What a Difference a Decade Makes

By Duncan Rein
November 1, 2005

I was speaking with a representative from a ministry that is in the middle of an initiative to connect with new individuals who have an affinity with the ministry and have the potential to become major donors for the organization. Several gentlemen in their 50’s and 60’s asked for the website URL as a first step, so that they could do some background research on the organization before agreeing to attend the meeting.

This anecdote only reinforces a recent study that found that more than 65% of donors visit at least one of the websites of nonprofit organizations before making their donations. Of those, more than 75% of donors who go online before making a donation noted that going online made some impact on their decision whether or not to give (Kintera/Luth Nonprofit Trend Report, June 2005). This implies that bottom line impact of a website that effectively communicates with current members and constituents is in some ways incalculable.

Certainly, the value of a website that clearly communicates vision and mission far exceeds the amount of donations that are actually collected online, though online giving tends to increase as a ministry is more effective in communicating with constituents through the web and via email.

Suddenly, it occurred to me that it was only 10 years ago that I saw a website for the first time on the recently introduced Netscape browser. Ten years ago, the web was the realm of tech geeks and dreams of potential. Today, it is a research tool for several gentlemen who would not claim to be part of the web generation to evaluate giving opportunities. What a difference a decade makes!

Silas Partners has spent more than half of the last decade helping churches and ministries improve their websites and expand their overall web presence. Given the bird’s eye view we have through serving hundreds of different ministries, we are in a unique position to notice trends in how they are thinking about the web. We not only identify and promote best practices that ministries are using today, but we seek to identify and help bring about the best practices of tomorrow. As I thought about the development of ministry websites over the past ten years, as web technology has matured, I believe this development can best be understood in five major phases.

Phase One: Initial Websites

Less than ten years ago, most organizations, including ministries, didn’t have websites. When the browser was invented in 1995, and as the web and email became mainstream in the years following, it became crucial for organizations of all types to buy a domain name and launch a website. Thus, the initial push for many organizations, including ministries, was just to get a website launched. As web technology was extremely immature at the time, first-generation websites were very limited in content, in design flexibility, and in the overall experience for the site visitors.

Phase Two: Online Brochures

As we proceeded through the 1990’s, the leaders of organizations woke up, understood how important the web was becoming in terms of making a good first impression, and decided that their websites didn’t look good. Thus, the second wave of progress in the development of websites was in making them look nice. Graphic design was at a premium, and organizations that had previously been in a rush to launch new websites were now rushing to give their sites a visual facelift. In essence, these second generation sites were online brochures, serving much of the same purpose as offline brochures.

Phase Three: Content Management

As Y2K passed and we entered the 21st century, organizations were happy with the way their websites looked, until six months later when they went to their websites and found that their content was outdated. The processes for making updates were time consuming and expensive, so the next wave of progress was in the development of content management systems. Essentially, these were platforms that allowed non-technical people to make updates to their sites. Efforts were made to migrate brochure sites onto content management platforms, and certain sections of the sites began to be updated on a regular basis. As a result, third generation sites were part brochure and part online magazine.

Phase Four: Point Solutions for Business Functions

Encouraged by the rapid growth of Amazon.com and other e-tailers, ministries began to desire a way to take donations online and to allow their constituents to transact other business online, such as event registration, e-commerce, and other functions that required the collection of information from constituents. In addition, ministries desired tools to manage mass email communication, so that they could begin to communicate with their constituent base through email.

To meet these needs, web-based software was developed to meet each of these business functions, resulting in a number of shopping carts, online giving solutions, email broadcast tools, event registration systems, and other similar tools. These tools tended to be fairly narrow in function, but worked well in fulfilling the purposes for which they were built.

As churches and ministries began to add new functionality to their sites, a typical approach was to patch together a number of different point solutions for different functions on top of an existing content management platform. From a web perspective, this is where most ministries are today.

Phase Five: Member-Driven Online Communication Platform

Until very recently, fourth generation websites were the best that ministries could do, given the immaturity of web-based technology. But in recent years, the ongoing development of web-based systems have made the next major advance in ministry websites possible, moving away from a patchwork of point solutions with uni-directional flow of information, and towards an interactive communication hub, with all business functions integrated into a member-driven platform.

The foundation of these next-generation websites is a robust, online member database, allowing for the creation of custom fields and interests based on the requirements of each organization. Instead of each point solution requiring its own login and acting as its own data silo, every business function feeds into a central member database, allowing for a 360 degree view of each constituent. Profiles of each individual can be built over time based on online interactions. Answers to surveys and registration forms can populate a database. Interests can be inferred based on what people are clicking on. All online activity, from online donations and purchases, to forwarded emails and survey responses can be logged and tracked.

As individual member profiles are built, a member-driven, online communication platform allows an organization to serve personalized content to different individuals, based on their profiles. As a very simple example, three different home pages could be developed for three different types of constituents. First-time visitors, or those visitors who are uninvolved could be presented with a home page designed to introduce someone to the ministry. Those who had registered to receive a newsletter, but were otherwise uninvolved, could be presented with content designed to communicate the need and to motivate action.

Finally, those who were already committed supporters of the ministry could be presented with content reinforcing how their gifts were being used and challenging them to deepen their involvement in other ways, perhaps by reaching out to their friends, family, and other people in their personal networks who might be interested in learning more about how they can help.

The Opportunity and the Challenge

In comparison to traditional offline mailings and other forms of communication, the web and email bring many advantages, including immediacy, interactivity, and the ability to quickly track responses and quickly build member profiles. Whereas traditional approaches to offline communication have focused on the segmenting of constituents by demographic and by giving history, these online tools now allow for personalization of content based on factors such as people’s interests, what drives them, where their heart is, and what has drawn them to become involved with the ministry in the first place. The ability to personalize communications based on psychographic profile represents an incredible opportunity for deepening relationships with constituents and driving action and involvement.

While the opportunity is immense, so is the challenge for converting this potential to reality. Many ministries struggle to develop a website that communicates effectively to any audience, let alone to build a web platform that serves personalized content based on member profiles. There is a lot to be said for taking baby steps, and we encourage that on the part of our ministry partners. However, every ministry will eventually need to develop a website that is truly interactive and member-driven.

In making a transition from website to an interactive, member-driven web ministry, the most important step is for a paradigm shift in the way the web is viewed. The web must be seen as a strategic communication tool, central to an organization’s overall communication strategy, and requiring investment on par with other major communication initiatives. Investments in new technologies must be bolstered by investments in the expertise required to use these tools well-expertise in the areas of strategy, creative, technology, and implementation to turn potential into reality and results. If these investments are made wisely, what kind of difference could the web make for your organization in the decade ahead?

If you would like to find out more about how to implement these strategies and ideas in your organization, please take a moment to let us know a little about your needs.