How charities can benefit from post-COVID tech trends

10 August 2021  |  Stuart Palmer

If there is an upside to the global lockdown caused by COVID-19, it’s the way that organisations, including charities, have embraced new digital technologies and helped push them forward.

While most of us are longing for a return to face-to-face contact and the resumption of social activities we once took for granted, there is no doubt that tech will play a much larger part in our lives going forward.

Charities must react to this by making use of the most promising tools, processes and platforms: those that will maximise donations and increase support while saving employees and volunteers time and effort.

Here are some of the trending technologies for you to explore and consider harnessing for your cause.

Contactless and cashless donations

Faced with a 55% slump in offline donations, charities had little choice but to look at digital methods of raising revenue.

It turned out that there were a plethora of ways that good causes could fill their coffers without collecting cash or swiping plastic.

Social media platforms such as Instagram have played their part too, rolling out donation buttons and other fundraising tools to help nonprofits make money during lockdown.

There is still a lot of room for growth. During the pandemic, online donations did increase but nowhere near enough to offset the loss in offline contributions. Charities may need to diversify their donation pathways to ensure they can meet and exceed pre-pandemic revenue rates.

Live streaming comes of age

With people unable to attend live events – charity or otherwise – entertainment has inevitably moved online. To cater for the creative urges of smaller organisations, video streaming platforms have become more accessible. Social media heavyweights such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn have made it much easier for businesses and charities to stream live content to their followers while new video-centric social media apps like TikTok have sprung up.

YouTube has refined its live-streaming capabilities and has been joined by a host of new live streaming services such as IBM Cloud Video, Vimeo Livestream, StreamYard and many more.

One industry which has benefited from the lockdown is video gaming with service providers such as Steam and Nintendo posting record user figures. Amazon’s Twitch has emerged as a potential money-spinner for charities. Twitch is used by online gamers to build their communities and many have used their exposure for good, hosting streaming marathons for charity.

While local charity fundraisers will still have their place, digital streaming and social media platforms are the way to go for charities looking to reach donors in their own homes and spread their message to a wider audience.

AI and automation: beyond chatbots

Artificial intelligence is coming on in leaps and bounds, epitomised by the ‘chatbot’, an AI-powered piece of software that provides chat responses to typed queries and improves its effectiveness with every interaction.

As organisations, including charities, have struggled to maintain customer service levels due to furloughed staff and sickness, chatbots have stepped in to fill the gap.

The leading technology companies are pushing this area forward by developing advanced conversational AI frameworks, making chatbots and related AI services much smarter. The future of AI-mediated communication is definitely worth charities keeping a close eye on.

However, the speed, scalability and convenience of AI offers more than advanced customer service. For example, AI is adept at recognising patterns in data which can help with everything from finding potential donors and volunteers to organising images for content creation.

Productivity and logistics

Another way in which charities can cut down on admin time is through taking advantage of next-gen productivity tools. Forward-thinking software companies are finding ever more ways to integrate previously separate systems such as CRM, social media management, HR, websites and payment gateways.

Most of these tools are hosted on the cloud as we move towards an XaaS (everything-as-a-service) model. This is where everything from programs and operating systems to servers and networks are accessed on a ‘per use’ basis, levelling the playing field as even the smallest charities can leverage the same computing power as the largest corporations.

During lockdown, time consuming face-to-face meetings have given way to more efficient virtual alternatives. Almost everyone will have now had a chance to get familiar with videoconferencing platforms like Zoom and Teams and many charities will decide to continue to use these tools, if only to cut down on travel time.

Tech adoption strategies for charities

The rapid advances of technology since the pandemic took hold has given charities critical decisions to make as they adapt to a new normal. For example, where should they start?

Rather than making multiple changes at once, it is often best to target one area first (e.g. contactless donations) and measure the impact before rolling out to different areas.

Have you made any major changes to the way you use technology since lockdown? We would love to find out how you have adapted and what the impact of your actions has been.