Purple Patch Blog

What to do when people are talking about you, not to you …

By Dawn Varley

This week I had two very different customer experiences, one very good and one very bad. What was really interesting was how I talked about them (you know that a good story spreads, but a bad story spreads faster…), and how they then unfolded – all thanks to my new best friend, twitter.

On Monday I was working from home, in part because things just fell that way, and in part because I was expecting a delivery. One that had been due to arrive the previous Friday, but had failed to show. As a fairly recent convert to twitter (c 3months and loving it) I tweeted my annoyance, mentioned the company, and got a tweet reply saying ‘We will be in touch, thanks’. Wow, I thought, that’s fast, and was happy it was being sorted. But I heard nothing after that, and so went ahead and re-arranged delivery online. Slightly annoying, but all good so far, or so I thought.

Monday arrived, and although I had parcels to take to the Post Office for relatives in Australia (it was last posting day for Christmas) I duly sat and waited. And waited. Whilst I waited my mobile rang, and it was a very bouncy chap calling from Christian Aid, following up my text donation to their mosquito net appeal. He launched into his script, and was furiously thanking me for my support, so much so that I had a hard time trying to butt in. Thank you, I said, but I was called a couple of months back after the original text, and I said then I didn’t want any more calls. He apologised, said it would be noted, and rang off. I was a bit annoyed about being disturbed this way, as I think if I’ve told you how I want to be contacted you should record it and stick to it. And I used to work for Christian Aid, so I know the CRM system can and does record ‘Do not phone’ flags. Indeed I used to import them onto the system. So, guess what I did? Yep, I tweeted. It was a polite tweet, but it did name check Christian Aid, whilst pointing out how important it is to record donor preferences. And then I got back to waiting for my delivery (Post Office now closed, sorry Aus rels, your parcels will be late)… Monday evening came and went. No delivery in sight, so another tweet, and a big complaint email, sent to the company.

Tuesday arrived and all was quiet from the delivery company. But I got a lovely reply from Christian Aid, asking for my details so they could investigate the problem with the lack of call suppression. I was very impressed. Not only is that good customer service, it’s good customer service via a channel that they have to pro-actively listen too. After all, I was talking about them, not to them. But they still heard, knew it was important to resolve, and got in touch. A few direct messages later and the mystery was revealed – a duplicate record for me on the system. As a database person I can understand that – it happens. One record was my full supporter details with name and address, and the other just my name and mobile number. I wouldn’t let the system merge me on that basis  - it could be two different people. The nice folks at Christian Aid explained that, apologised, and set to sorting it. Fantastic. I of course duly name checked them and their great supporter care in a tweet, am likewise thanking them now, and may even use this as a case study for a future seminar. Good stories can go far.

The moral of this story I think is that, whatever your business, delivering parcels to customer, or selling your cause to supporters, these days you have to be where the conversations about you are happening. And that’s facebook and twitter as the headline social media arenas. And you can’t just broadcast, you have to listen. And if you hear your name you should reply, in the right circumstances, but ideally you should also record those interactions. If I’m talking about you on twitter then I’m telling people about you – that’s an important piece of information to know. Ideally you should record that on your CRM – but I don’t know many organisations who are. Are you? I wonder if Christian Aid is. I think they just might, they seem to be savvy folks.

As for my delivery, as I arrived home late Tuesday evening I passed a very annoyed delivery man coming out of my block, wheeling away my parcel. I managed to intercept it and all is now sorted. Not sure I’ll be taking my business back there again in a hurry though. Sometimes the corporate world can learn from the not for profit one, and this is a case in point.

 

 

 

5 tips for IT success in Mergers and Collaborations

by Dawn Varley.  

Mergers and collaborations – we’re hearing a lot of talk about them in these straitened times and, indeed, there are more and more examples around. So OK, you and the other similar charity (who you’ve been talking to for years) have now decided to collaborate or merge. That’s the hard part, right? Wrong!

Experience shows that, all too often, it’s the nuts and bolts of fundraising and business operations that are forgotten when mergers and collaborations are planned, or worse still – only remembered at the last minute. Here are our top five tips for ensuring IT and systems success when two become one.

1.  Get all the right people at the table

As soon as talks get serious on how your organisation is going to evolve its relationship with another, ensure all the right people are on your project team – and that has to involve technology. There is little point in undertaking due diligence, drawing the organisation models, checking the legal framework and more, unless you know you can actually bolt your IT infrastructures together from Go Live, or have a plan for doing so very soon after. The IT perspective must include all databases and essential satellite systems in use – fundraising, service delivery, volunteer management etc. – as these business areas are all critical to the success of the new organisation.

2.  Plan an inclusive timeframe

Any project manager worth their salt knows that the three constraints on a project are time, cost and scope. Within the wider merger project there will be defined smaller projects, such as a database merger between the two organisations. This in itself is no small task, and needs the appropriate time and money to be allocated so that the required scope (both included and excluded aspects) can be achieved. Recently, one organisation ‘overlooked’ the inclusion of its fundraising database in the merger plan. Faced with the task of incorporating it retrospectively, the options were to either merge it quickly or take longer and consider what the combined businesses really needed. Unfortunately, the former approach was taken, meaning the organisation will not realise the benefits that a longer review and refinement of business processes brings. We expect that further problems are in store, showing that a reduced timeframe not only impacts scope, but also much more in the long-term.

3.  Reference your organisational and fundraising strategies

In a merger, as well as bringing systems together, decisions need to be made on what to keep and what to leave behind. It is essential to take a step back and consider the bigger picture. For example, in terms of the database to choose, whilst the majority of staff may be experienced on System A, would the adoption of System B offer better future-proofing in line with the bigger picture? Retraining staff is easier than trying to get a database to do something it can’t two years down the line. Drawing up a functional specification that represents aspirations of the new organisation will help in decision-making, and is our recommended approach. This will also help at a practical level when deciding how to map the incoming data from System A into System B, as you‘ll know how your fundraising strategy should be reflected in your merged database – essential for those early days KPIs that the Board will demand.

4.  Know your supporter-base overlap

Whilst all those concerned within the organisation (should) know why the merger is happening, how it’s unfolding, and the reasons behind it, never forget that your supporters aren’t part of this communication loop. It’s a very worthwhile exercise to check the degree of supporter overlap across the two organisations (by profile analysis across the two databases). This should, ideally, be undertaken as part of due diligence as, dependant on the results, it could impact heavily on fundraising projections and subsequent activity plans. As the databases are merged, ensure you know who came from where – they may have supported quite different charities and be familiar with communicating in different ways. Appropriate supporter journey plans need to be in place going forward.

5.  It’s all about the people

Perhaps a surprising last tip, but one we believe is essential to these projects – people. Whether it’s the IT person leading the technical changes, or related colleagues in fundraising, supporter care etc.; everyone needs to keep talking and communicating. Of course, even the data on the database is people, and those people are supporters, beneficiaries, eventers, etc. All crucial to the organisation, and all part of why the change process is underway. Remember the people, and you will get there!

Dawn Varley is a Consultant with Purple Vision, and is currently working with three clients post-merger. She was a Trustee of Brook London prior to it merging earlier this year with the wider Brook network, and is a Trustee of the Institute of Fundraising. Dawn is also Vice-Chair of the Institute of Fundraising Technology Group.

 

 

Raiser's Edge - the next generation?

So, the cat is semi-officially out of the bag.

The next generation of The Raiser's Edge - called 'Raiser's Edge 8' by those interested in such things - isn't actually going to happen. There are, according to Jana Eggers, a Blackbaud VP, no "active development plans" for RE8.

Now, for those of us interested in Blackbaud's products, and there are enough of us, this is big, big news, and something of a change from what we've heard in the past.

Two years ago at the Blackbaud conference in London, then Chief Technical Officer Shaun Sullivan talked about RE8 but admitted that he was struggling to be able to announce when it would be ready for release. Similar conversations with Blackbaud people positioned the new RE8 as providing 'functional blades' within the wider BB Enterprise CRM solution, built on the 'Infinity' platform.

According to the video, RE7 customers will be offered solutions ranging from BB Enterprise CRM for larger organisations, Altru (a SaaS solution) for arts and cultural, and etapestry and RE(i) for smaller nonprofits. Or they could stay with RE7 which Blackbaud say will feature new bits of kit to support mobile giving and social CRM in early 2012.

All food for thought - and with increased competition in the non-profit technology sector in 2012 - it'll be interesting to see what happens to all those organisations currently on RE7.

The Americans are coming!

By Steve Thomas

To be precise, more Americans are coming! In the UK we already have dominant CRM solutions from Blackbaud and ASI, and soon they will be joined by US competitor Convio.

Earlier this year Convio bought Baigent Digital, the well-respected UK digital agency focusing on non-profits. Since then we haven't heard much - no doubt they are preparing their plans and products for the UK market. What can we expect when they launch here? Judging from the products and services available to US fundraisers, some very interesting things could be coming our way.

To find out more, we subscribed to Convio's US mailing list and this week a newsletter arrived about their main CRM tool, known as Common Ground. Convio products make use of the powerful SalesForce platform, and with Common Ground they claim that users get straightforward, easy-to-use tools to create, launch and manage fundraising campaigns direct to their social media sites.

A single, integrated solution delivering a true 360-degree view; all securely hosted in the cloud for a fixed monthly fee. No servers to manage, no technology snags and no integration headaches – all you need is a browser and you are away. That is quite a promise!

Watch the video for yourself here.  It lasts 6 minutes. This is a tantalising glimpse of how a CRM system should be – we look forward to seeing what it will look like when it becomes available to UK fundraisers. We’ll keep you posted – watch this space.

The sincerest form of flattery

We are delighted to hear that Blackbaud has followed Purple Vision’s lead by offering a health check service.

They are right to identify this as a valuable service for users. We have been offering our own Database Healthcheck for many years and our clients regularly report great value for money from the immediate and practical help that it delivers.

Quite often we arrive on site to hear strong criticisms of the database. But typically it is quite capable (with a bit of reconfiguration, restructuring or training) of delivering most, or all, requirements. The Database Healthcheck is a great way to demonstrate where, why and how the database can do its job. So, if you are annoyed with your system, think again – it may not be its fault!

And it’s not just about The Raiser’s Edge. Being independent, we are not limited to any particular vendor or technology. By working with all major CRM and fundraising tools, we suggest and implement best practice – regardless of the system in question.

That was the (fundraising) week that was...

by Dawn Varley (@nfpdawnv)

Sunday evening, and thinking about the new week ahead... Or rather, I should be but I feel I've only just recovered from the week that just was. Don't get me wrong, it was a fabulous week as I spent a full three days at the Institute of Fundraising National Convention, with over 2,000 other fundraisers, talking about all things fundraising (or rather, not quite all things fundraising*). But all the listening, pondering, agreeing, questioning, tweeting (I made it into the top 10 tweeters - 2 months ago I didn't even see why I should be on twitter...), networking, 'small world-ing' and more meant it took its toll on mind and body. So, if you didn't make it, or indeed even if you did, I've shared some learnings below that I hope will make you think - as they did me. And read on after that for how the week ended!

• Ken Burnett, Alan Clayton & Giles Pegram CBE (fundraising royalty - shouldn't be allowed in the same room at the same time) held an amazing 'pull no punches' session entitled 'Think BIG!' in which they told us all that 'fundraising is [currently] a very shallow profession'; that we have sub-contracted out talking to our donors; and that we should stop apologising for fundraising'. WOW. Alan Clayton encouraged us all to be a lion/lioness fundraiser, who isn't afraid to roar - and who certainly doesn't move around every 18 months. Fundraisers need to 1) Make Decisions; 2) Commit yourself; and 3) Invest long-term. A lot of what was said I fully agreed with, and look forward to roaring re fundraising strategy very soon.
• A session on 'Naked ROI' (no disrobing involved) looked at the oft-talked of, and little understood/defined, 'Lifetime Value' (LTV). John Baguley (IFC) and Charlie Keep (Freedom from Torture) gave a brilliant session on understanding the value of your donors (financial and non-financial, as campaigning/event activity counts!) , what is important and what not (organisation dependant) and how to calculate it. The maths blew the mind a tad, but real food for thought and a great reminder that to work all this magic you need good data, which requires a decent CRM system, and required joined up thinking with your fundraising strategy. Easy then...
• Two great sessions came from different angles on the new fundraising buzz phrase in town 'crowd-sourcing'. Nick Burne from Think, Ed Whiting from WeDidThis.org.uk, and Tamasine Johnson from the National Trust's 'MyFarm' project were out and proud about it, and Tamasine was especially honest about what has (as yet) failed to translate into a real success for the NT (a foray into social media, and on a topic which has done more to alter perceptions of the NT than raise money - Ken Burnett would call that a fail, as per the 'Think BIG!' session). Ultimately crowd-sourcing (or crowd funding) means going to wider public to support/fund/power projects and make them happen. This is micro-projects with people power, vs mega-projects run by organisations. Interesting take on things, but I may be with Ken on the effectiveness of it vs 'traditional fundraising'. Depends on how you value engagement in your LTV model perhaps (see what I did there?)
• The next day AJ Leon (LaC Project), a 'rogue fundraiser' from the US, held a session about 'unfundraising'. This quickly unfolded to me as a very closely related cousin to the 'crowd-funding' theme stated above - by involving & inspiring others to be evangelical about your project, spread the word, etc they then do the fundraising for you. The idea works on a micro-project model, reports in real time from the projects concerned (a $100 'back alley' phone was handed to village resident so he could blog - he did, and it so worked), and allows supporters to sign-up to a project and be part of a project community. Hmm, I see how it works, I see how it inspires, and I see how small projects are easy to move - but that vs the experience of organisations who have been doing this for years, with the infrastructure, the experience and the ability to get economies of scale? I think my gut tells me to stick with the old school method, in terms of maximising beneficiary reach. But if you're talking engagement and empowerment of supporters, then I guess you go the other way. Interesting indeed, in terms of what social media means for fundraising.
• The last session to mention here was from another fundraising guru, Adrian Sargeant, and Jen Shang ('Professor of Philanthropic Psychology' - only in America!), about using psychology in fundraising asks. So you call up to join/make a donation and you are told 'Mary joined last week and gave $300' - in the hope that this will make you up your game against a simple 'how much would you like to donate'. And it did increase uplift, giving an average gift of $112 against the no-prompt control of less than $100...But at what cost to the donors self-esteem? Maybe I'm a sensitive soul, but would it be better to let the donor decide rather than make them feel bad about not being able to give $300? Discuss. Prompts, communities ('symbolic social identity') and smilies (male response rates saw significant increase when a row of 'smilies' lasered on response form. No such uplift for the ladies!) all figured in this interesting, but to me, slightly manipulative, session. But hey, I'm sure you're just going to tell me that's what fundraising is all about...

* So, great convention. Lots learned, lots to consider and lots to take back to the office. BUT. One thing really stood out to me - and it's the * bit. Whilst fundraising was considered from almost every angle, what seemed lacking across all three days was time dedicated to the systems that underpin matters under discussion. Technology didn't get a look in, aside from social media and fundraising software/methods such as online & SMS. What about where your donor data resides? Does your CRM reflect your fundraising stategy? How do you tie all the streams of donor info together? Etc, etc. Still waiting for sessions on the above. Maybe next year. In fact maybe Purple Vision should start writing the session pitch right now.

To see how it all unfolded this year search for #iofnc on twitter.

Oh, and as for how the week ended after 3 full days of fundraising at the start... with the News of the World implosion - and subsequent offer to charities for free advertising space and/or donations of revneue to 'good causes'. How's that for a trustee challenge, ethical-dilemma, short-term gain vs long-term reputation, fundraising question? And with a response required in 24 hours. Twitter and online debate forums lit up like Christmas trees. Brilliant, but exhausting.

You simply can't take the fun out of fundraising. Love it.

Iris – The Next Generation (and no Klingons in sight!)

The IRIS NFP World conference this month was the Launchpad for software vendor Iris NFP to finally unveil its new-look range of CRM systems for non-profit organisations. And they look good, with potential to challenge strongly in the middle and upper end of the market. On the other hand, the cost to upgrade could prove to be too high for many existing users.

Having spent several years buying up various smaller developers, Iris has finally settled on a three pronged strategy. For the medium to large charity there will be IntegraNG and CareNG. Integra will deliver membership functionality with Care having a stronger focus on fundraising. Meanwhile, for smaller organisations who don’t have such complex requirements (or big budgets), there is Donor Strategy, which comes in various versions for charities, membership organisations and schools.

There has been much speculation about if and when Iris would choose to bring together its two main products in a single technology platform, and now we have the answer: the new NG product range is an updated version of the Iris Care. This decision is not a surprise since Care is already a more modern and flexible solution than the ageing Integra. So now, although they are the same behind the scenes, the two NG systems sport different features, depending on whether you are looking for charity functionality (donations, sponsor me, legacies, financial processing) or membership tools (CPD, subscriptions, examinations).

As many Iris customers know, support has been a problem in the past 12 months or so. The scale and simplicity of a single technology base and a vendor committed to development and support is an encouraging step forward. Martin Carter, the new Head of Support for IRIS, said he has been hiring staff and building capacity so that there is now a single integrated team handling queries for all of their products. Let’s hope things continue to improve. If you are an Iris user please let us know if you’re feeling the benefit of these changes yet?

For anyone interested in the technology, Iris has selected the latest implementation of Microsoft’s .NET framework – version 4. The NG software should be easily accessible via web services, which means that other developers, in particular web developers, should be able to access the data in the NG system and integrate it with a wide range of third party applications. Interestingly, by shifting further towards .NET Iris has followed their rival Blackbaud who announced their commitment to the same technology (their so-called Infinity Platform) back in 2009. However, don’t assume that the gap is as great as it may sound, because Iris has the advantage of many years of Care development in earlier versions of .NET, and Blackbaud has been slow to bring to market the new version of its market-leading product, The Raiser’s Edge.

So, this all sounds like good news. Iris has got its act together and the playing field has been levelled for anyone considering a new CRM system. But what about the options if you already have the current versions of Care and Integra? Happily, there is no charge to adopt the new versions of the software – they come for free, as long as you are up to date with Iris’s annual licensing and support scheme. However, the process of upgrading will not be free, with various costs (and risks) associated with planning and managing the migration to a new system. The migration path will be much easier for existing Care clients as they are already familiar with the .NET framework. For Integra users, it will be a much steeper learning curve, with a lot of work to translate, import and restructure. Estimates for the amount of consultancy time needed to upgrade start at around 30 days for smaller implementations, which is not a low cost upgrade!

With all the operational changes and retraining, for many users this will feel like an entirely new system, with all the associated headaches (and the benefits of course)! This may not be an entirely attractive prospect, but ultimately you have no choice! Iris has announced that their current products will be supported until 2015, but after that they plan to progressively withdraw support from the old Care and Integra, with clients expected to move across the new platform.

Overall, we think this is a welcome development. Iris NFP has staked its future on NG, which appears to be a much better product with vital improvements to integration and flexibility. New customers have an good option and existing customers can lok forward to the prospect of significant enhancements. We look forward to seeing the products in more detail and we will keep you posted here.

Electric Plum...Purple Vision...and the enigma that is The Raiser's Edge 8

As company names go, Electric Plum is almost as good as Purple Vision, although perhaps not as good as Speedy Tomato (a company a friend of mine worked for that I believe was a victim of the dot.com bubble burst ten years ago!)

But Electric Plum is significant, because it is the start up company created by Shaun Sullivan the former Chief Technology Officer at Blackbaud.

In his own words Electric Plum is a "startup focusing on mobile apps, and the mobile Web. One area we will focus on is bringing innovative mobile solutions to compliment the Blackbaud Raiser's Edge and Infinity-based offerings."

It'll be interesting to see how Electric Plum fairs, in the light of other young companies whose business is built primarily around offering complimentary solutions to Blackbaud's products, such as Omatic Software.

It'll also be interesting to see what now happens to the long anticipated Raiser's Edge 8 - or whatever the new version on the Infinity Platform will be called. Our friends at RE-Decoded are also watching news on this very closely - an updated version of Raiser's Edge will surely be necessary sometime soon if Blackbaud are going to hold off the challenge from Salesforce and it's CRM offering to the non-profit sector.

(Virtually free) charity databases - market update May 2011

'The revolution will not be exported into a spreadsheet' - not my words, but those of Citizen CRM.

Now I know very little about Citizen CRM, other than it appears to have taken it's marketing spiel straight from Citizen Smith - and therefore may well be marching on Tooting Town Hall any day now...

But what I do know about Citizen CRM is that it's one of a new breed - one of the new software as a service ('SaaS to those in the know') solutions designed to give charities a decent database system without a) all the cost of something like Raiser's Edge b) all the complexity of something like Raiser's Edge and c) all the IT headaches associated with something like R...you know what I mean.

There are others out there - Convio, a non-profit solution increasingly popular in the US of A and based upon Salesforce. CiviCRM, an open-source, not necessarily hosted solution aimed perhaps more at those in the non-profit sector with a few more techy skills, and who have a Drupal or Joomla website/CMS.

And then there's DonorForce - a new solution, again based upon the Salesforce platform, developed by AppiChar and recently soft-launched at the Institute of Fundraising.

CiviCRM and DonorForce are/will be available in the UK - and are/will be developed to meet the needs of the UK non-profit world. Convio and Citizen CRM - well, who knows. However, the Salesforce platform looks very strong - and now that it's being taken and developed away from it's traditional, vanilla sales-pipeline management functions, is surely going to be an ever stronger rival to those of Blackbaud, ASI, ThankQ, Iris etc.

Watch this space...comrades

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brave New World: Fundraising Technology in 2020

A Brave New (Non-Profit) World

How innovations in technology will continue to change the way donors interact with good causes

The future of fundraising?

Back in 2009, Ken Burnett wrote in his blog (www.kenburnett.com/Blog2020vision.html) about the future of fundraising. He gave these thoughts on ‘how donors would be different in 2020’:

“It depends principally on whether fundraisers will get clever and start building more substantial, more meaningful relationships with their donors, offering them more tangible benefits and practical engagement….The emphasis will be on the donor experience - real, useful, regular feedback will be one part of the key to this, consistent, informative, welcome and produced to a very high standard.”

“Donors have gained and will gain increasing control of our means of communicating with them”

Keith Collins from Purple Vision gives some thoughts as to how this brave new world of donor relationships will be made possible by innovations in technology over the next few years.

 
1.Technology will bring donors and beneficiaries together

Particularly in the world of overseas aid and development, large charities such as Oxfam and Christian Aid have traditionally acted as brokers between donors in developed, western economies and those that benefit from their work.

The good reputations of these large development NGOs has provided the donors with confidence that their money will be well spent, and that the projects receiving their funds will be vetted and regularly monitored so as to be sure that the funding delivered provides for the appropriate outcomes – whether that is the delivery of fresh water to a remote village, or the education of young girls.

However, for the donor the primary relationship has been with the non-profit – even though stories, videos and project updates have been provided that communicate the benefits of the work in the field.
Increasingly, technology that helps to bring funders and recipient projects closer together will become increasingly popular to donors – for example, sites such as Global Giving www.Globalgiving.co.uk – providing the “real, useful, regular feedback” that encourages the donor to build a strong relationship with the cause.

Integrated social media tools will also increasingly enable relationships to be developed between like-minded donors.

 
2.Technology will harness local knowledge

Locally based fundraisers – volunteers or paid staff – will wrest control of the supporter database away – forever - from the charity central office ‘mothership’, and use it to “start building more substantial, more meaningful relationships with their donors”.

The days of complex, on-premise databases accessible only from a charity HQ or selectively from some regional offices are over. The best CRM systems – including offerings from Blackbaud, ASI Europe and Salesforce – are maturing – retaining their offering of high-functionality and becoming more fun, nicer to use, platform-independent – and people will want to use them!.

Locally-based fundraisers will engage with supporters locally and capture and record intelligence about them from the comfort of their home office, or by updating the information using their smartphone – capturing an unprecedented amount of what Ken Burnett refers to as the “real, useful, regular feedback” about these supporters - that compliments the information captured at the HQ level about things such as regular donations, major donor approaches, campaigning activity etc.


3.Technology will enable a charity to truly understand what a donor thinks…or tweets!

The smartest charities will be delivering messages and information almost exclusively to a supporters’ web-enabled device – and leveraging their social media feeds to engage with supporters on a one-to-one basis with a deep understanding of that supporter’s engagement with your cause.

Ken Burnett’s assertion that “Donors have gained and will gain increasing control of our means of communicating with them” is correct. Charity supporters can engage with each other Facebook and Twitter – without the charity’s involvement.
Innovative tools such as Faceconnector (http://salesbookapp.com/faceconnector) will enable charities to monitor social media, reflect that information in their CRM systems alongside information captured through more traditional means (donations, phone calls, attendance at events) and use it to both engage early on in social media discussions, and leverage that information for identifying and recruiting advocates, campaigners, major donors, networkers etc.

Technology will enable non-profits to deliver very, very personalised marketing messages to their supporters
For a glimpse into the future of advertising, marketing (and perhaps charity fundraising!) we need look no further than the film Minority Report, based on a short story written by the prophetic Science Fiction writer Philip K. Dick.

It may seem scary, as many futuristic things can. It may seem intrusive, and we may, at present, not be ready to embrace it….but the future may well see the most sophisticated non-profit organisations leveraging the data they know about you to deliver more targeted web, mobile-web and DRTV based advertising messages wherever you are in the world – whether you are watching TV, using the Internet, out shopping or even travelling on the tube!


Information that you share freely with your favourite charities – in particular information about your smartphone to establish your exact location – will be used to enable your favourite charities to deliver personalised messages through nearby advertising or media portals

….but maybe they won’t need to do retina scans to achieve it!