70 Nonprofit Trends for 2015

For decades, the nonprofit sector relied heavily on tradition and what worked in the past to raise money, run the organization and set out to achieve missions. It led to nonprofits settling in to a comfort zone, so to speak, able to count on the generosity of the public to support such great causes. But just as technology changed the business world forever, changes that occur increasingly faster the more advanced and connected we get as a society, the same is true of nonprofits.

The rapid shifts in technologies; donor preferences, behaviors and expectations; and the rise of for-profit best practices integrated into nonprofit management has forced the sector to adapt and evolve. So while the tried-and-true methods of yesterday still reap major benefits for nonprofits of all shapes and sizes, it’s more imperative than ever for all nonprofits professionals to keep up with the trends — both those on the precipice and on the horizon.

To get a handle on what’s in store for 2015, NonProfit PRO rounded up some of the nonprofit industry’s finest, who were kind enough to share these 70 trends for this new year — everything from leadership to staffing to fundraising and more.

ACCOUNTING
Erika McNichol, senior product manager, Abila
1. Data visualization: Presenting an organization’s financial story and success visually will be key in 2015. Board members and supporters want to be able to quickly and easily consume and understand data an organization is presenting to showcase how they are accomplishing their mission and insight into how funds are being used.

2. Non-financial reporting: The ability to report on impact beyond financial measures is a must. Younger generations expect greater transparency and accountability from the organizations they support. Nonprofits need to show the journey of a dollar toward supporting a mission — from reporting on a project that is happening to tracking activity related to the project to how the dollar donated had an impact on the project.

3. Entrepreneurial modeling for nonprofits: Nonprofits that will be successful in the future will go beyond just raising dollars to sustain the mission and now will look at how to grow the organization. Organizations will look at new and creative ways to generate revenue, from renting out space in their own buildings to selling products related to the mission. This thinking was initiated during the economic downturn but will continue to gain steam and will require the ability to track and manage new revenue sources in 2015.

4. System integration: Increased integration between different systems — such as accounting and fundraising — will be essential to improve data quality and efficiency.

5. Affordable Care Act compliance: 2015 will be unique for organizations to ensure payroll and HR systems are aligned to accommodate changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act. This is particularly a factor for midsize and larger organizations.

ACQUISITION
Allison Porter, president, Avalon Consulting Group
1. Acquisition is back! In the wake of the Great Recession, many organizations are feeling the pinch because they made the difficult and risky decision to slash or eliminate acquisition investment. While we sympathize with the realities that led nonprofits to this decision, we must pause to acknowledge its effects and learn lessons for the future, namely: (1) Reinvest in acquisition now. File sizes are dwindling because the spigot was cut off several years ago. If not turned back on, this spells disaster for net revenue into the future. (2) We shouldn’t overcorrect with a clear-cutting mentality. We still have to do the hard work to invest in new donors who are a good fit, who will renew their support year after year for a strong lifetime value, and who will be loyal, engaged partners for your organization. (3) We need to overcommunicate the case for investment to nonprofits’ senior executives. If they internalize this strategic need, then, when the next budget crunch happens, our acquisition programs may not be so vulnerable.

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.

The goal of content marketing is to drive outcomes. So if you’re hoping to land a cause marketing partnership or to share it with consumers or to demonstrate the results to a brand or your supporters, you’ll need content marketing that engages without selling. Content marketing is the only kind of marketing left, and for nonprofits it’s bigger than sales, fundraising and branding.

2. Beacon technology will dominate checkout charity. Love or hate them, offline checkout programs (pinups, roundups, donation boxes, etc.) will begin to be replaced by mobile programs using Beacon technology.

Beacon technology is “micro-location” as it’s designed to work in a physical location (like a store) with your phone — specifically your retail apps. With a Beacon transmitter, businesses can better interact with smartphone-toting consumers in or near their stores. Sure, they can push coupons to them when they walk in the door, but they can also give them one when they linger in a particular aisle or over a specific product. Companies can even push reminders to consumers. “Last time you were on our website you were searching for a blend of coffee that we now have in stock.”

The tie-ins with cause marketing are endless, especially as more retailers adopt services like Apple Pay so shoppers can make purchases directly from their phones.

3. Nonprofits will have new rivals for cause marketing dollars. Cause marketing will get much tougher for nonprofits in 2015. Here’s why: Companies and individuals don’t need them as much as they did before (sorry, nonprofits):

• Companies are rapidly expanding their cause-related activities and exploring ways to be more sustainable and responsible. While partnering with a nonprofit is one way to earn a halo, it’s no longer the only way. Not by a long shot.
• Companies are adopting a nonprofit agenda without the nonprofit partner. Panera has its Care Cafes. Patagonia offers to repair its customers’ clothes instead of selling them new ones. Uber has committed to hiring 50,000 veterans in 2015. The car service has also created the UberMILITARY Advisory Board to build out a team of subject-matter experts to put forward new initiatives to help military communities. What’s missing from these three programs? A nonprofit partner.
• • The Ice Bucket Challenge and other viral fundraisers allow companies to target do-gooders directly, without the aid of nonprofits. These “Halopreneurs” are savvy millennials who are motivated, influential and wired for success. Halopreneurs can address issues they care about without working directly with nonprofits. In short, they don’t need to join a cause-walk or attend a gala to help.

This doesn’t mean that nonprofits won’t ultimately benefit from company and individual fundraisers. They will. But they’ll be more dependent than ever on others to make things happen.

Miriam Kagan, senior fundraising principal, Kimbia
4. Nonprofits are increasingly looking for corporate opportunities to partner, sponsor, support, etc., their missions, events and fundraising. As the industry at large builds more ties, not only will the work of finding partners and developing the right offers for them become more important (and having the right staff to do so), but how those partnerships are structured, what the partner’s role is and how those relationships are promoted to the general public will become something more and more nonprofits have to work on, not just the big ones that already have those relationships in place.

Rachel Armbruster, CEO, Armbruster Consulting Group
5. The days of standard sponsorships are gone. Organizations are focused on developing partnerships. This requires more effort from partners and charities to activate and share campaign messaging with their audiences. Building these programs and monitoring progress has become a priority. Establishing key milestones and minuting progress ensures annual goals will be realized and help with retention.

DATA/REPORTING
Miriam Kagan, senior fundraising principal, Kimbia
1. Staffing for data. As nonprofits consolidate their data and interaction for their constituents in one place, many are finding themselves sitting on a mountain and not knowing which data really matters. Understanding how to develop a data- and analytics-driven organization, finding the right resources to really drive insight and then leverage it, is very important. Good analysts and data officers are like unicorns; staffing correctly will mean having the ability to leverage all that integration work. This also means investing in the right data visualization toolsets — if your awesome analyst spends 80 percent of her time just wrangling the data into submission, then you are wasting a precious resources.

Richard Perry, founding partner, and Jeff Schreifels, senior partner, Veritus Group
2. An increase in accountability and measurement of fundraising, program and management effectiveness as the donating public demands more transparency and reporting on how their giving made a difference.

Rich Dietz, senior product manager, digital fundraising, Abila
3. Donor loyalty and lifetime value: Tracking donor engagement will be crucial. Organizations will spend more time analyzing characteristics and behaviors of all of their constituents — not just major donors — to better understand what drives their giving behavior. By tracking donor engagement, organizations will be able to further segment their appeals, personalize their outreach to donors, significantly increase donor loyalty, improve lifetime value and treat all donors like major donors.

Allison Porter, president, Avalon Consulting Group
4. Donor analytics are a best practice. Analytics used to be a nice add-on if you had some money left in the budget to get a better read on your program and donors. But now, with the case for donor analytics so well-established, analytics are an indispensable tool for strategic planning, smart targeting and even creative development. Now that more nonprofits employ analytics, we know that they are essential to good fundraising and are no longer an optional competitive edge. This is a tall order — effective analysis requires a commitment to data hygiene, specialized statistical and interpretive knowledge, and a purposeful strategic-planning loop that both incorporates new information and establishes priorities.

DONOR DEMOGRAPHICS
Carl Bloom, chairman, Carl Bloom Associates
1. We have seen an improvement in fundraising performance as we have come out of the great recession. Since we deal with cultural organizations, health care, advocacy and other fields, we are looking for larger than average size gifts. This November we have seen a dramatic increase in size of contributions — a good many in places that have had large increases in wealth.

For example, it was interesting to learn that because of the U.S. becoming a big supplier of old and natural gas through fracking, a lot of people who were of modest financial means became wealthy overnight. Farms and cattle ranches are being leased annually by the big oil companies, who are exploring for more energy resources. Some of these newly rich are handing over huge checks (like they don’t know what to do with their money) to certain nonprofits they couldn’t afford to support before. Other places where successful high-tech development is making new millionaires of employees are showing better response and revenues.

So going into 2015, fundraisers should look the country over and try to go where the rich are getting richer, and some in the middle class and below are becoming rich. At the same time as we observe that, the middle has been reduced with the resultant large disparity between them and the 1 percenters.

As a class of people, don’t rely on the boomers to rescue or play a large role in the support of small, medium and large nonprofits; they’ll be busy keeping themselves afloat. The greater number of these people have not saved enough to take care of themselves in retirement and are continuing their work or looking for part-time work to supplement their incomes.

As many of us expect, the 65-plus people will be the best direct-mail responders, and from reports I’ve heard younger citizens are going for the sustainer monthly giving opportunity. It looks like we’re having a trend in sustainer giving. For many it’s a real convenience and one-stop involvement in contributing without the concern about renewing one’s gift.

While online or email giving isn’t yet a major source of revenue, it is increasing among the younger and older folks. More and more senior citizens are getting into the Internet and online giving. We just want to make sure that we are not just pulling donors from one channel into another — the name of the game is increasing overall giving. The more channels are in play the more contributions will increase; people have their preferences for the channels through which the will contribute.

We hear of some success in canvass giving, particularly for sustainer giving. Retention of sustainers generated in canvassing is more solid than single one-time gifts.

While all the projections are interesting and fun, the stock market is giving us some pause for concern — so far, the market has been very volatile, so some wealthy individuals who were feeling good about the future and their own accounts may hesitate to be big-time contributors over the next few months.

What might serve us best is to have optimism for 2015; it could keep us working hard in our pursuit of the dollar and be reflected in our strategies and creative.

Tycely Williams, association director of major gifts, YMCA of Metropolitan Washington
2. We are witnessing the greatest transfers of wealth; it is important to ensure Generations X and Y understand the unique value proposition offered by charities — some of the nontraditional planned major and/or planned giving prospects will inherit sizable assets, aside from the discretionary money many of them have (due to marrying later, having fewer or no children).

Christine Barnes, senior director of donors services, Humane Society of the United States
3. With the millennials entering the giving landscape, we need to adjust our communication styles to adapt. Our communications need to be more visual, and we need to provide more storytelling that engages the donor in as few words as possible.

Rich Dietz, senior product manager, digital fundraising, Abila
4. Millennial engagement: According to Brookings, millennials will make up 75 percent of the workforce by 2025. As millennials enter the workforce and have money to spend, organizations will need to put strategies in place to best engage this demographic. Many follow a different path to becoming a donor than is traditionally done, and nonprofits will need to adapt to these differences.

DONOR RELATIONS
Christine Barnes, senior director of donors services, Humane Society of the United States
1. Donors will continue to push for accountability on how their donations are spent; a percentage answer will no longer suffice, and organizations need to be prepared. Donors are increasingly looking for information on how their donations make an impact.

2. We need to treat donors not as numbers, but as individuals. Organizing data well and applying data analytics, with its focus on tracking and analyzing giving behavior and other predictive variables, are hard work but are so critical. With this knowledge we will be able to provide donors with the giving experience they are seeking, and do so at the scale we require.

Richard Perry, founding partner, and Jeff Schreifels, senior partner, Veritus Group
3. More nonprofits valuing donors as partners vs. sources of cash and inviting them into the inner workings of the nonprofit. This trend is changing the focus of fundraising from securing money to helping donors solve problems. This will be exhibited through investment in mid- and major-donor programs that require more one-to-one cultivation and solicitation strategies. We will also see more nonprofits embrace what we call a “Culture of Philanthropy,” where the entire organization is centered around the donor, not just the development staff.

4. Increased donor care as nonprofit leaders and managers begin to realize that donors are the fuel the drives the nonprofit engine and are to be valued and cared for just as much as the organization cares for its programs and its mission. A new term, “Donors as Mission,” will begin to be adopted by nonprofits.

Jeff Shuck, CEO, Plenty
5. Leverage — and recognize — all of the resources your constituents have to offer. Your constituents bring more than money to the table. Though fundraising is critical to the viability of nonprofit organizations, it isn’t the only component of support that leads to success. Your constituents’ skills, time and networks are also valuable reservoirs of information, manpower and public relations. Recognizing and soliciting these resources will improve your bottom line — and it will also establish trust with your donors by demonstrating that your relationship extends beyond the wallet.

DONOR RETENTION
Richard Perry, founding partner, and Jeff Schreifels, senior partner, Veritus Group
1. As the cost and complexity of donor acquisition increases there is a higher focus on donor retention, especially increasing efforts in major and midlevel giving programs to retain and upgrade donors.

Rich Dietz, senior product manager of digital fundraising, Abila
2. Conversion optimization: Organizations will begin to think about how to better convert existing website visitors versus simply attracting new visitors. This is a business practice that many small businesses have adopted recently and will work well for nonprofit organizations. Conversion optimization revolves around measuring, testing and optimizing the donation flow to raise more money.

Rachel Armbruster, CEO, Armbruster Consulting Group
3. There has been a renewed focus on retention efforts that cut across all areas of development. Chapters especially are looking to national offices to provide best practices, strategies and tools.

Jay Love, co-founder and CEO, Bloomerang
4. The early months of the new year are a great time to revise your acknowledgment letters, especially if you haven’t updated them in quite a while. Consider also creating multiple acknowledgment templates that fit different segments of your database. For example, you wouldn’t want to send the same “thank you” letter to two donors who give wildly different amounts or who gave through different channels (an event vs online). Be personal! Treat all of your donors like the unique flowers that they are.

Kivi Leroux Miller, president, Nonprofit Marketing Guide
5. Donor retention is finally a priority. For the first time in five years, donor retention has jumped ahead of donor acquisition as a major communications goal. It seems as though everyone has been talking about the importance of donor retention for years now, but we did not see that reflected in the priority communications goals for nonprofits — until this year.

GIVING CHANNELS/OPTIONS
Richard Perry, founding partner, and Jeff Schreifels, senior partner, Veritus Group
1. An increase in online giving. As younger, more tech-savvy boomers age and have more disposable income, more of them will be giving online. We will also start to see more organizations using online communication to report back to donors the impact of their gifts in more creative ways.

Erica Waasdorp, president, A Direct Solution
2. My hope and expectations for 2015 will be that virtually every organization, small and large, has a monthly giving program in place and is really focused on growing it. I foresee a further growth of recurring giving growing through text/mobile giving opportunities. Organizations and donors will finally see that they can support an organization at any level.

The Dutch have an expression: “He who does not honor the small is not worthy of the large,” and that holds very true with monthly giving.

Rich Dietz, senior product manager of digital fundraising, Abila
3. Online and mobile: Online and mobile have played an increasingly key role for organizations the last few years, and that will continue in 2015. Social will play a key role in the “attention economy,” and responsive design will be necessary to allow supporters to access an organization’s website at any time from any device. 2014 was the tipping point for more Web traffic coming from mobile devices than desktop computers. According to Pew Research Center, more than 90 percent of all Americans own a cell phone.

Allison Porter, president, Avalon Consulting Group
4. Digital continues to soar. There’s no denying that, while mail is still the heavy hitter in direct response fundraising, digital wins for fastest growth as a channel. But how does it fit into your program? Most organizations are still trying to figure that out. The key is to invest responsibly — with the goals of engaging those multichannel donors that we know are the most productive, and positioning your organization as modern and relevant in an increasingly digital world. Ensure that your digital strategies are aligned with what you’re already doing, and collaborate across departments and offline channels for seamless messaging and maximum impact. With so many options, determining your digital strategy can be tricky — but keep in mind that the payoff is better engagement with your donors, prospects and advocates.

GIVING PYRAMID
Tycely Williams, association director of major gifts, YMCA of Metropolitan Washington
1. Smart development officers are sharing more gift options with donors. Nonprofits won’t be able to achieve or maintain competitive advantage by following the giving pyramid. It is a new day. As a result of technology, donors are smarter and have many avenues for education — forget the mechanics of major and planned giving. Donors turn to nonprofits to make a difference, to eradicate a disease, to end an epidemic. First rule of thumb when integrating major and planned gifts is to know what your organization needs financial resources to do — it must be something extraordinary that will invoke excitement.

LEADERSHIP/BOARDS
Richard Perry, founding partner, and Jeff Schreifels, senior partner, Veritus Group
1. Nonprofit leaders and donors valuing impact and outcomes of nonprofit programs vs. how much they spend on overhead. This trend is professionalizing nonprofit personnel and infrastructure and moving organizations to operate more effectively, efficiently and professionally. There will be more emphasis and resources allocated toward reporting back on impact from nonprofits.

2. A move from power and control on the part of leaders and managers to participative involvement by all: donors, staff, board, etc.

3. An increase in ethical behavior, truth-telling, transparency and openness as donors continue to demand it and general and social media expose its lack.

Allison Porter, president, Avalon Consulting Group
4. The overhead myth is holding less sway, but we aren’t there yet. We are chipping away at the assumption that nonprofits should do the best they can on shoestring budgets and replacing it with the more nuanced mind-set that nonprofits should invest responsibly in strategic opportunities for impact and growth. 2014 brought more visibility to this issue, including some inspiring industry conversations around charity evaluators, strategic overhead ratios and donor perceptions. I’m determined to continue advancing this conversation in 2015, and I hope to see proactive effort on the part of the whole fundraising community — to bring this issue to the press in a positive way, to get clear on organizational messaging and to advocate tirelessly on behalf of the strategies that will best advance your missions.

Sarah Durham, president, Big Duck
5. Over the past few years, nonprofits are increasingly looking inward at their operations, technology, infrastructure and staff capacity. Creating mission-centric programs is still central, but as the sector matures, more and more leaders understand that it takes more than just great programs to advance a mission, especially in tougher fundraising climates. I see this playing out largely in two areas.

Yesterday’s executive directors are now increasingly called CEOs, and they are running nonprofits with a sharper focus on communications, development, HR and more traditionally “for-profit,” business-like strategies. In 2015, I expect we’ll see that trend continue: Increasingly, CEOs understand that communicating well externally requires communicating well internally, too.

Here’s how I think it shakes out: In the past, the focus of was almost entirely on “the stuff that gets sent out.” These days, more nonprofits are (wisely) prioritizing building a team of strong communicators internally, coordinating the messages that donors and other external audiences receive, and building a healthy work culture. That means making sure the right people are hired, giving them better support to build their skills, integrating values into daily decision-making, and working to break down departmental silos and barriers.

6. Another outgrowth of this more internal, capacity-oriented point of view is an increased use of rebranding as a strategy to help align staff internally around how to communicate and boost revenue. Big Duck and FDR Group’s 2014 study, “The Rebrand Effect,” noted that 92 percent of participating organizations rebranded to communicate more effectively, with fundraising as a leading motivator to do so; 58 percent of participants have more confidence in their staff’s ability to communicate well on behalf of the nonprofit and to use the new brand to help assess things like the alignment of programs, for examples.

Although many of the participants worked at organizations that had rebranded very recently (in the past two years) and weren’t sure what the net gain might be, 50 percent of participants observed an increase in the revenue of their organization since they rebranded. The research also showed that new leadership and a new strategic plan or focus helped.

All of this focus on internal capacity is in the spirit of working smarter, more effectively and toward the mission. In 2015, I hope we also begin to see a greater alignment between technologies (fundraising software, databases, email service providers, marketing automation software) and people, too. The more leadership, staff and technologies are aligned, the more effective nonprofits will be at fundraising, communicating effectively and achieving their missions.

Pamela Barden, consultant, P J Barden Inc.
7. A board of directors that is qualified, engaged, passionate about the mission and committed is essential for nonprofit success. This requires training board members both in the role of a nonprofit board and in the nuances of the organization, communicating, engaging the board regularly and (as staff) being willing to be “directed.” Nonprofits that are led by value-adding boards are a step ahead when it comes to long-term growth.

Wayne Luke, managing partner, nonprofit practice, Witt/Kieffer
8. Identify key philanthropy leadership. In order to bring growth, key qualities for philanthropy leaders in 2015 include experience creating and deploying new programs and identifying and tapping fresh sources of funding. Some of these leaders may be “bridgers” who originate from the for-profit space and are transitioning to not-for-profit organizations with invaluable relationship management, business development, leadership and management experience.

MAJOR GIFTS
Richard Perry, founding partner, and Jeff Schreifels, senior partner, Veritus Group
1. A push for a higher level of professionalism and accountability in the major gift field. Look for a call to an accredit the position beyond a CFRE as more and more nonprofits embrace major gifts and are quickly dismayed at the dearth of solid talent to fill positions.

Gail Perry, consultant, Fired-Up Fundraising
2. Mega donors making mega gifts. Mega gifts are clearly back! Our most wealthy and generous donors are making major investments to their favorite nonprofit causes.

The top 10 biggest charitable gifts in 2014 came to a combined total of an amazing $3.3 billion, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Imagine that much money coming from just 10 people!

MESSAGING
Richard Perry, founding partner, and Jeff Schreifels, senior partner, Veritus Group
1. Increased efforts on the part of fundraising professionals to package their organizations’ budgets so the donating public can understand how the money is used and what funds are needed. More and more enlightened nonprofit managers will work harder to present their budgets to external publics in a form that is outcome- and results-oriented vs. finance- and accounting-functional.

Rich Dietz, senior product manager of digital fundraising, Abila
2. Storytelling becomes visual: Creating a narrative and sharing a story has always been important for nonprofits to successfully engage donors, but doing so in a visual way is becoming essential. Organizations will have to find creative and innovative ways to engage supporters in a world full of distractions, and visual components are key. Web posts with visuals drive up to 180 percent more engagement, and research indicates people process visuals 60,000 times faster than text.

Kivi Leroux Miller, president, Nonprofit Marketing Guide
3. Frequency of appeals — in both email and print — will go up. Over the last four years, despite conventional wisdom that frequency of print communications was probably falling and email was probably increasing, our data showed that both were actually flat.

However, in 2015, for the first time, we see a significant increase in the planned frequency of both print and email appeals. In other words, nonprofits are asking for money and other support more often. At the same time, their print and email newsletter frequency remains about the same as in previous years.

Wayne Luke, managing partner, nonprofit practice, Witt/Kieffer
4. Emphasize innovative and creative fundraising — A key part of organizational strategy should be innovative storytelling. With the growth of successful Internet-based not-for-profits, consider how to position your message creatively in order to tap in to different audiences, resources and markets. Rebranding and tailoring your message toward new “listeners” represents tremendous opportunities for your organization.

MOBILE
Miriam Kagan, senior fundraising principal, Kimbia
1. While this issue may have been beaten to death, many nonprofits still do not offer a truly resolution-centric mobile experience (not just for donors, but for their constituents in general). This will become increasingly important as mobile payments continue to make headway: smartphone-integrated payment technologies, increasing process of tablets and phablets and even near-field will mean that mobile-friendly becomes an old standard, not something that is still optional.

PAYMENT PROCESSING
Dave Yohe, head of corporate marketing, BillingTree
1. Payments really are going mobile. In North America, the number of mobile transactions has almost doubled since 2013 to 17 percent of all transactions — 1 million people signed up for Apple Pay in the first 72 hours after its October launch! Google Wallet, which has been in the marketplace since 2012, has also come to the forefront of consumer thinking. Payment processors and collectors must incorporate mobile payment options for an increasingly mobile customer base in 2015.

2. EMV is coming. In October 2015, the liability shift of Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) will take place in the U.S. Any company that processes card payments is required to offer a chip-and-PIN payment system — or risks being liable for counterfeit fraud. Europe rolled out EMV in 2004, switching liability to merchants in January 2005. Ten years later the U.S. is using the same approach to convince merchants to leave magnetic swipe behind. Compliance remains a strict requirement for merchants switching to EMV, and PCI DSS will continue to be an important consideration after making the move to the new payment method.

3. Tokenization — the combat fraud king. Visa CEO Charles Scharf recently told attendees at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2014 Banking & Financial Services Conference that tokenization is “the single biggest change that’s been made in payment networks easily over the past 15 or 20 years.” With the emergence of new payment options such as EMV and mobile, there will be fresh concerns about fraud prevention, but tokenization is the combat fraud king, covering a range of payment channels targeted by fraudsters — card present, card not present and mobile. 2015 will see big players like Visa and MasterCard pushing their tokenization services to payment processors of all sizes — incorporating a range of emerging payment methods.

4. Goodbye passwords; hello biometrics? Iris scanners and fingerprint readers seem more suited to espionage movies than the payment processing industry, but if Visa and MasterCard have their way, both could soon become commonplace. These innovative technologies are known as biometrics. Plans are in place for current online authentication systems such as MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa to possibly be phased out in the near future.

PEER-TO-PEER FUNDRAISING/CROWDFUNDING
Miriam Kagan, senior fundraising principal, Kimbia
1. While this is the darling of the day, crowdfunding speaks to a large trend of donors grabbing the drivers’ seat in the fundraising process. Whether crowdfunding or an evolution of this, nonprofits have to plan for a fundraising status quo that offers donors increasing control in the giving relationship. At the same time, nonprofits will have to learn to focus limited resources where they are most worth it and understand how channels influence relationships. For example, for most, Facebook and Twitter are not large drivers of donations, but are huge influencers and build other interaction relationships.

Jeff Shuck, CEO, Plenty
2. Organizations must recognize that peer-to-peer fundraising is here and full of untapped potential. One thing that became clear to us in 2014 is that we live in a peer-to-peer world. We get our news from Facebook, decide where to eat based on Yelp, share our lives on Instagram and experience parental inadequacy through Pinterest. The dramatic success of the Ice Bucket Challenge was the exclamation point on the end of a long sentence: Peer-to-peer is now mainstream.

That means that peer-to-peer fundraising leaders will increasingly find that their constituents expect sophisticated sharing, social and networking tools. We’re a long way past “ask three of your friends for a gift” — our constituents are often more aware of peer-to-peer tools than we are. In 2015, nonprofits will need to be more deliberate and more strategic in their efforts.

A few simple but powerful questions will get you on your way to leveraging your networks. What does our audience look like? Why are they engaging with our organization? How can we better inspire them to engage their friends on our behalf? These questions will form the core of successful programs in 2015.

3. Stop trying to re-create the Ice Bucket Challenge. Your constituents’ inboxes, walls and news feeds are flooded with solicitations. As a result, they have developed finely tuned authenticity radars. It is impossible to replicate, manufacture or plan authenticity ahead of time. The Ice Bucket Challenge was a truly bottom-up fundraising phenomenon, and everyone wanted a piece of the peer-to-peer golden child in 2014. Imitation Ice Buckets floundered then and will flounder in 2015 because they are, by definition, contrived. They will set off your constituents’ authenticity alarms.

2015 is the time to let Ice Bucket Challenge lottery dreams go. Turn the microscope around, focus on your mission, tell a compelling story and focus on building long-term relationships instead of quick-fix money.

Katrina VanHuss, CEO, Turnkey Promotions
4. Online platforms do not equal peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns. Many nonprofits are now attempting to use the peer-to-peer income channel. Technology enhancements have made online giving in the P2P channel available to every organization, and the misconception is that “if I have a platform live, I have a peer-to-peer program.” The misperception is that peer-to-peer is a marketing program, delivered online. The reality is that most programs built in this manner die. Peer-to-peer fundraising starts with peer-to-peer recruitment to that process. Peer-to-peer fundraising is a messy, human business, the kind of business that many people avoid studiously. An online platform and online communications are handy tools that can increase efficiency in this channel, but are not in and of themselves a peer-to-peer program. Without talent and expertise to set up strategy, manage volunteers and execute complex operations successfully, a peer-to-peer program exists in name only.

Wayne Luke, managing partner, nonprofit practice, Witt/Kieffer
5. Embrace new energy behind philanthropy and the role of crowdfunding. Philanthropy is becoming more and more a global initiative. With the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge going viral in 2014 and the integral role of crowdfunding in new initiatives, not-for-profits should be prepared to harness new energy to complete specific forms of outreach that lead to quantifiable results and impact.

PLANNED GIVING
Claire Meyerhoff, editorial director, Planned Giving Marketing
1. For 2015, fundraisers who hope to bring in more planned gifts are looking for fresh ways to communicate with their longtime, loyal donors. Right now, my clients are very receptive to strategies that include the marketing of “Beneficiary Designation” gifts (the donor makes the charity a full, partial or contingent beneficiary of a retirement plan, life insurance, brokerage account or any asset requiring a beneficiary). This is the easiest planned gift to make! I like to call it a “lawyer-free gift,” because all the donor needs to do is fill out a “change of beneficiary form.”

Beneficiary designations are a great gift vehicle to market because you’re not talking about wills and death. For instance, in a newsletter, a college might include a brief article entitled “Your Retirement Plan can Start a Scholarship” or a crisis services program might send a letter to donors asking, “How can your life insurance save lives?”

Most charitable people have a retirement plan or life insurance, and their beneficiaries may be woefully out of date! When you market beneficiary designation gifts, you’re also doing a public service, because your donors may need to update their beneficiaries. Also, you can help donors understand that their retirement plan is one of the heaviest taxed assets if left to anyone besides a spouse — but when left to a charity, 100 percent of their hard-earned plan will go to a good cause.

In the past, charities have mainly focused on marketing bequests from wills or trusts, often referred to as “the bread and butter” planned gift and marketed as “easy.” But a bequest is not that easy. It usually requires an attorney, and we also know that many people don’t even have a will or any kind of estate plan. When a donor makes a planned gift with a beneficiary designation, all it takes is a phone, a form and a pen! They simply call their plan provider and ask for a change of beneficiary form. They use a pen to fill out the form, then call the charity to inform them of their wonderful gift!

SOFTWARE/TECHNOLOGY
Miriam Kagan, senior fundraising principal, Kimbia
1. Transition from integrated platforms to best-of-breed point solutions. While all-in-one-place models still rule for many, the leaders are finding that solutions that try to do everything for everyone may not do anything well. As the cloud makes data movement easier and removes barriers of having to store data in one place, the industry will begin to evaluate point solutions (both from nonprofit and commercial providers) to create a connected ecosystem that cherry-picks platforms that do one thing well and can still talk to the CRM. Having invested heavily in data, many will now want to leverage that data using the best platforms to fundraise, engage with constituents, deliver mission, etc.

Richard Perry, founding partner, and Jeff Schreifels, senior partner, Veritus Group
2. The rise of virtual nonprofits as cause-driven entrepreneurs find that they can do good without the burden of traditional infrastructure, buildings and employees.

SPECIAL EVENTS
Jeff Shuck, CEO, Plenty
1. Look to organic events for inspiration. Very often, the largest and most successful programs started not at headquarters but from volunteers in the field. The Ice Bucket Challenge was the latest in a long line of campaigns that surfaced directly from constituents. If your organization is searching for new ideas on experience, acquisition or retention, you’ll likely find inspiration at the local level.

2. Stop worrying about your walk. Worry about your mission impact instead. A few years ago, the space was shaken up by the rise of mud and obstacle events. A palpable sense of concern arose within organizations that had done well by the walk — they wondered if they would be left behind by the shiny new car on the event block.

Over the last year, however, we found that pedestrian walks not only still dominated the landscape, compromising seven of the 10 largest fundraising events, but most also realized increased revenue. The simplicity of a walk allows cause-focused constituents with significant fundraising power to rally specifically around your mission — not a fiery obstacle course.

What matters more than ever, however, is the real silver bullet of fundraising: what you do with the money. What impact are you making in the world? Fundraising revenue is only a proxy for mission impact, so the real fundraising leaders will begin to realize that to do their jobs effectively they have to understand, assess and be involved in the program delivery side of their nonprofit.

STAFFING/HIRING/TRAINING
Rachel Armbruster, CEO, Armbruster Consulting Group
1. The issue of high staff turnover in development offices continues to be a hot topic. Trends I have seen recently include flexible work hours, more telecommuting, increased use of online meeting technology to reduce travel and alternating jobs within development departments to avoid burnout. One step I haven’t seen yet though is the rethinking of job descriptions and qualifications. Many organizations continue to use job titles and descriptions from a decade ago, and they really aren’t reflective of the work or the ideal candidate. I think progress will have to be made in this area for our fundraising dollars to raise significantly.

BONUS
Rachel Armbruster, CEO, Armbruster Consulting Group
1. More organizations are realizing the opportunity with endurance fundraising. While the market is crowded and it is harder than ever to secure spots in sell-out races, organizations can craft a strong strategy and use incentives, training support and a sense of community to create interest in open races.

Nancy Palo, national vice president of community empowerment, Shatterproof
2. Focus on creating a dynamic/personalized experience for each of our participants in every way we interact with them — online, communications, in person, etc. — and use data to inform those experiences.

Lisa Bergen Wilson, vice president of advancement and donor relations, Operation FINALLY HOME
3. Operation FINALLY HOME will focus on donor retention via engagement and reporting. Our greatest goal is securing another national builder partner to join Pulte Group. As our cost to raise $1 is $0.02, the continued reporting from our builder partners of their in-kind donations will further decrease our costs to build mortgage-free homes. Secondarily, we are working to more deeply engage our board members for fundraising but currently involving them in thanking donors and moving them toward engagement that leads to the ask.

Wayne Luke, managing partner, nonprofit practice, Witt/Kieffer
4. Prepare to scale. Once you prove the effectiveness of your model, prepare to scale for impact and sustainability while moving away from dependency on public funding. With high expectations of transparency, not-for-profits must be succinct, articulate and measurable regarding their outcomes and results.

5. Diversify and tap new resources. In additional to traditional awareness campaigns and fundraising events, philanthropy leaders must be equipped to identify, engage and mine new veins of energy, such as crowdfunding and corporate partnerships, to become more deeply connected in key communities.

(Special thanks to Margaret Battistelli Gardner for her help with this article.)