For the past decade, social media paired with Kickstarter and similar crowdsourcing platforms has been turning the world of fundraising upside down. When it comes to the future of fundraising, expect an even greater push for digital solutions, especially video content.

Fundraising through social media and crowdsourcing is all about interactivity, making people feel like they’re a part of your organization and truly contributing to the cause. One of the best ways to accomplish that is through video. Recently, marketers in all fields, not just fundraising, have been focusing heavily on incorporating video into their events through YouTube, Snapchat, and other services. Live video (and VR) will be one of the big trends to pay attention to in the future.

For more on that, and what else to expect, we asked a group of industry experts…

What’s The Future Of Fundraising?

Here’s what they had to say…  

Felix Hartmann, CEO of FundThis.com

“Within 10-15 years fundraising and social media will be powered by blockchain technology, giving way to micropayments via cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. With the click of a ‘like-button’, users will be able to make microdonations, a cent or even less.

This will allow organizations and content creators to continuously raise money without ever having to ask for a donation, all the while eliminating bots and spam, as interaction now costs money (though negligible for the average consumer). This creates a meaningful, seamless experience, making fundraising something invisible happening in the background. In the startup world, the same terms apply.

With the passage of the JOBS act, any blue collar worker can invest in private startups. The entry investment, currently at around $100 for most platforms will fall steeply once blockchain is integrated and fees are optimized. Eventually you can invest the cost of a Starbucks into the next Uber or Facebook.”

Jim Alvarez, Founder & CEO of Gesture

“The future: Strategic Technology. Technology continues to evolve and adapt to consumer behaviors and preferences always seeking to cut through the noise. Mobile devices have taken hold of younger generations who crave to be constantly connected.

The next gadget may create new behaviors. Technology experts will dazzle the field with new platforms offering more ways to reach donors. To be successful, it’s critical for fundraisers to know their donors and understand how they perceive information. Fundraisers need to drive actions to where donors ‘live’. Future fundraisers will embrace both the streamlined functions of technology and rely more on analyzing how it best fits their desired donor pool.

Technology plus strategy will be the route to delivering compelling stories illustrating the impact that move donors to take action. Technology plus strategy will enable fundraisers a deep dive into donor data to deliver increased profits.”

Tim Sarrantonio , Director of Business Development at Neon CRM

“The unfortunate reality is that fundraising will become more difficult unless nonprofits change the ways that they approach both donors as well as data. Recent studies have shown that donor retention has been consistently going down and a big part of that is while technology is getting better at communicating, fundraisers aren’t using the technology in ways that make a meaningful connection with their donors. The organizations that invest in smart usage of their data will buck the trend of retention and grow their missions significantly.

Nonprofits need to make their technology work for them and the easiest way is to connect the various platforms they use. We will see a trend that big companies like Blackbaud simply won’t be able to keep up with technology and that the nonprofits that embrace an ecosystem of interrelated tech will find the most success.”

Jeff Nickel, SVP at TrueSense Marketing

“The direct mail, digital, events, and telephone donor database systems will finally be fully integrated, thereby providing for a seamless CRM solution that will deliver donor prescribed content based on the timing and channels that donors prefer. Mid-level donor programs, which are the link between annual gift and pipeline growth to Major and Planned Gifts, will be accepted as an important and necessary part of a fundraising strategy in the future donor marketing age. And, no one will balk at spending money to move people up the pipeline.”

Brian Mikes , VP of Marketing for Givingtext.org

“Over the next 5 to 10 years Non-profits and Charity organizations will look to mobile marketing, specifically text message marketing, to communicate with donors and raise money. Why? Because text messages have 5 times the engagement rate of emails.”

Julia Malkin, Director of Development at OneTable

“The future of fundraising is in cultivating a two-way street. Companies need to listen to what supporters are interested in and match that with organizational need. Individuals increasingly want to be involved in causes on multiple meaningful levels.”