There’s no denying it: it’s a different world today than it was 10 years ago. And for small and mid-sized nonprofits, a lot of the changes haven’t all been for the better.
In the past, foundations and grants provided the year-to-year stability needed to carry on the hard but life-changing work. But today, much of that funding has dried up. Or it doesn’t go as far as it used to.
Taylor Manning is the director of digital strategy & operations for Mid-Fairfield Community Care Center. MFCCC provides the day-to-day help that families in their community need. And they’re able to offer their services in such a way that cost doesn’t get in the way.
Taylor says, "We've been running on foundation dollars and federal grants, and we hadn’t really had the chance to make the shift toward other revenue streams. But in today's climate, a lot of nonprofits are shutting down their doors or they're taking the leap into new funding sources."
Expanding by focusing
Taylor and the team at MFCCC knew that they needed to find individual donors to help build a more resilient revenue base. But they needed access to modern digital tools to reach people effectively and at scale.
"In Feathr, we’re really focused on peer-to-peer, individual donors, and planned giving,” Taylor says. “Feathr today takes care of much of our individual monthly giving, and then we use the email and retargeting to continue to develop our planned giving program."
Foundations and grants will continue to be a part of their overall funding. But by building new sources of revenue, they’re ensuring their organization can continue to serve their community far into the future.
Taylor says, "It’s really answering that other one-third funding aspect that many nonprofits tend to forget about. And Feathr is simple enough for most nonprofits to use. You can go from beginner to intermediate to advanced in a very short amount of time."
Technology with a personal touch
A lot of nonprofits jump into digital with an idea that it will solve all their problems overnight. But Taylor knew that the day-to-day work of marketing is still all about making human connections. And that’s why a large part of their work in Feathr was helping their partners reach their communities with the message of MFCCC.
"We actually have a few board members who are very interested in creating their own peer-to-peer pages,” Taylor says. “So, they submit a form. I do some backend work, creating a custom donation form. And then we have Zapier integrate with Google analytics. So, it updates automatically on our website server.”
What could have been hours or days of work can now happen almost automatically. Taylor’s leveraging the power of automation to make these peer-to-peer pages feel unique to their individual board members. And this really goes a long way in getting board-member buy-in.
But the simplicity doesn’t end with the outreach. It also affects the way that donors interact on MFCCC’s web pages.
Taylor says, "With Feathr Forms built right in Stripe, donors can use Apple Pay on their iPhone or Google Pay on their desktop. And we’ve witnessed that removing this friction is very important, at least to our people."
When drag and drop doesn’t cut it
For some organizations, drag and drop features are exactly what they’re looking for. But for Taylor, he needs simplicity and speed for some projects, and nuance and detail on others.
He says, "When you look at Constant Contact or Mailchimp, you don't get those options. It's just standard drag and drop. And you can create something really fast on Feathr with drag and drop, but you also have the more advanced side of things covered too."
Not every email requires a meeting to talk through, but Taylor has a vision for certain things, and he needed digital tools that allowed these dreams to become a reality.
“And at least for me, in Feathr, I can quickly throw something together,” he says. “And then we can instantly share it. And time really matters for some of our seasonal campaigns. But almost more importantly, we're tracking and collecting data that informs a lot of other things we do."
Taylor can ensure that emails and ads match the quality their brand has attained. But to him all the design serves a purpose. It helps bring in donations so that MFCCC can continue to do the life-changing work they do every day.
And they know how much they’re bringing in through their digital campaigns by having Feathr’s Super Pixel placed throughout their webpages. And that was $26,000 in donations over the last year alone in Feathr.
And for Taylor, $26,000 is just the start. He knows that there are still untapped resources. And he wants to use every tool at his disposal to better serve his community. From geofencing affluent neighborhoods nearby to running lookalike campaigns, the sky is truly the limit for Taylor and MFCCC.
