73. Mobilize Your Mission: What Gamification Can Teach Us About Engagement, Retention, & Building Community with Mariam Nusrat

Feel like getting outside your box? Then spend some time with Mariam Nusrat, my guest on this episode of What the Fundraising! A lightbulb realization during her 12-year frontlines career working on educational policy and behavioral change in developing countries for the World Bank has transformed her into a video games visionary. As Founder and CEO of GRID (Gaming Revolution for International Development), she has unleashed a not-for-profit platform that is democratizing mobile games, advocating for a better world, and offering players of all ages, cultures, and geographies a ton of fun along the way! And fun = retention! But there’s more … Mariam has more recently launched Breshna.io, a startup that empowers global users to create, share and monetize their own purposeful Web3 video games, with no code and at lightning speed. She is sharing thoughts on how nonprofits can incorporate interactivity and other tech tools to enliven fundraising and deepen connections with funders, volunteers, and donor recipients alike. As Mary Poppins famously said: “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” Video gaming is Mariam Nusrat’s engaging and playful strategy for driving a new, more equitable frontier built on interactive community, collaboration, and education, and there is so much that nonprofits can learn from her. Episode Highlights: (02:20) Mariam's experience at the World Bank brings her to today (03:36) The founding of Breshna.io and raising $2.4 million of seed capital  (06:09) The three I’s that make gaming such a compelling educational tool (06:41) How do mobile games get the best retention  (09:14) Gamification: What it is and how it works.  (14:14) The similarities between nonprofit proposals and mobile games (15:33) How to create the gamification of nonprofit functions  (20:09) The “crystal ball” effect (22:44) Taking bite-sized steps forward (25:03) Collaborative versus Competitive environments (27:35) About the psychology of “showing up”  (29:48) The trade-off between too easy and too difficult (33:03) Retention is about more than luck. (34:51) NFTs and how to make donors feel lucky and exclusive in an equitable way.  (40:41) What it means to have a “building in public” philosophy  What’s more powerful than a stellar fundraising strategy? Integrated software that helps you manage with ease. Visit NationBuilder, our sponsor for this episode of What the Fundraising, to learn about their ready-to-go donation pages, express payment options, and other tools to support you on every step of your nonprofit’s journey!  If you’re looking to lift your nonprofit to that next level, my Power Partners Formula offers a step-by-step plan to get you there, including how to identify the right partners and design the right campaign. This free masterclass offers a great starting point!