Stocktoberfest Insights with Virtuous

Check out our Q&A with Gabe Cooper. After serving in a leadership role at a large nonprofit in the early 2000's, Gabe went on to help build a series of successful products including Virtuous Software, the responsive CRM and fundraising platform that helps nonprofits easily create personalized donor experiences at scale that build lasting relationships with all their donors.

DonateStock: You’ve been in the nonprofit industry for quite some time. How would you characterize the state of the nonprofit industry?

Gabe: Nonprofits continue to do amazing work to create good in the world. Our collective missions are more critical than ever and I continue to be blown away by the impact of many of the organizations that I work with. At the same time, we’re seeing more and more donors opt out of charitable giving. As many as 25% of low dollar donors have opted out of giving entirely in the last 10-12 years. Our donor retention numbers suffer as more and more distractions compete for the attention of our constituents. As a result, many great organizations remain under funded despite the growing economy.

DonateStock: What are the biggest challenges facing nonprofits today?

Gabe: Lagging donor retention and a lack of true personal connection with donors is having a profound impact on the resiliency of many nonprofits. Over the next decade, the nonprofits who drive the most generosity and impact will be the organizations who are able to close the distance between their supporters and the frontlines of their cause.

Today’s donors expect a direct, personal connection to their impact - but most nonprofit struggle to create personal connections with donors at scale. Successful nonprofits are beating the trends - and increasing retention rates and overall engagement - by building more responsive, personal communication streams with constituents.

Nonprofits who continue to rely on traditional, impersonal, “spray and pray” communications will likely be buried under the weight of the hyper-personalized content from more sophisticated brands.

DonateStock: The pandemic has forced orgs of all sizes to rethink how they operate. Do you see any silver linings coming out of this?

Gabe: We’ve seen two great outcomes as part of the pandemic:

1. Many nonprofits have been forced to accelerate innovation and develop a culture based on adapting quickly to change. This desire to innovate has been a huge step forward for much of our space. My hope is that the pace of innovation doesn’t slow as we stabilize after the pandemic
2. Many nonprofits realized that they were largely disconnected from their donors as the pandemic started. The most forward thinking organizations made great strides in LISTENING to their donors better during the pandemic. They’ve been eager to pick up the phone, ask for feedback and increase empathy. In other words, they’ve re-gained a true personal connection to donors.

DonateStock: How are they adapting to technology-based solutions?

Gabe: One of the biggest steps forward we’ve seen in our sector is the adoption of marketing automation technology. Data-driven automation has been a standard practice for consumer oriented businesses for a decade. Nonprofits were lagging behind in their willingness to leverage automation as a way to be more responsive to donors.

Over the past 18 months, we’ve seen nonprofits quickly adopt automation as a way to send personalized multi-channel communications (SMS, Email, Mail, Phone) to their audience in real-time based on donor behavior. This change represents a massive step forward for the nonprofit sector overall.

DonateStock: Where do you see new possibilities for innovation within the nonprofit sector?

Gabe: I’m excited to see how nonprofits begin to use big data to connect donors directly to their impact. I believe that successful nonprofits will be able to use big data in real-time to optimize their program effectiveness (measuring impact, tracking key metrics, pivoting tactics based on AI insights). And then deliver impact communication directly to donors using data insights based on each donors preferences and interests.