How Conversica is Helping Development Teams Engage Donors

They say you can tell a lot about a company from the friends they keep. Here at Conversica, we are proud of our industry-leading partnership program. Our partners are a vital part of our ecosystem, helping us to build the largest augmented workforce in the world. Many of our partners offer specialized expertise in markets that benefit from our Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs).

Our longtime partner MPW Strategies—a boutique consulting firm based in Denver, Colorado—is a Conversica-reseller specializing in nonprofit, K-12 schools, and higher-education industries, with particular emphasis on development for fundraising strategy and the implementation of technologies to engage donors. That’s why we’re leveraging an expanded alliance with MPW Strategies to help those institutions accelerate fundraising even during these challenging times.

Founded by two fundraising leaders, Matt Wasserman and John Pepperdine, MPW Strategies is intimately familiar with the struggles that many nonprofits and higher-ed teams face. These challenges include delivering two-way, human-like communications to prospects, bringing on new donors, and cultivating current donors that expand current relationships for greater giving.

How Engaging Donors Has Changed

Fundraising has become increasingly complex and competitive as donors are now demanding more personalization and accountability from organizations. Intelligent Virtual Assistants help fundraisers by autonomously engaging prospective donors in natural, human-like conversations via email or text messaging at scale. Once the Intelligent Virtual Assistant discovers a qualified prospect, that person is handed over to a member of the fundraising team to further build the relationship or make an ask. IVAs help fundraising teams qualify more potential donors while allowing their team members to focus on what they do best—talking to and building relationships with donors and prospects.

“This technology is a game-changer, and through its well-crafted personalized approach and natural two-way conversations, organizations can connect and build relationships with much larger audiences than ever thought possible,” said MPW Co-Founder Matt Wasserman. “We are thrilled to be partnering with Conversica to bring this powerful technology to nonprofit and higher-ed fundraising.”

Helping Scale Development Teams

Development teams are resource-strapped and expected to do more with less as the fundraising environment gets more competitive each year. Additionally, in today’s busy interconnected world it has become increasingly difficult to secure meetings with major gift prospects, engage alumni or membership populations in a personalized way and move them to giving, and follow up with donors on an individual level following a large fundraising event. The Intelligent Virtual Assistant supports fundraisers where they need it most – striking up conversations with large numbers of prospects that are traditionally not responsive, and determining their interest in becoming more involved in the organization. Better still, our IVAs are easy to get up and running so organizations can reap the benefits quickly.

As veteran guides in the nonprofit and higher-ed world, Wasserman and Pepperdine see the potential of Conversica’s Intelligent Virtual Assistants to help organizations scale beyond what is often, especially this year, a small but powerful development team internally. Only by integrating new technologies and strategies aligned with the best practices can fundraising teams drive the best outcomes.

“In a lot of ways, the private sector has always had a competitive advantage over nonprofits in utilizing technology to connect and engage with different audiences. Why should those that are making our communities and the world a better place operate from a position of scarcity?” said Wasserman. “Nonprofit and higher-ed fundraising efforts need to evolve. And by employing an Intelligent Virtual Assistant to augment their fundraising teams, they too can connect and engage with donors and prospects at a scale not achieved by people alone.”

MPW first discovered Conversica while perusing a past Harvard Business Review article on how artificial intelligence (AI) streamlines Marketing and Sales and elaborated on the importance of Intelligent Virtual Assistants in the high-tech vertical. Seeing ample opportunity to implement Converisca’s flagship Sales AI Assistants with their own clients, MPW formed an initial partnership with Conversica in early 2019.

This was a first-of-its-kind partnership with Converisca, whose customers are primarily B2B tech companies, telecom providers and auto dealerships. Together, our two companies found new ways of applying Conversica’s cutting-edge technology in verticals focused on giving programs to promote positive change in their communities.

Between our two companies, we agree that something as powerful and innovative as an Intelligent Virtual Assistant shouldn’t just be a solution for big tech companies. IVAs can and should be leveraged by nonprofits and educational institutions to help those organizations increase their impact on communities dozens of times over.

“Working with Matt and John, of MPW, has truly been an exciting partnership. Between the two of them, they have worked in the nonprofit and higher-ed worlds for decades, and genuinely understand the struggles and aspirational goals of so many organizations,” said Amelia Farber, Director of Global Partnerships at Conversica. “It’s rewarding to see our technology continue to help organizations and their causes.”

For organizations interested in learning more about how Intelligent Virtual Assistants can augment their teams—especially as many organizations prepare for recovery or re-opening—please contact MPW Strategies via their website.