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Nonprofits Should Look at These Technologies that Will be Important in 2020 Featured

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Like for-profit businesses, nonprofit organizations also face many challenges, most of which are due to the overall trends in the industry.  These trends keep shifting the direction that nonprofits want to take as they continuously change. As the New Year begins, it is wise to expect, understand and prepare for how these changing trends might influence your nonprofit going forward.  Below are the industry trends that every nonprofit should keep an eye on in 2020.

1 - Networking platforms for nonprofits

It is expected that networking platforms that will make it easy for nonprofits to engage and interact with the donors, providers, and communities will become more prevalent this year. These platforms will be critical because they will foster innovation and give users the ability to create effective, far-reaching, and targeted services while at the same time mobilizing donors and investors to provide support.

2 - Growth of integrated giving

As technology keeps advancing, people are increasingly allowed to donate to their preferred cause in many ways than before. There are many technologies such as text-to-give, blockchain giving, traditional checks and online giving which are all used currently. With this however, there is an increasing need to integrate these methods. As we begin a new year, customer relationship management services (CRMs) are becoming crucial in nonprofits and platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 have the ability to collect information from different data centers into one. Many nonprofits will monitor this trend in the coming days.

3 - Artificial intelligence

As artificial intelligence makes way into almost every industry, nonprofits seem to be looking for ways they can capitalize on it to increase their rate of success. 2020 will be a defining year for the nonprofits’ use of artificial intelligence to improve how donors contribute to charities. Virtual assistants, chatbots, and other artificial intelligence applications will make giving a lot easier than before and the number of contributions will without a doubt increase. The availability of Alexa and Siri will ease how donors contribute through speech recognition and will, therefore, be a definite game-changer for charitable organizations.

4 - More nonprofits will adopt automation

Nonprofits have for many years remained behind in adopting new technologies. However, this trend has changed significantly in the past few years. As we move towards a new decade, automation has become a number one change that is slowly allowing businesses to achieve their mission, optimize their operations, and improve efficiency. The year 2020 will see many nonprofits venturing into automation in things such as communication with donors, accounting, security checks and maintenance of data. This will free up resources and reduce operational costs which are often associated with a large number of employees.

5 - Data security will be a top priority

As new data security challenges emerge, many laws and regulations keep coming up. Data security measures are now being introduced more than ever to meet the demands in a current highly connected world. Without the trust of donors due to data security issues, fundraising would not occur and the missions will not be accomplished. This decade will see organizations trying their best to improve their cybersecurity assessment approaches and data security mechanisms to avoid damages to their systems and theft of personal information. Aspects such as verification will become talking points as people donating will need to be always protected.

6 - Personalized giving

For decades, organizations have been adjusting to the movement of donors from offline towards online giving. The trend has however seen donors moving to mobile devices and has again altered the security landscape of philanthropy. With the rise of the age of text-to-give technologies and mobile applications as well as remote work, nonprofits are working towards mobile giving. This can be seen from the increased adoption of technologies such as Apple Pay and Google Pay among others. As these technologies continue expanding, nonprofits will grow with it starting this year

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Scott Koegler

Scott Koegler is Executive Editor for PMG360. He is a technology writer and editor with 20+ years experience delivering high value content to readers and publishers. 

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