Mobile Apps For Nonprofits: In Your Donors’ Comfort Zone

Concerned about adding mobile apps for nonprofits to your fundraising strategy? Worried that your donors won’t get on board? Put those fears to rest. Mobile apps are already well within your donors’ comfort zones.

People Avoid Change At All Costs

Sometimes people can be resistant to change. Once they are in the habit of doing something, it can take a lot of convincing for them to change their ways. While you might think that’s a good reason to avoid a mobile app for your nonprofit, the opposite is actually true.

What one item do most people carry with them at all times? If mobile phones instantly popped into your head, you are right on the money. According to Pew Research Center:

90% of American adults own a mobile phone

44% of mobile phone users sleep with their phone next to their bed

63% of adult cell owners use the Internet on their phones

If they are constantly on their phones, which is really the bigger change: getting them to use a mobile app, or making them put the phone away?

Life Is Lived in Apps

When using their smartphones, people spend an overwhelming 86% of that time in apps. Even compared to other smartphone-free activities, apps still come out on top: the average U.S. consumer spends 198 minutes per day inside mobile apps, compared to 168 minutes watching TV.

Your donors are accustomed to using mobile apps for just about everything. By allowing them to stick with that method to donate to your organization, you are positioning yourself squarely within their comfort zone.

Mobile Banking Is Common

Think your donors will avoid mobile apps for nonprofits for security reasons? Think again. These days, people even use the Internet on their phones to do banking, an activity that gets more common every year. By 2014, 45 million people will use mobile banking services, compared to only 2 million in 2009.

Most of your supporters already do most of their banking using mobile apps. They can make deposits, transfer funds, and even make bill payments using their smartphone. Why make them put away their phone for this financial transaction? With mobile apps for nonprofits, they can continue using their phone and you can reap the benefits.