Giving Compass' Take:

• Give Lively CEO David DeParolesa discusses the takeaways from a recent nonprofit technology conference in New Orleans, which covered everything from systems integration to the rise of mobile donors to the use of chat bots.

• How tech savvy is your organization? Many organizations struggle to keep up with the latest innovations, but an overview from fellow professionals is a good way to start catching up — without having to pay a conference fee.

• Here are some new ways to raise funds using social media and technology.

NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) brings in over 2,000 nonprofit professionals from all over the country. The conference encourages professionals in this sector to share strategies, resources, and insights on the intersection between technology and philanthropy.

Here are key takeaways from this year’s conference:

Integrating All The Systems Is Hard!

Integration between systems is essential when considering which CRM, email, and fundraising platforms your organization will use. From several sessions I attended, it was clear that the “holy grail” one-size-fits-all solution simply doesn’t exist. (There was lots of head nodding when a presenter asked “who has trouble integrating their systems so they speak to one another?).

Instead, opt for systems that work well with others. Data formats, like CSV, are one easy way to transfer data between systems, but better systems integrate directly, through APIs, to seamlessly and regularly transfer data in a common data format. As a note, our products integrate directly with third party systems like Salesforce and Stripe through their APIs. And if an integration on our platform doesn’t exist, there’s an easy way to export everything you need via CSV in one easy step.

Always Be Segmenting

Each message your nonprofit sends should be tailored to reach different groups of people, whether new website visitors, major donors, supporters passionate about a certain issue, or volunteers. Donors now expect personalization in all the ways you communicate with them, whether that’s email or social media. Luckily, most email management systems and social media platforms make segmenting easy once you determine how to best divide your lists.

Read the full article about Nonprofit Technology Conference by David DeParolesa, CEO of Give Lively, at medium.com