Converging Technologies

When FundRaising Success first came into existence in 2003, the Internet (as a fundraising tool) hung plump and juicy, like a peach at the top of a tree, not quite ripe — and just out of reach.

In the five years since, the fruit has matured, gotten heavier and is now fairly bursting with possibility. It teases with its heady aroma and seems ripe for the picking. But the nonprofit world still can’t quite grasp it. And around it are other blossoms — like mobile giving and virtual realities — that are even more elusive.

But you’re getting there. Every year — hell, every month, every day, it seems — the branches that will lead you to that perfect fruit grow stronger, and you find new and better ways to navigate them.

But at the core of your fundraising, as always, is the trunk of the tree. Stalwart and supporting all your efforts, it’s made up of the less glitzy strategies that have been the backbone of fundraising for decades: direct mail, telefundraising, etc., plus solid campaigns for major gifts and planned giving. And then there are the roots — good communications, flawless accountability, faithful stewardship and old-fashioned relationship building — that ground the whole thing.

The best intentions of … well, you know
Last summer, when we were in the planning stages for 2008 editorial content, I was in a tizzy over so-called emerging technologies. There’s an undeniable allure to the unknown, a sexiness that turns your head and tries to tear your attention away from those things you know so well — no matter how successful they’ve been in the past.

But in the months between the time our 2008 editorial calendar came out and now, it’s become clear that the future of fundraising — Fundraising 2.0, if you will — doesn’t lie in any one area. Surprise! There will never be a magic bullet that will catapult your fundraising into the stratosphere all on its own. Every new technology, every new tool will have its challenges. It will have its supporters and its detractors. It will engage and tease. It will be heralded, then tested and, then, find its rightful place in the fundraiser’s toolbox along with all of the innovations that came before it.

That’s why we played with the title of this special report. The original, “Emerging Technologies,” seemed short-sighted, especially given that the newest of the new really has very little track record to report on. This became abundantly clear when I was discussing the issue with the head of an organization that was built on the notion of emerging technologies. I asked her something like, “What’s going on out there?” in terms of fundraising and new technologies. Her response: “I can tell you, but there’s really not much ‘there’ there yet.”

And the point was driven home to me again when I put out a question to my LinkedIn connections asking, “How would you define Fundraising 2.0?”

Sure, most of the tech and software folks focused their answers on innovations in the technology that supports fundraisers, but the majority of the respondents — those who work at nonprofit organizations themselves and those who represent full-service consultancies — talked about the importance of integration of strategies, merging the brand-new with the tried-and-true (something we’ve been talking about in these pages for years, as well).

Two of my connections — a couple of smart alecks with some very salient points — gave me a pretty sound (though, I choose to be believe, friendly) thrashing for even buying into the Fundraising 2.0 hype.

They bear repeating, so here goes:

Jaap Zeekant, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Dutch fundraising magazine Vakblad Fondsenwerving: “Over 30 years in fundraising, and I’m still learning about Fundraising 1.0. So don’t ask me about Fundraising 2.0 — whatever that may be. Please skip all the categorizing; just work on your fundraising skills.”

Mal Warwick, founder and chairman, Mal Warwick Associates: “Huh? Fundraising 2.0? The model for this construct, Web 2.0, had some (very vague and ill-explained) basis in reality as interactivity, especially by means of social-networking sites, suddenly exploded on the scene in a major way. Not so in fundraising. What’s new in our field other than the normal, incremental changes that evolve over time? Am I missing something? If so, please let me know right away.”

So it seems more accurate to have changed the title of this special report to “Converging Technologies” because that’s what the future of fundraising is all about — nurturing the roots, strengthening the trunk, navigating the branches and, finally, biting into that succulent fruit that, as it turns out, isn’t the Internet or some other newfangled strategy itself — but the finely tuned convergence of all of the strategies and techniques that make themselves available.

I hope you’ll find some enlightening information about what’s “hot” in in this issue, but that you won’t let your head be turned so much by it that you forget about what has worked for you and your peers and your forebears for so long. Go out on a limb, but hold tight to your roots while you’re doing it.

— Margaret Battistelli

To read story sections within this special report, click on the titles in the box to the right labeled “Related Content.”