Updating Your Nonprofit Digital Strategy for 2026: 5 Tips

Fundraising

Oct 20

Developments in online platforms happen fast, and how your supporters interact with organizations like yours online is constantly evolving. These constant changes make it easy for your digital strategy to feel outdated, but your organization also needs to avoid chasing passing trends.

Updating your digital strategy is a comprehensive process. However, for most established nonprofits with an online presence, staying up-to-date with modern online practices will rarely require a complete overhaul of your current approach. Instead, you can make a few targeted changes to improve your overall performance.

To help your nonprofit improve its digital strategy for 2026, this article will explore five tips for staying relevant online.

1. Integrate your software.

By now, you undoubtedly have accumulated several software solutions to boost your nonprofit’s efficiency and effectiveness. However, if they are not integrated, you may be missing data, wasting your staff’s time, or providing a subpar front-end experience for supporters.

Integrated software means your systems are connected, and information automatically flows from one system to another. Your nonprofit’s constituent relationship management system (CRM) is the centerpiece of all your tools, which means that you should integrate it with all your major solutions to ensure it provides the complete picture of your organization’s data.

That may look like investing in a CRM that is part of a platform of other nonprofit tools, such as EveryAction, which is part of Bonterra Fundraising and Engagement. Or, you might specifically choose tools that have pre-built integrations with your existing CRM. This keeps all your fundraising information in one central location while expanding your capabilities.

2. Assess last year’s data.

To set your nonprofit up for success in 2026, look at your data from 2025. Although the last few years have been defined by rapid shifts in technology, data from previous years remains your most reliable indicator for what to expect in the future. Specifically, data from the prior year can help you improve this year’s budget, fundraising scope, and outreach methods.

Each nonprofit has its own unique data to analyze, but there are a few key metrics that every nonprofit should consider when planning a new digital strategy:

Engagement rates. When you send an email or post on social media, what response do you get from your supporters? Engagement will vary depending on the platform, but typical metrics include comments, shares, and likes. If a specific channel has a notably higher or lower engagement rate than others, consider what tactics you are using for that platform and how you can adjust the rest of your strategy accordingly.
Supporter retention. Attracting new supporters requires significant marketing and outreach costs that may not yield a high return on investment (ROI) if you mostly acquire one-time donors. Recurring supporters are often a nonprofit’s most reliable source of revenue. A high supporter retention rate indicates that your organization creates a positive experience for long-time supporters.
Supporter demographics. Who are your supporters? The answer to this question may change over time as new audiences discover your nonprofit, you launch outreach strategies on new platforms, or you rebrand your organization to focus on different values. Avoid making assumptions about who your primary supporters are without relevant demographic data stored in donor profiles.

If you find your data is difficult to analyze or contains useless information, consider taking the time to clean your database. Nonprofit data hygiene best practices include routinely auditing databases (focusing on errors in the data collection process) and highlighting inconsistent, outdated, incorrect, or otherwise useless information. Once you’ve identified these errors, you can remove irrelevant data, append missing information, and create a plan to standardize ongoing maintenance.

3. Embrace personalization beyond names.

For years, “personalization” simply meant mail-merging a donor’s first name into an email header. In 2026, that is no longer enough, as the average person receives about 121 emails per day. With more and more companies and nonprofits fighting for your supporters’ digital attention, you need to take your personalization to the next level to win your supporters’ engagement.

Start your marketing personalization journey by segmenting your supporters based on the following characteristics:

Demographics: Age, location, profession
Giving history: Recency, frequency, and monetary value
Engagement history: Non-monetary interactions like volunteerism, event attendance, and advocacy
Marketing channel preferences: Direct mail, email, text message, social media, etc.
Programmatic interests: Specific causes or initiatives they’ve interacted with or supported in the past

Use this information to personalize your communications and deliver a more engaging digital experience to your supporters. For instance, if a donor only gives to buy toys for your animal shelter’s cats, they probably won’t be interested in initiatives concerning other animals. You should also differentiate between supporters at different stages of the donor journey, as communications sent to new newsletter subscribers should be very different from those sent to a monthly recurring donor, for example.

Set up your tools to facilitate this process. Once you’ve segmented your supporters within your CRM, look into modern marketing tools that allow you to insert dynamic content blocks. This functionality allows you to send one email that displays different images or calls to action (CTAs) depending on who opens it, making it easier to attract, engage, and steward your community members.

4. Incorporate AI tools.

AI is one of the defining elements of the 2026 nonprofit landscape, but you should use it to enhance human abilities, not replace them. Responsibly integrate AI tools into your digital strategy to free up your staff’s time so they can focus on other important tasks and high-value relationship building.

Prioritize efficiency over total automation. AI tools are excellent for drafting social media captions, summarizing long impact reports, segmenting donor data, or even creating the first drafts of your grant proposals. However, human oversight is crucial. Establish early on that staff members should treat AI as an assistant and that you expect them to review what the tool has accomplished, making edits or fixes as necessary.

This is especially true for digital communications. Donors are increasingly savvy and can spot AI language, which can undermine their trust in your organization. If you want to use AI to draft your heartfelt appeals or personal thank-you notes, make sure that a staff member reviews and edits them to add a human touch.

5. Work with a consultant.

If your digital strategy requires a comprehensive update, consider partnering with a nonprofit consultant. While a consulting service is an investment, it is also ultimately a time and resource-saving tool that provides expert insights while allowing your team to focus on their usual core responsibilities.

There is a wide variety of nonprofit consulting services, even just when it comes to digital strategy. For example, a nonprofit might hire a consultant for any of the following tasks:

Website development. Nonprofits looking to optimize their websites or create entirely new ones can benefit from partnering with a professional web design consultant. Assess potential consultants’ design portfolios to select one with design sensibilities that align with your nonprofit’s.
Software implementation. Implementation is a big task to tackle. Some software applications can take months to fully set up. Certain consultants specialize in CRMs or other nonprofit solutions and can help you implement them. They can also advise you on the best solution for your needs and even set up integrations with your existing tools.
Marketing strategy assistance. Digital marketing consultants can assist with a range of tasks, such as rebranding your organization, creating a new social media outreach strategy, or promoting a major upcoming event.

Before choosing a consultant, research your options and reach out to firms with services, workflows, and pricing that match your nonprofit’s needs and goals. Then, begin reaching out to potential consultants to introduce your nonprofit and send requests for proposals (RFPs).

A new year is a new opportunity to show off your mission and start fresh with your digital strategy. Take the time to sit down with your team and seriously consider what strategies you should leave in 2025 and what strategies you should evolve for 2026.

Carl Diesing, Managing Director, DNL OmniMedia

Jacob Spencer, Customer Success / Account Manager, Donately

Carl co-founded DNL OmniMedia in 2006 and has grown the team to accommodate clients with on-going web development projects. Together DNL OmniMedia has worked with over 100 organizations to assist them with accomplishing their online goals. As Managing Director of DNL OmniMedia, Carl works with nonprofits and their technology to foster fundraising, create awareness, cure disease, and solve social issues. Carl lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife Sarah and their two children Charlie and Evelyn.