Non-Profit Chas tells us Why You Should Ignore Mobile Giving:
... it's just another shiny object to distract us from our fundraising fundamentals -- communicating our mission, building relationships, and helping donors understand how best to support us.
So true. Countless hours are being wasted by people at nonprofits pursuing the doubtful promises of mobile giving. The conferences are full of sessions where people eagerly hear how they can get in on the mobile giving gold rush.
Like most gold-rush hopefuls, almost all of them are wasting their time. Unless you're the Red Cross and have the First Lady and every other celebrity pushing it for you, the potential is painfully low.
Here are some other shiny objects that probably aren't worth spending much time on:
- Smartphone apps.
- Millennials.
- All social media other than Facebook.
- Probably Facebook too.
If you're serious about raising funds, you should spend some time on grubby old unexciting objects that are bringing home the bacon at astounding levels. Things like these:
- Direct mail.
- Telemarketing.
- Email.
- Search engine marketing and optimization.
Or maybe you should look into some slightly shiny objects that might (or might not) work for you:
- Print fundraising.
- Broadcast fundraising.
- Face-to-face fundraising.
- Events.
The shiny objects attract our attention. But they're mainly just distractions from our real business: Motivating lots of people to support our causes.
