Nonprofits seek mobile connections

REACHING OUT: Lisa Roth Blackman, chief philanthropy officer at Rhode Island Community Food Bank. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS
REACHING OUT: Lisa Roth Blackman, chief philanthropy officer at Rhode Island Community Food Bank. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS

“A Lively Experiment,” a popular 24-year-old local political roundtable TV show on air through Rhode Island PBS, is also available through YouTube on a mobile phone, tablet or computer. Such on-air programming is in demand in online platforms for mobile distribution, says Molly Garrison, Rhode Island PBS director of development and external affairs.
So the Providence-based nonprofit is doing its own redesign of its website so it will be “responsive” on mobile devices – that is, adaptable on different platforms without losing functionality.
“Television is likely here to stay,” said Garrison, citing a 2013 Accenture study that shows 70 percent of full-length show viewing is still on television. “It’s just that it is not the sole way to view shows. People tend to gather around a TV screen for that shared experience. Viewing around a computer or phone tends to be more of a solo experience. As we migrate to a more user-friendly platform, we’ll be driving people there.”
Rhode Island PBS is one of several nonprofits that find connecting with their audience on smartphones and tablets is key to building their audiences – and not just viewers, members or volunteers but donors as well.
“We want people to be able to donate from their phone,” said Ruth Meteer, the communications director for the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island. “It’s something all nonprofits have to think about now. Cash is less common in people’s pockets. Nonprofits need to give people the opportunity to support us when they feel the desire to support us, rather than making them do it later, when it’s not top of mind.”
Sarah Kessler, a feature writer for technology-news website Mashable, noted that, “according to some projections, mobile Internet usage will overtake desktop usage before 2015. In preparation, companies are developing new mobile-commerce platforms, strategies and marketing efforts.” Of the more than 4 billion mobile phones in use, 27 percent, or more than 1 billion, are smartphones, Kessler reports, and half of all local searches are performed on smartphones.
Ann-Marie Harrington, president and founder of Embolden, a Pawtucket company that works routinely with dozens of nonprofits on mobile strategies, identifies two main ways the owners of websites are upgrading their sites to be more portable: by adding a mobile site or redesigning their sites to be responsive.
“When they’re embarking on an online communication strategy or new website-development project, they have to have a mobile mindset that touches on their technology and content strategy, because ultimately you want to engage your constituents where they are,” Harrington said.
There is no absolute standard for when a nonprofit should move to a mobile or responsive site, Harrington said. But when making that decision, nonprofit leaders need to ask themselves whether those users finding the organization on mobile devices, a figure they can determine through Google Analytics, is an audience they can afford to miss by failing to provide a good mobile experience, she said.
Crossroads Rhode Island, the largest homeless-services organization in the state, hired Embolden to help them create a mobile site in December 2011, said Karen Santilli, Crossroads’ chief marketing and strategy officer. Mobile traffic has grown from 5 percent of all Web traffic in 2012 to 27 percent in 2013 – 21 percent from smartphones and 6 percent from tablets.
A form for providing credit card information to “donate now” is available on the smartphone through a streamlined site that includes a link entitled “How to Help.” “We don’t want to frustrate donors,” said Santilli. “We want to deliver a website that meets their needs, whether it’s fundraising or if they’re looking for services.”
The Rhode Island Community Food Bank and the Episcopal Diocese have similar strategies. The food bank has adapted select pages to be accessible on mobile devices, while the diocese, which represents 51 Episcopal churches in Rhode Island, is doing a rebuild of its website using responsive design. Both nonprofits have contracted for Embolden’s services.
Nonprofits would not share their costs, and Embolden would not share its pricing scheme, although food bank Director of Communications Cindy Elder said her agency paid $3,000 for their “bare-bones” mobile adaptation.
“The Web is connected to social media and we make sure you can access social media on every Web page,” Elder said. “But we know because people are accessing so much through their phones it is so easy to share information through the phones.”
“It’s really important for us to meet donors where they are,” added Lisa Roth Blackman, chief philanthropy officer for the food bank. “And more and more, people are using their phones to purchase things and make online donations.”
Many constituents don’t have desktops or laptops, so their cellphone is their primary connection to Internet services, nonprofit representatives said.
The return on investment for a mobile upgrade is hard to gauge, they added, but if mobile access is increasing as their Google Analytics results show, then it makes sense to be up to date.
“At least half the use of our site is for people who need help, so it’s very easy to see when you look at our website we’re serving those functions,” said the food bank’s Elder. •

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