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1. Expect the political environment to have a serious impact on donations.
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Donors will tend to give to more liberal causes in reaction to the political climate turning more conservative. Many liberals are likely to see the Republican control as a call to action, with the results being a push to give money to cause-focused charities, such as Planned Parenthood.
2. Donors will demand more information on how their money is being used by charities and nonprofits and will be expecting it before donating.
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Nonprofits will have to think about how to provide value back to the customers and how to make them feel good about their giving on an ongoing basis. Nonprofits need to think of fundraising as an ongoing activity rather than a one-time ask.
3. The expectations set by the financial services sector will continue to change how donors interact with charities
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Donors will get more conscious of their giving and their giving portfolio. They will start looking at favorite charities as a portfolio to be managed, rather than a one-off event.
4. Donor advised funds will continue to increase in importance as a tool for giving.
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Donors will rely on other parties, such as financial advisors, in playing a larger role in their charitable giving. Financial advisors will take on the task of gatekeeper, allowing donors the peace of mind that their money isn’t being misused.
5. Millennials will get more and more attention from non-profits as their income grows.
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Millennials are hitting the age and income brackets at which we can expect them to be a major force in the charitable world.
Five Charity and Nonprofit trends
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1. Charities and nonprofits will need to spend more time engaging with their donors, telling them where their money is being used.
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This will also be critical to expand their donor base. With so many other distractions, charities will need to focus their message and consider in greater detail what story they want to tell and how they want it to be retold by someone else.
2. Both types of organizations will need to use technology to their advantage and match donor’s demands/expectations of technology.
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Whether it’s a platform that allows donors to interact with the nonprofit or whether it’s an app that makes giving easier, nonprofits must be more attuned to the technology advancements that donors expect in the general consumer world.
3. Charities and nonprofits will need to be more authentic, as the perception of fake news will cause donors to be leery of the big story.
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Charities will need to do a better job of disseminating the right information about their work. As with the regular news world, it will be incumbent on nonprofits to take an active role in making sure the stories that they want to tell are out there.
4. Both types of organizations should spend more time and effort on talking to the younger generation of donors in the channels where they want to be reached.
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Donor retention is going to continue to be a bigger problem for charities unless they’re focused on reaching donors using the methods of engagement that the upcoming generation wants to use. So direct mail will need to be just one weapon in their arsenal if nonprofits want to thrive.
5. Social media will become even less reliable.
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Because of Facebook and Twitter’s ever-changing algorithms on what posts users see, charities and nonprofits can't rely on them as ways to help with brand building. Major companies are now facing continual problems “gaming” social media. Nonprofits will have even more challenges in this space. Nonprofits will need to rely on their own efforts and their own content to move forward.
