

By Joe Boland

AGENCY/CONSULTANT PARTNERSHIPS
Richard Perry, founding partner, and Jeff Schreifels, senior partner, Veritus Group
1. More outsourcing of work that was traditionally done in-house. Managers are beginning to realize that they can save money by outsourcing technical and management work and still stay in control of their brand, story, content and other management values. Some of the areas being outsourced are certain HR functions, some finance functions, IT, donor care, major and midlevel program management, grant writing, planned giving, creative work, PR work, etc. This trend is similar to a trend in the commercial world of using on-demand services that use freelancers and virtual labor to get work done.

CAUSE MARKETING/CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS
Joe Waters, founder and blogger, Selfish Giving
1. The future of cause marketing is content marketing. If cause marketing is a partnership between a cause and a for-profit for mutual profit, content marketing will be the glue that cements the relationship among stakeholders — cause, company, consumer.