Mobile Optimization and the Moving Target of Donor Engagement

Donor engagement is at the heart of every nonprofit’s survival strategy. It has been so since the very first charitable heart gave the very first philanthropic dollar. But donor engagement is a moving target. The tactics that worked for your mom and dad won’t necessarily work for you, and the main reason for this is the ever-changing face of technology. The technological advancements of the past generation have caused “marketing” to fracture into a dozen different sub-fields. Thats why social marketing platforms like Facebook and Twitter have become essential elements to every nonprofit fundraising strategy.

But for growing nonprofits, it’s important to step out into independent web spaces that you control: your website and independent marketing platforms, which can be branded and customized for your own purposes. And to make these aspects of your marketing strategy really pop, you MUST make sure that mobile optimization is a priority. But what is that, exactly?

According to PEW, 64% of Americans had smartphones in 2015. The market share for smartphones gets higher and higher each year, far outpacing the sales of PCs, laptops, and alternative mobile gadgetry like smartwatches. Nearly all smartphone owners use their devices for web browsing and email. If you count yourself among the mobile hoard, you’ll know the frustration of trying to click through a website or piece of email marketing, which hasn’t been optimized for mobile use. The experience is maddening, to say the least.

Websites and platforms that work equally well whether on a computer or a mobile device are called “responsive” or “mobile optimized”. Through clever coding and algorithm work, these sites instantly scale themselves for the dimensions and features of mobile devices. Instead of scrolling for pages and pages just to read a paragraph or trying to click a link the width of an eyelash, responsive websites are as natural to use on mobile phones as they are on your laptop, tablet, or PC.

So how do you make sure that your nonprofit’s social marketing and web efforts are mobile optimized? It’s actually pretty easy these days. Any platform worth its salt will be responsive automatically. (We actually think mobile responsiveness is so important that we make sure our database and require all our integration partners to be mobile friendly as well.) But if your nonprofit relies on websites and platforms that are starting to show their age, you can’t guarantee that they’re optimized for mobile use. Want to find out for sure? Pull up your web and social marketing spaces on your iPhone or Android device. Do they work seamlessly? Then your nonprofit is living in the 21st century. Do they make you want to throw your phone across the room in exasperation? Then your nonprofit is likely relying on platforms that don’t optimize for mobile.

Kindful Tip: The most important thing to make sure is mobile responsive on your website? Online donation pages! Make it easy for donors to give online by making sure they can give on the go!

Spare your donors and supporters this kind of frustration. Use Kindful partners for mobile optimization and seek out other marketing/service sources which offer the same. If your nonprofit has grown beyond the limits of Facebook and your blog, this is a key factor in creating a digital experience for your supporters that’s modern and seamless.