Website and mobile technology are key to help manage over 20,000 walkers, runners and riders in the annual Becel Heart&Stroke Ride for Heart event.
It takes a lot of generous souls to support philanthropic organizations and the good work they do. These days, in the age of ubiquitous Internet, social media and mobile communications, it also takes the right technology.
"A lot of people think that charities today are still roll-up-your-sleeves, not very sophisticated operations," says Mark Banbury, chief information and constituent services officer at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. "But given the highly competitive landscape for charities, it's very important for organizations to differentiate themselves and to find ways to work more efficiently. Technology helps us do that."
Technology has certainly become an integral part of life for most Canadians. According to data analytics firm comScore Inc., Canadians are the most prolific and engaged Internet users in the world, on average visiting 80 sites and spending more than 36 hours online each month. A large percentage of that time is spent on social networking platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Canadians are also increasingly using technology on the go. Recent numbers from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission point to Canadians' growing reliance on mobile communications, with close to 70 per cent equipped with a smartphone and almost half owning a tablet computer.
"As more people choose to engage online and on their mobile devices, charities need to adapt accordingly."
- Mark Banbury
is chief information and constituent services officer at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
For charities and fundraisers, this all translates to greater opportunities to reach and move their target audiences to action.
"Technology really is the growth sector within giving," says Kevin McDearis, executive vice president, product management, research, delivery and operations at Blackbaud Inc., a Charleston, S.C., provider of software and services for the global philanthropic community. "In fact, it is growing much faster than the offline, more traditional methods of giving."
Most philanthropic organizations have, for years, used customer relationship management software to aggregate information about donors and volunteers. Today, however, advances in data analytics make it possible to parse this information to uncover details that can help finetune fundraising efforts.
At Blackbaud, for instance, proprietary social science algorithms allow charities to understand the wealth and giving capacity of donors, and what type of causes they care about.
"So you can use that intelligence to identify which donors to contact at specific times," says Mr. McDearis. "It's really about trying to build in a level of predictive monitoring and helping charities understand in the moment that an individual has a capacity to do something, whether that's giving or volunteering."
As an example of how predictive data analytics can advance fundraising, Mr. McDearis points to a non-profit organization that upgraded recently to Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge NXT software, which has predictive capabilities.
With highly targeted fundraising, charities can even run smaller and potentially more cost-effective but high-yielding campaigns
- Kevin McDearis
is executive vice president, product management, research, delivery and operations at Blackbaud Inc.
"Within 10 minutes of logging into the system, the non-profit identified about 1,000 people who had a higher likelihood of giving $1,000 more than they ask, so they contacted all of them and collected donations that added up to $1-million," says Mr. McDearis.
With highly targeted fundraising, charities can even run smaller and potentially more cost-effective but high-yielding campaigns, says Mr. McDearis.
Mr. Banbury says integrating technology into virtually every critical function at the Heart and Stroke Foundation – from fundraising and payment processing to health promotion and community engagement – has helped the organization manage its operations and campaigns more efficiently and, ultimately, advance its mission.
"Charities today have to be savvy in connecting with their constituents," he says. "As more people choose to engage online and on their mobile devices, charities need to adapt accordingly."
This content was produced by Randall Anthony Communications, in partnership with The Globe and Mail's advertising department. The Globe's editorial department was not involved in its creation.