Building the Nonprofit Online Communities of the Future

Joyce Hesselberth, For the Chronicle

Imagine a world where philanthropic money, goods, and services flow quickly and directly from donors to recipients, where nonprofits connect donors to people in need more directly than they do now.

The advantages of such arrangements would be many. Beneficiaries would get to articulate their needs. Donors could identify specific causes they want to support. By interacting directly, both sides would feel a closer connection to each other, boosting the potential for long-lasting relationships.

Many nonprofits may worry about their place in such a world. It could mean giving up control in many ways. Beneficiaries would tell their own stories, and donors would determine where the greatest needs were. It could mean nonprofits would no longer raise unrestricted funds.

But nonprofits shouldn’t worry. They should see this as an opportunity. These new relationships between donors and beneficiaries could help nonprofits reach more people in need.

As chief marketing officer for DonorsChoose.org, which directly connects donors with teachers who need supplies and experiences for their classrooms, I’ve seen the power of these relationships firsthand. Our experience holds lessons for all nonprofits, large and small.

The changes are coming regardless of whether nonprofits embrace them. Witness the growth of crowdfunding for almost anything, including efforts for drought relief, medical care for pets, and the production of music and films. Nonprofits need to get on board or risk being left behind.

So what do nonprofits need to do to prepare for such a future?

Invest in online relationships.

It’s a long-term investment, and the results may not be easy to measure, especially at first. But community building is what keeps people involved. DonorsChoose.org recently hired three staff members to focus on social media, editorial content, and online groups for our teachers.

However, nearly every staff member in our organization is involved, whether it’s moderating a Facebook group of teachers who share inspiration and ideas, taking corporate donors to visit schools they have backed, or welcoming supporters and teachers to our office.

When building the case to invest in community building, it’s important to measure the work not by the revenue it brings in but by the long-term results.

Build and strengthen one-to-one connections.

The more we connect donors and beneficiaries directly, the more both parties benefit. For example, at DonorsChoose.org we invite our contributors to leave a message for the classroom they supported, explaining why they chose to give. We have heard from teachers that they love sharing these messages with their students.

We invite teachers to thank donors for their contributions, which 66 percent of them do within 24 hours. Donors tell us all the time how amazed they are that a teacher personally responded. If the teacher follows up with a letter to the donor describing how the supplies helped students learn, we often see the donor come back and give again to that classroom.

We used to worry about overburdening people with these interactions. On the contrary, they make teachers more likely to request more resources and donors more likely to give again.

Borrow lessons from retail.

When you book a car using Lyft or order a meal through a delivery service like Seamless, you’re prompted to share a promo code with your friends, which helps those companies identify like-minded consumers.

DonorsChoose.org uses a similar strategy to identify like-minded donors. We give our teachers promo codes to share with their friends and families on their first classroom request. Then, when donors give using those promo codes, our Board of Directors matches those donations, up to $50.

Then we email donors about future projects they might want to support, like when a teacher they know posts another classroom request.

Give beneficiaries ways to help.

Five years ago, we thought the best way to serve our teachers was to get them the supplies they needed and then leave them alone to teach. As we’ve gotten to know our teachers better, they have told us that they want to raise money for their classrooms, they want to train other teachers in their school to use DonorsChoose.org, and they want donors to visit their classrooms. They want to be involved.

In response, we have built programs that help teachers do those things. As a result, this school year, 20 percent of the money donated for classroom requests is coming through the fundraising that teachers do among people they know. The rest comes from corporate and foundation donors and individual supporters cultivated by DonorsChoose.org.

The share of money coming from teachers’ networks has increased by 5 percentage points over the last two years. Because of word of mouth among beneficiaries, we now serve 17 percent more teachers, predominantly in the country’s highest-poverty schools.

Build a movement.

People want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. The explosive growth of #GivingTuesday, the philanthropic holiday that follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday, taught us the power of having a unified day for social causes. Each year, we break records for the number of donors giving to our site on #GivingTuesday. Participating in a movement makes donors feel like they can make a bigger difference.

So last year we created #BestSchoolDay to give donors another opportunity to share their charity affiliation with their friends and give teachers a reason to talk with their friends about their classroom needs.

The Rise of DIY Fundraising

Nonprofits are stepping up efforts to help their supporters bring in new donors online. In this special report we give you examples of what’s working, explain the tools you need, and provide guidance on how your charity can get started.

• New Wave of Technology Helps Expand Power of Online Fundraising
• What Nonprofit Newsrooms Can Teach Charities About Online Engagement
• In Building Movements, Don’t Forget About Email

Collaborate.

These efforts can’t be done by the marketing or development teams alone. They need to involve people throughout the organization.

For example, I regularly work with our chief technology officer and the chief operations officer to talk through our teachers’ needs and donors’ interests.

Think of the recipient’s experience, not just the donors’.

Five years ago, our website engineers spent most of their time building features on our site for donors. We wanted to make sure that they had the best possible experience in making contributions. For many nonprofits, the equivalent is hosting galas to honor philanthropists, mailing annual reports, and sending thank-you gifts to donors.

As we saw our donors and teachers communicating with each other, we started to realize that donors cared as much about the teachers’ experience as they cared about their own. For example, if we were late in delivering a set of dictionaries to a classroom, we started to hear about it from the donor before the teacher.

We still focus on our donors’ needs, but we also focus on discovering and fulfilling our beneficiaries’ needs — and in doing so, we build greater trust with donors.

Step aside when it’s time.

Once they foster connections between beneficiaries and their supporters, the best nonprofits get out of the way.

They let their beneficiaries enhance the experience of their supporters, and vice versa.

When we send fundraising emails, we don’t ask our donors to support DonorsChoose.org. We ask them to support Ms. Smith’s classroom down the street from their home. We let Ms. Smith tell the story of why her students need help.

Stepping aside may be the hardest part of all for many nonprofits, especially those that came of age in a different era. But to quote Henry Timms, the executive director of the 92nd Street Y and the founder of #GivingTuesday, “It’s not a movement until it moves without you.”

Katie Bisbee is chief marketing officer and executive vice president, partnerships at DonorsChoose.org.