We recently hosted a tweet chat with Nonprofit Tech for Good about nonprofit tech trends for 2019. In case you missed it or would like a re-cap, we pulled together the highlights from each topic we touched on.

Facebook Fundraising

Question: Fundraising on social media will continue to be an integral part of many nonprofit strategies. Is your nonprofit using Facebook’s Fundraising Tools? How so?

From having difficulty getting approved to worries about Facebook’s troubles with data and security, nonprofits are wary to use the platform for their organization’s fundraising campaigns. But peer-to-peer fundraising on the platform is a bit of a different story.

I don’t think nonprofits can escape Facebook fundraising. We aren’t in control of what our donors and supporters want – if they want to use it, they will, so we need to know how to leverage it the best way possible.

Julia Campbell

To best leverage supporter-run fundraisers on Facebook, consider equipping supporters with a kit full of resources, templates and advice.

Check out the additional replies on Twitter for other thoughts and insights on the topic.

Inspirational Nonprofits

Question: Thinking about #nptech19 trends, what nonprofits do you look to for inspiration?

Nonprofit marketers in our tweet chat shouted out organizations like American Rivers, National Parks Conservation Association, Swifty Foundation, charity: water, Audubon Society and United Response.

Voice Search

Question: As digital assistants, smart speakers and voice search continue to gain popularity, has your nonprofit started investing time or money in voice search optimization?

While there are some early adopter nonprofits using custom Alexa skills and enabling Alexa Donations with Amazon Pay to move their missions forward, the up-and-coming trend is not so widespread just yet. Many nonprofits are still waiting for their supporters to get more comfortable using smart speakers for these purposes before investing time or money in the tools. Reena Vadehra notes it as something her organization is watching closely.

Project Management and Processes

Question: How is your org planning to use technology to strengthen your processes, like project management, internal comms or collaboration tools?

Collaboration, communication and project management tools can make life a whole lot easier for nonprofit marketers, both those going it alone and those working as part of a marketing team. Office365, Slack and Asana all got shout-outs in the tweet chat. (Our team uses Asana and loves it.)

Web Design

Question: What web design trends are you excited for? Any you wish would just go away already?

It’s a tweet chat consensus: We’re ready for homepage rotators and carousels to go away now. There was also lots of love for Canva. Nonprofits are using it as an easy (and free) alternative to PhotoShop for editing photos for websites and creating social media graphics.

Our designer, Alex McQueary, also noted web designs trending toward serif typography and overlapping imagery that breaks the traditional design grid.

Tech Discounts

Question: Are you taking advantage of tech discounts through @TechSoup or free nonprofit offerings like @googlenonprofit G Suite and Ad Grants? How are you planning to invest in technology this year?

Google Ad Grants can be an awesome resource to widen your organization’s reach with a $10,000 monthly ad budget. But, they take time and skill to manage effectively, especially with ever-changing policies that can result in ad disapprovals and account suspensions.

Check out the replies on Twitter for additional thoughts and insights on Google Ad Grants.

Marketing automation tools are also a worthy investment to save time and ensure supporters don’t get overlooked when they take key actions. We like using the email automation available through MailChimp to create workflows for things like on-boarding new supporters.

Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality

Question: With buzzwords like artificial intelligence or cryptocurrency flying around, what new technologies are you surprised and excited about nonprofit involvement in? Are you experimenting with any of this new technology?

Artificial intelligence is not going away. And the trend is getting nonprofit marketers excited about the potential to streamline and automate more basic communications with tools like chatbots.

Nonprofits are also using tech like virtual reality (VR) tools to immerse supporters in the areas they serve.

Fundraising Process

Question: What are you hoping to improve about your fundraising process this year? Are you planning to try something new?

From the basics like providing an easy way for recurring gifts to an increased focus on building a community before making the ask to getting fundraising and marketing teams to communicate more, there’s a lot to think about when it comes to updating your online fundraising plan.

GDPR

Question: How did the GDPR roll out go for your organization? Are you working on how your org collects and stores data?

We saw a lot of support for the best practices that the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is forcing. To help get your nonprofit on the right track to compliance, consider these nine adjustments to how you’re collecting and using data.

Accessibility

Question: Is your nonprofit’s website accessible? Can people with disabilities use the site and all of its features as they’re meant to be used? If your nonprofit is not working toward website accessibility standards, you may fall behind in 2019.

From temporary or situational constrictions to those with more permanent disabilities, it’s best practice to follow website accessibility standards to make your site easy for everyone to navigate and use as you intend it to be used.

Were you able to tune into the tweet chat? What nonprofit tech trends for 2019 are you most excited to experiment with or watch develop? Let us know what you’re thinking in the comments.

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