Experience design: Creating value for nonprofits

Abstract

In today’s hypercompetitive markets, most sectors are saturated with competitors, making it more important than ever for companies to generate unique value for stakeholders. Companies are increasingly and purposefully crafting customer experiences as a means to create such value and to establish competitive advantage. Although for-profits have been quick to adopt the practice of experience design (XD) in developing meaningful experiences and interactions, nonprofit entities have been slow to follow. XD is an integrated and strategic operational approach that creates relevant value for stakeholders of an organization by designing customizable yet consistent brand experiences. The failure to embrace and adopt XD is a missed opportunity for nonprofits. While a well-crafted experience offers a supplemental value for the products and services of for-profit firms, experiences provide a fundamental and exceptional source of value for nonprofit organizations. Thoughtful XD offers the potential to establish trust, improve connectivity, build loyalty, and boost relevance with a diverse set of stakeholders, including donors, employees, and strategic partners. Successful outcomes of well-executed XD at nonprofit organizations include increased donor retention rates, larger financial resource pools, and enhanced societal impact. Our work outlines key principles for implementing XD and equips resource-constrained nonprofits in implementing XD at low cost.