EP 78: Modernizing Nonprofit Technology with Ashish Malik of 108 Idea Space

Positioning review: Minor adjustments made. Handbid references are natural and contextual as the host's own company. Guest discusses technology platforms in a vendor-agnostic educational context. No prescriptive positioning changes needed.

Jeff: 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 today's episode of Elevate Your Event, we're joined by Ashish Malik, CEO of 108 Idea Space. We'll dive into how nonprofits can harness the power of technology to streamline operations, boost donor engagement, and stay ahead of the curve with trends like AI. If you're ready to take your nonprofit's tech game to the next level, this one's for you.

Jeff: Welcome back to the Elevate Your Event podcast. We talk about all the various ways you can make your next fundraising event better, or even your nonprofit and your marketing and your donor development better. So we've got a very special guest here with us in the studio today. Ashish Malik from 108 Idea Space. We were just talking about your domain, 108ideaspace. So why don't you go ahead and give us a little bit of information about your business, your background, and how you got into this?

Ashish: Absolutely. So I'm Ashish Malik, the co-founder and CEO at 108 Idea Space. I have over 20 years of experience in helping organizations, primarily associations and nonprofits, modernize their technology stack, improving collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and building capacity. I also had the privilege of serving on a few nonprofit boards, which helps me understand how nonprofits function from a governance standpoint and helps me better connect with my clients.

Ashish: I was not working with nonprofits forever. I've been working with them for about 14 years now and just love that space. The nicest people on the earth, I think, work for nonprofits. How I got into this goes back over 20 years. I'm an engineer by training. Did my engineering in India. Then I started working with the giant outsourcing IT providers -- Tata Consultancy Services, followed by Infosys Technologies -- with some amazing clients like American Express and Nortel Networks during the glory years of Nortel.

Ashish: I was always fascinated about not just technology, but what technology can do for businesses. That's what brought me 16 years ago to figure out how I can do something different with technology. Within a couple of years, that's when I founded 108 Idea Space with a couple of partners. One of my partners happened to be serving associations and nonprofits for a long time. He started as a web strategy development shop back in the 90s when everybody wanted to get a website. It kind of evolved over time with the evolution of social media -- helping organizations figure out whether to take advantage of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or stay away from them. Now there are hundreds of social media platforms, so this space is pretty dynamic and always changing.

Ashish: In 2012, when we rebranded as 108 Idea Space, the mission was how can we use the right technology, right systems, and great design to help the cause of nonprofit organizations and associations. Over the years, I've seen a lot of technology limiting nonprofits and associations from achieving their missions. We take pride in helping and bringing those skills that might be missing or they might need as a supplement to help them achieve or amplify their missions. We've been doing that for the last 12 years -- building their digital presence, redesigning their website, connecting it with different systems, building them a CRM, a fundraising system, a donor management system. It's all about how we can improve the current state of systems to drive what they're looking to achieve.

Jeff: And I would think getting them to connect together. So are you guys building out your own tools, or are you just helping them with existing donor management systems that are available on the market?

Ashish: A bit of both. We like to be system agnostic because not all nonprofits are the same -- they are pretty unique. All associations are not the same either. So there's no one system which can satisfy the needs for all nonprofits or all associations. It's about finding the perfect match or the closest to perfect match. Each organization has different functions, so they need a combo of different systems which can actually work together very well. We specialize in helping them figure out what combination is going to work for them. And we do have some systems which we know work very well and better than others for a bigger set of our audience or clients. So we do specialize in implementing those systems.

Jeff: Well, that helps. Because I would imagine, like, I started my first nonprofit back in 2004. And I remember it was like, okay, we need some tools. And this is 20 years ago -- there wasn't a ton of tools. But there was enough out there. We need to be able to get donations off our website, process those, store that information somewhere. We start looking around, and it wasn't even just the lack of staff and resources internally -- it was the lack of money we had. So how do you -- do you work with nonprofits of all sizes to help them grow into whatever tools are available? Or are you typically focused on those that have at least got an established budget of a certain amount and a large enough staff to be able to take it on? Because I would imagine with a lot of the tools out there, you could go implement it, but they've got to have the expertise and staff to run it.

Ashish: Absolutely. I wish I could say that we can help all nonprofits of all sizes, but not all nonprofits can afford the kind of systems they might need, especially the smaller ones. Maybe they're in a different phase where even an Excel or an Access database system might be okay for them. It all depends on the evolution of the nonprofit -- where they are and where they want to get to as well, because sometimes you would like to put a sophisticated system in place because you're going to become something else.

Ashish: Redoing a system is a lot more work, a lot more disruption. If you start on the wrong foot with the wrong system today and have to replace that in two or three years, it's not just the question of spending money. It's the question of taking your staff's focus away from that system and whatever they might be doing. It can put them a few months or a few years back on the roadmap. So we do work with small organizations, but yes, it's selective. Our sweet spot tends to be more mid-sized to large organizations. Smaller organizations who have goals and aspirations of becoming bigger and helping more individuals in the community.

Jeff: Right. So when you're doing this -- because I've seen this on the commercial side too -- it's like, okay, here's the tool we want to use. And to your point, you're saying look, you're better off if you're going to have 10 kids -- move into the 5,000 square foot house with eight bedrooms now, because moving later is going to be painful. And we've even done this at Handbid -- I've seen this a lot with nonprofits, especially those that decide they're going to go with Salesforce to start. They have all this power ahead of them but don't really know how to use it.

Jeff: My question for you is, you must be helping them with best practices along the way, because it's one thing to say, here's your donor management system, I've connected it to your website, here's your donation page. It's another thing to say, how do you monitor the performance of that? Am I getting a good conversion rate off my website to a donation page? And then what happens to that person as soon as they complete that donation? Not just the initial receipt that goes out, but whatever workflows and email campaigns they're put into to continue to stay connected with them. Are you helping your clients with all of that?

Ashish: Absolutely. You have to take care of all the different aspects. In the end, it's not just about putting that webpage down and saying people are going to come in and make their donations. There's a lot at play. It starts at the mission and the cause -- how do you find the right kind of people for your cause? And once you have found them, how do you make it easy for them to take that next step?

Ashish: So if I am attached to a cause and I come to know about the nonprofit, get to their website -- that's just half the battle. The next thing is making it easy for them to get to the donation page, explain the cause, and give them that trust and confidence that the dollars they're donating are going to make a difference. It's about the user experience for the donation page itself.

Ashish: I was tuned into another podcast just yesterday looking at different A/B tests performed on different donor pages. Things that you would think work better actually don't work better on the ground. For example, on a lot of donor pages, you see buttons for five, 10, 25, 50, 100 -- multiple dollar amounts for donation. Versus if you make it easy for them to just key in the donation amount, the tests actually show that keying in the donation amount works way better. The reason was that by giving them all these options, you are making them think more. And this generation does not like to think more. We are in the internet generation. So it's about the user experience on the donation page.

Ashish: And then once the transaction actually happens -- yes, you're fulfilling your promise, giving them the receipt so they know the donation is getting to the right place. But what happens next is very important because the individual has donated to the cause -- they don't care about you, they care about the cause and what you will do with that money. It's about how do you communicate with them on an ongoing basis, how their dollar is making an impact.

Ashish: I had the privilege of working with an organization a few years ago, the Canadian Chiropractic Research Foundation. We did an interesting thing called the Journey of a Dollar. We actually mapped the whole process of how that dollar is going to make an impact eventually. And then tying it back to the cause -- improving the back health of Canadians. I think that's the level of thinking that needs to happen from the beginning through closing the loop. It's a combination of technology as well as business thinking and knowing your audience -- in this case, your donors.

Jeff: So I totally agree with you. As you're chatting with these organizations and helping them through this process, what do you see as the key hurdles that most charities have to implementing what you guys are trying to implement for them?

Ashish: If I could say there were one or two, there are a lot of things which come in the way. One big issue is that nonprofit organizations have a lot on their plate compared to their resources, because there are generally no limits to what you can do. It's one of the very difficult spaces to work in because the expectation is to maximize the dollars, but don't use those dollars for yourself or for marketing -- use them for the cause you're going to serve. It's a difficult place to be in. How do you make sure you maximize the effect of the dollar while making the right decisions?

Ashish: And then the whole governance piece. Unlike a for-profit business where you have a structured machine with a board of advisors or directors whose livelihood is connected to the success of the business, nonprofits are different. There is social accountability. You have a board, volunteers, committees. A lot is driven through that. So the hurdles -- all of this is an opportunity, but it's a hurdle as well. How do you keep your volunteers engaged? How do you keep your staff engaged? If you're already thin-staffed and doing a lot, if you don't have staff retention and people move on, how do you ensure the knowledge does not go with them?

Jeff: You've got to document it. You brought up an important point -- I don't want to lose this. People look at the implementation and improvement of these areas of their business as simply a cost and not an ultimate return. They say, I've got to spend 85% of my fundraising dollars or 80% on my program services. And that could be ideal. But you also need to invest in the business. All nonprofits need to invest in themselves. I could see how that could be a common challenge for you to remind them that this is the type of stuff that ultimately down the road is going to pay off.

Jeff: We see the same thing in events. You're not just buying event fundraising software to automate your event with no return. You're buying auction software to maximize the guest experience, which should generate a greater return, because you're also going to be collecting really valuable information at that event that can feed back into the tools that you're building and putting in place for them. And so we definitely circle back with them on those kinds of things because it's not intuitive to most to say, hey, I'm going to bring these guys in and here's the business case for doing it.

Ashish: I agree. And you're touching on a very important subject, which is data. Nowhere is data more important than in the nonprofit world. How do you measure and show the impact of what you're doing? Whether it's 85% or 65% of your funds getting spent on programs, in the end, you need to make an impact and you need to measure how you're using those dollars and what they're doing. If you can measure and connect those funds with your programs and the impact you're making, I think that's a recipe for getting more -- whether it's funding or more donations -- because there's a huge audience for a lot of nonprofits. There's so much that can be done in the community.

Jeff: It's interesting because you say it would be great to be able to connect the fundraising dollar to the work that is done. I think for a lot of charities, the thing they fear the most is those donor-designated funds, which are like you have to spend it on these programs, which makes it really difficult to operate your business when all of your funds are being designated in advance.

Jeff: I think it would be helpful to say, look, these are obviously the programs, here's the growth in those programs, where did your dollar go. Your dollar went to not just specifically that program. If that's where the donor wants his dollar, that's fine. But your dollar went to growing those programs, growing the number of other donors that have come in, operationally improving some of the things we do or reducing costs in other areas. I think that's the hard sell for some charities to figure out how to make.

Ashish: Yeah, and in our experience, even the charities who know what numbers are important for them typically spend a lot of time getting to those numbers. That takes the discussion back to how easy the systems and technology make it for them to draw those numbers. Are these numbers available in a real-time dashboard, or do they have to combine data from multiple sources, run and slice and dice the numbers in an Excel, and then come up with something tangible to share with the audience?

Ashish: We see that the better the nonprofit is at showcasing that impact, measuring it, and communicating it, the more it has a direct correlation with how well they're going to do in their fundraising campaigns. Or if they're government funded, again, you have to do your business case to generate more funds for the different programs that you run. So it's a combination of the efficiency you can drive as well as knowing what is important.

Jeff: And I would imagine your role with a lot of your clients is also to stay several steps ahead of them. So what trends or what types of changes are you seeing in the marketplace that you're now communicating back to your clients and saying, we need to start looking out for these things or thinking about implementing some of these new technologies?

Ashish: That's a great question. There's so much changing in this space. The pace of change is faster than it has ever been. Right now we're talking about a flurry of systems to choose from. That's a big challenge. And the cost of choosing the wrong technology is way more than just the cost of implementation. It's the cost of disruption, the opportunity cost, the time that it takes away from serving your mission.

Ashish: More so, it's also about when the technology changes, how quickly your staff is able to adopt it. It's about that adoption. A lot of organizations actually have this challenge of not having enough knowledge management built in, which means forget about new technologies -- even the current technologies, they might not be optimizing. Now we are talking about artificial intelligence. There's generative AI, predictive AI -- how do you make sure you're using it in the right way to actually take advantage of it?

Ashish: A lot of times when changes like these happen, it's about how do you put some guidelines in place for your employees, for your staff, to make sure they're using the technology in the right way and actually creating more efficiencies than creating issues. Because any change comes with its own set of risks. Not just in the nonprofit world -- some of the risks or challenges with artificial intelligence in the for-profit world are known to the public. Like what happened with Samsung with the code getting public, then the Air Canada chatbot situation.

Ashish: So when nonprofits -- they're not positioned well naturally because of their small sizes and thin staffing, sometimes very thin-staffed on the IT front. They're not naturally well positioned to adapt or take advantage of these technologies. The question is always how do you stay one step ahead, think about the risks, mitigate those risks, and then think about the rewards from adopting a new technology.

Jeff: AI is definitely the buzzword these days. Most of us have seen or even experienced how efficient it can be and how much more productivity you can get out of a smaller team with it. But to your point, you've got to be a little bit careful with how you're using it and what you're using it for. Are you helping your clients right now implement AI at any level in the organization?

Ashish: Very few clients, again, because with any new technology, it's always about how do you walk before you run. With a technology like AI, I think it's still not mature -- things are changing, getting better. The question right now is where's the best fit as far as using the technology.

Ashish: We work a lot on platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, for marketing automation, CRM, and donor management. There are AI features and functionality embedded in these tools already, which is improving day by day. It's not perfect. So we are helping our clients figure out those pieces -- how they can best utilize them to drive whatever they are looking to drive, whether it's writing emails, subjects, copy. A lot of organization staff have been using tools like Grammarly for a long time, which rely on similar algorithms.

Ashish: The bigger use cases are whether they can use these AI tools to do a better job at fundraising. There are certain tools in the market which can predict and assess donor levels or donation levels for your audience list or donor list. How much can you rely on that data? What tools are better compared to others? We've been helping our clients with those kinds of things -- how do we bring that intelligence from a third-party AI tool back into their CRM, filter it, and then connect the dots with their marketing team to take things to the next level or use that information for fundraising or even serving their clients.

Jeff: We're using it to help polish some of the emails going out there. Where we've seen it not fully ready yet is when you start using it to make decisions or fundraising decisions. We've messed around with some of those tools ourselves. It's like, if I gave you a list of people that came to a previous event, could you give me some information about their propensity to donate or their preferences for certain types of auction items? We've seen mixed success with that. So to your point, it's not quite there.

Jeff: But the power of it is coming. I would imagine being able to say, looking at the behavior of your donor base across a five-year period, here's some things that you should be doing, here's some groups these people should be put in, here's some events these people should be invited to, here's an email campaign that would work best with this particular subset of your database. Not yet, I would say, but exciting -- it might be out there soon.

Ashish: Absolutely. One other use case we typically see -- and a lot of for-profit organizations like Amazon use it quite a bit -- is with their existing clients or existing donors. Understanding their behavior and predicting the right time for making that ask and the way you make it. In the case of Amazon, if you bought a certain product, you typically see a pop-up -- folks who bought this are interested in this as well. The whole ability to cross-sell and up-sell.

Ashish: I think it's very relevant for associations, which are nonprofits as well, but they not just collect donations -- they provide multiple services to their members. Some of these may be monetized. It's getting mature. What I think organizations need to focus on right now is making sure they're collecting that information and data so they can leverage it as the technology becomes more mature. Because the last thing you want to be doing is completely ignoring it. It's already there. You need to start prepping for it so that as soon as these models become more mature, you're not left behind and you're actually able to take advantage of it immediately.

Jeff: Totally agree with you. That's something we always preach to our clients. We have a lot of clients who are trying to make their event as efficient as possible. Even though we've communicated to them, hey, that event is not just another touch point with your existing donor base -- it might be the entry point to a relationship with a new donor. You have to get that information. You have to capture it. And not only do you have to capture it, you have to use it.

Jeff: It kind of startles me a little bit at how many organizations bounce from event software to event software, leaving this trail of data behind that gets destroyed by their former vendor with no access to it anymore. That could be a gold mine for you in the future. Not just the fact that Ashish Malik came to my event, but here's what he bid on, here are the people that came with him that are now connected to him. All of that can be super valuable information once you have the tools in place that can analyze it. But it's gone for a lot of these people.

Ashish: And I'm glad you mentioned that because that's why it's important to start on the right foot with the right technology. One of the conversations we always have with clients when they're switching systems is what data they should leave behind and what data they should move to the new system. It's an important discussion because there goes the intelligence. You've been talking to these people for a long time. They're engaged with your events. How far back you go and how you bring the right kind of data -- the clean data -- on those people and individuals, all of those aspects are important.

Jeff: A hundred percent. And to think about not just what data do I bring with me or capture in process, but even what about the data I'm not capturing. We have a lot of events where you show up, you bought a table, and all I have at the end of the event is Ashish's table and six of his guests. Well, who are they? We didn't have time to get their names. At least get their names. Try to get their names and email if you can, because these are all people that took time out of their day or evening to come to your event. How are you going to market to them again?

Jeff: All of that stuff sets you up for what can be powerful in the future -- hey, now I have all this data, years of it, and this AI stuff is going to tell me stuff I never would have imagined. Here's a guy you've been inviting every year, and we strongly recommend you make a big ask to this person. And you never would have thought about it because you're looking for the person who gives you $10,000 or $20,000 or $30,000 a year. Here's somebody who's been to your event, bought a table every year for five years, and had you asked him for $25,000, he'd probably give it to you.

Ashish: Yeah, I'd love to see that application come true. And I think it's in the works already.

Jeff: This has been a fantastic conversation. I love all the technology stuff. And I absolutely applaud guys like you in the industry that are helping charities get there. As we mentioned earlier, a lot of these organizations look at technology as just a cost center and a big hurdle. They don't understand it, or they don't have the resources in place to maintain it. They're going to have someone come in and put all this amazing stuff in place, and it's just going to sit there because they don't know how to use it. So the fact that you're helping them get past all of those hurdles is awesome.

Ashish: Yeah, and we are all pretty passionate about it. This is something I tell my team literally every time we meet. There's nowhere else, no other business, where we are sitting at our desk using just our arms and brains to make things happen and impacting the lives of millions around the globe. That's the power of serving nonprofits. If I was doing the same stuff for any other industry, I can't have that reach. Personally, it gives me a lot of fulfillment. And it's the same thing with a lot of people that work with us at 108. It's about how do we tie this to the end goal and the purpose -- the impact we are able to create.

Jeff: No, that's great. That's why a lot of us are in this space for the exact same reason -- because we're here to make a difference, and it's fun to see that happen, especially with our clients. So for any of our listeners here that want to get in touch with you, what's the best way to reach out if they're interested in your services?

Ashish: I'd like to make it easy for them. Just email -- ashish@108ideaspace.com. Just email and you should hear from us. I would love to hear from nonprofit organizations because that's what we are so passionate about serving.

Jeff: Well, I hope they reach out to you because this is what you do -- you help them figure out how to build a similar type of pipeline. That would be awesome. You guys should definitely get in touch with him. Optimizing that entire flow is so important for generating the donor base that you're looking for. So thank you guys so much for listening today. Ashish, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us and our listeners. I appreciate it. And we're going to go ahead and wrap up this episode of Elevate Your Event. Until next time, happy fundraising. 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.