Transform your charity with Silicon Valley fundamentals
When people in charities are told to 'get with it' in relation to technology, they tend to think they are being asked to consider developments which simply don't relate to their world, indeed which are totally removed from it - apps, devices and gizmos like holographic headsets, or £13k smart watches. Either that or billionaire hoody wearers.
The problem with technology is…technology itself. All these new innovations can become endlessly distracting (there is always something new, better, faster), so if you’re not 'into' technology, you feel you can’t keep up with it. And while the answer to many of the modern world’s challenges is technology, precisely which technology isn’t always apparent.
As the world gets more digital it opens a paradox for managers in charities, indeed in any organisation. You know you need tech, but often you don’t know where or how. You’re not a technologist, and the IT guy isn’t always the best source of recommendations.
So let’s take a step back for a moment, because it strikes me that charities have some very specific challenges, albeit they are shared by other organisations. They have (usually) limited resources and time, and need to most efficiently turn an audience into engaged participants in their mission. Oh, and to hand over some hard cash.
Rather than getting worried or distracted by new gizmos, there are some fundamental ways of thinking that originate from Silicon Valley and that will better prepare you for the future – finding the right tech to work for you, rather than the other way around.
Turn the world on its head
A 2011 book, The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, has become THE bible for any big brand innovation lab, which is in effect what leading charities have to be. The core principle is one that turns traditional thinking on its head. And I am going to apply its references to products and services to, in effect, the messages which charities are sending out.
Rather than launch a "perfect" message, you experiment until you find “market fit” using real world feedback to refine your thinking. It’s messy - and occasionally you fall on your face - but it’s extremely efficient and focuses you on creating something that people actually want to hear about, rather than what you think they want.
All business plans are hypotheses yet to be tested. So rather than spending weeks debating a strategy, why not take that unformed plan into the world and test it in a focused way, at the same time getting feedback? This is what Ries calls a minimum viable product, but it could be a minimum viable plan – e.g. for a fundraising campaign or a rebranding exercise.
Your audience gives you feedback – data – from which you refine your thinking. You build something, you measure its performance, from which you learn. Once you know it works, you move heaven and earth to make it a monster success…
A classic example is to create a simple web page offering a new donating facility or new initiative for donors to support, and see how many people sign up. If no-one does, then maybe it’s not such a great idea. If they do, then make it happen.
Web apps like Unbounce allow you to quickly create marketing pages without a developer – so you can test literally hundreds of ideas to see which gets the most interest. If people don’t like your ideas, then you pivot – you change direction (another key Lean Startup principle).
All that matters is that you fit your proposition with your audience, even if this means dumping your carefully crafted business plan in the bin.
A scientific approach to design
Most people create a web design, which remains fixed in time until their next website is built. People look at their analytics report and go: “cool the graph is going up and to the right”, but how much of that web traffic actually does what you want them to do?
Are you looking for email sign ups, for volunteers, for donations? How are you tracking how your web design performs? The iterative approach to planning should also be applied to your web design.
A simple and very revealing piece of technology is a heatmapping tool called Crazy Egg. This lets you see where people click and scroll on the page, often a sobering graphic when you realise that no one is actually looking at the part of the page you want them to.
A more advanced technique (for those with a lot of traffic) is called A/B testing. This means you test multiple page designs simultaneously, for example setting a control page (with a red "donate" or "volunteer" button) while also directing traffic to a different page (with a green "donate" or "volunteer" button) – measuring which performs best.
Products like Optimizely or Visual Website Optimizer help you turn the design process into a quantifiable series of experiments.
Another app called Qualaroo plugs into your website and lets you ask people specific questions based on their actions on your website, getting qualitative feedback as well as quantitative.
Act like a pirate
One of the problems with measuring your activity is that it creates a lot of information: data. To cut through all this, you should focus on only a handful of essential metrics – the ones that show whether you are moving towards, or away from, your objectives.
I’ve learnt a good deal about this from Dave McClure, an investor who runs tech accelerator 500 Startups. His method is “Startup Metrics for Pirates: AARRR!”, which stands for Acquisition, Activation, Referral, Retention, Revenue.
It’s worth Googling and watching some of his AARRR! talks. For example, a key Activation tactic is the use of “lifecycle emails”. Platforms like Aweber, Hubspot or Intercom let you automate email communications as your audience engages with you.
McClure says you should focus on a handful (at most) of key metrics. You then track these daily, weekly, monthly, and take action based on what the information tells you: they become ‘actionable metrics’. If the information is positive (eg email signups are up) do more of it. If it’s bad, then try something else.
What are the pieces of information – the data – that you need to focus on? How is your activity supporting these? Remember the scientific approach to the design process – how can you quickly test your theories and measure the results?
Finding the right tech fit
By focusing on these principles your mind is focused on what you should be doing – before trying to work out how you should do it. Often technology is the tail that wags the dog: people buy a software platform which promises to solve all their problems, but it doesn’t. Software should fit your charity, not the other way around.
Sometimes this means using simple tools like Google Docs or Dropbox before your jump into a bigger pieces of technology. The key thing is getting a business plan in place that favours testing and feedback – little and often. Your technology should support that.
An in-vogue term in the tech community is “growth hacking”. Simply put, this is using any method to get growth – a mix of marketing, sales, business management and product development.
Based on the Lean Startup principles, "growth hacking" advocates using scrappy methods (“hacks”) that get your organisation growing. How can you apply this way of thinking to get your charity optimised for success?
Tech trends to watch for
Having said all that, there are a number of tech trends you should be aware of – and use (as long as they fit your plan!).
Taking online payments used to be a real pain – lots of coding, and cost, plus the risk of transactions on your site. A trend in new web apps is the simplification of this process: keep an eye out for a service called Stripe.
Stripe is a UK originated startup recently valued at £650 million – the reason? You need only add one line of code into your website to get a fully functioning payment platform. Now that’s an efficient use of your charity’s resources.
With the simplicity in taking payments, you should be assessing how you actually acquire payment when off line. iPads can be used as mobile payment terminals, rather than having to fill in complex forms, or to direct people online.
Other payment options could use Beacon or NFC technology – and Apple Pay is around the corner (where you pay with your iTunes account through your phone or watch).
Acquisition of data should also be streamlined through clever integration with third party or social APIs (other people’s systems). Services such as 1-click ordering, or integration with your accountancy software (such as the ultra easy to use Xero) make the paperwork part of running a charity much more straightforward.
Prepared for the future
Like anything else that serves the needs of your charity, you need to make technology work for you – rather than the other way around. Don’t get distracted by the latest and greatest widget in Wired magazine; find out what works for you – and then roll it out.
The great thing is that a lot of the finest minds in Silicon Valley have been finding the best ways to optimise start ups, and venture capital investments. Now you can stand on their shoulders - applying these commercial lessons to better optimise your cause.
