Nonprofits focus a majority of their resources on fulfilling their missions, but to gain those resources in the first place, charitable organizations need to improve their marketing. Through charity marketing, nonprofits can raise awareness of their cause, bring in new supporters, and earn the donations that fuel their initiatives.
Of course, running a marketing campaign for any organization can quickly become a full-time job. Fortunately, nonprofit professionals don’t need a degree in marketing to understand the basics of how to reach their audience and inspire them to give. Instead, they just need creativity, a deep understanding of their supporters, and a few tools to help manage their campaigns.
To break down the potential complications of running a marketing campaign, this guide will explore the ins and outs of charity marketing, including:
Let’s first look at the basics of charity marketing before exploring how to launch your own campaign.
Charity Marketing FAQ
A marketing campaign is ultimately as complex as your organization makes it. Of course, those new to marketing are likely to have a few questions about what’s normal for promotional campaigns in the nonprofit sector.
What is charity marketing?
Charity marketing is essentially advertising for your nonprofit. It consists of all of the external promotional content your nonprofit develops for the purpose of attracting new donors and persuading them to support you.
Is charity marketing worth the return on investment?
All nonprofits engaging in charity marketing should aim to make a positive return on investment (ROI). However, different nonprofits will approach their marketing strategy with different goals. For example, a new nonprofit may be wholly focused on spreading awareness and attracting new supporters, whereas a more established organization might be more interested in encouraging new donors to make their second gift, increasing their retention rate.
Throughout your marketing campaign, track your expenses and the conversions you can presumably attribute to your marketing. Some third-party marketing agencies that cater specifically to nonprofits offer discounted services, which can also help improve your ROI.
How much should nonprofits spend on charity marketing?
Charity marketing is part of a nonprofit’s overhead expenses, which common nonprofit management advice states should total around 35% of a nonprofit’s budget at maximum. Of course, how much of that 35% is dedicated to marketing will depend on your organization’s size, marketing needs, and other ongoing costs.
To provide a general estimate of what is normal, studies on nonprofit advertisement report that approximately 60% of nonprofits that earn between $1-$10 million in annual revenue have dedicated marketing budgets with a median budget of $12,000. Of course, in this study were both organizations that had no dedicated marketing budget and organizations that spent over $500,000 annually on marketing.
For your organization, assess your budget to consider what revenue you have to dedicate to marketing and what ROI you hope to make with the funds you allocate.
How to Build Your Charity Marketing Plan
A charity marketing plan is a living document nonprofit teams use as a guide to determine what marketing materials to create, when and how these materials should be shared with their audience, and what they hope to achieve by sharing those materials.
The bedrock of this document is your nonprofit’s audience and your team’s knowledge of what that audience is looking for from your nonprofit. Here’s a breakdown of the first steps you should take in creating your charity marketing plan:
Determine your value proposition.
In the business world, marketers assess their product and determine why a potential customer would want to buy it. They consider the product’s features and benefits, how it differs from competitors’ products, and what needs a customer would have fulfilled by the product. Through this assessment, they establish their product’s value proposition.
Nonprofit marketing professionals usually lack a tangible product and have to get a bit more creative when considering the value proposition for making a donation. While supporters do not directly benefit from making a donation, nonprofits can still differentiate themselves from other similar charitable organizations and emphasize why it’s important a supporter invests in their cause.
When establishing your value proposition, consider your branding. What does your nonprofit do differently from others? For example, you might:
- Serve a different community
- Focus on an underfunded aspect of your cause
- Be the only organization of your kind in your area.
Then, consider how giving to your cause benefits your supporters. Some organizations may be able to articulate an indirect benefit. For example, environmental organizations might explain how donating to their cause helps protect future generations. In contrast, an animal shelter might instead appeal to a supporter’s emotional side. Their emotional appeals instead seek to make donors feel better about themselves by giving.
If you’re unsure what your value proposition is, consider the greater value your nonprofit aims to bring your community. Then, consider your audience so you can communicate that value in a way that will appeal to them.
Define your audience.
Nonprofit marketers who are passionate about their organization’s cause might feel that their audience should be anyone who is capable of making a donation. While broad appeals can help you cast a wide net, marketing messages that are meant to inspire everyone often end up vague and inspire few.
Determining who your audience is and what types of messages will appeal to that audience is arguably the most important step in your marketing plan.
Define the audience you hope to market to by first considering the audience you already have. Use your donor data to identify common characteristics your supporters share, such as their demographic data, connection to your cause, and giving level.
During this process, you will likely discover several smaller audiences within your supporter base. For example, your audiences might include local retirees who regularly give by mail, donors who work at a business that held a corporate volunteer day with your nonprofit, and young activists who give in small amounts but help promote your programs on social media and show up for advocacy events.
When you identify these groups, you can simplify your marketing efforts by creating personas.
Personas are hypothetical individuals who stand in for the audience they represent. Because it’s much easier to market to one person than an entire group, personas are a useful tool for envisioning what types of messages will appeal to your audience as a whole. To better imagine these personas, create profiles that include the following information:
- Demographic data. Give each persona a name and choose an age, gender, and career for them. For example, you might envision Carol, a 70-year-old female retiree who lives with her husband and has two married adult children. Or maybe Nate, a single 22-year-old male recent college graduate who lives at home and is looking for his first job.
- Goals. What does the persona hope to gain by interacting with your nonprofit? This could be due to a personal connection, an interest in the tax breaks, or just a desire to do good. In our examples, Carol may wish to give to a medical organization that researches Alzheimer’s due to her husband’s family having a history of the disease. By contrast, Nate donates to a nonprofit that helps refugees out of a feeling of civic duty.
- Challenges. What prevents your personas from completing their goal? Most often, this is a lack of resources, knowledge, or time. Carol may have low-tech literacy and is nervous about making online donations, while Nate has limited savings and can’t commit to giving regularly at this time.
These are the basics, but the more information you can include about your personas, the better. For example, you might expand on their hobbies, fears, and prior knowledge about your cause. This information will help you craft marketing materials that interest them and continue to engage them once they become regular donors.
Set a marketing goal.
Decide what you want your marketing campaign to accomplish. For most nonprofits, their marketing goal will include a specific revenue goal and target ROI. You can calculate your target ROI with this equation:
For example, let’s say your nonprofit aims to make $10,000 in donations through a recent digital fundraising campaign. The total expenses for buying online ad space, paying monthly subscription costs for marketing tools, and paying graphic designers to develop marketing materials are $2,000 for simplicity. This would be a 500% ROI, which most nonprofits would agree is highly desirable.
However, keep in mind that there may be additional hidden costs associated with your marketing campaign. For example, consider the salaries of your marketing team members and the time they dedicated to this marketing campaign that theoretically could have been used elsewhere. Additionally, the nonprofit only achieves this ROI if it hit its revenue target.
Determine your marketing goals by setting a budget and considering what is realistic for your nonprofit to achieve based on past fundraisers and your current resources.
Create marketing materials.
Marketing campaigns need marketing materials. For most nonprofits, this will mean working with a creative team (or even multiple teams) who can develop the needed graphics and written copy that will appeal to your audience through flyers, social media posts, or any other materials you create.
However, before reaching out to potential graphic designers, consider what materials you should produce in the first place. If you aren’t sure what platforms to use or what types of appeals are right for your campaign, refer back to your audience personas.
Considering the personas we created earlier, Carol and Nate, our hypothetical nonprofit knows it needs to create direct mail appeals that will reassure its older supporters and attention-grabbing social media posts that let donors with a lower giving capacity potentially spread your message to someone who can make a sizable donation.
Additionally, prepare your brand assets so your internal creative team or the external contractors you hire can provide materials that fit your nonprofit’s identity. The more details and assets you can provide at the early iterative design stages, the more likely your creative team is to get it right on the first few tries.
Analyze your results in real-time.
Modern nonprofit technology allows your marketing team to monitor responses to your campaign as they happen. For instance, you can see social media engagement as soon as it happens and use tracking links to determine where traffic to your donation page is coming from.
Throughout your campaign, stay on top of these results to identify both opportunities and challenges. For example, you might find that engagement isn’t as high on one social media platform as you would have hoped. However, you notice links in your emails are having a higher clickthrough rate than your last campaign.
In this situation, you might spend less time designing content for the underperforming social media site and instead focus on boosting engagement through email by adding interactive polls or sharing information about one-click donation upgrades.
8 Charity Marketing Ideas
Once you have a clear audience and goal, it’s time to get creative and start brainstorming marketing ideas. To help inspire your team, here are eight tested charity marketing ideas:
1. Explore Google Ad Grants.
Google Ad Grants are funds Google awards to 501(c)(3) organizations that can be put toward launching ad campaigns on Google. Advertisements on Google appear at the top of the search results page for relevant keywords, and the Google Ad Grant provides nonprofits with $10,000 of monthly spending for these campaigns.
To make the most of Google Ad Grants for your charity marketing campaign, you’ll need to consider what you want to promote and what keywords your supporters are likely to search for.
The Google Ad Grant can be used to promote almost any page on your nonprofit’s website. As such, you can focus your ad campaigns on spreading awareness, attracting new donors, recruiting volunteers, informing constituents about your services, or promoting your ongoing campaign.
After choosing your goal, consider what related keywords your target audiences are most likely to search for. Try to choose long-tail, less competitive keywords to put your ads in front of the most relevant audience possible.
2. Launch a multi-channel campaign.
It’s estimated that a business needs approximately eight touchpoints with a customer before they make a sale. This principle also applies to charity marketing, and also like for-profit businesses, you can create these touchpoints through multi-channel marketing.
Multi-channel marketing is an outreach method where an organization promotes itself through multiple communication channels. For your nonprofit, these channels might include:
- Social media. Refer to your audience personas to determine which social media platforms your audience uses. Additionally, explore if social media platforms offer discounted rates for nonprofit advertising and what their conversion rates are. For example, the major social media platforms of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have average conversion rates of 4.7%, 3.1%, and 0.9% respectively. However, if the majority of your audience is on one of these platforms, your personal conversion rates may differ.
- Email. Email is one of the most popular forms of nonprofit marketing due to its flexibility. Share videos, pictures, polls, and links to other content with your supporters. Be sure to segment your email lists based on your personas so the right messages go to the right inboxes. For example, emails about planned giving for Carol shouldn’t end up in Nate’s inbox.
- Your website. Consider the sales funnel, which has four main stages for nonprofits: awareness, consideration, conversion, and advocacy. A strong website is essential for supporters in the consideration phase who have become aware of your nonprofit and are looking for more information before donating.
- In-person activities. While you can earn support from donors all over the world, most nonprofits will find their most loyal supporters in their own communities. For new nonprofits especially, hosting in-person events can be an essential first step for spreading awareness and making face-to-face connections.
- Partnerships. Both corporations and other charitable organizations may be interested in working with your nonprofit. Consider the connections you have that may lead to partnerships, such as a board member being friends with a local business owner. Working together can help you and your partner organization gain access to each other’s audiences. Plus, having them vouch for you can improve your credibility.
- SMS. With the rise of smartphones, texting is one of the fastest ways to get in touch with your supporters. If you don’t collect phone numbers from your donors, consider purchasing a phone append to text them the latest updates about your campaign.
- Direct mail. Traditional mail still has its purposes in nonprofit marketing. Along with donation appeals, consider sending physical thank-you letters in exchange for online donations or even small gifts, like keychains or fridge magnets.
Keep in mind that while marketing on multiple platforms is effective, it is also time-consuming and resource-intensive. Generally, marketing is more effective when you prioritize quality over quantity, so if your organization needs to cut back, consider focusing deeply on a few channels rather than shallowly on all of them.
3. Experiment with peer-to-peer fundraising.
One of the strongest marketing channels is word-of-mouth. Supporters who believe in your organization are happy to talk about it with their friends and family. Leverage this passion by hosting a peer-to-peer campaign.
Peer-to-peer campaigns are fundraisers where a group of volunteers promote your nonprofit and collect donations on your behalf. These campaigns can have a deadline or operate on a rolling basis based on your volunteers’ availability.
Peer-to-peer fundraising is especially effective when paired with other fundraising drives. For example, you might add a peer-to-peer component to your charity marketing during Giving Tuesday when many people are already thinking about donating. With so many causes competing for their attention, they’re far more likely to act on a call to action issued by a trusted friend or family member than from an organization they’re unfamiliar with.
4. Host events.
Charity marketing often struggles with finding a reason why supporters should donate now. With events, you can give your supporters something to get excited about while also creating the perfect opportunity to make a donation.
With modern technology, events are also flexible, and each format has its own benefits:
- In-person events bring your local community together and allow them to connect with your team face-to-face. These types of events are especially useful for courting relationships with major donors who usually need to develop a personal connection with one of your major gift officers before deciding to give.
- Online events are accessible and can be hosted with video conferencing software or via a live streaming platform. Keep your online events engaging by encouraging attendees to type in your meeting’s chat and assigning a team member to moderate comments and interact with your guests.
- Hybrid events give guests the flexibility to attend in person if it’s convenient or from home if they simply prefer the comfort of remote attendance. Before your event, plan how you will engage both remote and in-person attendees to create an equivalent experience for both groups.
Events should be packed with fun activities, entertainment, and opportunities for guests to socialize. However, make sure your nonprofit’s purpose is front and center, so attendees both have a good time and understand the importance of giving to your cause.
5. Use marketing software.
To manage all of your campaign’s moving parts, invest in marketing software. Marketing tools vary widely in purpose, from automating routine tasks and organizing data to allowing you to connect with supporters in entirely new ways.
Consider how you want to reach out to supporters and list what types of technology would help you enact your strategies. Then, begin researching top marketing solutions, like:
- Email platform. Email platforms allow you to create email templates, segment email lists, and send emails to all of your supporters at once. Some systems also allow you to set up trigger emails that are sent automatically when supporters take actions like donating or signing up to volunteer.
- CRM. Your CRM stores all of your donor data, making it one of your marketing team’s most important tools for understanding your audience. Whenever you engage with a supporter, record the interaction in your CRM. Your marketing team can then look at this data to analyze trends in donor behavior, shifting demographics, and anything else related to your donors.
- Editorial calendar. Marketing requires active communication, and it can be challenging to know which messages to send when, especially if you’re launching a multi-channel campaign. An editorial calendar is a project management tool that helps keep your team on track by outlining which projects are due when and who is responsible for each task in that project.
You can also choose a unified marketing solution like Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud, which comes with basic features and can be further expanded and customized as the nonprofit needs. Solutions like Salesforce work best for large and growing organizations that need tools developed for their specific workflows. By contrast, smaller organizations can save on subscription fees and developer costs by choosing a solution with more out-of-the-box features.
6. Cultivate existing relationships
Did you know that acquiring new supporters sometimes costs 50% – 100% more than the amount the nonprofit collects from these new supporters? To avoid a net loss for your organization, make sure you’re balancing donor acquisition with donor retention.
After all, marketing is about more than just acquiring new support. In the long run, successful nonprofit marketing should also increase donor retention.
Take steps now to foster existing relationships and avoid breaking your budget. Here are some practical ways you can cultivate your existing relationships:
- Personalize your communication. Send thank you letters and conduct regular phone calls to check in with your donors. You can even use digital tools like charity eCards to send a quick, heartfelt thank you note to donors right after you receive a donation. Keep track of other special occasions like birthdays or the anniversary of their first volunteer day to celebrate them, too.
- Host an appreciation event. For donors who have given consistently, consider hosting an in-person or virtual event to celebrate their generosity. With permission, you can make the night extra special by sharing beneficiaries’ stories to show just how much of an impact your donors have made.
- Provide more engagement opportunities. To take your existing relationships to the next level, you’ll need to offer more opportunities for donors to get to know your cause. Volunteer workshops, online testimonials, or even a behind-the-scenes look into your operations are compelling opportunities for donors to learn more about you.
When you take time to prioritize your donor relationships, it shows that you care about the donor and genuinely appreciate them. This will go a long way for both your donor retention efforts and word-of-mouth marketing as people want to give where they know they will feel appreciated.
7. Create videos and other engaging content.
Stand out from the crowd by changing up your marketing strategy with compelling infographics, bold photos, and attention-grabbing videos. Video especially has become increasingly important for charity marketing, with research showing that viewers are 52% more likely to share video with friends and family than other types of content.
To create videos, your nonprofit can work with a third-party video production company or attempt to develop them in-house.
When working with an external agency, you can be assured that they will have high-quality cameras, microphones, and editing software to develop professional videos. Video production agencies also have access to assets that can elevate your videos, such as music, experience directing, and knowledge of film production fundamentals, like shot framing, color grading, and sound editing.
Of course, video production can also be expensive. Making videos yourself is likely to be less expensive, though you will potentially need to invest in the necessary filmmaking tools as an upfront investment. While your videos do not need to be movie-quality, at least go the extra mile to ensure your videos have clear audio to make your message easy to hear and understand.
8. Offer additional services.
Many nonprofits can overcome the challenge of not having a product to give in return for donations with an obvious solution: offer a product or service. Consider what assets—such as surplus funds, extra available space, staff with diverse skill sets, or any other resources—your nonprofit has and if they can be turned into a product or service. Here are just a few examples of what your nonprofit could potentially sell to donors:
- Branded merchandise
- Educational courses
- Rented space
- Experiences, such as guided nature walks, petting zoos, and theater performances
- Membership program
While the idea of making a profit similar to for-profit businesses may sound strange at first, earning revenue through marketing a service is very normal in the nonprofit sector when taking nonprofit organizations like hospitals, universities, and museums into account.
Launch Your Charity Marketing Campaign
Charity marketing brings in the revenue your nonprofit needs to fuel your mission. Launching a marketing campaign is often a major undertaking, and your first step is to conduct research on your audience, competitors’ strategies, and standard marketing practices to give your team the knowledge they need to find success.
To help kickstart your research, continue exploring Getting Attention’s library of resources on the ins and outs of charity marketing:
Making Your Case to Donors: Top 5 Tips to Increase Donations
/in Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Fundraising /by Jessica KingIf you’re a nonprofit professional, you know just how important donations are to your organization. You may receive funds in other ways, such as grants or sponsorships, but consistent donations will launch you toward your fundraising goals.
Making your case to donors through presentations and one-on-one meetings is extremely effective because it allows you to start an in-person dialogue with donors and gather audience feedback. While other outreach methods such as emails and phone calls permit you to reach donors where they are, presentations and meetings allow for a more personalized, hands-on approach to increasing donations.
When you’re making your case to donors in a presentation or meeting, you want to make your cause stand out and prove why it’s important for them to contribute. We’ve compiled a list of tips to help encourage donations, including:
With these five tips in mind, you can strengthen your relationships with donors and motivate them to give back to your cause.
1. Get to know your donors.
When you understand your donors on a deeper level, you can offer more personalized messages and calls to action. Communicate with donors frequently through a variety of methods to learn more about them and gather feedback. These outreach methods may include email check-ins, annual surveys, phone calls, and social media direct messages.
The more you know about your donors, the better you can reach them. Ask them what interests them most about your nonprofit. Your organization may offer many different services, but matching each donor to the service they’re most passionate about will allow you to personalize your communications when it’s time to ask for donations.
You can store this information along with any other relevant demographic data in a donor data platform. NPOInfo explains that when you store all donor information in one place, it streamlines your communication with donors. You can reference this information to pick up donor communications where they left off and make sure each outreach point builds on previous conversations.
2. Incorporate storytelling.
When you speak to donors, you want to make your message as engaging as possible. That’s where storytelling comes in.
As Be Brilliant explains it, using storytelling in a presentation gives some individuality to your case. For example, you might not be the only animal shelter out there, but what makes yours unique? Perhaps your pet adoption program is so successful because of your organization’s unique pet-matching program that matches people with pets using a personality quiz. You might tell a story about an individual who came in looking for a pet with specific traits and found the perfect new furry family member for their needs.
Instead of drawing on generalities about your organization, use a story to show off exactly what your organization does. Plus, stories are better at eliciting emotions, which can motivate your donors to take action.
3. Create a sense of urgency.
Your supporters may feel connected to your organization, but if they don’t feel inclined to donate immediately, they’ll likely put it off and eventually forget to show their support. The two most popular times to donate tend to be the end of the year giving season and during major crises. However, this tendency can leave your nonprofit feeling strapped for cash in between popular donation times.
To solve this problem, create a sense of urgency surrounding donations. You do important work all year long, and you need regular donations in order to support it. Setting deadlines for donations pushes people to take action quickly.
Another way to create urgency is to connect your case to a relevant campaign or seasonal event. When donors see the larger initiative attached to your request, they may be more inclined to donate. For example, designated giving days like GivingTuesday that have hard deadlines can inspire quick responses.
Lastly, be extremely specific about what action you want your donors to take. When you write a clear and easy call to action, you’re more likely to inspire a quick response. Include all details potential donors will need to contribute to your cause, including a donation link.
4. Make it clear where donations are going.
When people give to an organization, they want to know exactly what their donation is going toward. That way, they can see the impact they’ve made and feel proud of their contribution.
The more specific you can get about the impact someone’s donation will have, the better. For example, instead of stating that donations will help animals in the shelter live a better life, share that the funds raised in the next month will go toward building a new outdoor space where dogs can get a break from the cramped conditions inside.
If you’re planning a live presentation for donors, this should be the bulk of your presentation. Make your current initiatives more tangible for donors with thorough explanations, infographics, pictures, and videos.
5. Add credibility to your case.
One of the biggest challenges of marketing your cause is establishing trustworthiness. It can be difficult for donors to trust an organization they may have never heard of or contributed to before.
However, there are ways to show that your organization is credible. For example, one of the best ways to gain trust when promoting your cause is to display donor testimonials. Ask some of your top supporters to share their experiences with your organization. Adding quotes from real people associated with your nonprofit will help verify your organization’s credibility.
Other strategies to demonstrate credibility include mentioning any seals of approval your organization has received and creating graphics that show exactly where your money comes from and where it goes.
Since nonprofits heavily depend on donations, it’s important to show donors your cause is worthy of their unwavering support. Consider implementing these tips to bolster your case to donors in presentations and meetings and encourage more donations.
Top Nonprofit Blogs & Tips: How to Master Content Marketing
/in Nonprofit Communications /by Jessica KingDid you know 92% of nonprofit marketers use some form of content marketing? That’s because it works! Blogging is an easy, effective way to boost your online presence. Nonprofit blogs use a mix of storytelling techniques to attract donors, increase audience engagement, and establish authority.
At Getting Attention, we help nonprofits elevate their online marketing efforts through Google Ad Grant optimization. That said, through those efforts, we’ve seen firsthand what can make or break a nonprofit’s blog! In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover the following information, including the importance of nonprofit blogs as well as best practices for curating content:
At the end of the guide, we’ll explore some note-worthy examples of blogs in the nonprofit space to kick off your brainstorming and make blogging a valuable part of your marketing plan. Let’s get started.
Overview of Nonprofit Blogs
Nonprofit blogs are dedicated resources hosted on the websites of charitable organizations, fundraising professionals and consultants, and nonprofit software companies. Blogs can range in style and content, from educational guides and industry updates to current events and impact stories. But each nonprofit blog shares a common goal: driving traffic to the organization’s website.
A nonprofit blog acts as a powerful search engine optimization (SEO) tool. While your main website provides the basic information for your mission and goals, your blog should explore topics that potential supporters might search for on Google. When your blog consistently posts valuable content that’s optimized for highly-searched keywords, it will become a go-to resource that ranks highly on search engine result pages and attracts new prospects.
If you find yourself asking, “Does my nonprofit need a blog?” the answer is likely yes! Blogging is an easy, effective way to stand out and engage with your audience. Since charitable organizations rely on raising awareness, blogs can help your organization to:
For more information on the benefits of blogging, read our article dedicated to the basics of nonprofit marketing blogs. Then, learn how to write a successful nonprofit blog in the next section.
How to Write a Nonprofit Blog
Now that you’ve decided to start a blog for your nonprofit, you’re left with the task of creating content. You may struggle with narrowing down topics, attracting an audience, and standing out against other nonprofit blogs.
Don’t fret! Nearly 64% of nonprofit content marketers publish blogs regularly, meaning it’s a popular and manageable undertaking. Use this simple step-by-step guide to help your nonprofit write an effective blog.
Step 1: Consider the goals of your blog.
Before you begin writing content, determine how the blog will tie into your marketing strategy. Host a meeting with your team to consider the short and long-term goals of the blog. The first question you should ask is “What do we hope to achieve through our marketing efforts?”
Create a list of 3-5 priorities for your nonprofit blog. Tactical goals include building brand awareness, attracting volunteers, increasing fundraising, and encouraging email signups, among others. Consider the following examples:
This process will help your team determine its short and long-term goals. After carefully considering your objectives, you’re ready to create a content strategy that will drive your nonprofit’s objectives.
Step 2: Create a content strategy.
A content strategy defines content-related decisions, including which blog posts you’ll write and when. Once you determine your goals, consider how content will fit into your marketing funnel. Which topics should be addressed at the top of the funnel to raise awareness? What subjects need to be covered to facilitate conversions?
Making a content strategy that works for your nonprofit will help you to create consistently strong content. Let’s review the three main elements of a content strategy that are especially important for nonprofit blogs:
Content strategies will be a go-to resource for your team, clarifying how, when, where, and why you will create content. Aligning content plans with your overall goals will improve your organization’s marketing efforts and help you create the most effective content.
Step 3: Create content.
Once you set your goals and establish a clear content strategy, you’re faced with the challenge of content creation. Keep in mind that blog posts of around 2,000 words have the highest SEO and social sharing rates. When creating your own content, keep the following writing tips in mind:
If you don’t have enough time to write your own content, you can still update your audience and support your marketing goals through content curation. Content curation is the process of selecting, editing, and publishing content from external sources. Just remember to never reproduce external content without identifying your source and adding your own expertise.
Step 4: Market your blog.
Now it’s time to make your nonprofit blog stand out! From email to social media, there are multiple marketing channels to choose from, and each has its own strengths. Here are the most popular marketing channels:
If a Google Grant seems like the best fit for your nonprofit blog, consider working with a certified agency like Getting Attention. Getting Attention’s team of experts offers free consultations and resources to help your organization plan a successful campaign strategy. Reach out to our team today to learn more!
Nonprofit Blog Best Practices
It’s no secret that building a nonprofit blog takes time and effort. But the payoff—driving interested supporters to your mission—will be worthwhile! Whether launching your first blog or updating existing content, your nonprofit will benefit from these blogging best practices:
These best practices will improve your search engine results and increase traffic to your nonprofit’s blog. Now let’s take a look at the nonprofit blogs that have successfully implemented these tips!
Best Nonprofit Blogs to Inspire You
With more than 500 million blogs worldwide, it can be difficult to sort through the seemingly endless sea of information. We’ve compiled a list of the best nonprofit blogs that managed to stand out using marketing strategies. From Getting Attention to Top Nonprofits, these nonprofit blogs are sure to inspire your next post!
Getting Attention
Getting Attention is made up of professional fundraising consultants dedicated to Google Ad Grant management. Getting Attention’s nonprofit marketing blog offers articles spanning a variety of essential nonprofit topics, from the basics of Google Grants to guides for planning a comprehensive nonprofit marketing plan.
Double the Donation
Double the Donation is an expert in matching gift funds, with the largest and most accurate database of matching gift and volunteer grant information in the nonprofit sector. Double the Donation’s dedicated blogroll consists of industry guides and nonprofit tips including corporate fundraising, general fundraising guides, and top software provider lists.
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re:Charity
re:Charity is a nonprofit blog dedicated to hosting fundraising resources, tips, best practices, industry guides, and software lists. There is a wide range of information on re:Charity, with specific blog categories dedicated to fundraising, marketing, technology, and nonprofit strategies.
Fundraising Letters
Fundraising Letters is a website committed to helping nonprofit leaders craft compelling and engaging communications with supporters. The Fundraising Letters blog allows professionals to peruse educational resources provided by thought leaders throughout the nonprofit industry.
Crowd101
Crowd101 hosts a wide variety of resources and blog posts to help fundraisers begin a crowdfunding event, market it effectively, and explore other fundraising tips. Their blog is a great resource with clearly defined sections like getting started with crowdfunding, crowdfunding examples, fundraising ideas, real estate crowdfunding information, and more!
NonprofitPRO
NonprofitPRO is a go-to source for nonprofit management and strategy which serves fresh, hard-hitting content. They cover a range of topics, including human resources, board and volunteer management, legal matters, news, and raising funds. NonprofitPRO’s blog effectively brings together thought leaders in the nonprofit industry, offering a wide range of tools and strategy guides to modern nonprofit professionals.
Get Fully Funded
Get Fully Funded is a step-by-step system for fundraising that teaches how to build a loyal donor base, inspire donors to give, and build relationships that keep them giving. Their dedicated team of professionals offers coaching, training, and support to fully fund your nonprofit. Get Fully Funded has an extensive blog site with weekly tips and tools to help you raise the money you need to grow your nonprofit.
Candid
Candid connects people who want to make a difference with the resources they need to do it. GuideStar, a data collection company, and Foundation Center joined forces to create Candid, a comprehensive database for nonprofits. Follow their blog for regularly updated information on how philanthropy responds to advancing racial equity and safeguarding democracy.
Nonprofit Hub
Nonprofit Hub is a national educational publication helping nonprofits grow their missions and better their organizations. It’s a great resource for thought leadership and resources on marketing, fundraising, and more! Each week, Nonprofit Hub publishes new blog content ranging from nonprofit branding to nonprofit web design.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
Nonprofit Tech for Good focuses on providing useful, easy-to-understand news and resources related to digital marketing and fundraising. 101 Best Practices is their blog and webinar series on website design, email marketing, online fundraising, and social media best practices for nonprofits, NGOs, and charities worldwide.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
The Chronicle of Philanthropy explores the nonprofit world of philanthropy. Based in Washington, DC, their print and online content targets charity leaders, foundation executives, fundraising professionals, and ordinary people involved in philanthropy. The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s blog is dedicated to honest conversations about what works and what doesn’t in the nonprofit sector.
Top Nonprofits
Top Nonprofits was founded to help nonprofits accelerate their growth through sharing information, tools, trends, and best practices. In this blog, you’ll learn about new frontiers in fundraising, best storytelling practices, tips for mission statements, and more!
Wrapping Up: Our Final Tip for Optimizing Your Nonprofit’s Marketing
The bottom line: running a nonprofit blog takes dedication, consistent writing, and a strong marketing strategy. If you follow best practices, your nonprofit will reap benefits like connecting to donors and increasing brand awareness.
Once you’re ready to promote your nonprofit blog, consider working with a trusted expert like Getting Attention. We’ll help you bring new supporters to your website through Google Ad Grant management and make the most of your Google Ad Grant.
Promoting Your Mission: 13 Free Nonprofit Marketing Tools
/in Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Marketing, Nonprofit Tools /by Jessica KingTo further your nonprofit’s cause, you need all kinds of support, including donations, and support from volunteers and members alike. To get that support, people need to be aware of your organization and its goals. That’s why getting the word out about your mission is one of the most important parts of running a successful nonprofit.
If you’re not convinced that marketing is vital for your nonprofit, consider that one in four donors use their mobile devices to discover nonprofits they were previously unaware of. And in 2021, nonprofit email list sizes grew by 7%. This means that potential supporters are interested in learning about and helping your nonprofit—they just need to find you.
To help you upgrade your marketing efforts, this guide will cover the following topics:
Having access to free marketing tools can take a great burden off of small or new nonprofits that are just getting started and may not have the budget to pay for marketing software solutions. However, to use these tools effectively, you must first understand how advertising can help your nonprofit.
What are the Benefits of Nonprofit Marketing?
Promoting your nonprofit brings a variety of benefits. It extends your organization’s reach, resulting in:
To fully leverage the benefits of promoting your nonprofit digitally, you’ll need to put time and effort into creating a thorough marketing strategy. There’s a lot of research and planning involved in a successful marketing campaign, but not to worry—we’ll help you get started with establishing your strategy.
7 Steps for Creating Your Nonprofit Marketing Strategy
For advice on establishing a comprehensive and thoughtful promotional plan, consider these seven steps to creating a successful marketing strategy:
Don’t be discouraged if your strategy isn’t as successful as you want it to be on your first try. Building a nonprofit marketing strategy can be difficult, as there are many different aspects to it that you’ll need to consider. It will take trial and error, and it’s normal for your strategy to need revising.
13 Free Nonprofit Marketing Tools
To help you execute your marketing strategy, we’ll discuss 13 free nonprofit marketing tools you can use and what you can accomplish with them.
1. Google Trends
With Google Trends, you’ll gain a broad understanding of what people are searching on Google in real time. You can use this information to gauge interest in a particular topic. This could be your nonprofit, your cause, or any current events that relate to either.
You’ll also be able to evaluate engagement with your topic of choice in specific locations over time. This can help you determine how popular the topics surrounding your nonprofit’s mission are and form an understanding of your target audience. You can also leverage long-term trending searches in your marketing strategy to garner more support for and awareness of your nonprofit.
2. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is helpful for nonprofits during each stage of establishing their marketing strategy. It allows you to understand your website, your visitors, and their behaviors. Some of the insights you gain from Google Analytics include:
This tool is most helpful for nonprofits who are trying to determine their target audience and decide which digital marketing channels to use. You can also use it to track the success of certain strategies and channels, like Google Ads.
With the insights from Google Analytics, you’ll be able to gain a thorough understanding of your target audience and how they prefer to see communications from your nonprofit. You can also create customized dashboards to keep track of the information you need, which is very helpful for evaluating and tweaking your nonprofit’s marketing strategy.
3. SurveyMonkey
This free nonprofit marketing tool allows you to conveniently create surveys for polling your nonprofit’s audience. Not only can you create surveys to assess attendee satisfaction after events, for example, but you can also leverage this tool to inform your marketing efforts.
With SurveyMonkey, you’ll have access to a library of survey templates that you can build upon and customize to fit your nonprofit’s needs. Make your survey available through web links, email, or embeds on your website. Once you get responses to these surveys, analyze responses with SurveyMonkey’s built-in reports and dashboards.
Like Google Analytics, you can use this free marketing tool to decide on your target audience and which marketing channels to use. However, you can use it to gather more in-depth and detailed information from your nonprofit’s existing supporters to fuel your marketing efforts. For example, use your surveys to ask them about their interests, communication preferences, and what they’d like to see from your organization.
4. Canva
When it comes to developing your nonprofit’s graphics and marketing materials, Canva is the free marketing tool you’ll want to use. To help nonprofits with their advertising efforts, Canva offers free use of its intuitive and convenient premium tools to eligible organizations.
With Canva, you can create a variety of marketing materials to boost mission awareness and recruit support, including:
This tool offers over 75 million images and 3.5 million graphical elements to help you design attractive, professional, and consistent marketing materials for your nonprofit. If you’re unsure of how to effectively utilize graphic design principles to create eye-catching promotional content, don’t worry—Canva also offers over 400,000 customizable templates to get you started.
5. Pexels
“A picture is worth a thousand words” is a common saying, but it’s based on reality. In fact, articles with images have 650% of the engagement of articles without. If you’re interested in leveraging the power of images to engage your audience, consider using Pexels.
This free nonprofit marketing tool is a database of free stock photos and royalty-free images and videos that you can use at no cost. Pexels also encourages creativity by allowing users to modify the photos and videos on their site.
For nonprofits without photographers and videographers, Pexels is a great alternative. While you don’t have sufficient photos and videos of your own, use this tool to liven up your promotional content and make it more visually appealing and engaging.
6. Grammarly
While visuals are important for your nonprofit’s marketing content, your written content is also crucial to creating a compelling message that helps garner more funds and followers. Grammarly is a free nonprofit marketing tool that can help you do that.
Although Grammarly can’t write your content for you, it can act as a proofreader. To ensure your nonprofit presents a professional image to potential supporters, it will review spelling, grammar, punctuation, and clarity errors in your text and suggest fixes. By downloading the Grammarly app and extension, you can write mistake-free in any app you use, including Gmail, Google Docs, Facebook, and more.
If you’re looking for even more in-depth insight into improving your writing, Grammarly’s paid premium service will give you targeted suggestions for clarity, vocabulary, and tone.
7. Typito
Nonprofit video content is a type of marketing material that, when strategically created, can create a great impact on your organization. A recent study found that as many as 91% of consumers want to see more online video content from brands, and another study found that video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year and achieve a 54% increase in brand awareness.
Typito is a free nonprofit marketing tool you can use to create stunning and professional text videos. It has an easy drag-and-drop interface to make the editing process more convenient, so you can have your promotional videos ready to go in no time. Typito also offers the following features:
And, if you ever need any help with your creations, Typito’s support team is ready to help. For nonprofits that are looking to create compelling video content, such as for a social media platform like Youtube or TikTok, this free marketing tool is a stellar choice.
8. Google Ad Grants
When it comes to reaching a wider audience, Google Search Ads is a top tool for organizations of all types. The Google Ad Grant gives eligible nonprofits access to these ads for free by giving them $10,000 of credits to spend on Google Ads. This free funding can make a huge difference for small nonprofits seeking to create a greater impact.
To be a part of the Google Ad Grant program, your nonprofit must be eligible and go through the application process. After you’ve been approved, you’ll set up ad campaigns that help you work towards your greater marketing goals. Effective Google Ad Grants management allows nonprofits to:
Use Google Ad Grants to create compelling advertisements that your target audience will click on. To do so, you’ll need knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO) and keyword research. However, if you have the budget and lack the required experience, consider partnering with a Google Ad Grants agency. These marketing professionals can lend their experience to help you generate the impact you desire.
9. Mailchimp
Email marketing is a tried and true channel for nonprofit advertising. Mailchimp makes that easier for you with a solution built for marketing. With this free nonprofit marketing tool, you can set up automated email campaigns to ensure that you send your messages at the right time. And, it syncs seamlessly with your existing software solutions so you can save time.
Use Mailchimp’s free, pre-built email templates to help you jumpstart your email marketing processes. You’ll have access to tools to help you create content, customize designs, and assess how your content is performing. You can also separate your supporters into different segments, helping you create compelling content that appeals to each unique audience group.
10. Hootsuite
It’s estimated that there are over 4.8 billion social media users worldwide. That alone speaks to social media’s greatest power, which is helping your nonprofit increase its reach and visibility. Hootsuite helps you do that by managing your social media profiles, all in one place.
With Hootsuite, you can:
This nonprofit marketing tool will level up your social media marketing efforts by helping you create high-quality content that appeals to your target audience. Hootsuite offers a free 30-day trial for organizations interested in their Professional and Team plans, but after that, you’ll have to pay a yearly fee to continue using their services.
11. Bitly
Bitly is a free nonprofit marketing tool for creating short links, QR codes, and Link-in-bio pages. They have over 500 thousand paying customers across the globe and 5.7 million monthly users. Their free features include:
You can use Bitly’s features in a variety of ways to aid your marketing efforts. For example, if the URL for your donation page is long and difficult to remember, make it more convenient for potential donors by shortening it. Or, if you’re promoting an event, include a QR code on your posters and flyers so people walking by can easily get more information
Additionally, Bitly also offers advanced analytics and tracking tools to help you easily assess the data from your links and QR codes. You can use these features to evaluate your marketing strategy’s efficacy, helping you identify points that could be improved in the future.
12. WebSite Auditor
This free nonprofit marketing tool does exactly what its name suggests—it audits your website and performs on-page analysis for SEO. Ensuring that your organization’s website is as easy as possible for search engines to crawl through is important to improving your ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs), as this boosts your mission’s visibility.
WebSite Auditor’s free plan allows you to:
Not only that, but it offers easy access to all analytical data for your website and pages within one project. WebSite Auditor gives your nonprofit specific knowledge on how your site can be improved and empowers you to make those changes by giving you actionable insights. It works on any operating system, allowing you to easily evaluate and upgrade your site’s marketing potential.
13. Give Lively
After you’ve put your advertising plan into place and evaluated it, you’ll need to decide which improvements to make. Ask yourself, what changes would help your marketing strategy fulfill its purpose? One of the ways you can improve your strategy is by using a dedicated fundraising platform like Give Lively.
Entirely free for nonprofits, Give Lively offers digital, event, and peer-based fundraising features that will help your organization raise the funds you need. This software solution enhances your marketing strategy with these features:
If the goal of your advertising strategy is to increase your fundraising capability, Give Lively is the free marketing tool that will upgrade your marketing efforts. To use this software solution, you need to be a U.S. based 501(c)(3) public charity. You’ll apply to become a member, and Give Lively will accept your membership if you align with their values statement.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit marketing can be just as complex and difficult as marketing for for-profit organizations. Luckily, there are a variety of free marketing tools available that your organization can use to reach your goals.
There are a lot of choices, and you might feel overwhelmed by them. Just remember that the first step is to establish your marketing plan—after that, do thorough research and select the tools that will help you achieve your goals.
If you’re interested in learning more about nonprofit marketing, take a look at the following resources:
3 Easy Steps to Effectively Advertise Your Fundraising 5K
/in Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Marketing /by Jessica KingPicture this: you’re rallying your coworkers, friends, and family to join your local business’ fundraising 5K to raise money for a cause near your heart. Whether protecting animal rights or conserving the land where you grew up, you want to involve as many people as possible.
However, it might feel overwhelming if you’re new to promoting social good causes. You might ask questions like, “How do I leverage my existing connections?” and “How can I reach more people faster?” To help you get started, we’ve drafted three easy steps to advertise your fundraising 5K:
By following these steps, you can build a reliable community of supporters that you can continue to grow even after your race ends. Let’s dive in!
1. Build a dedicated event website
Your event website acts as your “home base” for all things related to your fundraising 5K. It should be the first place supporters can count on to find the most up-to-date information about your upcoming event. An effective website will include elements such as:
To bring your website to the next level, you might consider posting relevant blog posts to convince your visitors to stick around. You can cover topics like The 5 Best Pre-Run Meals or How and Why You Should Recycle Old Running Shoes. You can link to these topics on social media and invite guest contributors to share their thoughts.
2. Leverage social media
Did you know that almost 60% of Gen Z are inspired to donate by a message or image they saw on social media? That means that social media should be essential to your overall marketing plan. The main channels to consider include Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms, and it can help your fundraising with dedicated event page features, page creation capabilities, and sharing features. It’s also a great platform to share your fundraising results following your 5K. Twitter makes real-time reactions and updates easy with short messaging and retweetability.
In many ways, Instagram is an ideal platform to make your pre-event journey come to life because of its visual storytelling capabilities. To make full use of this channel, consider posting engaging content like:
For the best social media marketing results, begin posting regularly at least a month or two in advance and maintain a consistent schedule. When you come closer to your event, post more frequent countdowns, relevant updates, and any final instructions. Engage with comments and direct participants to your website for any updates that need to be fleshed out in more detail.
3. Connect with Your Local Community
Aside from leveraging digital channels, you can advertise for your cause by connecting with your local community. Most likely, at least a few organizations would be interested in participating in or sponsoring your 5K.
Sneakers4Good suggests reaching out to the following groups to spread the word and expand your existing running community:
To increase community awareness, your team could also post flyers in local parks, gyms, and other fitness centers. Kwala’s guide to fundraising flyers offers plenty of design inspiration. Just be sure to include your event details, social media links, and website information for interested members to get involved.
Using a combination of digital and community outreach, you can effectively promote your fundraising 5K. Whenever possible, look for ways to combine your digital and in-person worlds to create a more integrated marketing strategy.
For example, you can include QR codes on printed flyers that link to your registration page. Or, you could invite your online followers to join an in-person training session to prepare for the race. These strategies will let participants get to know one another and help you reach more people faster. You’ve got this!
Top 10 Online Donation Tools That Help Nonprofits Raise More
/in Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Fundraising, Nonprofit Tools /by Jessica KingOnline donations are a growing source of revenue for nonprofits, with 63% of donors saying they prefer to give online. From small grassroots organizations to large international charities, nonprofits are turning to online donation tools to make it easier for donors to give and to help raise more funds for their causes.
However, with so many donation tools available, each with its own unique features, pricing, and benefits, it can be difficult to decide which ones to invest in.
In this guide, we’ll highlight the top 10 online donation tools that help nonprofits streamline their donation process and raise more: Read more
Charity Marketing: How to Spread Your Nonprofit’s Message
/in Nonprofit Marketing /by Jessica KingNonprofits focus a majority of their resources on fulfilling their missions, but to gain those resources in the first place, charitable organizations need to improve their marketing. Through charity marketing, nonprofits can raise awareness of their cause, bring in new supporters, and earn the donations that fuel their initiatives.
Of course, running a marketing campaign for any organization can quickly become a full-time job. Fortunately, nonprofit professionals don’t need a degree in marketing to understand the basics of how to reach their audience and inspire them to give. Instead, they just need creativity, a deep understanding of their supporters, and a few tools to help manage their campaigns.
To break down the potential complications of running a marketing campaign, this guide will explore the ins and outs of charity marketing, including:
Let’s first look at the basics of charity marketing before exploring how to launch your own campaign.
Charity Marketing FAQ
A marketing campaign is ultimately as complex as your organization makes it. Of course, those new to marketing are likely to have a few questions about what’s normal for promotional campaigns in the nonprofit sector.
What is charity marketing?
Charity marketing is essentially advertising for your nonprofit. It consists of all of the external promotional content your nonprofit develops for the purpose of attracting new donors and persuading them to support you.
Is charity marketing worth the return on investment?
All nonprofits engaging in charity marketing should aim to make a positive return on investment (ROI). However, different nonprofits will approach their marketing strategy with different goals. For example, a new nonprofit may be wholly focused on spreading awareness and attracting new supporters, whereas a more established organization might be more interested in encouraging new donors to make their second gift, increasing their retention rate.
Throughout your marketing campaign, track your expenses and the conversions you can presumably attribute to your marketing. Some third-party marketing agencies that cater specifically to nonprofits offer discounted services, which can also help improve your ROI.
How much should nonprofits spend on charity marketing?
Charity marketing is part of a nonprofit’s overhead expenses, which common nonprofit management advice states should total around 35% of a nonprofit’s budget at maximum. Of course, how much of that 35% is dedicated to marketing will depend on your organization’s size, marketing needs, and other ongoing costs.
To provide a general estimate of what is normal, studies on nonprofit advertisement report that approximately 60% of nonprofits that earn between $1-$10 million in annual revenue have dedicated marketing budgets with a median budget of $12,000. Of course, in this study were both organizations that had no dedicated marketing budget and organizations that spent over $500,000 annually on marketing.
For your organization, assess your budget to consider what revenue you have to dedicate to marketing and what ROI you hope to make with the funds you allocate.
How to Build Your Charity Marketing Plan
A charity marketing plan is a living document nonprofit teams use as a guide to determine what marketing materials to create, when and how these materials should be shared with their audience, and what they hope to achieve by sharing those materials.
The bedrock of this document is your nonprofit’s audience and your team’s knowledge of what that audience is looking for from your nonprofit. Here’s a breakdown of the first steps you should take in creating your charity marketing plan:
Determine your value proposition.
In the business world, marketers assess their product and determine why a potential customer would want to buy it. They consider the product’s features and benefits, how it differs from competitors’ products, and what needs a customer would have fulfilled by the product. Through this assessment, they establish their product’s value proposition.
When establishing your value proposition, consider your branding. What does your nonprofit do differently from others? For example, you might:
Then, consider how giving to your cause benefits your supporters. Some organizations may be able to articulate an indirect benefit. For example, environmental organizations might explain how donating to their cause helps protect future generations. In contrast, an animal shelter might instead appeal to a supporter’s emotional side. Their emotional appeals instead seek to make donors feel better about themselves by giving.
If you’re unsure what your value proposition is, consider the greater value your nonprofit aims to bring your community. Then, consider your audience so you can communicate that value in a way that will appeal to them.
Define your audience.
Nonprofit marketers who are passionate about their organization’s cause might feel that their audience should be anyone who is capable of making a donation. While broad appeals can help you cast a wide net, marketing messages that are meant to inspire everyone often end up vague and inspire few.
Determining who your audience is and what types of messages will appeal to that audience is arguably the most important step in your marketing plan.
Define the audience you hope to market to by first considering the audience you already have. Use your donor data to identify common characteristics your supporters share, such as their demographic data, connection to your cause, and giving level.
During this process, you will likely discover several smaller audiences within your supporter base. For example, your audiences might include local retirees who regularly give by mail, donors who work at a business that held a corporate volunteer day with your nonprofit, and young activists who give in small amounts but help promote your programs on social media and show up for advocacy events.
When you identify these groups, you can simplify your marketing efforts by creating personas.
Personas are hypothetical individuals who stand in for the audience they represent. Because it’s much easier to market to one person than an entire group, personas are a useful tool for envisioning what types of messages will appeal to your audience as a whole. To better imagine these personas, create profiles that include the following information:
These are the basics, but the more information you can include about your personas, the better. For example, you might expand on their hobbies, fears, and prior knowledge about your cause. This information will help you craft marketing materials that interest them and continue to engage them once they become regular donors.
Set a marketing goal.
Decide what you want your marketing campaign to accomplish. For most nonprofits, their marketing goal will include a specific revenue goal and target ROI. You can calculate your target ROI with this equation:
For example, let’s say your nonprofit aims to make $10,000 in donations through a recent digital fundraising campaign. The total expenses for buying online ad space, paying monthly subscription costs for marketing tools, and paying graphic designers to develop marketing materials are $2,000 for simplicity. This would be a 500% ROI, which most nonprofits would agree is highly desirable.
However, keep in mind that there may be additional hidden costs associated with your marketing campaign. For example, consider the salaries of your marketing team members and the time they dedicated to this marketing campaign that theoretically could have been used elsewhere. Additionally, the nonprofit only achieves this ROI if it hit its revenue target.
Determine your marketing goals by setting a budget and considering what is realistic for your nonprofit to achieve based on past fundraisers and your current resources.
Create marketing materials.
Marketing campaigns need marketing materials. For most nonprofits, this will mean working with a creative team (or even multiple teams) who can develop the needed graphics and written copy that will appeal to your audience through flyers, social media posts, or any other materials you create.
However, before reaching out to potential graphic designers, consider what materials you should produce in the first place. If you aren’t sure what platforms to use or what types of appeals are right for your campaign, refer back to your audience personas.
Considering the personas we created earlier, Carol and Nate, our hypothetical nonprofit knows it needs to create direct mail appeals that will reassure its older supporters and attention-grabbing social media posts that let donors with a lower giving capacity potentially spread your message to someone who can make a sizable donation.
Additionally, prepare your brand assets so your internal creative team or the external contractors you hire can provide materials that fit your nonprofit’s identity. The more details and assets you can provide at the early iterative design stages, the more likely your creative team is to get it right on the first few tries.
Analyze your results in real-time.
Modern nonprofit technology allows your marketing team to monitor responses to your campaign as they happen. For instance, you can see social media engagement as soon as it happens and use tracking links to determine where traffic to your donation page is coming from.
Throughout your campaign, stay on top of these results to identify both opportunities and challenges. For example, you might find that engagement isn’t as high on one social media platform as you would have hoped. However, you notice links in your emails are having a higher clickthrough rate than your last campaign.
In this situation, you might spend less time designing content for the underperforming social media site and instead focus on boosting engagement through email by adding interactive polls or sharing information about one-click donation upgrades.
8 Charity Marketing Ideas
Once you have a clear audience and goal, it’s time to get creative and start brainstorming marketing ideas. To help inspire your team, here are eight tested charity marketing ideas:
1. Explore Google Ad Grants.
Google Ad Grants are funds Google awards to 501(c)(3) organizations that can be put toward launching ad campaigns on Google. Advertisements on Google appear at the top of the search results page for relevant keywords, and the Google Ad Grant provides nonprofits with $10,000 of monthly spending for these campaigns.
The Google Ad Grant can be used to promote almost any page on your nonprofit’s website. As such, you can focus your ad campaigns on spreading awareness, attracting new donors, recruiting volunteers, informing constituents about your services, or promoting your ongoing campaign.
After choosing your goal, consider what related keywords your target audiences are most likely to search for. Try to choose long-tail, less competitive keywords to put your ads in front of the most relevant audience possible.
2. Launch a multi-channel campaign.
It’s estimated that a business needs approximately eight touchpoints with a customer before they make a sale. This principle also applies to charity marketing, and also like for-profit businesses, you can create these touchpoints through multi-channel marketing.
Multi-channel marketing is an outreach method where an organization promotes itself through multiple communication channels. For your nonprofit, these channels might include:
Keep in mind that while marketing on multiple platforms is effective, it is also time-consuming and resource-intensive. Generally, marketing is more effective when you prioritize quality over quantity, so if your organization needs to cut back, consider focusing deeply on a few channels rather than shallowly on all of them.
3. Experiment with peer-to-peer fundraising.
One of the strongest marketing channels is word-of-mouth. Supporters who believe in your organization are happy to talk about it with their friends and family. Leverage this passion by hosting a peer-to-peer campaign.
Peer-to-peer campaigns are fundraisers where a group of volunteers promote your nonprofit and collect donations on your behalf. These campaigns can have a deadline or operate on a rolling basis based on your volunteers’ availability.
Peer-to-peer fundraising is especially effective when paired with other fundraising drives. For example, you might add a peer-to-peer component to your charity marketing during Giving Tuesday when many people are already thinking about donating. With so many causes competing for their attention, they’re far more likely to act on a call to action issued by a trusted friend or family member than from an organization they’re unfamiliar with.
4. Host events.
Charity marketing often struggles with finding a reason why supporters should donate now. With events, you can give your supporters something to get excited about while also creating the perfect opportunity to make a donation.
With modern technology, events are also flexible, and each format has its own benefits:
Events should be packed with fun activities, entertainment, and opportunities for guests to socialize. However, make sure your nonprofit’s purpose is front and center, so attendees both have a good time and understand the importance of giving to your cause.
5. Use marketing software.
To manage all of your campaign’s moving parts, invest in marketing software. Marketing tools vary widely in purpose, from automating routine tasks and organizing data to allowing you to connect with supporters in entirely new ways.
Consider how you want to reach out to supporters and list what types of technology would help you enact your strategies. Then, begin researching top marketing solutions, like:
You can also choose a unified marketing solution like Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud, which comes with basic features and can be further expanded and customized as the nonprofit needs. Solutions like Salesforce work best for large and growing organizations that need tools developed for their specific workflows. By contrast, smaller organizations can save on subscription fees and developer costs by choosing a solution with more out-of-the-box features.
6. Cultivate existing relationships
Did you know that acquiring new supporters sometimes costs 50% – 100% more than the amount the nonprofit collects from these new supporters? To avoid a net loss for your organization, make sure you’re balancing donor acquisition with donor retention.
After all, marketing is about more than just acquiring new support. In the long run, successful nonprofit marketing should also increase donor retention.
Take steps now to foster existing relationships and avoid breaking your budget. Here are some practical ways you can cultivate your existing relationships:
When you take time to prioritize your donor relationships, it shows that you care about the donor and genuinely appreciate them. This will go a long way for both your donor retention efforts and word-of-mouth marketing as people want to give where they know they will feel appreciated.
7. Create videos and other engaging content.
Stand out from the crowd by changing up your marketing strategy with compelling infographics, bold photos, and attention-grabbing videos. Video especially has become increasingly important for charity marketing, with research showing that viewers are 52% more likely to share video with friends and family than other types of content.
To create videos, your nonprofit can work with a third-party video production company or attempt to develop them in-house.
When working with an external agency, you can be assured that they will have high-quality cameras, microphones, and editing software to develop professional videos. Video production agencies also have access to assets that can elevate your videos, such as music, experience directing, and knowledge of film production fundamentals, like shot framing, color grading, and sound editing.
Of course, video production can also be expensive. Making videos yourself is likely to be less expensive, though you will potentially need to invest in the necessary filmmaking tools as an upfront investment. While your videos do not need to be movie-quality, at least go the extra mile to ensure your videos have clear audio to make your message easy to hear and understand.
8. Offer additional services.
Many nonprofits can overcome the challenge of not having a product to give in return for donations with an obvious solution: offer a product or service. Consider what assets—such as surplus funds, extra available space, staff with diverse skill sets, or any other resources—your nonprofit has and if they can be turned into a product or service. Here are just a few examples of what your nonprofit could potentially sell to donors:
While the idea of making a profit similar to for-profit businesses may sound strange at first, earning revenue through marketing a service is very normal in the nonprofit sector when taking nonprofit organizations like hospitals, universities, and museums into account.
Launch Your Charity Marketing Campaign
Charity marketing brings in the revenue your nonprofit needs to fuel your mission. Launching a marketing campaign is often a major undertaking, and your first step is to conduct research on your audience, competitors’ strategies, and standard marketing practices to give your team the knowledge they need to find success.
To help kickstart your research, continue exploring Getting Attention’s library of resources on the ins and outs of charity marketing:
Top Nonprofit Marketing Trends to Inform Your Strategy
/in Nonprofit Communications /by Jessica KingThe world of marketing, especially digital marketing, is constantly adapting to consumer preferences. That means that you cannot afford to structure your nonprofit’s strategy in a vacuum—you’ll need to keep pace with the changing landscape that the diverse world of marketing presents.
As you build your strategy, you’ll need to keep that in mind as you plan to make the most of your available budget, tools, and efforts. In this guide, we’ll help you do just that by exploring recent nonprofit marketing trends and giving tips on how you can adapt your strategy to stay relevant.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
At Getting Attention, we help nonprofits diversify their marketing strategy with the power of the Google Ad Grant. While this Grant is explored in a trend later, keep in mind that it’s a valuable tool to add to your current strategy. That said, let’s take a closer look at why your nonprofit should stay on top of marketing trends.
Why Trends Matter for Your Nonprofit Marketing Strategy
It can be tempting to choose your favorite marketing channels and stick to them for all your advertising activities. After all, just because it’s “trendy” to pursue a certain marketing technique doesn’t mean it’s the right move for your organization, does it?
Short answer: yes and no. While there might be consequences to following a trend that does not quite match your nonprofit’s image, there are also consequences for not staying up to date with trends. To offer some perspective, nonprofits who maximize current, relevant trends can experience:
Following relevant trends can have a positive impact on your nonprofit’s health. Let’s take a closer look at which channels to monitor for upcoming trends.
Nonprofit Marketing Channels: An Overview
A 2022 HubSpot survey of over 1,200 marketers found that 80% said marketing has changed more in the last three years than in the last 50. That’s a lot of change, but which channels have been the most affected? The top channels you should keep an eye on are as follows:
We’ll explore each of these in the coming sections in addition to examining how strategies such as personalization and user-generated content impact the effectiveness of each channel.
Top Nonprofit Marketing Trends to Watch
Changes in the Social Media Marketing Mix
Social media marketing has been a dominant marketing channel for a few years now—a whopping 4.9 billion people worldwide identify as active social media users.
However, the preferred channels within social media have gone back and forth between Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and now TikTok. As of 2023, here’s where each social media channel stands as measured by monthly active users:
Active social media user counts:
Although ranking the smallest, TikTok is used by 42% of marketers and ties for 2nd with YouTube and Instagram as a top ROI-generating platform. This means that TikTok’s popularity is projected to rise in the coming years.
Here are ways you can leverage social media marketing:
Email Marketing is Swaying
Only a quarter of nonprofit email recipients open their emails. That means that there are inboxes full of unopened communications from your nonprofit. However, before you ditch your email newsletter, think about ways you can make it more engaging for your specific audience.
Here are ways you can increase interest in your emails:
User-Generated Content is Making Waves
About 90% of consumers report that user-generated content (UGC) influences their buying decisions more than marketing emails and even search engine results. UGC refers to any form of content created and shared by users based on their experiences with your nonprofit. For example, a new volunteer might post a short “a day in the life of a Humane Society volunteer” describing their daily tasks like walking dogs or organizing pet food.
UGC comes across as more genuine and credible than content posted by your organization. This is because people tend to trust people more than they trust organizations. Therefore, your marketing strategy should look for ways to make UGC the norm.
This means you’ll need to connect with your audience in a way that facilitates two-way communication. Thus incorporating more opportunities for “earned media” to build up credibility.
Here are ways you can encourage UGC:
Video Marketing is Now a Must-Have
Video marketing is becoming the standard as 93% of global Internet users watch digital videos each week and 73% of consumers prefer to watch a short video to learn about a product or service.
Leverage this trend by creating compelling video content. For instance, rather than simply sharing an impact report with your donors, send them a video showing the impact they’ve made on your beneficiaries.
Here are tips to create engaging video content:
Personalization Still Matters
Message personalization has been around for a while and it’s not going anywhere as 72% of consumers claim that they respond to marketing messages crafted to their choices. That means you’ll need to keep a pulse on your supporter preferences and tailor your messaging in a way that communicates that you value their contributions.
Here are ways you can personalize your messaging:
Search Ads Can Revolutionize Your Strategy
Did you know that Google controls 92% of the search engine market share? This means that investing in Google ads can have a significant positive impact on your nonprofit’s revenue generation. Luckily Google has provided a program tailor-made for nonprofits—the Google Ad Grants Program.
Since 2003, the Google Ad Grants program has provided $10 billion in free advertising to more than 115,000 nonprofits across 51 countries. This program can launch your content straight to the top of Google’s search results so that more people find you faster.
The Google Ad Grant offers:
Website SEO Marketing is Essential
Your website is the centerpiece of your marketing strategy. In fact, 60% of marketers say that inbound marketing (SEO, blog content, etc.) is their highest source of qualified leads. It’s no different for nonprofits—your website must be optimized for search engines to get the most out of your online presence.
An essential part of optimizing your website is focusing on publishing quality content. When creating content use the EEAT acronym: experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness. Following this framework will get both search engines and supporters on your side.
Here are ways you can boost your SEO:
AI Isn’t Going Anywhere
Recent research indicates that chatbots and other advanced AI technologies are here to stay. With an ever-evolving market, your nonprofit needs to learn how to leverage these tools to connect with supporters. However, bear in mind that nonprofit connections are distinctly personal and human, so use AI as a tool to refine your communications rather than as a direct replacement.
Slowly incorporate AI into your marketing workflows and assess how it can streamline your tasks. That way, you’ll have more time to research and implement new marketing strategies.
Here are ways you can use AI:
Consider how each of these trends can inform your current marketing strategy as you look for new ways to engage your audience. Track your progress as you adopt each strategy and know that not every microtrend requires immediate action.
How to Select Which Nonprofit Marketing Trends to Follow
The above trends are redefining nonprofit marketing communications and your organization should research and adopt as many as possible to sharpen your strategy.
Of course, In an ideal world, every marketing effort you invest in would produce increased funds, long-term support, and greater general awareness. However, because your resources are limited, you’re going to need to know how to sufficiently allocate them for the best marketing results. Additionally, you’ll want to choose trends that resonate with your audience, expand your supporter base, and/or increase the efficiency of your day-to-day marketing operations.
To know which trends to focus on, ask yourself these five questions:
Conclusion + Additional Resources
The development of new technologies results in more ways to connect with your supporters than ever before. That means your organization needs to consistently research and adapt your marketing strategy to stay relevant in an ever-changing environment.
As you adjust your strategy, check out these resources to keep learning:
Facebook Challenges: Social Media Fundraising for Nonprofits
/in Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Fundraising, Nonprofit Marketing /by Jessica KingSocial media has proven to be an effective fundraising tool for nonprofits. Its popularity maximizes the online visibility of a nonprofit’s cause and reaches wider audiences than possible via other marketing channels. With Facebook, your nonprofit can take the power of social media a step further with a peer-to-peer initiative that raises funds and awareness through engaging challenges.
In this guide, we’ll explore the basics of Facebook Challenges for nonprofits and how these organizations can leverage social media to raise funds for their missions:
According to 360MatchPro’s fundraising statistics, “of those inspired to give via social media, 56% were most impacted by Facebook posts.” Are you ready to unlock the full potential of this platform and garner the support of those social media donors? Let’s begin with some background on Facebook Challenges.
What are Facebook Challenges?
Have you ever seen a movie where the main character was dared by his friends to do something outrageous? Think about the impact of that activity on the plot of the movie—did the characters get themselves in a bind because of the dare? Did a chain of events follow that impacted the storyline?
Take that impact and multiply it by the reach of digital platforms like social media. Most times, when someone is dared to do something, they follow through with it. When these challenges are posted for everyone to see, people are even more pressured to participate.
In a Facebook Challenge, nonprofits challenge Facebook users to complete an activity and post their progress or results on social media. The activities are launched to raise awareness and donations for a nonprofit’s cause. Here’s how it works:
Don’t think of Facebook Challenges as a simple fundraiser or advocacy strategy—these activities can deeply engage donors by urging them to take action (in more ways than one)! Let’s take a closer look at everything you’ll need to do to start a Facebook Challenge.
How to Start a Facebook Challenge
Now that you know the basics of a Facebook Challenge, let’s review the steps to get started with this fundraising tool:
1. Plan your Facebook Challenge.
First, your nonprofit should prepare for its Facebook Challenge by planning the logistics of the fundraiser. You’ll need to establish:
Remember that your Facebook Challenge is one element of your overall marketing strategy. As you plan the activity and duration, think about how the challenge will fit in with the rest of your fundraising initiatives.
After establishing the basics of your challenge, you’ll need to prepare the rest of your team. Staff members and volunteers must be on the same page about your fundraiser and the goal of the challenge, especially when they’re advocating on behalf of your nonprofit.
2. Create Facebook Ads.
Use Facebook’s resources to develop advertisements that will promote your fundraiser and nonprofit. All you’ll need to create Facebook Ads are:
Facebook’s algorithm will combine the images and text to create ads for you. Then, these advertisements will show up on Facebook users’ feeds. Although this is a helpful way to spread the word about your fundraiser, you’ll need to do some marketing of your own, as well. That’s where your nonprofit’s website comes in!
3. Create an event landing page.
Your nonprofit’s website hosts the most important information about all your other fundraisers, so it only makes sense that you’d include information about your Facebook Challenge there, too. It’s a great resource for providing more information about the challenge and its progress.
When creating your landing page, ensure it’s optimized for mobile use. That way, your supporters can switch straight from the Facebook app to their phone browser without missing a beat. You should also include the following information about your challenge:
Not only does this encourage viewers to engage in the challenge but it can draw in larger audiences when your website receives new visitors. Plus, if your nonprofit leverages the Google Ad Grant, you’re already on the right track to promote your website (and challenge)!
The program can be a significant undertaking, so it may be helpful to recruit Getting Attention’s help to manage your Google Ad Grant. That way, you can focus on sharing social media posts while your Google Ads do the work for your website.
4. Start a Facebook group.
Instead of simply providing your supporters with information, invite open communication by establishing a way for them to get in touch with your organization. Create a Facebook group to bring all your participants together—staff members, volunteers, supporters, and people who have never even heard of your cause!
5. Write fundraiser templates.
As your challenge is passed along from Facebook user to Facebook user, it’s likely the message won’t stay quite the same. Unfamiliarity with your message is both an opportunity to educate new audiences and a pitfall that can be overcome with fundraiser templates!
A fundraiser template is a ready-made message that Facebook users can copy and paste to post when they participate in and share your challenge. To effectively spread the word about your cause, the message should include:
Then, let the participation begin! The challenge will soon carry itself after you finish setting it up because the peer-to-peer nature of the fundraiser follows a cycle:
After the challenge is shared, more Facebook users will click on the ad and participate or donate. Just let the cycle repeat itself for the duration of your Facebook challenge!
Facebook Challenge Ideas for Nonprofits
Some Facebook Challenges relate to the organization’s mission, such as the American Heart Association’s 60 Miles in June in Honor Challenge. Others are a little more random, like the Ice Bucket Challenge, which involved dumping a bucket of ice over someone’s head to support research on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
Whether your nonprofit wants to promote an activity related to its cause or simply start a fun challenge that will also raise money and awareness, there’s a Facebook Challenge for everyone! Check out these types of challenges to help your brainstorming.
Philanthropic challenges
No matter the activity of your challenge, you’ll ultimately want to garner support from a larger audience. Encourage participants to complete a philanthropic challenge in support of your cause, such as:
These types of challenges allow for some flexibility since there are numerous ways participants could volunteer their time or show kindness to others. Sometimes this flexibility can be nice, but be sure to set reasonable parameters for your challenge so that the activity is recognizable and tied to your fundraising initiative.
Fitness challenges
Physical activity can be quite the challenge—and not just as a fundraising initiative on Facebook! Few activities are quite as taxing as fitness challenges, and your supporters will put their athleticism to the test when they engage in these challenges:
Fitness challenges are typically measured by distance or time. For example, you could challenge supporters to run ten miles or run for ten minutes. The ten-mile race might be a one-time challenge, whereas the time-based activity could be repeated every day, such as by running for ten minutes daily.
Dietary challenges
Much like fitness challenges, dietary challenges are a great way to encourage supporters to improve their lifestyles. You can take several approaches to dietary challenges:
Take a creative approach to dietary challenges by allowing supporters to make their own choices. For example, if a Facebook user wants to improve their hydration by drinking more water daily, they might explain their choice and share their progress in a post.
Comedic challenges
Challenges are difficult by nature—make it lighthearted with an activity that’s a little goofy! Comedic challenges can be anything you find entertaining, but some great ideas include:
The opportunities are endless when it comes to comedic Facebook challenges. Think of fun, wacky ways for users to show their support and turn it into a challenge!
Conclusion and Additional Resources
Facebook Challenges can be highly advantageous if your nonprofit plans and executes them correctly! Use your creativity to craft a fun Facebook Challenge that your social media followers won’t be able to resist. For more help brainstorming, ask your supporters for their input. As the ones participating in the activity, they’ll have the best ideas for appealing challenges.
If you’re interested in learning more about promoting your nonprofit organization’s cause, check out the following resources:
Google Ad Grants for Churches: A Guide to the Basics
/in Google Ad Grants, Nonprofit Communications /by Jessica KingJust like any other nonprofit organization, churches and religious groups need the support of their communities. Not only does this support allow them to share their devotion to their faith, but it also helps them collect tithes and other charitable gifts to fund their worship, programs, and outreach. To garner such support, your church and its need for funding must be adequately advertised.
Businesses and corporations often buy Google Ads to spread the word about their products and gain customers. With the Google Ad Grant, nonprofits such as your church or religious group can do the same for free!
In this article, we’ll cover the following topics to help you get started with Google Ad Grants:
Let’s begin by learning more about what Google Ads are and why your church or religious group should use them.
What are Google Ads?
Google Ads are the search results that appear at the top of Google search results pages (SERPs) labeled “sponsored.”
Businesses buy the right to automatically display their ads when users search for specific keywords. By using Google Ads, businesses can increase web traffic and product purchases.
Businesses in all fields and of all sizes buy Google Ads. This means that between bidding on valuable keywords and competing with corporate giants, purchasing Google Ads can get expensive. Advertisers are charged each time their ad is displayed to a user, which can add up fast.
Fortunately, as part of their corporate social responsibility efforts, Google has made Google Ads completely free to nonprofits (such as your church) via the Google Ad Grant.
What is the Google Ad Grant?
The Google Ad Grant allows nonprofit organizations, including churches and religious groups, to use Google Ads for free. By participating in this program, your church will be given $10,000 in free monthly ad credits to spend on Google Search Ads.
With these funds, you can create sponsored ads and bid on relevant keywords. Keywords have various price points, and your monthly ad credits will be spent “purchasing” the ability to have your ads shown when a user enters your target keywords.
For example, let’s say you want to bid on the keyword “Bible studies.” You would create an ad relevant to Bible studies, such as one for your religious group’s online store. Then, you would select “Bible studies” as the target keyword for that ad and choose to bid on it.
However, your organization is not the only one bidding on this keyword. Other organizations looking to promote their Bible studies may also bid on this or similar keywords and pay for their ad to be shown when the keyword is searched. This is why you might notice that search results ad change even when you search the same term repeatedly.
With the Google Ad Grant, you have $10,000 of free ad credits to spend on these keyword auctions each month. If you run out of funds before the end of the month (though most nonprofits usually have trouble spending all of their ad credits!) you can pay to continue bidding on your target keywords.
Are churches eligible for the Google Ad Grant?
Yes, churches and religious groups are eligible for the Google Ad Grant! The only types of nonprofit organizations that are ineligible for this program are government entities, schools, and healthcare-related nonprofits.
To be eligible for the Google Ad Grant, your church must:
Before applying for the Google Ad Grant, read over all the program policies to ensure that your church is compliant or can make the necessary changes to be compliant. In most cases, this will usually mean giving your website a refresh in order to ensure you have valuable content that’s worth promoting via the Google Ad Grant.
What are the benefits of using Google Ad Grants for churches?
Applying for and using the Google Ad Grant brings many benefits. The Google Ad Grant allows churches to:
Through the Google Ad Grant, you can convert online users to new congregation members, event attendees, and donors. Ultimately, implementing Google Ads into your church’s marketing strategy can help you bring in more funds that you can use to maintain your church and give back to the community.
You can also hire an external church marketing agency to maximize these benefits. These professionals can write compelling ads and keep your account compliant with the program’s rules.
How can your church apply for Google Ad Grants?
Applying for the Google Ad Grant is a smooth and short process, especially in comparison to other grants. However, there is still a list of steps that your church or religious organization must complete before you can be approved for the program. Those steps are:
While straightforward, there’s an important in-between step that can determine whether your church is accepted into the Google Ad Grant program: optimize your website! Google wants to extend Google Ad Grant funds to organizations that will promote high-quality content that Google users will be happy to click on.
Before starting your Google Ad Grant application, assess your website. Here’s a quick checklist for preparing your website for the Google Ad Grant:
After you complete these steps and are accepted into the Google Ad Grants program, you’ll be able to build ad campaigns that support your mission and grow your congregation. You’ll need to actively manage your church’s account to ensure that you’re driving meaningful impact.
How can I optimize Google Ad Grants for my church?
1. Work with a Google Ad Grants agency.
Maintaining your church’s Google Ad Grants account can be time-consuming, especially when you consider the research and knowledge you need to ensure that your ads are successful.
Fortunately, you can turn to professionals, like Getting Attention, to help your church maximize the impact of its grant.
Some common services that we and other Google Ad Grant agencies offer include:
Agencies like Getting Attention bring years of professional experience and knowledge of the Google Ad Grant to our clients’ accounts. In fact, we’re even certified by Google as a trusted vendor! By choosing to partner with a Google Grant agency like us, your church won’t have to do the heavy lifting. The professionals will take care of your account and ensure you see the results you desire.
2. Access the Google Ad Grants Help Community.
If you have questions about using the Google Ad Grant, chances are you’re not alone and another organization has wondered the same thing. Leverage other nonprofits’ experience with the Google Ad Grant through Google’s Help Community.
The Google Help Community consists of guides created by Google and user-submitted questions. If you’re ever unsure about any aspect of your Google account, check in to see frequently asked questions and featured posts detailing any changes to the program. For example, Google provides a page with tips for Google Ad Grants success that your church or religious group can access.
If you can’t find a post answering your question, create a post of your own! Representatives from other nonprofits will weigh in and share their experience, and Google Ad Grants certified professionals might also jump in to help.
3. Implement SEO best practices.
Google Ads leapfrog your church’s content to the top of search results pages, but to ensure you’re putting the right content in front of the right users, you’ll need to follow search engine optimization (SEO) fundamentals.
The first step towards SEO optimization is thorough keyword research. The keywords you choose dictate who your ads are shown to, so make sure you pick search terms your target audience is likely to use. Then, incorporate those keywords into:
By following SEO best practices, you might even start to see your church’s website ranking among regular search results. These organic rankings appear below ads but still receive lots of clicks, especially if they are on the first page of search results. This means you drive free traffic to your website through the Google Ad Grant and free traffic without spending ad credits!
Conclusion and Additional Resources
The Google Ad Grant is a worthwhile program for churches, but to make the most out of the program, consider whether your staff members can effectively manage the grant. Are they able to do the necessary research into SEO, keywords, and your target audience? Do they have experience in website optimization and an understanding of digital marketing?
If the answer to these questions is no, don’t be discouraged. Consider partnering with a professional Google Ad Grant agency, which will handle all things related to the program for you.
If you’d like to learn more about how the Google Ad Grant can help your church, take a look at the following resources:
A Smart Guide to Volunteer Recruitment: 18 Proven Strategies
/in Nonprofit Communications, Volunteers /by Jessica KingNonprofits of all shapes and sizes rely on volunteers to continue fulfilling their mission day after day. Whether they’re helping shelter animals find their forever homes or setting up fundraising events, volunteers provide their time and skills to amplify your organization’s impact.
In its latest Value of Volunteer Time report, Independent Sector estimates that each U.S. volunteer’s hour is worth $33.49. To secure such valuable support for your nonprofit, however, you’ll need a clear strategy for how to recruit volunteers.
In this guide, we’ll walk through the fundamentals of volunteer recruitment and provide effective strategies to boost your results:
With the right approach, you’ll be able to recruit dedicated supporters to further your mission. Let’s get started!
Volunteer Recruitment: FAQs
Before your organization starts crafting its own volunteer recruitment plan, it’s essential to first understand the basics of the process. Let’s explore a few frequently asked questions to break down how to recruit volunteers for your nonprofit.
What is volunteer recruitment?
Volunteer recruitment is the process of attracting new volunteers to support your nonprofit’s work in a variety of ways, from fundraising to advocating for your cause. Since there are so many organizations calling for volunteers in emails, social media posts, and even text messages, it’s critical to figure out how you’ll stand out from the crowd.
The ideal candidates for your nonprofit’s volunteer program are passionate about your mission and committed to making a difference in the lives of those you serve. By optimizing your volunteer recruitment efforts, you’ll be able to build a strong volunteer base to power your organization’s impact.
Why is volunteer recruitment important?
Volunteers are vital to your nonprofit’s ability to fulfill its mission. Therefore, volunteer recruitment is crucial for acquiring the support that will ensure your long-term success. Most notably, volunteers benefit your organization by:
Take a look at your nonprofit’s current state and evaluate how volunteers are facilitating or enhancing your results. These insights can guide you in determining how to recruit more volunteers for your organization.
Do I need a volunteer recruitment plan?
A volunteer recruitment plan is critical to securing as much support for your nonprofit as possible. After all, 72% of volunteers are involved with only one organization, while just 18.3% volunteer with two.
Having an organized, evidence-based approach to recruiting volunteers ensures that you catch the attention of potential supporters and inspire them to get involved.
How to Recruit Volunteers: 5 Steps
Fortunately, it only takes five steps to craft a successful volunteer recruitment plan:
1. Reevaluate your current volunteer program.
Start by inspecting your current volunteer program. In order to motivate people to join, your program must:
While you can evaluate your current volunteer program on your own, consider surveying your existing volunteers as well. They have firsthand experience with your program and may provide a useful outside perspective. Plus, asking your volunteers for feedback demonstrates that you care about their opinions and preferences.
2. Identify your volunteer needs.
After you’ve determined your volunteer program’s strengths and areas for improvement, it’s time to identify the types of volunteers you need most. Use these questions to guide you:
Identify what sets your volunteer program apart from others, and highlight these differences in your nonprofit communications to attract the most suitable volunteer candidates.
3. Enlist your current volunteers.
Your nonprofit’s most dedicated volunteers can be an excellent volunteer recruitment tool. Encourage them to reach out to like-minded friends and family members about joining your volunteer program. You can even invite them to bring someone along to their next volunteer shift to show them the ropes and spark their interest.
Consider offering benefits such as free branded merchandise or social media shoutouts to further incentivize your current volunteers to spread the word. This will not only bolster your recruitment efforts but also help you retain more supporters in the long run.
4. Create specific job descriptions.
The success of your nonprofit’s volunteer program depends on how well you communicate with volunteers. Therefore, when recruiting volunteers, it’s essential to get specific with the job description you create for each role. This way, you’ll be able to find volunteers with the right skillsets, and those who are interested in volunteering can easily determine whether a role is suitable for them.
Some popular volunteer roles may deal with:
Be sure to include the relevant skills for each volunteer role to maximize your recruitment effort and narrow down candidates to the best fit. Potential volunteers will also want to know important details such as the role’s time commitment, duties, and any associated benefits in advance. Use the template below to hit the ground running with well-written volunteer job descriptions for your nonprofit.
5. Determine your recruitment strategies.
Once you’ve solidified your volunteer program’s needs and identified the specific roles you’re looking for, you’re ready to start implementing recruitment strategies to secure new support for your nonprofit.
While there are numerous strategies for how to recruit volunteers, the ones you choose to focus on will depend upon your organization’s unique goals and resources. Let’s explore impactful volunteer recruitment strategies to consider.
18 Effective Volunteer Recruitment Strategies for Success
Use these volunteer recruitment strategies as a jumping-off point for your nonprofit:
1. Leverage social media.
Social media is a powerful and cost-effective way to reach a broader audience. Get creative with your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages to show potential volunteers how rewarding it is to support your organization.
For instance, you can promote your volunteer program on social media by:
With 4.76 billion social media users worldwide, sharing your volunteer opportunities on these platforms can not only recruit more support for your nonprofit but increase your brand awareness as well. Be sure to include a link to your volunteer application form on each of your posts to make it easy for inspired users to get involved.
2. Advertise volunteer opportunities online.
By advertising your nonprofit’s volunteer opportunities online, you ensure that potential volunteers can learn about your open positions and explore all the relevant details to start contributing.
The Google Ad Grants program provides an impactful, cost-effective way for nonprofits to advertise their volunteer opportunities. This program awards eligible nonprofits $10,000 a month in ad credits, which they can spend on relevant keywords. Then, they can create text-based ads to promote their content at the top of Google’s search results.
A link to The Nature Conservancy’s volunteer page, for instance, pops up in the search results when a user searches “nature volunteering,” directing those who are interested to learn more about getting involved.
Your nonprofit can take a similar approach to volunteer recruitment, using this grant to target potential volunteers with advertisements of your open positions or volunteer page.
If you’re interested in getting started with the Google Ad Grant program and maximizing your results, consider partnering with a certified agency, like Getting Attention. We’ll determine your eligibility for the program, handle your application, and craft a winning strategy to help your organization secure more support—so you can focus on generating a greater impact on those you serve.
3. Approach recent donors.
Your nonprofit’s donors have already demonstrated an investment in your mission by making a gift to your organization. When you follow up with first-time donors and thank them for their contribution, be sure to let them know about other ways to get involved, such as volunteering. One-time donors who may not have the financial means to donate consistently may prefer giving their time instead.
AmeriCorps notes that, behind teenagers, people between the ages of 45 to 54 have the highest formal volunteering rate. With this in mind, consider segmenting your donor database and reaching out to this group, among others, who would be most likely to participate in a volunteer program.
4. Cultivate corporate partnerships.
Corporate philanthropy is another excellent avenue for volunteer recruitment. By reaching out and nurturing relationships with businesses, you can open the door for them to support your nonprofit in several ways. For example, they may encourage their employees to volunteer with your organization or even arrange mandatory team volunteer activities.
5. Encourage individuals to look into volunteer grants.
In addition to group volunteer opportunities, many businesses support nonprofits and encourage employee volunteering through volunteer grants. With 40% of Fortune 500 companies offering these programs, volunteer grants can incentivize current and prospective volunteers to put in additional hours. By promoting these programs, you’ll unlock free revenue from your volunteer program and more volunteers. Here’s how these programs work:
To learn about volunteer grants your volunteers may be eligible for, consider appending employer data to complete their profiles with crucial information such as their employer and job title. Then, reach out to notify them about this opportunity to increase their impact.
6. Establish a school partnership.
Over one in four college students and teenagers volunteer with nonprofits. Reach out to local middle schools, high schools, and colleges to recruit these young supporters for your organization.
Many schools promote volunteering by offering awards to those who reach a certain amount of service hours. Volunteering also allows students to build their resumes for college and job applications, make valuable connections, and develop leadership and teamwork skills.
To spread the word, ask schools to post flyers about your volunteer program, include a pitch for it in their email newsletter, or even set up a time for representatives from your nonprofit to visit classes and encourage students to get involved.
7. Build relationships with other nonprofit clubs and organizations.
There are plenty of community service-driven clubs and organizations with members more than willing to get involved in your work. The key to recruiting more supporters is to find those who are already likely to be passionate about your mission. Reach out to your local Kiwanis Club or Lions Club to see if they’re willing to circulate your volunteer opportunities among their members.
Additionally, consider local churches in your area. Be sure to share your nonprofit’s mission and impact alongside your volunteer needs, so people can understand just how their involvement can make a difference in their community.
8. Reconnect with past volunteers.
Consider reaching out to individuals who have volunteered with your organization in the past and encouraging them to get involved again. If you’ve made improvements to your volunteer program, you can send them an email explaining the program’s new aspects and invite them to return.
You can also send them a survey for feedback. This may provide important insights into what about your program, if anything, leads individuals to stop volunteering. Remember that in order for your volunteer recruitment efforts to pay off, you need to have measures in place to retain your volunteers’ support for the long term.
9. Leverage your staff members and board.
Your nonprofit’s staff and board members may have key connections within the community who would like to get involved with your nonprofit. By leveraging these relationships, you’ll be able to promote volunteering opportunities beyond your existing audience.
You can even create a relationship map that lays out all the connections that your board members have, from business associates to fellow alumni from universities they attended. This resource can be immensely beneficial in informing your volunteer recruitment tactics and donor outreach in the future.
10. Create a volunteer page on your website.
Your nonprofit’s website plays a central role for both your current supporters and those who are interested in learning more about your organization. Make it easy for visitors to discover how they can support your mission by creating a dedicated volunteer page that contains all the relevant details for signing up. Be sure to include:
Feeding America, for example, has a volunteer page that features a large image of volunteers in action. Front and center on the page, interested supporters can fill in their information to pledge to volunteer and find opportunities in their location.
The easier the volunteer signup process is, the more success you’ll have with recruiting eager volunteers for your nonprofit’s cause.
11. Post on volunteer matching websites.
Get in front of people who are already on the lookout for volunteer opportunities by posting on volunteer matching sites. Some popular sites for volunteer recruitment include:
Be sure that the volunteer job descriptions you post clearly outline the qualifications and expectations related to each position. This increases the chances you’ll find candidates with both the skills and the passion to enhance your nonprofit’s impact.
12. Reach out to local media outlets.
In addition to leveraging social media, Google ads, and volunteer matching websites, broaden your nonprofit’s reach by approaching local media outlets that may be willing to share your volunteer opportunities with their audiences. Consider reaching out to local:
According to the Federal Communications Commission, radio stations are legally required to operate in the “public interest” of their local communities. One way to demonstrate that they’re responding to the needs and interests of their community is to dedicate some airtime to nonprofits, allowing them to share their causes and direct listeners to their websites. This is an effective way to reach people who might not otherwise be exposed to your organization.
13. Provide a variety of volunteer opportunities.
Just as your nonprofit’s donors have varying preferences and connections to your cause, your volunteers will have their own strengths and interests. Therefore, be sure to provide a variety of opportunities that will appeal to everyone interested in volunteering with your organization.
While some of your volunteer positions may allow individuals to advance their specialized skills, for instance, you may also offer opportunities where people can develop their teamwork skills by working closely with other volunteers.
14. Prioritize accessibility.
Make your volunteer opportunities inclusive for people of all abilities by ensuring that locations are accessible to those who use mobility equipment and including a field in your volunteer signup form that asks whether the individual may need any accommodations to fulfill their role.
Furthermore, to provide a positive experience for all volunteers, consider factors such as transportation, childcare, and meals in advance. You may arrange for carpools or provide meals for volunteers on longer shifts to ensure that they can support your organization in a way that’s comfortable for them. Virtual volunteering opportunities can be another effective option, especially for supporters outside of your local area.
15. Consider micro-volunteering.
Micro-volunteering refers to offering volunteer opportunities that are more short-term and low-commitment so that even supporters with busy schedules can find ways to contribute to your nonprofit’s impact.
For instance, you can ask supporters to translate a document, sign an online petition, or make thank-you phone calls to donors. This can be a wonderful way to keep even the most time-pressed volunteers engaged with your organization for the long run.
16. Offer incentives to volunteer.
While 66% of volunteers get involved to make a difference in their communities, and 60% volunteer to contribute to a cause they care about, offering incentives can enhance volunteers’ experience with your nonprofit and keep them enthusiastic about supporting your work. Some common incentives to consider in your volunteer recruitment include:
These incentives can not only inspire more supporters to sign up as volunteers, but they can also serve as impactful volunteer appreciation ideas as well.
17. Recognize volunteers and ask for feedback.
Remember that determining how to recruit volunteers is only the start. Once you’ve found your volunteers, be sure to practice frequent recognition to retain their support for years to come. Send thank-you letters and share the specific impact of volunteers’ support so that they understand the importance of their contributions. These communications should:
Use this volunteer thank-you template as a springboard for creating impactful, personalized messages to your supporters:
Furthermore, consider sending out surveys to gather direct feedback from volunteers after their involvement. This allows you to gauge their satisfaction with your organization and identify areas of improvement to boost your volunteer recruitment results moving forward.
18. Promote Volunteer Time Off
49% of individuals report that work commitments are their biggest obstacle to volunteering. This means there are many prospective supporters who would like to start volunteering or volunteer more but are unable to.
Fortunately, more businesses have become aware of this struggle and have come up with a solution: volunteer time off (VTO). VTO is paid time off employees can take specifically to volunteer. On average, most companies with VTO policies offer two or three days per year, but some organizations provide employees with an entire week they can take off for volunteering.
With VTO, employees can volunteer during normal business hours without sacrificing a paycheck or a much-needed vacation day. However, despite this upside, participation in VTO programs is often low due to a lack of awareness. Spread the word among your nonprofit’s supporters to earn more volunteers and ensure they’re taking full advantage of their employment benefits.
Be aware that, like volunteer grants, VTO programs often have requirements for who is eligible and what types of activities are applicable. A few common considerations include:
Promote VTO to your entire supporter base. You might be surprised how many of them are eligible and able to put in more hours to help your nonprofit. In fact, 61% of businesses offer VTO programs!
You might even add information about VTO to your volunteer page to encourage prospective volunteers to check if they qualify. Plus, consider investing in a volunteer grant database that also provides information on VTO. This way, your volunteers will have a one-stop resource for all of the corporate volunteering information they need.
Wrapping Up
Recruiting high-quality supporters is essential to your nonprofit’s long-term success. By creating a memorable and rewarding experience for all of your volunteers, you’ll be able to build a strong, loyal volunteer base that sustains your organization into the future.
To learn more about promoting your volunteer opportunities and securing more support, explore these additional resources: