The Evolution of Multichannel Fundraising

It’s in phase 3 where the promise of these channels working together makes the sum greater than the individual parts.

Phase 3: Seamlessly connected channels
At Apple’s recent unveiling of the new iPad, Apple CEO Tim Cook proclaimed that “we are in the ‘post-PC revolution,’" and that it is "advancing at an amazing pace.”

It’s not a surprise really, as units of smartphones shipped outpace the total number of PCs sold. In addition, tablet devices such as the iPad, Kindle and others have created a category that didn’t exist two years ago. These devices are changing how we consume media, check e-mail and interact with friends. With upward of 10 percent (and growing rapidly) of donation pages being visited via mobile/tablet devices, it’s an area that is quickly becoming highly relevant in the world of fundraising.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this phase of digital channel evolution is the way people seamlessly move between channels and devices to the point where the actual devices and sites become irrelevant and the actions they are taking moves to the forefront, regardless of how or where people look to accomplish the activity.

Single sign-on from Facebook, Google and others is becoming ubiquitous and enables easy sign-on to (online) donation forms and registrations. Single sign-on also removes the friction for accessing services on the Web, mobile Web or even mobile apps, and is key for signing on to mobile apps.

Here’s an example of how a multichannel approach works in phase 3: Suppose your organization runs a walkathon fundraising event where your supporters visit an online registration form on your site. You can enable Facebook Connect to facilitate the registration process for the fundraising. This allows your supporters to use their Facebook login credentials to work through the registration process more quickly and helps you spread the word to their networks. Once participants are registered online, it’s easy to tell all of their friends that they are signed up by posting their participation in this event on their Timelines and on their friends' feeds in Facebook. Participants can then create online fundraising pages to solicit donations.