Digital fundraising might not bring in single high-digit donations (though it might). Still, it pushes the boundaries of the classical, once or twice-a-year fundraising event, local venue, or carefully selected crowd. It makes philanthropy and the feeling of “feeling good” available to anybody, anywhere, and anytime, thus creating a second revenue stream, like many drops make a river.

Those charitable organizations who understand that the shift to digital fundraising methods will continue to dominate the post-pandemic world will be ahead of the curve within their industry by driving a two-pronged strategy of both classical and digital fundraising.

Whether we have backed the wrong horse or the circumstances just changed - relationships don’t get out of balance and become harmful overnight. As a matter of fact, we do notice each and every flag. We just don’t classify those flags as “red” because they are too random or too tiny and often rather a feeling than a solid logical fact. So we shut off our alarm system and, instead, devise various excuses. Without our guards up, we wander off course, eyes wide open, willing to persevere under the increasing heat and pressure, ignoring the accumulation of tiny little red flags, ignoring our instincts. We continue to hope and wait for things to prove as safe and prosperous as we initially had determined.
Perseverance is a great character trait, and hope is a beautiful place. However, when we veer too far off the path, we must change course or lose ourselves. We need an exit strategy.

In today’s virtual world, communication has become one-dimensional. We write (ping), post (ping), comment (ping), and share (ping) - the more, the merrier. We segment, target, position, and blast (ping, ping, ping) our messages across all channels. We bombard our audience with what we believe they need to know and, even worse, what our clients “need to do” for us: Subscribe here! (ping) Donate there! (ping) Order now! (ping)

Later, we measure our success by the number of followers or subscribers we’ve “won.” One million followers? Congratulations - but where is the “pong”? How many followers did react to our posts? With how many of them did we establish a conversation? There is no benefit to quantity if there is no quality.

Don’t become a ping pong machine haphazardly shooting.