Is Your Union’s Tech Replacing Real-Life Engagement?
How to Use Tech to Enhance Your Union’s Member-to-Member Engagement by Connecting Online and Offline Organizing
In response to the recent Janus decision, Unions have had to examine the way they approach both maintaining their current members and adding new ones. Many unions are looking to tech as a way to make this process more efficient and effective. As new members keep getting younger, and smartphone ownership and social media involvement continue to rise, union members are starting to expect a way to organize online with the click of a button. Although this is a big change from what unions looked like even a decade ago, it seems like this shift might be for the better.
Offline Payments
Imagine you are in the field, engaging your supporters face to face. Someone is ready to make a donation to your cause; you go to process their credit card and notice that you don’t have cell service or WiFi. With the Grassroots Unwired mobile solution you can still securely process this credit card payment, even when offline.
How are we able to do that?
A Custom Out-Of-The-Box Solution
What do you think of when you hear, “out-of-the-box”? An example that may come to mind is our personal cell phones. They come in a box, ready to use but we have to configure them; add SIM cards, login to our email accounts, download all our necessary apps. But how nice would it be if your personal cell phone came to your door already configured to you and your needs as a “custom out-of-the-box solution”?
Just like people, your organization is unique, there is no other like it. So why should your mobile solution for your next campaign or fundraising event be like all the rest? It doesn’t have to be! Grassroots Unwired has developed a solution that will ensure a mobile application, tailored to your organizations specific needs, is installed on an Android tablet (with 4G data service) and delivered to your doorstep the day your campaign or fundraising event kicks off.
According to Cargas, “Custom solutions offer businesses with highly specialized issues an opportunity to overcome even the most overwhelming obstacles“. Reach out to us today to learn about how we can help your organization overcome even the most overwhelming obstacles with our custom out of the box solution.
Lung Cancer Alliance: Philadelphia Lung Love Run/Walk
Grassroots Unwired believes in going the extra mile with groundbreaking technology built to better the lives and experiences of others. Which is why are honored to support organizations like Lung Cancer Alliance for their run/walk events. Lung Cancer Alliance’s Lung Love Run/Walks are more than just that– they are a community gathering to support and unite those who are affected by lung cancer.
The Lung Love Run/Walk day-of is typically made up of a small yet mighty community engagement team, collecting new registrations and check-in information with a pen and paper. The team would then manually enter this data following the event, which can be extremely cumbersome. At the Philadelphia Lung Love Run/Walk, Lung Cancer Alliance’s community engagement team used Grassroots Unwired’s mobile platform to:
Top 3 Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Takeaways We Learned at BBCon 2018
This year Grassroots Unwired brought their biggest team yet to Blackbaud’s annual customer conference in Orlando, Florida.
Just in case your head is still spinning from attending inspirational keynotes, product roadmap sessions and intensive report-building sessions, we distilled the top three takeaways for peer to peer fundraisers:
- A trend that may continue into 2019 is a shift toward walk events. While running, cycling and endurance fundraising events have seen a decrease in revenue since 2012, walk events have actually grown 5% in the same time period. This shift is most likely due to a walk event’s accessibility, which allows team captains to recruit more supporters per event and ultimately, raise more funds.
- Millenials are moving away from traditional donation channels, (think: giving to institutions via planned giving) to DIY and crowdfunding which are typically not event-based or driven by the organization. Only 18% of fundraisers want to support national causes showing a significant downmarket shift.
- Peer-to-Peer fundraising still beats the ROI of traditional fundraising efforts like direct mail and email for acquisition of new donors. Events in particular can be a great opportunity to galvanize your supporters and engage them year over year to cultivate them into your top donors.
If you missed checking out our sponsor booth, you can learn more about our integration with Blackbaud here.
– Written by Cynthia León, Grassroots Unwired VP of Business Development
2018 Collaborative Conference-Inclusion by Design 2.0
This past week, Grassroots Unwired traveled out to Happy Valley, PA for an opportunity to attend the 2018 Collaborative Conference: Inclusion by Design 2.0. The conference was organized by 
the Alliance for Nonprofit Resources (ANR), the Community Action Association of Pennsylvania (CAAP), and the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations (PANO). In attendance were almost 300 leaders at nonprofit organizations from across the state, as well as a few groups that support their work (like us!).
Here are some quick numbers about the power of nonprofit organizations in the U.S.:
- The nonprofit sector is home to the country’s third largest workforce (behind retail and manufacturing) ¹
- 1.4 million nonprofits employ 11.4 million workers ¹
- Nonprofits contributed to 5.4% of the country’s GDP in 2013 ²
- Pennsylvania nonprofits employ over 15% of the state’s workforce (approximately 727,200 people) ³
Breaking Past Your Barriers to Nonprofit Technology: Three Common Problems and Solutions
You’ve read up on the latest nonprofit technology trends. You know that mobile fundraising, digital marketing and electronic payments are the wave of the future that has already arrived. You admit that even your low tech door to door canvassing would be more effective with the right technology behind it. So what’s holding you back from taking your nonprofit to the next level?
Chances are that your concerns are ones that other organizations, even small, grassroots ones, have faced and overcome. Let’s look at three common barriers and how you can effectively address them.
The support you need, when you need it
When organizing a grassroots campaign with a team of canvassers you need the right support, and you need it ASAP.
Grassroots Unwired was founded with a deep understanding of the challenges that canvassers face on a daily basis. That’s why we have a dedicated Customer Success team dedicated to provide:
- Technical support, onboarding and training for your admin users
- Phone and email support Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 8 PM EST.
- Phone and email support for weekend canvassing as requested
- Online portal for support and customer feedback & device orders
Team Mission
As a startup, we are constantly developing our tech and growing our team to support it. Our intern recently posted the following questions on the conference room wall, handed out post-its, and asked the team to anonymously place our answers underneath each question. The team’s responses were overwhelming and speak volumes about who we are as a company.
This exercises clearly demonstrates that our team upholds the same values that led our CEO to start this company; justice, integrity, serving the greater good, and above all else, reliable tech.
Mobile Platform for “Day of” Peer-to-Peer Events
Get more out of participants and spectators on the day of your event with the Grassroots Unwired App. Our integrated mobile payment solution eliminates checks and cash. And works even if you don’t have cell or wifi coverage.
Our clients came to us with a problem:
How do they extend the online tools they use to organize an event and register participants, to the day of the event where currently, everything happens on paper: multiple spreadsheets across the process, writing down credit card numbers and taking cash and checks, rushing new registrant info to the timing company, and when it’s over, doing all the back end data entry needed to get everything into the CRM.
Grassroots Unwired built a solution: