How Mobile Giving Benefits You and Your Donors
Today, 25% of donors complete their donations on mobile devices, while 37% of Millennials report using a smartphone to give. Moreover, when you look at the increase in mobile giving year over year, this trend’s growth is astounding. In 2015, mobile giving made up 14% of donations. In 2014, the percentage was only 9%. Mobile giving continues to become more widespread.
Mobile giving is ideal for both your organization and your donors. Not only can fundraisers use mobile giving to boost the performance of your campaigns, it’s also a way to make giving more attractive to donors. Here’s how mobile giving can benefit both your organization and your donors.
6 Mobile Giving Benefits
1) Mobile Giving is Convenient for Your Donors
A recent New York Times opinion piece called convenience “the most powerful force shaping our individual lives and our economies.” The writer isn’t wrong. In today’s always-on culture, where people are filling every minute of their available time, they’re actively seeking convenience. The fact is, convenience is no longer simply nice-to-have—it’s essential. If nonprofits want people to donate to their organizations, they must make the giving process convenient. Supporters will be sidetracked by donation processes that take too long. They’ll simply move on to their next to-do item. They plan to come back later, but they’re likely to forget.
A primary way to make the donation process more convenient for supporters is to integrate it into their everyday lives, with the tools they use every day. More and more Americans now use mobile devices as the main way they access the internet. By using technology that donors are already using, you provide valuable time-saving experiences for them. Donors are more motivated to give because the process won’t interfere with their tight schedules and over-burdened to-do lists.
2) Mobile Giving is Easy for Your Donors
Mobile giving is more than simply convenient. It also makes the donation process simple and fast for donors. Your donors are using their mobile devices for everything from building exercise habits to paying their bills. They’re comfortable using mobile technology. Providing supporters who prefer using their smartphones with a variety of mobile options will make the donation process easier for them. Offer convenient links to your mobile-friendly landing pages, share QR codes, provide text-to-give options, and more.
3) Mobile Giving Boosts Recurring Gifts
One of mobile giving’s biggest benefits to both nonprofit organizations and donors can be found in recurring donations. As with any form of online giving, donors can quickly set up recurring gifts when they donate via their mobile devices. If you’re relying on donors to remember to mail in monthly checks, you’re risking missed payments due to forgetfulness. Donors value the convenience and accessibility of being able to set up recurring donations through their mobile devices.
4) Mobile Giving Saves Time for Your Organization
When donors contribute via a mobile device, their gifts are automatically processed online. You don’t need staff to process mail, record check data, or make check deposits. Since you don’t have to dedicate resources to these tasks, your staff can devote the time they’re saving to other valuable fundraising efforts. The automation provided via mobile giving can vastly increase your organization’s productivity.
5) Mobile Giving Encourages Social Media Sharing and Peer-to-Peer Giving
Social media is a powerful tool. According to the 2018 Global NGO Technology Report, 25% of donors say social media most often inspires them to give. The influence of social media, combined with the ease of online giving, has contributed to the rise in popularity of peer-to-peer giving in recent years.
Your donors can share their personal fundraising pages with their friends, family, and colleagues via social media or email. Many users access both their social media and email accounts through their mobile devices. It’s an easy process to simply click a link and complete a donation on a mobile giving page.
6) Mobile Giving Makes Tracking Easier
Metrics and tracking are essential to increase campaign performance. You can’t know how to improve if you don’t know specifically what’s working and what’s not working. Any type of online giving, including mobile, is easily trackable. Data can automatically be fed into your fundraising software, giving you valuable insight into donor giving patterns, such as average gift size, most frequent time of year for gifts, which campaigns perform the best, and which programs generate the most giving. When tracking is automated, it makes life much easier for those team members who are responsible for metrics and measurement.
Mobile giving is powerful because it provides such strong benefits to both organizations and donors. Both groups can use it to streamline their tasks and save time.
Want to learn how to launch a mobile giving initiative? Download “The Ultimate Guide to Mobile Giving.”