Talking Mobile Fundraising With UR Mobile's Luke Lightfoot

The mobile channel has been a hot-button issue in the fundraising sector for the past few years. The power of mobile fundraising was displayed in 2010 when the American Red Cross raised more than $32 million via mobile giving for its "Text Haiti" campaign. However, the sector has struggled to harness that mobile success across the board, particularly organizations that do not have missions involving disaster relief.

Still, more and more organizations have incorporated the mobile channel into their fundraising and communications strategies, and the channel certainly doesn't seem to be going anywhere, with everyone and their mothers carrying around their cell- or smartphones 24/7.

Here, FundRaising Success speaks with Luke Lightfoot, marketing and client services expert at mobile Web solutions provider UR Mobile, about mobile fundraising.

FundRaising Success: How many charities are you seeing actually raising significant amounts of money via mobile?
Luke Lightfoot: About 60 percent of the nonprofits who use our platform are raising significant amounts. We've found that nonprofits who incorporate a mobile-first strategy greatly increase their success rates for mobile fundraising.

FS: How does the growth in mobile donations mirror mobile use in the retail world?
LL: Google is projecting that by 2016, about 80 percent of all Internet users will access the Web using a mobile phone. The rising wave of mobile Internet usage will undoubtedly have a huge impact on every type of organization. Today, it is clear that businesses need to have a mobile strategy to stay viable. Nonprofits are in that boat too.

FS: What percentage of donations do fundraisers expect to receive via mobile?
LL: Overall, the initial adoption of mobile giving is significantly outpacing that of online giving. One year after online giving became an option, $300,000 was raised through that channel. The third year of online giving saw that number increase to $10 million. If you look at mobile giving, $500,000 was donated through the mobile channel in the first year. By its third year, that number hit $40 million.

Mary Meeker, [a mobile industry guru and partner at KPCB], has said that mobile is driving the most dramatic behavior transformation in history, and we agree with that assessment. Mobile is not just an add-on; it is quickly becoming the primary way that people engage with organizations of all kinds, including nonprofits.

FS: Where do you see the future of mobile donations going?
LL: We see the future of mobile donations characterized by two primary shifts. First, we see a shift away from text-to-donate and toward the mobile Web. Second, we see a shift away from simple mobile-donation forms that tend to silo processes and data, and toward integrated donation forms that tie in with existing Web services and data.

Concerning the first shift, text-to-donate programs are simple and efficient for the end user, and they will likely stick around for a while. However, the qualification requirements these programs impose upon nonprofits, the constraints they put on donation amounts ($5, $10) and the fact that an average of 10 percent of each text donation is lost in fees make text-to-donate programs a less-than-optimal solution for many nonprofits. Conversely, allowing constituents to donate via a mobile website renders these issues moot.

Concerning the second shift, we believe that the ability to integrate current Web services and functions, such as CRM, accounting, marketing, etc., will become a must-have for nonprofits. With a simple donation form, all donor information is siloed in a separate database, isolating it from data collected through other channels and rendering it inaccessible from other applications.

However, with an integrated solution (through a mobile Web application embedded on the mobile website), donor information can be entered into one form and then sent directly to all of the places it needs to go. So, when a donation is made through a mobile Web app, the donation information could go, for instance, to accounting; the donor’s contact information could go to CRM, the billing information to billing, etc. Integrating the organization’s business processes in this way dramatically increases efficiency and will eventually become standard practice.

FS: Will donors be able to make larger donations than the $5, $10 amounts they're allowed to now?
LL: Those limited $5 and $10 amounts only apply to text-to-donate programs. With mobile website donation forms, gift amounts are unlimited. Our nonprofits have seen their constituents donate $25,000 gifts through their smartphones. Their mobile constituents have also been eager to sign up for recurring donations — an option that is not available via text-to-donate programs. Constituents have signed up for recurring donations of $1,000 or more, in some cases, via their smartphones.

FS: How can organizations integrate mobile into their overall fundraising marketing strategies?
LL: From what we’ve seen, it is important for nonprofits to incorporate a mobile-first marketing strategy. Constituents are likely to browse the Web on their smartphones while they are consuming other media, so nonprofits should find ways to take advantage of that. Guiding constituents to the mobile site from other marketing channels (online, print, television, etc.) is effective. One way to do that is by integrating QR codes into marketing materials.

The QR code should always direct constituents to relevant information that is optimized for their mobile devices. If a mobile visitor scans a QR Code only to be directed to a Web page that they have to pinch and pull to view, they will probably abandon that site without engaging at all. However, if the site they are directed to is optimized for mobile, they are much more likely to interact and engage with the nonprofit.

FS: What nonprofits are using mobile well?
LL: In 2011, Susan G. Komen for the Cure reported that since optimizing its mobile website, 50 percent of its users access the site more than once a day.

It’s no surprise that Komen’s constituents would want to engage so often with the nonprofit’s mobile site. Komen’s mobile website provides a wide range of information, from mobile-optimized video courses to news and event schedules. It also empowers constituents to sign up for events and to donate.

FS: Can you provide some best practices for implementing mobile fundraising?
LL: Mobile websites are used differently than desktop websites. It’s likely that mobile visitors are trying to find information (such as a telephone number, an address or details on an event) or to make a quick donation. To optimize the experience for their constituents, nonprofits should find out what their mobile visitors are trying to do and make those options readily available.

Nonprofits should be sure to highlight their current events and donation campaigns on their mobile sites' homepage. It’s likely that their mobile constituents have heard about them through another channel and are trying to find out how they can get involved. If they have to click through several pages to access this information, they may tire of the process before they reach their objective.