Advice for Tech Non-Profits

Summary

My family and I regularly contribute to various philanthropic causes. In the range of contributions we make, I've noticed that technical non-profits are far and away the worst at attracting eager donors like myself when compared to other causes. In this blog post, I'll share what I've learned from my own activity with other causes as well as what I've learned from spending more time with donors in general. This blog post will be biased towards larger donations, but I think many of these concepts translate nicely to smaller donations as well. I am highlighting tech non-profits specifically because these are all concepts that I find other causes get right more often than not, whereas tech consistently gets them wrong. I also have a bias towards wanting technical organizations to become more successful. How do I donate? It is surprisingly difficult to simply figure out: how am I supposed to give you money? Tech projects usually nail the metaphorical swipe-a-credit-card donations to provide small one-time amounts and specific smaller tiers ($X/month). But a lot of donors don't work this way. I don't work this way. I donate through a donor-advised fund (DAF). To donate, I need -- at a minimum -- the verifiable EIN of a tax-exempt organization (DAFs can only contribute to registered non-profits). On top of that, I usually need a physical address and the contact information for a real human that can work with the fund managers to process the donation. DAFs are just one of many vehicles for donation, though. The best non-profits have a dedicated "Donate" page that has an obvious and easily accessible list of donation methods: credit card, check, donor-advised funds, employer matching, stocks, legacy giving (will, trust, retirement accounts), etc. Each donation method leads to its own dedicated page with very specific information about how to donate via that method. It may sound obvious, but you want to make it as easy as possible to initiate the financial transaction. And y...