Mobile Transactions: Fundraising's Next Revolution?

As growing mobile use weds with credit-card payment readers and apps, mobile transactions are going to become commonplace in fundraising -- at least that's the opinion of Atul Tandon, president of the Tandon Institute, in an article for "Fundraising Success" magazine. He foresees the day when fundraisers -- whether development professionals or volunteers -- will be able to quickly and easily gather donations large and small at any venue anywhere in the world by using card readers or payment apps with mobile devices. For those who doubt the height and depth of the transactional shift in fundraising, he cites the oncoming wave of a mobile generation. Recent data shows that those who donate via mobile are more likely to be part of the tech-savvy younger generation and more reflective of emerging American demographic diversity, for example. Blackbaud's recent "State of the Nonprofit Industry 2012" found that surveyed fundraisers themselves are predicting "explosive growth" in the use of mobile technologies for fundraising and marketing. That's good news for nonprofits in terms of lower overhead, lower fundraising costs and speedier donation growth. But it's also a challenge. How many are prepared for the coming-of-age of the mobile donor? For the full article, see http://www.fundraisingsuccessmag.com/article/mobile-giving-the-next-revolution/1