Nonprofit Bridge

Many of us in the nonprofit sector aren’t as effective as we could be in interacting with our constituents because departments of our organizations aren’t working together.  Often each department will have its own agenda, and offline and online strategies are handled by different areas.

In No Constituent is an Island, Steve MacLaughlin suggests that we stop thinking about offline and online and simply treat them as different channels.  Steve offers some interesting analogies, such as how we would react if we deposited a check at our bank but its online system had no record of it, or if you bought tickets online but when you arrived at the event, the box office could not access your purchase information.

Social media guru Beth Kanter offers a similar perspective in Silos Culture Inside the Walls of Nonprofits Prevent Effective Social Media Use.  She describes the experience of a nonprofit staff member who tried to promote a social media policy within their organization, but encountered departmental turf battles.  The volunteers who had asked to start using Facebook to promote the nonprofit eventually started on their own;  the organization only became involved later.   Social media brings up even more challenges since some of us still think it deserves a place with other tools we use to interact with our supporters.

With the increasing popularity of social media, some are asking if email is on the way out, e.g. Will eMail Fundraising Die.  But just as direct mail is still effective, so is email.   These tools work best when part of an integrated strategy.  To accomplish this, our nonprofits have to change how we’ve traditionally worked.  One way to do this is to have frequent cross-deparatment projects and meetings – not long, drawn out lectures but quick updates so each area is aware of what other parts of the organization are working on.   This is why project management is so important at nonprofits to help staff across departments and locations to learn to work collaboratively.

Constituents don’t view us as different departments but as one organization.  It’s time we started to treat ourselves the same way.

This week my wife and I have embarked on a new adventure to combine our phone, TV and Internet service to Verizon’s FIOS.  Placing the order was quite a frustrating experience, but what I found most interesting was that the information available on the Verizon web site was very different from what we were told by phone.  The web site would not allow us to complete the transaction and mentioned offers that were impossible to select.  When we asked to speak to a supervisor on the phone, we were told that they have ‘no access’ to the online offerings, and were unable to honor the promotions even when we read it from their web page.

Moral – offline and online must be in synch. When our constituents view us, they see one organization.  Presenting a different picture on a web site versus what is said by phone clearly contradicts this image.  In our case, my wife and I went ahead with the FIOS order due to the significant cost savings and the anticipated performance improvements, but nonprofit organization constituents may not be so patient when attempting to place a donation or participate in an event if they can’t get clear information.

While coming back from lunch today, I met a staff member from our finance department in the elevator.  Our office is setup in a way that finance and the president’s office are on one side of the floor and everyone else is on the other side.  I asked her if she liked being apart from most of the other staff members.  At first she said no, but on second thought she said she enjoyed the privacy and being able to focus on her work.

About a year ago, my organization decided to invest in a new accounting package that would be more compatible with our fundraising software.  It was a difficult transition, but now we have data flowing from one system into the other.  Yet at most companies where I’ve worked, the fundraising and finance systems have been totally separate.

During a webinar today, I was reminded of the benefits of integrating traditional direct marketing and online fundraising.  Yet these functions are often handled by different departments that each have their own agenda.  ‘Dual channel’ donors usually give more frequently than those who receive only offline or online marketing.  Yet few organizations have been successful in developing a truly coordinated strategy.

I used to think that doing my work well and pleasing my direct supervisor was enough to succeed.  Now I realize that it is just as important to play well with others.  While it’s good to be friendly with co-workers, it’s also important to work together with those in other departments, since most worthwhile projects require everyone’s contribution.  So for my organization’s finance department staff, being ‘separate’ may be a mixed blessing.

Is it better to use integrated software where not all the pieces are equally good or to search out the best applications of each category and try to use them together?  My current organization has chosen the integrated route, but it’s very a painful process.  One vendor which promised to integrate with our existing fundraising software has never been able to get it working completely.  Two other products that we bought from the same vendor, expecting them to work well together, still have been a challenge to integrate.  Obviously many are concerned about this issue, as evidenced by the site Integration Proclamation.

This reminds me of the early days of PC software.  Remember Symphony and Framework?  Of course now you have Microsoft Office, which does have modules that work together well.  But it seems that if an organization can identify its top needs, there’s some merit to searching out the products that are strong in those product types.  Integrated software can work too, but only if the ‘strong’ modules agree with your top priorities.

With Convio & GetActive’s recent announced merger, the ‘all from one vendor’ concept seems to be gaining new steam.  But it seems like there will always be room for products which do one thing especially well.