Engagement, participation, & remaining relevant is paramount for nonprofit associations today. And, many forward thinking association executives are already looking to Gamification to increase awareness and engage their constituents. We believe the discipline of Gamification will continue to be thrust very quickly into the forefront of conversation in years to come in the nonprofit community which we serve.
Let the Games Begin: Gamification in Nonprofits
What is Gamification? Gamification is not a new idea, it is a proven discipline that has been in the workforce for quite some time. Ultimately, gamification allows organizations the ability to encourage and engage their employees, members, donors, & customers in a desired behavior by creating opportunities of problem solving, learning, loyalty, and communication.
Why should Nonprofit Executives care? If you are a bit skeptical think about the following items:
Higher Engagement
Organizations found to deploy elements of Gamification into their systems tend to have higher employee engagement numbers as recently shared in a Gallup Report
Increased Web-Site Traffic
In a study by M2 Research, vendors claim that Gamification can lead to a 100% to 150% pickup in engagement metrics including unique views, page views, community activities, and time on site.
Adoption Trends
Gartner reported more than 70% of the world’s largest 2,000 companies are expected to have deployed at least one gamified application by year-end 2014.
Software Market Demand
The overall market for gamification tools, services, and applications is projected to be $5.5 billion by 2018 (M2 Research).
Millennials
Millennials are taking over. They are the future of your association and they have grown up on Gaming.
Your association may have already used the principles of Gamification at many conference you attended and didn’t even know it. At a recent association event, TSAE’s Southwest Showcase, the forward thinking staff implemented a gaming element in their conference application to engage the attendees with the exhibitors.
With sponsors taking part in the activities, not only did exhibitors get brand recognition through the app developed by Gather Digital, the attendees achieved valuable face-time with participants too. Driving foot traffic to booths has never been this easy – your sponsors will love you forever if you can increase participation.
Advanced Gaming Principles
Advanced gamification makes it easy to create custom missions, competitions, badges and rewards to maximize participation, engagement and productivity. For example, a rewards program can include implementing a badge system, leveling-up programs or a points system to reward members for reading articles, community involvement, watching videos or sharing association content with others.
CRM Software and Gaming
There are enterprise systems like Zurmo, an open source platform, already leading the pack in the for-profit area. This particular company is clearly looking to take this concept to the execution stage in their Customer Relationship Management solution. Badgeville, another forerunner in this area, brings together the industry’s leading enterprise gamification platform, design expertise, and a very rich customer community to help you build a world-class engagement program.
In the years to come, Gamification certainly will become a mainstream aspect of all Customer and Member Engagement Systems for nonprofits. Beyond the “Fun” aspect of Gamification, you will find a tremendous amount of tangible benefits to this trend in software applications and hopefully a concerted effort to include this methodology into the various vendors focused on Association Management Software.
Gamification could be that game changer for your organization. In our opinion, it is certainly one of the most important trends in technology for associations to embrace in order to remain relevant for years to come.
If you would like to learn more about various software tools available today utilizing this methodology and approach to engagement, please contact us now to discuss.
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