70 Nonprofit Trends for 2015

AGENCY/CONSULTANT PARTNERSHIPS
Richard Perry, founding partner, and Jeff Schreifels, senior partner, Veritus Group
1. More outsourcing of work that was traditionally done in-house. Managers are beginning to realize that they can save money by outsourcing technical and management work and still stay in control of their brand, story, content and other management values. Some of the areas being outsourced are certain HR functions, some finance functions, IT, donor care, major and midlevel program management, grant writing, planned giving, creative work, PR work, etc. This trend is similar to a trend in the commercial world of using on-demand services that use freelancers and virtual labor to get work done.

CAUSE MARKETING/CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS
Joe Waters, founder and blogger, Selfish Giving
1. The future of cause marketing is content marketing. If cause marketing is a partnership between a cause and a for-profit for mutual profit, content marketing will be the glue that cements the relationship among stakeholders — cause, company, consumer.

The goal of content marketing is to drive outcomes. So if you’re hoping to land a cause marketing partnership or to share it with consumers or to demonstrate the results to a brand or your supporters, you’ll need content marketing that engages without selling. Content marketing is the only kind of marketing left, and for nonprofits it’s bigger than sales, fundraising and branding.

2. Beacon technology will dominate checkout charity. Love or hate them, offline checkout programs (pinups, roundups, donation boxes, etc.) will begin to be replaced by mobile programs using Beacon technology.

Beacon technology is “micro-location” as it’s designed to work in a physical location (like a store) with your phone — specifically your retail apps. With a Beacon transmitter, businesses can better interact with smartphone-toting consumers in or near their stores. Sure, they can push coupons to them when they walk in the door, but they can also give them one when they linger in a particular aisle or over a specific product. Companies can even push reminders to consumers. “Last time you were on our website you were searching for a blend of coffee that we now have in stock.”