Donors are trimming back spending and choosing more carefully on what they use their hard-earned dollars for. This trickles down to non-profit organizations, requiring them to focus more on the donor than normal, and streamline overall operations.

According to Robin Fisk, senior executive at Alexandria, Va.-based Advanced Solutions International, one area nonprofits can look at to accomplish these goals is technology.

Use your Web site to personalize each donor’s experience.
Donor’s will choose who to support based on many factors, including how easy that support is to give and understanding how their generosity is helping a cause. Make it easy for donors to get involved in your cause by creating social media-based groups available for them to participate in through your Web site. Invest in Web technology to provide a personalized online experience for your donors, including feedback on the effect of their past gifts.

Make sure the donor’s experience is truly one of a kind.
Donors want to feel important to a cause and giving them access to their own history with your organization through your Web site will help accomplish this goal. Let them easily access their own giving history, event support, social media group interaction and control over their profile, and contact settings. Tightly integrate your Web site with your database.

Reduce operational overhead through web services.
Lessen the administrative burden of records updating, report generation and other resource-draining activities by moving to a Web services-based platform. This technology can be extended to enable online donor self-service — handling the basics such as change of address, opting into a newsletter or upgrading a committed giving plan.

Nonprofits need to think about new ways of interacting with their supporters and Web-based technology offers numerous ways to engage with people and remind them why their generosity is so important. By using technology of this nature it can keep you close to supporters and you’ll also be in good shape to scale up when the economy turns around.

from The NonProfit Times