Why Nonprofits Must Invest in Community Building

The low-dollar donor is becoming an endangered beast. In and of itself, the loss of immediate revenue is a problem. But the larger problem will show up later. Most sustaining, major, and legacy donors “started with one small introductory gift years ago,” which means fewer major hitters will appear. In addition, many people won’t be there to support our legislative and program activities. They’ll be missing because they, too, came from the small donor ranks, the rapidly declining largest part of our pipeline. The worst pain is yet to come—but there is something we can do to change this future.

Building community can fix it.

Community Is the Answer

People need community for their psychological health. It’s an outcome of evolution: alone, you’re dead; together, you’re alive. Our very DNA begs us to be part of communities.

Many in our society are increasingly isolated and are desperate for community. Beyond pure geography, churches were once our nation’s dominant form of community. The decline in church attendance has left many people without a tether to other people, without community. Without healthy communities to be part of, people will take ANY community.

This is one motivator behind the hyper-partisanship that has grown in the United States. People want to belong and are loathe to question the community’s mission if their personal psychological needs are met. Social media creates community-like situations. In unmanaged communities, the fuel of hate and fear burns hotter than the fuel of love and acceptance, so negative communities abound. Positive communities, not so much.

This void is our opportunity. Our nation needs positive communities. By creating them, we will fix our small donor problem.

Delivering Community to Constituents Fixes Our Small Donor Problem

Consumer behavior studies in the for-profit sector have shown the important role of trust in sustaining a buyer’s engagement with a company or product. Nonprofits have tried to develop trust in supporters by demonstrating that they are good stewards of their gifts. We communicate with things like annual reports, really, really good email series, and great websites. We try to prove our worth, but it doesn’t work very well.

The better way to develop trust is by developing a community of supporters. That is where for-profit marketing is turning. Most startups now invest significant marketing dollars in community-building as a path to trust. We should pay attention. Trust is something that holds together communities of people. Here’s how it works…

I’ll start with a story. I am 60 years old. At my age, core strength is essential. So, I sought out a gym and a trainer. I joined a gym with a lot of people who looked like me – old and kind of broke down. As I integrated into the gym community, I started going more. I found I have more and more in common with these people. We shared stories, tips, and tricks. Some of them were doing powerlifting competitions. And that is how I ended up with the unlikely outcome of doing my first powerlifting competition at 60.

People seek out communities to join because it is one of the ways they define their identities. I joined that gym because I see myself as an athlete who takes care of her body.

Community Engagement Builds Trust

We’re born to be engaged and to engage with others. In a community, the outcome of engagement is trust. As I engaged with community members, I entered what psychologists call a “self-validation feedback loop.” Interactions with like-minded community members validate this part of my identity (an athlete who takes care of her body). These positive interactions further strengthen my identity, making me more likely to engage—and the wheel goes round and round. And now it feels perfectly normal to compete in a powerlifting competition at 60 years old.

Whenever members of your community validate your identity, it tells you, “These people are like me. What I am doing is good.” It is these interactions with members of the community that build trust. And that trust extends to the idea that you share – in my case, that staying strong is important.

Community Validates Identity

Trust requires the opportunity to engage with community members. That’s why nonprofit communities need to be more than just a collection of people with some common idea or belief (e.g., animal rights, constitutionalism). They also must have the ability to communicate with each other. “With each other” are the most important words. Research shows that people are more likely to behave positively toward people they trust (and like). In other words, trust in the community is actionable; it makes me more likely to behave in a way that supports the community and its goals.  So, when a community member (maybe someone you've never met) asks you to do something, you're much more likely to comply and say yes. In the best-case scenario, it’s not the organization that drives the mission, but the people in the community.

Trust in Community is Actionable

Today, our language of engagement is too shallow. We call “engagement” email opens, link clicks, and website hits. That is engagement lite.  Full strength, full fat, all the sugar engagement comes from communities. I could have read about old ladies lifting weights all day, but that would not have gotten me to sign up for a powerlifting competition. All engagement is not created equal.

In Sebastian Junger’s book, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, the most profound form of community engagement is what he calls “tribe formation.” Junger studied and wrote about United States military service members. He explored what happened to them when they returned from war. Most people who experience PTSD never actually served in combat, but they all were part of a tight military unit. He goes on to describe that it is their loss of tribe that is so devastating. The loss of their community is life-threatening, as evidenced by the rate of warrior suicide.

Nonprofits Must Invest in Constituent Community

Social good organizations don’t invest enough in community building. And when we have invested, we have only measured the ROI regarding revenue. But there is so much more we don’t measure. That’s why we must systematize and integrate community building into our operational plans with accompanying metrics. For example, the American Cancer Society Relay For Life was expert at building communities through their Relay leadership committees. These communities existed at every level as teams: national Relay advisory teams, regional advisory teams, event leadership teams, and ultimately the registered fundraising teams themselves. This powerful use of community resulted in Relay raising $435 million per year at its height. But the benefits extended beyond the immediate revenue. The Relay community fed every American Cancer Society revenue channel, program, and advocacy effort. By providing their constituents with a highly satisfying community experience, Relay grew the entire ACS organization.

Now, nimble organizations like Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation have turned Facebook Challenge groups into community hubs. The group feeds the organizations in various ways while providing a hyper-satisfying community for constituents.

Community building requires an investment of time and resources. Nonprofits that invest will survive and thrive in the future. Those who don’t will be lonely.