Your Nonprofit Needs a Mobile App: Here’s Why

One of the most important goals of a nonprofit is to inform and educate its patrons about the organization, its exhibits, programs, events and more. For museums, zoos and aquariums in particular, providing extra enrichment for visitors when they’re at exhibits or touring the institution is icing on the cake.

Mobile apps can give your institution that added boost—and more.

Inquiring minds want to know

Imagine you’re visiting a zoo. You head over to your favorite exhibit—the gorilla habitat. There, you can learn basic information about the species, and perhaps the name of each gorilla in the troop. But the exhibit area has a limited amount of space for information and graphics.

Now, imagine how cool it would be if the exhibit was interactive. You could open your smartphone, activate the zoo app and navigate to the gorilla page. There, you could click on the image of each gorilla in the exhibit, and then learn fun facts about the animal, such as its pedigree; favorite foods; its personality; age; favorite enrichment items and other neat anecdotes. What if you could ask questions about the animals and later get your questions answered?

I think you’d agree the experience would be much more enriching. 

Mobile apps are helpful in other ways, too.   

Visitors learned more; now it’s your turn

A mobile app provides important value to you, because it gives you keen insight into your visitors’ personas. As a result, future communications with visitors can be tailored to appeal to their interests, and thus drive even more engagement. This information can then be used in marketing automation-driven messages based on their interests. And that’s just one example.

Here are other ways a mobile app can benefit your institution:

• By using built-in Push Notifications, messages appear onscreen on a user’s phone based on their location or through other defined events. You can then notify subscribers about events, programs, specials or coupons. Use it to drive engagement on-site or offsite.
• Most of your visitors are likely anonymous, and you know next to nothing about them. A mobile app can enable you to get their contact information, feedback (so you can better understand their needs) and then cater to them through tailored messaging, as illustrated above.
• An app can provide your guests with multiple types of tours of your institution, such as long ones, short ones, tours specified toward a particular topic, etc.
• Analytics built into the app allow you to know which exhibits people visited, for how long and if they interacted with the app at each exhibit. This will update their profile, helping you learn even more about them and thus creating even more meaningful engagement.

Apps can be monetized

Apps can do more than enrich the visitor experience and give you information and feedback. They can also be used to raise funds.

Once you’ve created a more intimate connection with your visitors, they are more likely to support your organization. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to incorporate a donation function into the app. Now you’ve added one more convenient way for people to give. 

Costs and content

Perhaps now you’re convinced your institution needs an app. Or maybe you’ve wanted to develop an app for a long time, but haven’t because of concerns over the cost of building an app, and the amount of time it takes to add content.

A no-frills app can run for about $10,000. A high-tech app with all the bells and whistles can cost up to $100,000. As you probably know, writing content can take months, too. Moreover, some apps make it difficult or impossible to update and add new information.

Given the costs and time involved, many people don’t think purchasing an app is a good investment—and that’s understandable. Luckily, there are affordable solutions.

Apps-olutely affordable apps

Through our sister company, Acendia, we can offer your nonprofit apps that can be paid for on a monthly basis for only a couple hundred bucks. We can do this because we use a pre-built app that has an easy-to-use content-management system. Text, pictures, audio and videos are easy to upload; and drag-and-drop commands will have you designing like a pro. There’s no programming, so no worries. You’ll have the ability to create whole-facility tours and exhibit-specific tours, offering patrons a fun, educational experience.

The app is completely scalable as well. You don’t need to start with every exhibit and write all of your content at once. Start small, build slowly; continually add new exhibits one at a time. Every time you add new information, announce it on social media and generate excitement!

Contact us so we can help you create an app your audience will love and that you’ll be proud of.