« 15 reasons why people donate | Main | Update to recent visit to SWBTS »
April 9, 2008
Book Review: Digital Giving
In his book Digital Giving: How Technology is Changing Charity, author Richard C. McPherson seems to be responding to the challenge of Leonard Sweet in Soul Tsunami: Sink or Swim in New Millennium Culture. Leonard Sweet writes about the massive wave of change rolling toward the church. His advice is to grab a board and ride the wave or, refuse and be buried beneath it. Both McPherson and Sweet are strong proponents of embracing change, not as a negative force, but as a positive step toward being more effective and in sync with where society is.
Digital Giving was written after the author conducted a large number of interviews in which he asked two questions: “what are the big technology needs facing charity?” And “how can organizations embrace them to find public support?” McPherson wrote the book Because as he wrote, “I believe enormous technological changes, daunting as they may seem to busy organizations, will be for the better.” Several interesting statistics are noted in this work, from the Pew internet and American Life Project, that support the author’s view of rapidly changing technology. About 30 percent of the day is spent specifically using media. In addition, the project reported that 66 per cent of an individual’s working day finds that individual immersed in some form of electronic media. The report also finds that the average American home has 26 electronic devises and that the average American spends more time using media than any other activity.
It is on the basis of statistics or information amassed from numerous interviews that McPherson wrote Digital Giving. From the results of his interviews the author sites three “Whopping Big Trends.” The three trends deal with democratization. In the first trend, the “Democritizing of Media” he points out the trend toward more and more information sought from blogs, podcasts, personal web pages, and social networks. In the second trend the “Democratizing of philanthropy” McPherson writes that donors are assuming roles, once held by fund raisers, in deciding what gets funded. In this trend the donors demand more ownership, understanding, accountability and responsible relationships with the charities. The third trend noted in the book is the “Relentless demand for convenience”. Here the idea is presented that, for charities to be effective and successful they are going to have to find ways to make donating easier. The answer to the need for “easier” giving is to be found in technologies’ offerings.
McPherson sums up the three trends by writing “as the competition for donations intensifies, successful charities will be the ones that offer the most engaging variety of donation choices, endorsed and promoted by friends and peers, with the most convenient paths to involvement.”
In presenting the opportunities for dealing with the trends he has noted the author turns to practical applications. His explanation of “Web 2.0" is easy to understand. In explaining that “Web 2.0" is writeable he opens the possibilities for greater donor involvement and access. He quotes Sheeraz Haji:president of Convio.com, “Nonprofits should actually dominate Web 2.0 because it’s all about passion and interest.” Sheeraz suggests that, before technology, a charity should develop its story. He states “To get people involved, your organization has to tell a great story.” To McPherson it is important to focus on the message before worrying about delivery channels.
Only when the story is perfected should the best channel for delivery be chosen. The author writes that the “blogosphere” is a phenomena that can target groups of people inexpensively and credibly. McPherson quotes Jon Abbott of WGBH “It is getting much easier for people to share what they care about.” The strategy of WGBH is to “follow the rhythms of our consumers.”
McPherson quotes Pew Internet reports that “91 percent of all Internet users send e-mail and 91 percent use search engines. He writes that a successful charity will not necessarily go looking for people but will attract attention in such a way that people will “look” for them. How a charity might tap into the multiple listings and directories to attract interested and potential donors is one of the many topics covered in this work.
An interesting phenomena also discussed is the evolution of the cell phone and the not too distant reality of having a total information and computing center in one hand-held devise. This reality may be much closer or arriving faster than even McPherson visualized in 2007.
Digital Giving is a clear call to rethink old ideas of charitable giving and fund-raising. It seems, from the practical advice, based on trends observed from multiple interviews, that any charitable non-profit organization will want to read and reread McPherson’s call to grab a board, with Len Sweet, and learn to ride the surf. With McPherson’s well documented work in hand it will be a great ride.
Don Campbell is the State Stewardship Director for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board. Thanks Don for a great book review!
Posted by bstroup at April 9, 2008 1:21 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://blogs.lifeway.com/cgi-bin/mt3.35/mt-tb.cgi/670