Non-profit organisations operate in an increasingly competitive world, often competing against other causes for share of voice, funding and donations. Charities must embrace and optimise digital tactics to future-proof their causes.
The challenges of the not for profit industry are exacerbated by continued budget constraints, stripped back government funding and the negative impact on fundraising during Covid-19. Now more than ever, non-profits need to demonstrate the impact of digital investment and ensure they maximise the return of digital change projects.
Challenges of the not for profit industry
Like any organisation, not for profits seek ways to provide effective and convenient services for the people and causes they serve, but they are often met with challenges. In an increasingly digital world, charities can no longer rely solely on traditional methods of fundraising and delivering services. Not for profits need resilient digital solutions to support their activities – achieving investment for this can be challenging:
Ambitions
- Raising awareness for the charity and/or cause
- Managing the digital experience for donors, members and service-users
- Optimising delivery of services.
Challenges
- Controlling costs and budget constraints
- Legacy systems causing inefficiencies and security concerns
- Unresponsive and out-dated digital user-experiences
- Traditional fundraising methods impacted by Covid-19.
How digital enablement can help not for profits
With digital enablement, there is so much opportunity for not for profits to engage with stakeholders and elevate their services and positive impact on the world. To achieve this, not for profits should consider integration across their technologies to ensure smooth communication and movement of data across their organisation. Here are some examples of digital change in action:
Optimising delivery of services
Not for profits require technology that makes interactions with members and people who require their services easier. Successfully managing the experience of members, donors and people using charitable services can be simplified with an effective customer service solution.
Agents dealing with requests for charity services want to be able to help vulnerable people as quickly and easily as possible. Dynamics 365 Customer Service empowers agents with useful information to support interactions and case management. Dynamics 365 provides agents (and managers) with at-a-glance views of service-users which details GDPR compliant previous interactions, support history and any recent or open cases, enabling agents to manage service-user engagements quickly and efficiently.
Delivering positive digital experiences
Delivering positive experiences online can be achieved by offering a variety of communication channels and in particular, the option to engage through an instant messenger (i.e. a chatbot).
Instant messenger has become a key communication channel for many organisations as it provides quick responses to common queries without directing users to busy phonelines. This can free-up agent resource for the people that require human interaction for more complex matters, ultimately reducing phone wait times.
Power Virtual Agents provides chatbot functionality and integrates with the entire Microsoft suite. It utilises AI to automatically respond to queries and instantly engage with people who are using your website or portal, helping them find the information they need and deliver a positive experience – all without the need for a human agent.
Raising awareness for the charity
Covid-19 dramatically impacted charities’ ability to raise awareness and donation revenue through traditional methods. Countless in-person events, from large scale to grassroots, were cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions, removing a crucial avenue of fundraising and awareness raising for many charities.
For many, engagement had to be driven through digital channels, such as social media and email. An effective marketing solution ensures non-profits can raise awareness effectively throughout uncertain times. Dynamics 365 Marketing provides marketing automation to manage engagement across social media and email. It enables users to build out personalised, multi-channel journeys to engage recipients and maximise performance of digital campaigns.
Peace of mind with secure cloud solutions
Not for profit organisations manage highly sensitive data and are under scrutiny from governing bodies to ensure secure processes are in place. Many charities struggle with being locked into legacy systems which are often clunky and heavily bespoke to the charity. It can be a full-time task for IT departments to maintain these systems and manage security risks.
Moving from on-premises systems to the cloud can elevate many challenges and enables flexible, secure processes with inbuilt security. Migrating legacy systems to the Microsoft 365 and Azure cloud can optimise efficiencies and security throughout a not for profit organisation, allowing you to futureproof your systems.
Demonstrating the value of digital investment
Incremental’s recommended approach to delivering a digital transformation project, starts with an I.D.E.A. Incremental will take you through a tried and tested framework that ensures digital investment aligns to the overall ambitions of your charity.
We understand that controlling budget and demonstrating ROI is of the upmost importance for not for profits. Through the I.D.E.A. framework, Telefónica Tech will develop and deliver a Business Value Assessment which quantifies the value of your digital investment. This empowers you to secure investment for your digital transformation journey.