EP 63: Fundraising in the Digital Age: Tools and Trends for Success (NXUnite Panel)

This conversation is for informational and educational purposes only and is not professional advice.

Positioning review: No prescriptive adjustments needed. The conversation is a multi-panelist discussion where each speaker shares their own observations and expertise. Jeff's contributions describe Handbid's role and event-based fundraising experiences naturally without prescriptive framing. All content is observational and experiential.

Malou: Welcome to Elevate Your Event, your favorite podcast for transforming fundraising events. Join us weekly for expert tips and creative ideas to make your next event a standout success. In this episode of Elevate Your Event, we join Jeff Porter, our CEO and founder of Handbid, as he joins a panel with NXUnite discussing fundraising in the digital age, tools, and trends for success.

Malou: Hello, everyone, and welcome to our panel. My name is Malou de Garcia, NXUnite member at Nexus Marketing and your moderator for today's panel. Today's panel topic is fundraising in the digital age, tools, and trends for success. I'd like to first introduce Bob Duckworth, who is a fundraising solutions consultant at Impact, an organization that offers a full suite of services that support nonprofit operations. Bob has 25-plus years of experience in the nonprofit sector helping fundraising professionals with their fundraising solutions. Bob, thanks for joining us. Also with us is Cyrus Kazi, who is the CEO and co-founder of Quantibly. He's a visionary leader at the intersection of technology and social impact and is known for pioneering initiatives that bridge diverse communities. With almost 25 years of experience in tech innovation, Kazi has championed projects fostering inclusivity and accessibility in digital spaces. Cyrus, thanks for being here. Also with us today is Jeff Porter, who is the CEO and founder at Handbid. He's no stranger to fundraising events having participated in them for over 25 years. He ran his first fundraiser in 2005 and has managed over 50 auction events and fundraisers for his own charities, not to mention hundreds more with Handbid. Jeff, glad you could join.

Jeff: Thanks, Malou. Happy to be here.

Malou: And finally with us is Karen Houghton, who is the CEO of Infinite Giving and a nonprofit investment advisor. She leverages her deep nonprofit expertise to bring modern cash management to nonprofit organizations all over the U.S. She advocates for organizational sustainability through better financial management, strategic access to curated investment practices, and increased stock, crypto, and DAF giving. Karen, thanks for joining.

Karen: Glad to be here. Thank you.

Malou: All right. Well, it's now finally time to hear from our panelists. And Jeff, I'll have you start us off with the first question. What fundraising trend do you think is most important for nonprofits to be on top of today?

Jeff: You know, it's funny. There are a lot of trends. I was thinking about this question. Trends are also kind of relative -- what we see as new trends just because we're more on the forefront of technology may not be the trends that some charities are thinking about, because we still honestly talk to people who are looking at using technology at their event for the first time, even though it's 2024. So I would say at one end of the spectrum, implementing more technology, more mobile technology specifically at an event is a trend that everybody should be on board with at this point because it's going to give you a lot of information about what your guests and your bidders and your donors are doing. And that information is going to inform a lot of things -- what kinds of activities, what types of items are they bidding on, what types of donations are they making, did they attend the event or not. So we're big on making sure that people are using technology at an event or even with any of their fundraisers so that they can capture that information. Beyond that, I think the trend is data analytics and being able to use that data to inform how you interact with your donors and how you develop them from that first relationship you might have at an event.

Malou: Wonderful. Thanks for starting us off, Jeff. All right, Karen, what fundraising trend do you believe is crucial for nonprofits to prioritize today?

Karen: I believe a crucial trend in general is the increase of awareness in asking for all sorts of donations outside of just cash. Cash is king, we have to ask for that. But you have a whole suite of options -- stock gifts, cryptocurrency, donor-advised funds. There are billions of dollars sitting in DAFs. When you look at the average cash gift being $128, the average stock gift is $8,000, the average crypto gift is $10,000, and the average donor-advised fund grant is $12,000. So you have these big gifts. It's kind of that chicken or the egg problem that I hear a lot -- oh, no one's ever asked to give us stocks. Okay, but have you made that possible? Have you asked them for stock gifts? Are you aware of how beneficial that is for your donor? If your donor is able to give you a stock gift, they avoid paying capital gains taxes and you get a larger gift. They get a larger deduction. So we're seeing a big increase in awareness of that. And then it's a question of, well, what do I do? How do we get a brokerage account? Opening a brokerage account is much more difficult now. Banks are less willing to hold open brokerage accounts. So we found a great opportunity where we can help nonprofits -- we can open a brokerage account in 20 minutes, and now offer a giving page that does cash, stocks, crypto, DAFs, endowments, and legacy giving all in one. I think we're moving from an awareness of it to how do we do it. I always say it's a smaller group of people who will give you these types of gifts, but it is imperative when you look at fundraising trends -- make it as easy for your donors to know what types of gifts they can give you and remove as much friction as possible. Don't wait for a donor to come to you and say, can I please give you a stock gift. Make it easy, make it accessible, make it as frictionless as possible. That's how you get those big gifts. You can have 62 donors give you an average $128 cash gift -- that's the same thing as one donor giving you an $8,000 stock gift. We want you to work smarter. If you opt out of those big high-capacity giving options, those donors are going to go somewhere else because they want that tax efficiency. So why shouldn't it be you? When you look at 90% of nonprofits not having a brokerage account and not having the ability to receive stock gifts, there's a lot of opportunity that nonprofits can pretty easily fix and make a part of their giving culture.

Malou: Thanks, Karen. All right, Cyrus, over to you. What trend do you think is important to prioritize?

Cyrus: Thank you, Malou. At the risk of sounding obvious, fundraising is both an art and a science. The science part is that more tech-savvy, data-driven organizations are entering the social impact space. And on the other side, there's a whole new generation, younger generation, tech-savvy generation also joining the donor community. So the trend -- it's becoming increasingly clear that a data-driven, tech-savvy, accountable setting is where the fundraising sector is heading, at least on the science side. The art side of fundraising, as we have noticed through working with our clients and nonprofits and NGOs -- they now have a much larger audience that they did not have access to before. Social media and social marketing. If you're not familiar with social marketing, look it up, fascinating stuff. This is how consumer behaviors are changed. Social media and social marketing are also becoming an increasing trend in how we engage with donors.

Malou: Thanks, Cyrus. All right, Bob, final thoughts on fundraising trends to be on top of today.

Bob: The final thought is, I'm answering this question with a sad face. I attended a good conference in upstate New York in January. I was on the steering committee, so I knew what to expect. I've been going to conferences for 25 years, fundraising conferences. We know those agendas and the tracks -- demystifying planned giving, how to make the ask for a planned gift, how to run a successful event. And someone on the committee decided that the keynote speaker would speak on artificial intelligence. And it was a real surprise. He got us scared. He said, here's all the changes that are going to happen in your sector in the upcoming years. Speaking to the audience for higher education, he talked about a large list of jobs that would be eliminated. One of them was paralegals. But my position and my colleague's position will probably be changed quite a bit over the next few years with artificial intelligence. The CRM that we support and consult with our customers -- one of the typical questions would be, where are my lost donors? How do I create a list of alumni that made a gift last year? With artificial intelligence, it's all going to go away. People are just going to speak to the computer and it's going to give them the list, and they're not going to need Bob anymore. So that's why I'm sad.

Jeff: So Bob, if I may, because I agree. We use AI. But I think there are some really neat opportunities. The optimist in me will not allow bad news. I see a lot of positives with AI, and I know this isn't a panel about AI, but clearly I'm interested and maybe folks listening are as well. What are some positives that you think will come out of leveraging AI?

Bob: Well, thank you. I was thinking about the response to the last answer, and it ends on a positive note where fundraisers are going to be able to leverage AI and do a lot of things more easily and a lot better.

Karen: You're going to trust the data, though, because we've used it and I'll tell you that you just have to really make sure that the information it is going out there mining and taking is actually accurate, because it hasn't been that reliable. I think so much of it is learning how to use the prompt systems. We work with higher ed too, and I'm on a board for one. And the students even say when they leverage it a certain way, they're only getting certain responses. They're not writing the prompts properly. So there's going to be a full kind of industry for even nonprofits where it's about what are you feeding into it and then ensuring its accuracy.

Jeff: It's a little job creation too.

Malou: All right. Thanks for sharing, everyone. Cyrus, I'll have you start us off for the next question. How can nonprofits leverage a combination of traditional and digital fundraising strategies to navigate the current landscape effectively?

Cyrus: Thank you for your question. Let's tackle the traditional fundraising aspect. From a traditional fundraising standpoint, successful nonprofits have already figured out how donors demand accountability and transparency. And I hear often in the grantmaking committee that they have to rely on, as a friend of mine uses the term, stale junk data -- reports coming back from their grantees. One of the things in the traditional fundraising space that we are noticing is that they are demanding transparency in making sure that the donor dollars are connected to the impact that is being reported, not just some fancy story going out, but actually saying this is the money that we received, this is how it's tied to this particular impact goal. The other thing is that donors are being asked what data they want to see and what is useful to them, not just some blanket social media post or newsletter going to every single donor. They're asking to see very specific types of information. On the nontraditional side, I mentioned social marketing previously. I've been talking to a couple of organizations -- our platform operates in 80-plus countries. They all operate within the nonprofits and NGOs. I'm noticing that they are picking up ideas and innovative tools from how consumers in B2C marketing are engaged. They're targeting their prospective and current donors based on specific issues. If they're trying to launch a public health campaign or environmental conservation campaign or education, they're setting up the message and the audience at such a granular level that it's a very sophisticated operation.

Malou: Thanks, Cyrus. All right, Bob, what are your tips in leveraging both traditional and digital fundraising strategies?

Bob: Coincidentally, I like this question. I participated in my alma mater's day of giving. They moved it away from Giving Tuesday in November. It was a tick up from last year -- $1.1 million raised in one day. Most of it was online gifts. Think about the average gift size, probably just a disposable income gift. But behind the scenes, the real success was two major gifts that made up 20% of that $1.1 million. So thinking about new technology, which the word most of us use now is "at scale" -- technology helps reach a large number of alumni to get 3,000 donors to give in one day. Whatever platform is being used, that's the new technology. But we still need the traditional. In my view, the traditional is someone who's been a major gift officer with a portfolio of prospects that are hopefully going to give six- or seven-figure gifts. We have to do the traditional activity. As Karen talked about, cash is king, so we've got to go out and visit those donors who are going to make cash or stock or pledge gifts. Buildings were built, hospitals were built long before we had technology. Any of us could probably be a major gift officer and have our top 25 donors on a note card in our shirt pocket. But what technology does for traditional acquisition, cultivation, and solicitation is provide a dashboard so we can quickly see on our phone where donors are in the pipeline. So that's what I see as the difference -- technology for at-scale fundraising and helping traditional major gift officers make better choices for asking for gifts.

Malou: Wonderful. Thanks, Bob. All right, Jeff, what would you like to add in terms of traditional and digital fundraising strategies?

Jeff: Sure. I'll go in a bit of a side direction and specifically talk about events. Within events, on the traditional side, having in-person events is still a great way to connect with donors, especially first-time connections with people that might be invited by somebody else. Being able to do that in a physical environment helps. And then within the event itself, as much as we like to automate events and provide technology, there are some traditional things that are very impactful and work really well. One of them is obviously the presentation that you give. The other would be a real in-room ask or paddle raise where people are actually physically raising a paddle. I think that can be much more impactful than people trying to do it on their phone and showing a thermometer on the screen. As much as we have some clients that do that and like it, maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I still think it works better the traditional way. Live auctions as well -- having a live auctioneer that can really work the room and create some buzz and competition works really well and sometimes better than computers can do. But you've got to marry that with the digital side. You've got to absolutely do mobile bidding at your event. You want people to stay connected to what they're doing. Even though they might be raising their hand to donate, you may want them bidding in your silent or live auction from their phone because they don't have to be physically in one spot to do that. What digital gives you is access to a broader audience. It also eliminates a lot of the boundaries that physical events put on fundraising -- a time boundary or a location boundary. You can have people who aren't there participate, or people that leave early can still participate. And beyond the auction itself, just the ability to connect with people no matter where they are over a mobile device, whether it be text-based campaigns, one-click donations, any of the things that make it really easy for donors to stay connected and donate. They may be in an airport. It doesn't make any difference. So it's funny -- people do look at us funny when we say, yeah, you should do an in-person paddle raise, or you should really host an in-person event versus a virtual event, because they definitely do still work really well.

Malou: Thanks for sharing, Jeff. Karen, any additional insights regarding traditional and digital fundraising strategy?

Karen: Yeah, everyone spoke to it really well. It's ultimately combining them. You're always going to have a donor that you need to go in person, buy them coffee, sit and talk. They're going to write a check. That exists. So you have to cater to that donor. And then when you look at technology, there are so many options out there. It can almost get overwhelming. Not all of them will make it better for you. So it's sifting through how to leverage technology in the right way and the right moment for your organization. We have seen with our clients a big shift towards in person. I think COVID taught us all that there are new and better ways that we can do things, like Jeff was saying, to even increase our footprint. But the movement to also be back in person -- I have a technology company and I love raising my paddle in person. There is that balance. I would say I'm always about reducing friction for the donors. Even if you're doing an in-person event and you're doing your big pledge -- if you are only giving me a piece of paper to put in an envelope, you're missing the boat. So have the paper, but also have a QR code. Take a landing page, your donation page -- if you're using our technology, we give you a URL customized to your event, your organization. You create your designations, it's all there. You take the URL, put it into a QR code. Anyone can pick up their phone, scan that QR code, and give credit, debit, stocks, crypto, DAFs via mobile. That's not for everybody, but when you look at the data and where online giving is heading, especially as younger generations move into more philanthropic roles, you're seeing a movement towards mobile giving. That's where you find the balance -- which donors are you connecting with in person over coffee, and how can you leverage technology to remove friction and allow your donor to give easily in a way that meets their needs?

Malou: All right. Here's our next question. Bob, I'll have you start us off. In what ways does data analytics play a role in modern fundraising practices, and how can we use these insights to inform fundraising strategies?

Bob: Yeah. In the customers I work with -- alumni organizations, cultural organizations like museums, cause and cure -- it seems to me that all the chief advancement officers are concerned daily on metrics such as which donors am I losing, who has lapsed, who has not given the same as last year, or who's gone up. Because they're producing those reports for management and for their boards. It seems to be a continuous theme. Hopefully all CRMs can produce those reports easily so the fundraising team can do what they need to do to raise money and not spend a lot of time in the fundraising database.

Malou: Thanks, Bob. All right, Cyrus, over to you. What role does data analytics play in modern fundraising?

Cyrus: Well, data is everything in fundraising, whether we like it or not. But it's been my experience that most organizations actually don't leverage that data accurately or adequately. For example, donor retention data is great. But if you're a savvy fundraiser, you should look at donor segmentation more than donor retention data, meaning what percentage, what's the demographic, how much, where, to what causes they're responding to. That segmentation is much more telling than saying we have retained 95% of our donors. That doesn't really tell you much. For informed decision making, donor segmentation is very important. You can also use predictive modeling, and we work in predictive modeling and AI. But to be honest, we think most fundraising solutions that are offering predictive analytics at this time are in their infancy. There is not enough publicly available data to train those data models. And most of the time, the data scientists don't even know which data models to use. So I'd be a little more cautious about predictive analytics in terms of fundraising. We're not there yet. It's getting there. Performance tracking, as both Karen and Bob mentioned, is a big thing. One of the things we've made easy in our platform across multiple geographies is making those KPIs available in real time for every audience -- not just the fundraising director, but the board chair and the treasurer who still uses a Blackberry. A wide range of audience depending on their technical acumen. The last thing I want to say about data is that data tells a story. Just presenting the data itself is not going to back up your impact. First write that success story and then substantiate it with data. Don't just say, we fed 5,000 kids. That's an activity. That doesn't really say anything. Be prepared to back up your success stories with data.

Malou: Thanks, Cyrus. Karen, what would you like to add to the role of data analytics?

Karen: Well said. Ultimately, a really good fundraiser is an impact-driven storyteller. Donors are increasingly drawn to organizations that are effectively communicating their impact, and you have to do it in a compelling way that highlights tangible differences that those donations are making. When you look at data analytics, different people respond to different things. When Cyrus is talking about segmenting donor bases, you can do that for targeted campaigns. It helps you identify trends in donor behavior and then having segmentations to optimize storytelling. Ultimately, you're analyzing those donation patterns so that you're identifying which channel, which messaging resonates with which donors. That can help you allocate your resources. It's intentionality instead of a shotgun approach. You can segment that a certain donor is more passionate about this age of child or this impact, education versus food. And then you can start targeting really intentional impact storytelling. Don't look at it as an enemy. I know it can be overwhelming. But look at it as something that can help you further identify which messaging best resonates with which donor.

Malou: Thanks, Karen. All right, Jeff, what are your thoughts on data analytics and modern fundraising?

Jeff: Yeah, a lot of good answers here. The funny thing -- when I read the question the first time, I'm thinking, in what ways does data analytics play a role, or what ways can data analytics play a role? Because a lot of our clients don't use enough data to drive their decision making. As much as we give them, we'd love to see them use more of it. Part of it is that it can be a little scary and intimidating -- how do I do this and who do I rely on to help me figure it out? And part of it is maybe they've been burned in the past. Maybe they relied on that information and it was really inaccurate, which made it difficult to drive good decisions. I've seen it. Some of the tools out there say we're going to give you wealth information, demographic information, help you segment. And then I actually hosted a fundraiser, ran some analytics against it, got the report back, and I'm like, that is not my audience. I know my audience. And you can start looking people up and seeing what the data says about their worth, and you just know it's not true. So that makes it tough. To Cyrus's point, we're still in some areas in our infancy in terms of where we're getting this information and what we're doing with it. I would caution everybody -- if you're going to start using data, make sure you understand the source and how accurate it is. In terms of what we tell people, even artificial intelligence down the road, if it's got a good data source, will be able to help you. It becomes the best reporting interface ever. What kinds of items should I be offering in my auction? What are my people after? Are they the type of people who will go on trips or buy wine? Who should I be inviting to my event -- based not just on their wealth, because everybody just assumes wealthy people are generous, but we all know generous people are generous. Maybe it's the type of people that care about your cause that you should be inviting. And then maybe where should I host my event -- we have that conversation a lot with our clients. You're having an in-person event, the place you picked, why did you pick it? Because it's available, or is it really convenient to the types of people you think would be coming? All those types of things will get better down the road. Events will get more intelligent and the result will be better donor engagement.

Malou: Thanks, Jeff. All right, Karen, here's our next question. In terms of donor engagement in modern fundraising, what strategies can cultivate meaningful relationships in today's digital landscape?

Karen: I'm going to go through the lens of personal relationships. We did a lot of research with high-capacity donors. And the biggest mistake you can make is thinking of them as a donor and not a person. They're both, but you have to think of it through relationship. One of the biggest pieces of feedback we heard was that they don't want to really talk to me until they're ready to ask me for something. They would love the relationship building, the updates, the gratitude without the ask. Which is hard because then you also hear, well, you have to make the ask and be direct. So it is a bit of an impossible scenario sometimes with the feedback. But approaching somebody as a donor and how you would like to be treated is really basic 101. I think sometimes we forget because it is strategies and analysis and campaigns and segmentation. My family is philanthropic and when I get a personal note -- not just the standard thing, but personal relational commentary, super quick and light but with gratitude -- I'm like, they do know me, they see this coming in and they appreciate it. However you can do that -- for the smaller donors, social media is a great way. Pictures, making sure you have visuals that are easy to understand. Video is huge. Being able to segment that out and looking at those donors where it's like, hey, let's have a relationship with them. Yes, we have to make the strategic ask, but also remember them as a full person.

Malou: That's a great point. Thanks, Karen. Jeff, what strategies for donor engagement do you recommend?

Jeff: Yeah, specifically around using modern fundraising tools or techniques -- staying connected to donors to me is one of the best ways. It's sad that a lot of organizations who do primarily event-based fundraising do their event, the event's over, they may or may not send a survey, and then they don't talk to people for a year until the invite for next year's event. We've got to go beyond email. Certainly you can do newsletters. But what's been really impactful is even just sending out to a more intimate group a text message, a quick update, a short video. It is amazing how impactful that can be. When I get a text message from the nonprofit board I'm on and this individual sends out text messages with updates, it just gets me so energized, especially when that text message is connected to a donation link that you can quickly tap on. So I think mobile technology -- connecting with people wherever they are -- is the best way to do it.

Malou: Thanks, Jeff. All right, Bob, what donor engagement strategies work well in today's landscape?

Bob: I think my answer dovetails into my other panelists. I was very fortunate when I started my career 20 years ago. I had a great mentor, Tim, a sage in our sector. He sat on the AFP International Board, chair of the Ethics Committee. And one time he took me aside and said, Bob, there's something you need to know, and that's institutions have no needs. It's the beneficiaries that have the needs. That was a paradigm shift for me. And so that changes how a major gift officer goes out and visits with prospects. You go through the icebreaking part, and finally they ask about the institution -- how is the college doing? Well, the college doesn't need any fundraising. It's the students that need the fundraising. Translate that to the food bank. The food bank does not need any money. It's the people with food insecurities who need the money. The hospice patient needs money, the hospice doesn't. I was able to tell that story. That changed it for me. Speaking to digital -- most nonprofits have Constant Contact or Mailchimp, and also fundraising platforms with email embedded. As Jeff was saying, either at scale text or email and talk about those beneficiaries, talk about the people who have food insecurities and show videos or interviews. I think that's the way to go.

Malou: Thanks, Bob. All right, Cyrus, we want to hear from you as well. What would you like to add to donor engagement strategies?

Cyrus: It's hard to cover. My colleagues have already mentioned the key points. Donors are people too. And like most functioning adults, they also have shorter attention spans. So make your story short and sticky so that they remember. You don't necessarily need to send a half-a-dissertation email every quarter describing everything you've done. Constant engagement is very important. Within this decade, fundraising is going to go completely digital. And Jeff, Bob, Karen -- they are experts in the industry. They know a lot of organizations are still not fundraising digitally. That is going to change by the end of this decade. That means a lot of nonprofits have an opportunity to start building that online persona from now on. They should be curating those stories to engage current and future donors. One thing I often tell our nonprofits -- and I'm a recovering fundraiser, so I get to talk to nonprofits all the time about fundraising strategies -- every nonprofit, every NGO should have a yearly target to engage the 16-to-25 demographic, because these are future donors, future followers. Engage them on TikTok, on Snapchat, however they want. If they stay with you, these people are going to donate. One great example is the ethical fashion industry. It's a multi-billion dollar industry and a lot of nonprofits have engaged young people through social media, saying we are not going to go for the industrial fashion industry, the H&Ms of the world, but instead do this very ethically, environmentally friendly. That has driven so many brand followers away from established brands. The second strategy I often share is to be prepared to be transparent and accountable. Those are not buzzwords. In a previous panel, I mentioned that trust in nonprofits is at an all-time low post-pandemic, below 50%. One of the reasons being that donors are not getting transparency and accountability from their organizations. You don't always have to highlight the success. Be accountable and say, hey, these are areas of improvement and this is where we need help. Be transparent. One last thing -- a lot of organizations sometimes do virtue signaling. But at the same time, a lot of organizations also miss the mark. Your current and future donors are noticing. They know where you stand. If I'm an individual donor and I deeply care about a cause and I see this organization is not taking any stance, it will give me pause from supporting them. Especially the younger generation -- they dislike apathy, they dislike neutrality. You don't necessarily jump into every political conversation, but as an organization you can take a stand on the social impact area.

Malou: Thanks, Cyrus. All right, Bob, I'll have you start us off on the next question. How can nonprofits stay on top of innovative tools, techniques, and technologies that are shaping today's fundraising without getting overwhelmed?

Bob: I hope I'm allowed to share a personal blog. In the morning with my jammies on, drinking coffee, just like probably everyone does -- coffee in one hand, cell phone in the other, scrolling through my stuff. I belong to a Facebook group that's a support group for the platform that I consult for. I'm looking at all the posts from yesterday and I'm learning a lot and hearing the trends. And for every other segment -- for the prospect researchers, there's FundRaiser. It's been around forever. So I would imagine there's a lot of self-help groups that are digital that you read online. That's what Bob does in his jammies at 7:30 in the morning.

Malou: Thanks for sharing, Bob. All right, Karen, what are your tips for staying on top of tech and tools without getting overwhelmed?

Karen: Yes, Bob, relatable. I would say get an intern. Have a project where it's like, hey, go do market research -- what's the latest in CRMs, what's the latest in payments, what's the latest in auctions. Just be open. I think the biggest thing is we get overwhelmed and we're in day-to-day survival, scarcity mindset. That's human, that's okay. But you can't grow and you can't be innovative if you're stuck in that place. If you don't have the bandwidth to be researching and working on the business instead of in it, then think about how you could leverage somebody else to do that. Then you're just reading their summary and they can do a little analysis. Just because you're aware of it doesn't mean you have to use it. But it's really good to be like, okay, I'm seeing these trends, we're not really ready to move right now, but this could be interesting for us in the future. That knowledge is power and can help you leverage your organization into the future. If you're only thinking about today, which is important, especially as leaders we have to be thinking three years, five years from now. If you're not staying up to date, you're going to be behind. So give it to an intern to help, or do the coffee and scrolling, but the information's out there.

Malou: Great, thanks, Karen. All right, Cyrus. How can we stay on top of the latest tech and tools?

Cyrus: I think at this point everyone is nauseated from hearing the word AI. And most people don't know what AI actually means. So I'm going to talk about something else. Whenever we talk to organizations and they're asking us about our own AI -- writing grants and complex federal government proposals and all that fancy stuff -- I say, please take a step back because you need to be able to train that AI with the right data. If you don't have your data operations fixed, you're going to train a very sophisticated monkey that's going to generate absolute rubbish for you. And that is not going to be helpful. I am being awfully blunt here. You're going to get generic ChatGPT stuff that is not going to add value to your work. So to be on top of innovative tools, first take a look at your own data operations -- the workflow, who's using the data, who has access, what has been analyzed and reported, who's reporting, who's interpreting. Before you go into this full-blown, we need a CRM, we need an ERP -- more than 60% of your organizations are not using the CRM or ERP on a daily basis. These folks are usually decision makers. They're data consumers, not data generators. So do you have the tools for the data consumers as well as the data makers within the organization? Look at the operational things before you jump into automation and AI, which are all great. And there's an abundance of information about what tools are relevant. One last thing -- before adopting any new technology, experiment at a small scale, test it out, encourage your staff to be innovative, and encourage them to take part in the process. Not just the IT director suddenly turning all the switches on Monday morning. Make it a process that will help with your adoption of innovation.

Malou: Thanks, Cyrus. All right, Jeff, what would you like to add here?

Jeff: Well, I would say this is kind of why a lot of us are here. Work with somebody who's a qualified partner to help you with this. And then combine that with a willingness to take risks and try things. It's really hard to work with a partner who's going to advise you to do this or implement that tool and then just face resistance. So come up with a risk profile that works for you, work with a qualified partner. The intern idea is good. I have a bunch of teenage daughters, so they're always keeping me up on whatever trends are out there. It's always good to see how they interact with technology. But you've got to marry that with guidance and direction. You can have somebody investigating the latest trends, but then you're going to have to map those against what's important to the organization, because what's important to somebody in their 20s is not necessarily important to an organization. Maybe they care about this feature, or see something that's cool and hip, but you can't translate that into dollars or fundraising or guest experience. The board probably cares about how much money the event is going to raise or what response they're going to get from guests and donors. They're not necessarily going to care that the technology had some feature a 22-year-old thought was cool. So make sure there's a little structure around that, but I do like the idea. My kids teach me technology stuff all the time.

Karen: I absolutely second that. I think we get a lot of clients that are coming through consultants or trusted people, and they need help in this area. It's a way of just making it go quicker. Who's a trusted source, where do they recommend, and then you can still make that decision.

Jeff: We guide people all the time. They may not even be ideal clients. Part of the reason we exist is to help people understand what trends they should care about and what really applies to their organization.

Karen: We do too. Sometimes organizations are like, I don't know, we're really small. And I'm like, our goal is to help you. Let's talk through it. If you're not there yet, here's things to think about, here's resources, if you're DIYing it, here's the steps. I think that's one of my favorite things about this industry with nonprofits -- there's such a tight community and a willingness to help. We're not in it for the money. We're in it for the mission and the purpose and the ripple effect it can have on society as a whole. As much of a cause as a company.

Jeff: Yep, for sure.

Malou: Thanks, Jeff and Karen. I've had such a wonderful time hearing from our panelists today. I'm hoping to get one final piece of insight from them all on a speed round. Karen, I'll have you start us off. Looking towards the future, what trends do you anticipate shaping the fundraising landscape and how can nonprofits adapt their strategies to get ahead today?

Karen: Well, I'm not going to say AI because I know how Cyrus feels about that. I'm going to say recurring giving is standard but so important -- just having that passive incoming that can grow. I also think endowments. We work with a lot of small organizations where I'm like, if you have reserves and you're getting out of a scarcity mindset, endowments are not what they were 20 years ago. It used to be a true restricted endowment, and now there are quasi-unrestricted endowments that you can set with excess reserve funds that give you flexibility to potentially tap into in the future. That opens up legacy giving a little easier for small to mid-sized organizations. So there's a lot -- cryptocurrency, stocks, endowments, recurring giving -- outside of just chasing one-time gifts that can ultimately lead into larger gifts and ideally more sustainability.

Malou: Thanks, Karen. Jeff, what trends do you anticipate will shape the fundraising landscape and how to stay ahead?

Jeff: Well, I'm going to go way out there and steal some of Karen's thunder -- I'm going to say blockchain. Obviously cryptocurrency runs on blockchain, but blockchain can be used for a lot of other things as well. And it's going to drive a lot of transparency into the nonprofit fundraising space. So what can you do today? Start preparing yourself for it. It's a ways out there. But if you need to improve the transparency of how you run your organization, not a bad time to start.

Malou: Thanks, Jeff. Bob, what is the future and how to get ahead today?

Bob: Can I be brave enough to say AI? Doesn't this seem like not that long ago that we were still getting letters with wet signatures on them with the blue ink? You remember that generation that wanted to get the letter in the mail and rubbed it to see if it smudged to see if it was real. Five years of my career, I was in that position where I signed all the acknowledgment letters. And so that was not too long ago where there was a mail merge to Word and it was printed on the printer. For the past few years, the CRM that I work on, if you have the email address, you can email out a thank you letter or PDF attachment. Last Tuesday, I attended a product update, and the consultant showed us AI acknowledgment letters. You just build whatever the prompts are. And there's a slider from left to right -- is it going to be informal, something in the middle, or formal? And now AI generates it. I see that in the future.

Malou: Thanks, Bob. All right, Cyrus, what is the future and how to get ahead today?

Cyrus: I don't want to walk away from this panel with everyone thinking I'm against AI and automation. At Quantibly, we started building cognitive mapping in 2018-19 to have AI and machine learning predict social impact and environmental impact trends across continents. That's what we wanted to do. At this time, the AI we're seeing on a daily basis is called descriptive AI. Then there is predictive AI, and then prescriptive AI, which is the ultimate evolution -- actually having your own consultant in your pocket. At that point, all of us will probably be obsolete. But we're not there yet. So AI is definitely going to play a role, just like Bob mentioned with acknowledgment letters, but also AI advising your organization on best practices and strategies. What we see in the fundraising landscape is that the tendency to have standalone CRMs and ERP fundraising solutions is pulling away. The future is essentially an integrated and simplified approach. If they are not connected to the nonfinancial data, they're not serving the purpose. So I see a lot of discussion around how to connect CRM to nonfinancial data, how to connect impact or social return on investment with fundraising dollars -- that impact framework conversation. The last thing I see more and more is that pure grantmaking is moving away and turning into something that looks like impact investment, because a lot of the younger generation want to donate and contribute but from the lens of impact investing. They want to see actual financial and nonfinancial returns of their investment, not just, here is some money, go do good things. That is a big paradigm shift.

Malou: Wonderful. Thanks, Cyrus. All right, and with that, we have reached the end of our panel. A big thank you to our panelists for sharing their insights today. I hope you enjoyed yourself and learned something that will benefit the work that you do on a daily basis. It has been a pleasure speaking with you all. Thank you once again, and have a nice rest of the day, everyone.

Jeff: We hope you enjoyed this panel on fundraising in the digital age, tools, and trends for success. If you enjoyed our show, please take a moment to leave us a review. You can find us on Apple, Google, and Spotify. Don't forget to subscribe for more great content. And if you're a fan of video, check us out on YouTube. Until next time, happy fundraising.