TechTalk: The Mobile Tipping Point Nonprofit Fundraising

By Philip King

"Why is everyone still talking about mobile? I thought it didn't work for membership and fundraising."

I talk to a lot of nonprofit organizations, and I hear a common theme when the subject of mobile comes up. "We tried mobile last year, and it didn't work," they tell me.

So why am I starting off this column on the subject of mobile? Because I believe it is one of the most important technology themes for any nonprofit in 2015. Other topics that come close are "big data," "social listening" and "engagement measurement," but we'll get to those in future columns.

When I probe a little deeper on the topic of mobile, I hear that they spent some time and money with a text-to-give campaign: Text this short-code to that number to donate $5 or $10. It didn't work too well. Or they spent quite a bit of money on a mobile app, only to be disappointed that so few people downloaded it, and now it needs a software upgrade.

I'd like you to consider another view of mobile.

There's an image that shows the announcement of the pope in 2005 and again in 2013. Same place, same crowd, different technology. What I like about this image is that it shows how fast the "mobile migration" has happened.

Check out another image from the Hong Kong protest a few months ago. A big part of that story was how the crowd used mobile technology. The world is changing, particularly from a marketing and communications perspective, and it is becoming harder to get anyone's attention, including potential donors and members.

I bet you've upgraded your smartphone in the last 18 months. Let's consider your new device: You spend more time on it than you did on your old one. In fact, I bet you read your email pretty easily now on that small screen. You may even spend more time on Facebook than you did when Facebook was a desktop/laptop-only experience for you. And with recent upgrades to the cellular data speeds you spend more time using your mobile browser to visit websites, often linked from your email or Facebook.

If you have this experience, it's not hard to imagine that your nonprofit's audience does too. Of course, you have all sorts of demographic tribes in your donor or member base: young/old, male/female, rich/not-so-rich. And these tribes all behave in slightly different ways. But one thing's for sure: They're all going mobile!

I'll jump straight to the punch line: Take out your smartphone. Go to your nonprofit's website. Make a $5 donation, or for membership organizations, sign up to become a member.

How was that experience? For many of you, it was frustrating, and you may have given up.

Still using only your smartphone, try registering for that run/walk next month or buying tickets to the gala dinner or upcoming event. You get the point. Our websites haven't kept up. Even websites that are "responsive" can be clumsy to use and result in "bounce" or an "abandoned visit": two of the most dreaded terms for online marketers and fundraisers.

Last year we could comfort ourselves and say, "That's OK, most of our audience arrives at our website or Facebook page from laptops or desktops." But for many nonprofits this will change in 2015. The "mobile tipping point" (the point at which more than 50 percent of your audience arrives on mobile devices) for some of you has already passed or will happen in the next 12 months. Get your team to estimate which month/year the mobile tipping point will occur for your organization. It may startle you.

Here are some other questions to brainstorm early this year:

How much lower are average smartphone donations compared to laptop donations and tablet donations?
How does our conversion rate vary among desktops, tablets and smartphones? The conversion rate is the percentage of your website audience that converts to a donor or member.
Who is doing a great job with mobile engagement, and what does that look like for a nonprofit?
What opportunities will mobile give us to find new donors, new members and new dollars?

Philip King is founder of The Donation Funnel Project, an experiment in online and mobile fundraising. Reach him at philip@donationfunnelproject.com