What Makes the ideal NGO App?

When it comes to world issues, charities and non-profit organizations have been at the forefront of organizing and distributing support across the globe for decades. According to nonprofit source, America alone was responsible for $114 billion of donations to various charities in 2017, and in 2018, the Let’s Do It! foundation was able to gather 15 million people together for World Cleanup Day. With thousands of these organizations running at any one time, it’s worth asking how they’ve been so successful. The answer to that lies in their ability to adapt to the world around them, and more recently, by adapting modern technology for their causes.

Considering the dominance of mobile app usage, custom NGO app development is the one thing that comes to mind that automatically unlocks seamless solutions for Non Profit organizations.

NGO Mobile App can be the Ultimate Solution

Traditionally, non-profit organizations, or NGO’s, have had to rely on minimal advertising and physical donations in order achieve their goals. However, with the invention of smartphones, NGO’s now have access to developing their own mobile applications which vastly expand their capabilities.

Not only can NGOs increase the amount of advertising for their respective organizations, as well as accept digital donations, but apps make it easier to routinely engage with volunteers, and makes managing large events a breeze. Mobile Apps for NGO’s are far more than just an ad and a donation button, however, and app development for charities has a surprising amount of thought behind it.

Now, one might be wondering about the cost to develop a simple charity donation mobile application if they are active in this domain. A simple charity domain can add much more capabilities by having a custom mobile application developed.

Read More: Cost to develop Charity Donation Application for NGOs & NPOs

What Makes Great Mobile Apps for NGO’s?

Pioneering in the domain of mobile applications development for 10+ years, we at Let’s Nurture can tell you that – Like the development of any mobile application, NGO app development for charities follows a series of stages from start to finish, with each stage focusing on a key aspect of the app’s design and functionality.

Mobile applications for Not for Profit organizations, specifically, go through below 4 major developmental stages prior to completion. 

Stage 1: User Interface and Overall Design Theme

First impressions are always important, and the case is no different for technology for not for profit organizations, so the overall design of your app needs to be especially appealing. There are two main areas to focus on here: The user interface and data visualization. The user interface, or UI, should be simple and easy for users to navigate without much thought or effort. One way to accomplish this is to place important and frequently used features right on the front page on an easy to see navigation bar for easy access. In addition to this, each of those elements can open in a separate tab in order to avoid having too many elements on one page, which can be distracting to users. Sticking with bright colours and utilizing “cute” illustrations are also a great way of making your app more visually appealing to users, keeping them coming back and not just deleting it after the first use.

Data visualization refers more to the back end of things, and is much more useful for the app’s owner than it is the user. However, there’s still plenty of pertinent information that users can view, such as where their donation is going and what goal it helped accomplish. While the NGO app’s owner can view what kind of effect the app is having on donations and awareness, the data relevant to users can increase incentive to donate as well as build a sense of pride and being part of a bigger movement.

Stage 2: Software and Functionality Development

When you get to actually start NGO app development process, there are certain tools you can use in order to make the process more streamlined, and thus faster and less costly. In addition to this, there are several bases that should be covered before deeming this stage complete.

Use API’s When Necessary. Application Programming Interfaces, or API’s, are used to alleviate the need to build a given element from scratch. For example, Google Maps can be used in place of building your own custom one. The drawback here is of course, a non-customizable map, however, the benefit is that up to a month of work is compressed down into a day or less, making this a highly budget friendly option. Another form of API is a payment gateway such as Braintree, Stripe and Ayden, which is essential for accepting digital donations, as it allows users to pay with common payment methods, such as a credit card or Apple Pay.

Include a Wide Range of Compatible Devices. Compare any two people, and you can almost guarantee that they have different mobile devices, either in model or in brand altogether. With such a vast selection of mobile devices available on the market, you’ll need to be sure that your app is compatible with at least the majority of them. Issues tend to occur here because of an issue called Android Fragmentation, which is what refers to the significant differences between many android devices and how they affect an app’s functionality. The cause could be something as simple as a differing screen size, but the effects can range from visual errors, to complete functionality failure.

Ensure the App for NGO is Responsive. When an app is anything but seamless, users notice and it can have a significantly negative impact. Ensuring that your app runs as smoothly as possible on both desktop browsers and mobile devices will help keep users coming back. In addition to this, the app should be capable of continuing to run smoothly when under a high stress load. If it’s to be used by thousands of people at once, the app needs to be able to handle the high amount of simultaneous traffic.

Stage 3: Onboarding and Keeping Users

Arguably the most important part of app development for charities is keeping the users you attract. There are 6 major strategies to accomplishing this, those being a one time onboarding offer, a show of thanks towards volunteers, allowing users to be both co-operative and competitive, adding game mechanics, allowing users to create their own events and, finally, aiding users in organizing them. All of these together first draw in users, potentially making volunteers out of them, show them why they should keep using the app, appreciate them for doing so, then incentivise them to continue working with you. Accomplishing this will ensure that you always have a user base, which will in turn translate into increased public awareness of your app.

Stage 4: Advertising

Now that you’re app is developed and ready for launch, you’ll need a way to advertise it. Conventional advertising can quickly become expensive and something that many NGO’s simply don’t have the necessary budget for. This is when word of mouth becomes your best friend, and you can easily take advantage of it by simply adding a share button to your app. Allowing users to share your app on social media means you get the publicity you need while still retaining your initial user base. This will allow your app to gather, and grow its community, making the world just a little bit better in the process. You can also use Swags printed like Custom T-shirts , Caps for promotion of new application to make it viral in local community.

Features which can be integrated in NGO Mobile Apps

a) Wearable Wristbands with NFC:

Wearable wristbands for Volunteers & benefiters can be used as an authentication for Apps. We can certainly integrate wearable technology for a custom wearable application development specifically developed for NGOs.

b) Accessibility Enabled Platform:

Most of NGOs will be catering to the audiences which may need accessibility assistance due to certain age group or due to lack of digital literacy.

c) Chatbots Support:

Conversational commerce can help platform users to get used to with system efficiently. Let’s Nurture has all the expertise to build AI-ML based conversational Chatbots which can enhance experience of the mobile app platform users.

d) Seamless Payment Integration:

Ideal user segment for NGO Application would be Idealistic & full of Empathy. It would be absolutely necessary to create a seamless payment experience for these kind of users to raise fund for the NGO Apps.

Why Let’s Nurture can be your ideal Tech Partners?

Let’s Nurture is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company focused to nurture lives of the people using cutting edge technologies. Our solutions enhances and empowers businesses and people to live a better life. Moreover, we have worked on multiple occasions for NGO app development for our clients.

Let’s Nurture, being the leading web and mobile NGO app development company guides you with the product, business model and market for mobility solution for charity donation application. An ideal mobile app development for NGOs and donation services is ideally found on both, iOS platform and Android Platform.

So if you run an NGO and have a brilliant Idea to have a blissful NGO app developed for a good cause, talk to our technical experts.