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Digital transformation has been a critical differentiator for successful nonprofits. Leveraging the power of digital platforms has helped nonprofits increase their productivity and efficiency. Digital platforms have assisted such organizations in improving their visibility, communicating better, and raising more funds.
There are several ways that nonprofits can use digital platforms to ensure they thrive in the current digital environment. In this article, we dive deeper into the various ways digital platforms can benefit a nonprofit that incorporates them into its overall business objectives.
Here are some of these ways.
1. Training
Recruiting and training new talent has been a challenge for nonprofits. This is because there are lots of expenses that any organization incurs when doing such processes. This includes paying for travel, hotel, food, and other costs. Add up the challenges of the pandemic, and this becomes even more daunting.
These are some of the challenges that nonprofits can bid goodbye to today. Digital platforms have made it easy to recruit and train new individuals to join an organization’s workforce from remote locations. There are digital platforms that provide seamless video conferencing, making it easy to recruit and train.
2. Communication
Nonprofits need to always keep their audiences informed and engaged. This is the only way to ensure that they remain at the forefront of their ideal audience’s minds. Digital platforms such as email make it possible to send weekly newsletters to subscribers to keep reminding them of your organization’s cause.
Nonprofits looking to use Google’s communication tools such as Gmail can do so through the Google for nonprofit program. This program gives nonprofits exclusive access to some of Google’s tools and services, including the paid ones. They can also register on Google Ad Grants and get advertising funds.
3. Marketing
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As mentioned earlier, nonprofits mainly depend on donations, grants, and sponsorships to run. Getting well-wishers to volunteer and support an organization’s cause requires proper marketing. While traditional marketing may work, many organizations are already implementing digital marketing.
Social media platforms have a massive number of people, including potential donors and sponsors. Nonprofits must take advantage of this and establish an online presence for themselves. This will help them spread the word about their cause far and wide to attract more support.
4. Program Delivery
One of the benefits that nonprofits draw from being digitally mature is meeting or exceeding their program delivery goals. Being able to meet goals helps nonprofits maintain confidence for the future. Besides, it makes it possible for these organizations to acquire new supporters and succeed.
Social media has made it easy for nonprofits to deliver programs to their audiences. With digital platforms, nonprofits have been able to reach audiences, especially at the height of the pandemic. This wouldn’t be possible if nonprofits didn’t embrace digitization during this period.
According to research, 77% of digitally mature nonprofits met their program delivery goals. On the other side of the coin, only 44% of those that hadn’t matured digitally by 2020 managed it. This explains why nonprofits that haven’t invested in digitization should consider doing so as soon as possible.
5. Administration
There are several tasks that nonprofit organizations have to do daily. This includes administrative tasks such as communication, accounting, donor tracking, etc. These may seem like small tasks, but they are repetitive and could take a lot of time and effort to complete.
The good news is that you can reduce the time and effort required to do them by embracing digitization in your nonprofit. Digital platforms can help you communicate efficiently even during out-of-office hours and days. All you need is to schedule your email or social media posts to send at a specific time when your target recipients can find them.
Nonprofits can use most of these digital tools free or at subsidized costs. Google is one of the service providers that helps nonprofits save money through its Google for nonprofits program. It also provides qualified nonprofits with $10,000 in digital advertising credits through its Google Ad Grants program.
6. Fundraising
Fundraising is one of the most significant financial sources for nonprofits. Digital platforms have made it possible for these organizations to raise funds more effortlessly. There are several online crowdfunding tools that nonprofits can use to collect small amounts of money from willing donors to fund their activities.
You can hold crowdfunding events as many times as you want to raise funds. Ensure that you indicate the purpose of the fundraising to get more donations. You can also provide your audience with multiple ways to donate, as the contributions do not always have to be monetary.
Analytics from digital platforms such as Google Analytics can help you plan your fundraising events. Data from such resources can help you better understand your audience. This will make it easy to decide how frequently you can hold crowdfunding events and the best time to plan and host them.
7. Driving Website Traffic
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Another great benefit of using digital platforms as a nonprofit is driving website traffic. There’s no doubt that you can drive website traffic using other techniques such as search engine optimization. However, you as a nonprofit can never ignore social media as one of the most effective website traffic sources.
It would be best to start by establishing a solid presence on various social media platforms. You can then start advertising your website to your social media audience to increase its visibility. As a nonprofit, this will help you attract more support, increase your funds, and make your cause known among your target audience.
Conclusion
Digital platforms are essential for nonprofits today. Having an online presence makes it easy for such organizations to increase their reach and become more profitable. This article has already discussed how nonprofits can make the most of digital platforms today. Nonprofits have limited finance sources as they mainly depend on donations and sponsorships. Digital platforms come across as a cost-effective way for these organizations to popularize themselves. In this digital age, nonprofits must employ a social media strategy as part of their marketing efforts and overall strategy.