The charity sector is notorious for dragging its feet when it comes to change, especially when that change involves embracing digital technology and all of the opportunities for donor engagement that comes with it. The Together We’re Better community has organised a conference that brings together not-for-profits, start-ups, the public sector and commercial bodies to collaborate, learn and fuel ideas around disruption, the change agenda and what this means across sectors.

Flow Caritas had two tickets to the conference to give away, and to decide who would be the lucky recipients we ran a social media competition. Apart from the standard follow request, we also asked our audience the question “what digital change would you most like to see in the not for profit sector?”

Want to go to the @TWBtweets conference? We’re giving away 2 tickets! Just follow us and answer the question below. pic.twitter.com/NFK0l4WAOe

— Flow Caritas (@FlowCaritas) September 16, 2016

The answers were varied but equally insightful. Some advocated for more personalised engagement:

@FlowCaritas @TWBtweets a more personalized message to users – a donor centric approach!

— Orbis Ireland (@ORBISIreland) September 16, 2016

@FlowCaritas @TWBtweets Creating more of a two way conversation, encouraging feedback & using this to further personalise actions and asks.

— Sally (@sal_bals) September 16, 2016

While others wanted to see more proactive approaches:

@FlowCaritas @TWBtweets bravery; I still feel so many orgs ‘play it safe’ & keep things as the status quo with digital.Need to step up & out

— Kate Walker (@devongirlkate) September 16, 2016

@FlowCaritas @TWBtweets Much more #Creativity and confidence in social media, newsletters and use of client data.

— She Gets Around (@Jlowthrop) September 16, 2016

There was a push to focus on creating change rather than just adding contacts to our databases:

Not-for-profits need to end addiction to write-to-mp asks. Does it create change or is it really about growing our email lists? @FlowCaritas

— Georgia O’Brien (@georgiacobrien) September 16, 2016

As well as a desire to see digital encouraged through the organisational culture:

Hiring for digital – fostering a true understanding of digital first across organisations @FlowCaritas @TWBtweets

— Babs Guthrie (@Babalynne) September 16, 2016

@FlowCaritas @TWBtweets more collaboration by small non-profits who should be using digital as an enabler of shared backend operations 🙂

— Helen Cammack (@Helencammack) September 16, 2016

Samantha Kennedy from Save the Children also commented on our LinkedIn post saying “I’d like to see us using digital for internal effectiveness – an end to shared drive docs, version control nightmares, and email overload.”

But the (randomly selected) winning tweet came from Sho Konno at Restless Development, who wants to see more digital collaboration:

@FlowCaritas @TWBtweets we get as good at inviting people to contribute to our work through digital as we are at telling them about our work

— Sho Konno (@ShoKon) September 16, 2016

Congratulations Sho! You can get involved in the conversation by tweeting us at @FlowCaritas and telling us what digital changes you want to see made by NFP organisations.