Nonprofits 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:
- Keeping it running. By offering their time and skills for free, your committed volunteers provide a significant resource that helps your nonprofit move forward with its mission.
- Saving you money. AmeriCorps found that, between September 2020 and 2021, “volunteers served an estimated 4.1 billion hours with an economic value of $122.9 billion.” Since time is money, free support from volunteers can go a long way toward reducing your nonprofit’s administrative and operational expenses.
- Increasing your donation revenue. Not only can volunteers spread the word about your mission, but they can also become donors themselves. Golden’s guide to mapping the volunteer-to-donor journey recommends analyzing engagement data and leveraging feedback loops to cultivate volunteers into donors.
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:
- Be engaging. Is your volunteer program interactive? Are there opportunities to connect with staff and other volunteers? Your volunteers should be able to get up close and personal with your nonprofit’s work so that they can feel like they’re making a real difference in their community.
- Emphasize impact. Make sure your volunteers understand exactly how they’re contributing to your nonprofit’s impact. The more they feel like they’re making a positive difference, the more likely they are to stay invested in volunteering.
- Factor in appreciation. It’s important to have plans in place to make your volunteers feel valued. There are many ways to express your nonprofit’s gratitude, including a thank-you email, e-Card, a social media shoutout, or even a handwritten letter.
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:
- What type of organization are we? Many people choose to volunteer for organizations that align with their interests, skills, and passions. Reflecting upon your nonprofit and its mission allows you to appeal to individuals who are most likely to contribute to your cause.
- What type of volunteer program do we offer? There are various types of nonprofit volunteer programs, including formal, non-formal, and project-based. Defining this upfront ensures that you can focus on attracting supporters who will be interested in your specific type of program.
- How many people do we need? Do you need one person to volunteer regularly? 10 people to volunteer every week in shifts? 100 volunteers for a specific event? The number of volunteers each organization needs will differ, so determine what suits your nonprofit best.
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:
- Graphic design
- Photography
- Writing
- Translation
- Event check-in
- Event planning
- Event setup and cleanup
- Fundraising
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.
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:
- Going “behind the scenes.” Share videos or images that offer a glimpse into your nonprofit’s on-the-ground impact to show potential supporters the meaningful work they can participate in as a volunteer.
- Posting volunteer testimonials. Capture some compelling action shots of your volunteers and ask them to provide a quote about why they love what they do. Then, with their permission, share their picture and quote on social media to inspire others to volunteer.
- Letting volunteers do an account “takeover.” This allows potential supporters to learn more about a day in the life of one of your volunteers and how important their contributions are to your overall impact.
- Creating social media ads. By investing in a paid volunteer recruitment ad campaign, you can target more people who are likely to be interested in your nonprofit’s opportunities by focusing on characteristics such as location, interests, and connections.
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.
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:
- Individuals volunteer. Volunteer grants start with regular volunteering. Be sure to keep accurate records of all of your volunteers’ hours since almost all volunteer programs award funding based on hours contributed.
- Volunteers apply for a volunteer grant. Help volunteers research their eligibility. Most employers will have relevant information in their employee handbooks or CSR software. However, nonprofits can streamline this process by investing in a volunteer grant database. These platforms house information on volunteer grant programs and can be searched by entering an employer’s name, allowing volunteers to find relevant information and start the application process in seconds.
- Employers review the applications. While different employers have different review processes, be prepared for employers to reach out to your nonprofit to confirm volunteer grant applications. For example, some organizations may want to speak with a volunteer supervisor to double-check the hours reported or ask questions about the volunteer’s contributions to ensure your nonprofit’s program meets their eligibility criteria.
- Employers fund your nonprofit. When a volunteer application is approved, your nonprofit can expect to receive payment from the employer or the employer’s CSR vendor, depending on their payout process. These payments may come shortly after the application’s approval or on a quarterly or even annual basis.
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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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:
- Descriptions of open opportunities
- A link to your signup form
- Compelling images of volunteers in action
- A list of FAQs
- Contact information for additional questions
- A volunteer grant database
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.
10. 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:
- VolunteerMatch. VolunteerMatch has connected 18 million volunteers with nonprofits who need their support. This website allows people to refine their search by inputting information such as mission category, skills, and distance, making it easy for those who are passionate about your organization’s cause to find the opportunities you have available.
- Catchafire. This website has matched volunteers on over 40,000 skills-based projects for nonprofits so far. Your organization can post volunteer job descriptions that require specific expertise, such as accounting or copywriting, and find qualified individuals to support your mission.
- Idealist. By creating an account on the website, your organization can post volunteer listings for free to reach Idealist’s 1.3 million monthly visitors.
- Create the Good. By registering for Create the Good, your nonprofit can post volunteer opportunities of all sizes and track volunteer participation in those opportunities.
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.
11. 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:
- Newspapers
- Bloggers or podcasters
- TV stations
- Radio stations
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.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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:
- Branded merchandise, like t-shirts and hats
- Free food and drink
- Gift cards or baskets
- Social media shoutouts
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.
16. 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:
- Be prompt. Follow up with volunteers within a few days after their experience to ensure that they feel valued for their time and effort.
- Be personalized. Show each supporter that you appreciate them as an individual to build a stronger, longer-lasting relationship with them.
- Specify impact. Your volunteers want to know that they’re making a difference by contributing to your organization. In your thank-you message, be clear and specific as to how their involvement made an impact on the lives of those you serve.
- Include images. Add relevant, compelling images or even videos to your thank-you’s to enhance your message and help volunteers visualize their impact.
- Encourage further action. In addition to appreciating your volunteers, it’s important to keep them invested in your mission by offering them more ways they can get involved in the near future.
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.
17. 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:
- Employee status. Some businesses only allow full-time employees to participate while others include those who work both part- and full-time. Eligibility might also depend on employee level. For example, some businesses might provide VTO to executive employees but not retail employees.
- Organization type. Volunteer grants often exclude specific types of nonprofits, like religious and political organizations. The same goes for VTO, and VTO may even be stricter about allowed activities to prevent employees from treating it like regular paid time off. If a volunteer lets you know they are using their VTO hours, keep track of what activities they are performing so you can verify with their employer if they reach out to you.
- Request date. When it comes to planned time off, most businesses prefer employees to let them know far in advance. Encourage supporters to review their accumulated VTO hours and request them well before shifts they would like to work. Additionally, some businesses don’t allow VTO hours to roll over, meaning employees need to take advantage of them before they’re gone.
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.
For more information on how to promote and leverage volunteer time off to recruit more volunteers, download Double the Donation’s free guide to VTO.
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:
Facebook Challenges: Social Media Fundraising for Nonprofits
/in Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Fundraising, Nonprofit Marketing /by Getting AttentionSocial 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: 17 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.
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.
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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. 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:
Get More From Conference Participant Data: 3 Top Tips
/in Nonprofit Communications /by Jessica KingAs an association leader, you know how critical an annual conference can be to the success of your organization. Your conference might be the event that members look forward to all year as it provides opportunities to network, hear from influential speakers, and engage with exhibitors. Additionally, conferences can help your association build a stronger community and reach prospective members.
While they hold many benefits, organizing a conference is no small feat. They require significant investments of time, money, and effort. That said, your association will need to leverage all of its organizational skills to keep everything running smoothly. Behind every successful event are countless hours spent researching and booking venues, sourcing speakers, promoting and selling tickets, and communicating with exhibitors. So, when the conference ends, you’ll want to make the most of the relationships formed during the event.
Collecting data before and during the conference is the best way to take advantage of attendee participation. In this guide, we’ll explore strategies that will help you gather key pieces of information about attendees so you can personalize communications and improve future events:
As you navigate the event planning and data analysis processes, remember that each of these tasks can be seamlessly completed with association management software (AMS). An AMS will streamline event planning tasks as well as ticket and merchandise sales, and it even offers interactive apps that attendees can use to guide them through the conference. Best of all, you can use your AMS to easily connect and analyze data about members and attendees.
Let’s dive in by exploring the best ways to gather data from your attendees.
Offer multiple ways to engage.
To ensure your association is able to collect useful data from attendees, offer as many ways to engage as possible. This might mean choosing a hybrid conference format so that people can either attend in person or online. Or, you might market the conference through multiple communication channels so they can choose how to engage with promotions.
As Fonteva’s guide to member engagement explains, a strong sense of engagement secures your organization’s relevance, boosts member retention, and encourages community-building. To reap these benefits and ensure attendees are active participants at your conference, consider using these engagement strategies:
Using these strategies, your association can deeply engage attendees and provide more positive experiences. Additionally, you can gather data through these interactions and use it to refine future conferences.
Send out post-conference surveys.
NXUnite’s guide to membership benefits defines them as “perks, services, and access that people receive when they participate in a membership program.” Think of conferences as one of these benefits. You want members to be satisfied with them, particularly if they are paying to attend.
The best way to know whether attendees were satisfied with a conference is to ask them. For organized, honest feedback, send out a post-event survey that asks them what they liked and what could be improved. Make sure to ask for details as needed and for any suggestions they have for the future. Even if they found your conference to be valuable, they might have an interesting topic in mind for next year.
When creating your survey, make sure to include questions about the following areas:
Consider creating separate surveys for both staff and volunteers. While these surveys won’t necessarily help you reach more new members or secure additional renewals, they can assist in boosting staff retention and improving your volunteer program.
Use an AMS with data analysis capabilities.
After collecting data from before, during, and after the conference, you’ll need to use your association software’s data analytics tool to get a full picture of the conference. This data will reveal both your strengths and weaknesses, giving you a clear path toward an event that meets and exceeds the expectations of members.
The way associations use data will differ depending on their unique needs and goals. Here are a few specific examples of how conference data might be used to improve communications, future events, and organizational procedures:
Because this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to using your data, getting started can be overwhelming. It can help to compare feedback and suggestions against your association’s internal goals and assign each one a priority. Additionally, take into account the urgency of each piece of feedback and the number of people who made a similar suggestion or observation.
To ensure your event attracts new prospects and engaged members, make sure to promote the conference ahead of time and offer numerous engagement opportunities. Then, use your AMS to collect and analyze data from participants. Most importantly, make sure that your association uses the data it worked hard to get to actively learn and improve for the future.
A Guide to Leveraging Stock Donations for Your Nonprofit
/in Nonprofit Fundraising, Nonprofit Tools /by Jessica KingThe world of online fundraising is constantly evolving, and nonprofits must evolve with it. In recent years, noncash gifts like stocks and cryptocurrency have been on the rise due to their popularity with wealthy donors and the major tax benefits they offer. To ensure your organization can accept and leverage these gifts, you need to have the right infrastructure in place.
When you expand your fundraising strategy to include stock donations, you’ll engage high-income donors by offering more beneficial ways for them to give. Especially when 84% of US adults with incomes over $100,000 own stock, leveraging stock donations for your nonprofit is an opportunity you don’t want to miss out on. To set you up for success, we’ll cover the following steps you can take to start leveraging stock gifts:
If your nonprofit hasn’t started accepting stock donations yet, it’s not too late to get in on the action. Let’s start with the basics.
1. Understand the basics of stock donations
Before you can begin soliciting stock gifts, it’s important to have a baseline understanding of the process and legalities. There are three main things you need to know about accepting stock donations:
Let’s take a look at an example of what this could look like in practice.
Imagine that a high-income donor who normally donates mid-level cash gifts to your nonprofit also owns multiple publicly traded stocks. When your nonprofit lets them know they can give a larger contribution and reduce their own tax obligations, they jump at the chance to donate high-value stock. Once your nonprofit receives the donation, you may choose to reinvest it to increase the donation’s value even further or liquidate it into cash.
Because of the major tax benefits for donors and the potential for your nonprofit to increase the value of donations over time, stock gifts are an incredible opportunity to help your organization fund your mission.
2. Set up a brokerage account for your nonprofit
Ready to start increasing your fundraising capacity with stock donations? The next step is to set up the necessary infrastructure internally.
To accept stock gifts, your nonprofit needs to have a place to receive them. A brokerage or investment account allows you to receive, liquidate, and reinvest stocks on behalf of your organization. Applying for a brokerage account can be relatively straightforward but often time intensive, so be prepared to provide the following as part of your application:
With a standard brokerage firm, this process can take weeks. If you work with a nonprofit investment advisor, they can simplify and speed up this process significantly. Plus, they’ll give you general guidance on nonprofit investing best practices, in case you decide to reinvest any of your stock donations.
3. Make it easy for donors to give by leveraging a stock donation page
Once you have your brokerage account set up and ready to receive stock gifts, it’s time to provide your donors with an easy way to give. The simplest way to help donors make stock donations quickly and easily is to leverage a donation page that lists stocks and other noncash gifts as options.
By creating a designated stock donation page or adding a widget to your existing donation page, donors will be able to quickly fill in information about their brokerage firm and chosen stock gift to start the stock transfer process. From there, the donor’s brokerage firm will verify and complete the transfer, and you’ll receive the stocks in a few hours.
Remember to reduce any friction with your donor by making the process as easy as possible. Make sure that any platform you use to streamline the process doesn’t require your donors to create a username and login. The simpler it is to give, the better.
Some platforms, like Infinite Giving’s stock donation tool, can even automatically liquidate and reinvest stock gifts if your nonprofit chooses. This takes the bulk of the work off your staff’s plate and gives your stock donations the potential to start appreciating in value as soon as possible.
4. Promote stock donations to your donors
Don’t forget this important step—it’s crucial to thoughtfully market your new stock gifting option to the right supporters.
When you’re ready to start marketing stock donations to your supporters, create a promotion plan that includes the following key considerations:
When donors start giving stock to your nonprofit, ask for feedback on their giving experience. Consider sending a short survey that asks why they decided to give stock, how easy the process was, and what you can do to improve their experience. Use this information to tailor future outreach based on what tactics successfully encourage donors to give stock.
You want to encourage donors who give stock once to do so again in the future, so remember to thank each donor personally and thoughtfully. eCardWidget’s guide to thanking donors suggests establishing a set of appreciation tactics that align with different giving levels. Make sure that stock donors have a place near the top to adequately express your thanks.
With these tips in mind, your nonprofit will be on the path to leveraging stock donations in no time. Once you start seeing positive results, consider branching out to accept other noncash donations as well and truly tap into the future of online giving.
How to Improve Outreach with Digital Fundraising Platforms
/in Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Fundraising, Nonprofit Marketing /by Jessica KingNonprofits must use their resources wisely to get the most value out of the tools in which they invest. Much like you’d multitask by using several internet browser tabs or taking notes while reading, nonprofit leaders can take advantage of the multipurpose value of fundraising software.
Among the various digital tools available to nonprofits, fundraising platforms offer unparalleled opportunities to engage donors and attract potential supporters. In this guide, we’ll explore four strategies for using the capabilities of digital fundraising platforms to improve nonprofit outreach:
Digital tools can power nonprofit missions in ways beyond their intended purposes. Before revamping your marketing approach, consider how your existing tools can garner support for your cause.
Accommodate your supporters
As a nonprofit leader, you’re likely already aware that donor retention is more cost-effective than acquisition. Therefore, your first step in improving outreach should be to accommodate your existing supporters through convenient donation asks.
Digital fundraising platforms offer numerous ways to conveniently reach and impel supporters to take action, such as text-to-give fundraisers. According to Snowball’s text-to-give fundraising guide, mobile giving is a “mutually beneficial” fundraising strategy since donors use the technology daily and can easily make a donation.
Successful outreach accommodates supporters by simplifying communications and donations. Other fundraising platform capabilities that accommodate supporters include:
Aside from offering communication and donation tools, your digital fundraising platform will also collect donor data, which your nonprofit should use to plan its outreach. For example, you might promote recurring gifts to a donor who has a history of donating monthly. Or, use employer data to determine if your supporters would be eligible for a matching gift program. When you use this information to guide your outreach, you’ll send the right message to the right supporter.
Expand your audience
The expansive reach of virtual communication is no mystery—with digital tools, your nonprofit can connect with local, national, and global audiences! Fundraising platforms spread nonprofit messages to larger audiences with capabilities such as:
To further expand your reach, combine your larger marketing strategies with your fundraising tools. For example, if you plan to engage in social media marketing, launch a peer-to-peer campaign through your fundraising software. You can then use this platform to streamline the social media campaign rather than making individual posts on each channel.
Optimize your website
Your nonprofit’s website serves as the central hub for information about your organization. Here, donors learn about your mission, programs, campaigns, and opportunities to get involved. Before you ask existing or potential supporters to take action, ensure they have updated and reliable resources, such as:
After using fundraising software to optimize your website, you can further improve your outreach by gaining visibility on Google. Leverage Google Ads to promote your most important pages and attract new supporters to your website.
Offer engaging ways to get involved
While fundraising platforms can boost your digital marketing efforts, the ultimate goal of nonprofit outreach should be to motivate supporters to take action. The right fundraising platform will host concurrent campaigns to give your supporter a myriad of ways to get involved.
For example, your auction platform might also host text-to-give fundraisers. That way, donors who prefer the experience of attending an event can participate in the auction, while supporters who live far away might donate via text message. Outreach that promotes a variety of ways to give will appeal to more supporters and increase engagement.
Getting started with fundraising platforms
Don’t let the powerful capabilities of digital fundraising tools go to waste—evaluate your platform to determine which features you can leverage for improved outreach. If you haven’t chosen a platform yet, use these strategies to guide your search. The right fundraising software will help you drive real results for your mission!
3 Tips for a Successful Virtual School Fundraiser
/in Nonprofit Communications /by Jessica KingAs a parent or teacher involved with school clubs or sports teams, fundraising might be something you view as a necessary but difficult part of these activities. Students often need additional funding for extracurriculars. However, traditional fundraising methods can be tiresome, requiring large investments of time and resources only to be met with subpar results.
Instead of spending another year selling items from catalogs to local friends and neighbors, consider switching to digital fundraising. During a digital fundraiser, you’ll simply engage donors by promoting the campaign online. Then, collect donations via a virtual payment portal. This way, you won’t need to collect cash or checks, and it’s possible for supporters to contribute from anywhere. And the best part is that you can take almost any fundraising idea online.
Whether you’re hosting a school-wide fundraiser or raising money for the marching band’s next competition, it’s paramount that your group has fundraising software that makes the process easy. These tools take care of all of the tiny, tedious details for you. For example, you might choose a solution that automatically creates individual fundraising pages for each student and seamlessly sends funds to your account at the end of the campaign.
In this short guide, we’ll help you get started by covering three tips for a successful digital school fundraiser:
While the main parts of the fundraiser, like promotion and donation collection, occur online, don’t forget that you can include in-person components, too. Capping the campaign off with a fun event (or centering the campaign around a final event) is a great way to build excitement and deepen engagement. You’ll likely want to hire a fundraising event planner to coordinate this element of the campaign will to ensure that everything runs smoothly, and you raise the most money possible!
Let’s dive in by exploring how to get started by choosing an idea that your students (and their families) will love.
Deciding on an idea for your fundraiser
When kicking off any fundraiser, it’s key to choose an idea that resonates with participants, supporters, and the volunteers helping you run the fundraiser.
First, make sure that the idea you choose is age-appropriate and appeals to participants’ interests—a cheerleading squad of teens might enjoy a 5K race, but a tee-ball team of six-year-olds may not. Additionally, the idea you choose shouldn’t involve extreme amounts of preparation and involvement from your volunteers.
If you aren’t sure where to start, this 99Pledges guide to school fundraising ideas offers a range of events to kickstart your team’s brainstorming. Some of the most popular ideas include:
Next, consider taking a pledge approach to your fundraiser. Pledge campaigns are more engaging for students and will help you reach a wider audience. During these fundraisers, team members collect pledge donations from supporters, typically based on a unit relevant to the campaign idea. For example, if you host a walk-a-thon, supporters would donate a certain amount of money per mile participants walk.
Planning your event
To plan a successful charity event, your school must follow best practices for smart virtual fundraising.
First, look for a fundraising platform that keeps incoming donations organized and offers a streamlined donation process. Your software should make donating as easy as possible, and it should allow your participants to track their fundraising progress on their pages.
Next, strategize your approach based on past campaign data. Analyze your data to understand who contributed to your school in the past, who participated in events, and how supporters found out about your fundraiser. Then, ask strategic questions to propel your campaign forward:
Be sure you’re taking advantage of the data your chosen software can collect. Let’s say you’re a coach for the school basketball team. Data from past fundraising campaigns shows that while you mainly promoted your team-wide donation page, supporters tended to donate to individual pages instead. For your upcoming campaign, you plan to urge parents and team members to heavily promote individual pages online.
Marketing your digital school fundraiser
Now that your event has a concrete plan of action, design a marketing timeline to attract support before, during, and after the campaign. Make sure to keep any insights or discoveries you made while analyzing your donor data in mind to create more personalized messages.
Effective marketing sets your school up for success in interacting with your supporters as well as your larger community. It’s an excellent opportunity to tell people about your school’s efforts and mission, and it establishes rapport in your community. And when you advertise digitally, you can reach far beyond the school and the local community to win the support of donors across different regions.
When promoting your fundraiser, consider the following steps:
Have your volunteers help spread the word.
Empower those who are already passionate about your cause to spread the word about your fundraiser. Your volunteer base, likely made up of students’ family members, already has multiple networks they can pull support from, both social and professional. Encourage them to promote the fundraiser not only through word of mouth, but also by reaching connections via social media and other digital communication channels.
If your school is looking for great ambassadors to aid in fundraiser promotion, consider the following groups:
Your school’s ambassadors and volunteers can easily direct their networks straight to the relevant fundraising page, which will help your event tremendously. To empower them to do so, consider incentivizing them with a special gift, like a gift card or a free t-shirt. Appreciation goes a long way for both volunteers and donors.
Use the right platforms to communicate your message.
Once you find volunteers to market your fundraiser, give them the right messaging tactics. Supply them with the right materials and tips for best practices. For example, you might create a social media calendar for parents to help them remember when to post about the fundraiser. It might also be helpful to create templates for the posts to make it as easy as possible.
Most importantly, make sure your message is clear. You should include a single call-to-action that leads donors directly to the correct web pages for your fundraiser. If you are incorporating an interactive event, the details of when and where it will be held should be included as well.
Then, consider which channels are most effective for your marketing strategy. Use multiple outlets to spread the word to a wide audience of potential contributors. This can include both digital and print mediums. Just be sure to use the platforms that are most relevant to the segments you’re trying to target.
Popular (and cost-effective) marketing channels can include:
Just remember, the most effective digital marketing strategy involves multiple platforms that allow you to establish several touchpoints with supporters near and far. When your promotions appear on more than one of the communication platforms supporters use, they’re more likely to keep the campaign at the top of their minds and donate.
After your campaign, you’ll have one very important job left: thanking your donors. This can be as simple as sending out an email after they donate. To personalize the message, eCardWidget’s guide to donor thank-you emails suggests using an attention-grabbing subject line, greeting them by name, and referencing specific details like the amount they donated.
Build your teamwork skills by choosing a creative fundraising idea. Then, follow digital fundraising best practices (like leveraging the right platform) to plan your event and choose strategies for the campaign. Finally, empower the members of your school community to help market your efforts. Once your campaign wraps up, you’ll have the funds your team needs and strong connections with your new network of supporters.
Website Design: 7 Tips to Increase Site Visit Length
/in Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Marketing /by Jessica KingWith online fundraising and marketing becoming increasingly important for nonprofits, your website is more essential than ever for capturing leads, displaying engaging and relevant mission information, and facilitating donations and volunteer sign-ups. To effectively engage audience members and retain their attention, you need to design your website to increase site visit length.
According to Contentsquare’s 2023 Digital Experience Benchmark report, the average time on page spent per session is 5.9 minutes for desktop users and 2.7 minutes for mobile users. If your organization’s website falls under these thresholds, it could be time to refresh your user experience to boost engagement on your site.
In this guide, we’ll walk through seven web design tips to help lengthen and improve your site visits:
The most effective nonprofit websites make it easy for visitors to engage with content and opportunities that interest them. When visitors enjoy using your website and learning more about your organization, they’ll naturally spend more time on it.
1. Present your content strategically
Your website is your most important digital marketing tool for helping potential supporters learn about your mission, recent accomplishments, and other information regarding your organization or sector.
As soon as a visitor lands on your website, they’ll expect to see organized, updated content. To exceed visitor expectations, follow these navigation and content guidelines:
With fresh, easy-to-find content, visitors will be able to quickly get a sense of your organization’s work and determine whether they’d like to get more involved.
2. Improve your site’s accessibility and readability
You’ve probably come across an outdated website from time to time where the text is too small, the color contrast is not high enough, or the background image is too busy, compromising the readability of the page.
Your website should be readable and accessible for everyone, no matter their device or ability. Here are some general tips to follow:
These steps not only ensure that your content is more readable but make it easier for screen reader devices to read the text out loud for those with visual impairments, improving your website’s accessibility. The better the words flow, the easier it is for those listening to understand and engage with the content.
In addition to your website’s written content, make sure your forms are equally accessible and easy to read. Kanopi’s accessible forms guide recommends including descriptive form labels and instructions so visitors know exactly what is expected of them.
3. Use engaging visuals
Large chunks of text can be intimidating and hard to parse through. Including compelling visual content throughout your site is a great way to break up text and make your site more engaging.
Consider incorporating the following types of visual content into your web design strategy:
High-quality images will have a larger file size, which can slow down your site speed. Therefore, be sure to compress them so that they don’t slow down your page load speed.
According to Double the Donation’s nonprofit web design guide, “By minimizing page load time, your organization will significantly increase the chances that the donors who click on your website will actually land there and stay long enough to look around.”
4. Incorporate interactive elements
One key method of increasing site visit length as well as conversions for your nonprofit website is to incorporate interactive or clickable elements.
Interactive elements capture users’ attention and encourage them to stay on your site. These fun components increase their enjoyment of your site.
Consider creating engaging site features like:
Users will remember your site and nonprofit mission better with these enjoyable experiences as a core memory.
5. Optimize your most important landing pages
For most websites, your homepage will be the most popular landing page and receive the most site visits. However, nonprofit organizations are unique in that there are a couple of other core landing pages that will be frequently visited and sought after by current and prospective supporters.
For instance, your organization might prioritize pages like your:
Optimizing your most important landing pages is especially essential If your organization has a Google ads strategy. Using your Google ads to direct attention to your most vital landing pages can help boost conversions, turning more site visitors into donors and volunteers.
6. Include internal links
An easy way to keep people on your site is to simply incorporate more internal links. This means linking to appropriate landing pages to leverage key conversion opportunities as well as linking to blog posts or other written content throughout the site.
Ensure that each article and page on your site has plenty of internal links. This is the best way to get people to visit those pages and can help reduce your bounce rate, which is the rate of how often people enter your site and then leave without exploring further.
Incorporating internal links can also improve your site’s SEO (or search engine optimization), but only if you’re linking to valuable content. Adding internal links just for the sake of it won’t do much, so be sure to link to valuable educational content that’s clearly related to the page’s topic. This can not only encourage visitors to continue engaging with you but also bring up the overall value of your website.
7. Demonstrate credibility
Building trust among your audience members through your website is essential to gaining their support. Showing credibility is a simple way to establish trust with supporters.
For instance, adding photos of real people who have been impacted by your organization can make your site appear more trustworthy.
Here are some other quick ways to show credibility:
To ensure your website is secure and trustworthy, you can turn to a nonprofit web consultant for support. These professionals can ensure that your website is up to security standards and recommend changes to help enhance your credibility.
Your website is the online face of your nonprofit’s mission. Updating it to improve user engagement is crucial to boosting your online fundraising and developing supporter relationships. These tips will help you retain visitors’ attention longer and give them opportunities to get more involved with your organization.
AUTHOR: ANNE STEFANYK
As Founder and CEO of Kanopi Studios, Anne helps create clarity around project needs, and turns client conversations into actionable outcomes. She enjoys helping clients identify their problems, and then empowering the Kanopi team to execute great solutions.
Anne is an advocate for open source and co-organizes the Bay Area Drupal Camp. When she’s not contributing to the community or running her thoughtful web agency, she enjoys yoga, meditation, treehouses, dharma, cycling, paddle boarding, kayaking, and hanging with her nephew.
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Google Ad Grant Impact: Capturing Results and Measuring ROI
/in Google Ad Grants, Nonprofit Communications /by Jessica KingAs a nonprofit professional, you understand the importance of making the most of every dollar you spend on your mission. Nonprofits operate with limited budgets, so professionals in the sector constantly look for ways to maximize impact without overspending.
If you’ve encountered the Google Ad Grant program, you probably recognize that the program’s valuable. Free advertising money is a clear win for any organization. But what are the exact benefits? How can you calculate what the Google Ad Grant is actually worth to your nonprofit?
We’re here to help you answer those questions and more! That way, you can understand the tangible results the grant provides nonprofits. Then, you can communicate that to your organization’s leadership and get everyone on board. Here’s what we’ll cover:
Getting Attention is an official Google Partner, and we work tirelessly with nonprofits to maximize the impact of the Google Ad Grant on their missions. With the right strategy, we’ve seen time and again how the Google Ad Grant can amplify a nonprofit’s presence and turn internet traffic into tangible support.
To learn more about why so many organizations rely on Google Ad Grants, continue reading this article or chat with our experts.
Basic Benefits of the Google Ad Grant
Long story short, if your nonprofit has a website filled with valuable content about your mission, the Google Ad Grant can potentially transform your digital presence. Putting some thought behind your Google Ad Grant strategy means you can:
There’s really no limit to what you can achieve with the Google Ad Grant. With an astounding $10,000 to spend each month, you can make powerful strides in strengthening your online presence.
Google Ads Statistics
“Engagement,” “awareness,” and “buzz” are all arbitrary. What are the real numbers tied to the impact that the Google Ad Grant has on nonprofits?
While results will vary based on organizations, some pretty impressive statistics communicate the impact the grant has on the industry as a whole:
There’s no shortage of impressive statistics out there! Those are just a few of our favorites that speak to the value of the Google Ad Grant.
Factors that Impact the Google Ad Grant’s ROI
As an in-kind donation, the Google Ad Grant itself doesn’t take money out of your marketing budget. Google technically pays for the ads you create through the program.
At a glance, the Google Ad Grant is technically free, so it might seem like there’s no investment necessary. However, acquiring and retaining the grant takes time, expertise, and therefore money.
So, in terms of your investment, the real question you should ask is how much time or money you spend on grant management, rather than how much Google spends to display your ads.
Grant management costs are typically the only investment costs that you’ll have to worry about. Know that professional management can cost anywhere from $500 to over $1,000 per month.
Getting Attention pairs expertise with affordability and professionalism, keeping your grant management costs low. We charge $600 per month with no hidden add-on fees. We’ll handle every aspect of your Google Grant management, helping you to maximize your ROI at every turn.
Calculating ROI for Your Nonprofit’s Google Ad Grant Account
The struggle with calculating marketing ROI is that it’s hard to attach a dollar amount to your results. It’s one of the most elusive metrics for an organization.
What we’ve come to learn is that ROI varies from organization to organization. It depends on your specific goals for the program and what metrics you’re tracking.
Through Google Analytics, you’ll track conversions (or meaningful actions) for your ads. As a reminder, most organizations track:
These actions communicate how much each ad is worth to your organization.
For conversions that produce revenue (like donations), it’s easy to calculate ROI. You simply compare the money you generate from Google Ads with the amount you spend on Google Ad Grant management.
However, non-monetary goals (like volunteer sign-ups) are harder to put a price on. For these, you’ll need to chat with your team about how much each of these conversions is worth to you. You don’t necessarily have to attach a dollar amount, but you can set achievable goals for how many conversions you’d like your ads to produce.
Paid Advertising vs. The Google Ad Grant
When using paid advertising, you pay for each ad yourself. You strive to keep costs down to maximize your ROI. To do this, you might omit competitive (and therefore expensive) keywords and instead focus on less popular queries.
With the Google Ad Grant, you can bid on the most expensive keywords without affecting your ROI.
Whether your Google Ads cost $10 or $10,000, your investment is only what you pay for grant management. Your out-of-pocket costs won’t change. So, if you pay a grant manager $600 per month, you’ll pay the same no matter how much of your grant you spend.
You’ll calculate your ROI based on the real money you spend ($600 in this case) and the results your ads generated (e.g. clicks, conversions, and revenue).
The Bottom Line: The only investment you’ll need to consider is how much you spend on grant management each month. For monetary conversions, you can compare how much you earn with how much you’re spending on grant management. For non-monetary conversions, how much the Google Ad Grant is “worth” fully depends on whether your ads are producing results for your team.
When To Expect Results for Your Google Ads
Applying and getting approved for the Google Ad Grant can take some time. If don’t already have a Google for Nonprofits account, it can take time to get started.
Once you’re up and running, it takes a bit more time to see results from your campaigns. There’s no set guarantee, but generally, you can expect to see some traction a few weeks after launching a campaign.
Within your first month, you’ll start to see some measurable results. Take a look at your Ad Groups, and you’ll start to see clicks for your campaigns.
If you don’t have any conversions yet, don’t worry! The first few weeks can be slow. This time isn’t wasted time, though. Google needs time to gather information about your campaign. It takes a few weeks for Google to learn who to show your campaigns to in order to produce results. In other words, Google wants to serve your ads to the right audiences.
While it varies on a case-by-case basis, Google Ad Grant campaigns generally take 2-3 months to mature and then up to a year to develop into a strong campaign. In rare cases, Google Ads can deliver results overnight. But again, most campaigns won’t generate a positive ROI until a few months in.
Factors That Might Slow Down Results
A few factors might impact how quickly you see results, such as:
Help from a professional will help you see better results over time. Even from the get-go, professional consulting services that are Google Partners can help you overcome these challenges, helping you achieve results far faster than by struggling through learning the nuances of the program alone.
How To Achieve Results Quickly With the Google Ad Grant
The secret to effective Google Ad Grant management is research, research, research! The program has a lot of requirements, and you’re expected to navigate some important Google Ad Grants limitations. Because of this, you’ll need to study how to meet these requirements and explore how similar organizations create winning ad campaigns. In many cases, perfecting your ads takes a lot of trial and error, too.
Instead of devoting a staff member’s time to learning about the program, working with a professional who is a Google Partner is your best bet. A Google-certified Google Grants manager will already have the necessary background knowledge regarding how the Google Ad Grants interface and the program as a whole works, so you’ll minimize your costs and maximize your ROI this way.
Here at Getting Attention, we’re a proud Google Partner and strive to help nonprofits make the most of the Google Ad Grant budget. As a full-service Ad Grant consulting firm, we offer these services:
Best of all, we aim to keep our costs low at $600 per month. With no hidden add-on fees, your nonprofit can maximize your Google Ad Grant results and generate meaningful conversions for your cause.
Additional Resources
The Google Ad Grant is a powerful resource for any nonprofit that wants to increase its online presence. With the right strategy for your organization, it can have an incredible impact on what you’re able to accomplish.
Marketing ROI can be tricky to calculate in some cases, so it’s important to have some idea of what goals your nonprofit is striving to achieve. Then, you can use that to estimate whether the Google Ad Grant is producing sufficient results.
Whether you’re boosting donations or volunteer sign-ups, you can maximize your ROI by investing in a professional nonprofit marketing consultant. Experts have the background experience necessary to overcome common challenges, write compelling ads, and adjust your campaigns based on results. If you’re ready to get started, reach out to our expert Google Grants management team.
In the meantime, remember that the secret to maximizing your Google Ad Grant ROI is research! Explore these resources to learn everything you need to know about the program:
5 Steps to Starting a Membership Program for Your Nonprofit
/in Nonprofit Communications /by Jessica KingSupport is crucial for the continued success of your nonprofit organization. To effectively engage and connect with your supporters, it is essential to meet them where they are. For nonprofits, one way to do this is by creating a membership program.
An effective membership program can offer a boost in engagement and support by better connecting your supporters with your work. Through your program, donors can pay membership fees in exchange for benefits such as free branded merchandise, exclusive events, and a network of like-minded supporters brought together through your work.
This approach gives your nonprofit the opportunity to develop a more sustainable revenue stream and retain your supporters by bringing them into the fold. Ready to get started? Here are five steps to start a membership program for your nonprofit.
1. Define Your Purpose
Before you can craft a membership program that works for your organization, it’s important that you have a clear purpose going in. Take the time to evaluate how both your nonprofit and its supporters can benefit from the program.
Define a driving goal that aligns with your mission. Some thought-starters might include:
As you begin to build your membership program, ensure that your organization is aligned with its supporters so that you can give them the best member experience possible.
Assess whether your organization’s resources and priorities align with the interests and needs of your supporters. This valuable information will provide essential insights as you start your membership program.
2. Create Your Membership Model
A membership model will look different for every organization, but here are some steps you can take to get started:
Understand your organization and mission.
Before you can build your model, you’ll need a clear understanding of the value your organization offers and the benefit you’ll bring to prospective members. That means establishing your nonprofit’s mission and goals.
Decide on your offerings to stakeholders.
With your organization’s vision in mind, it’s time to get clear on what you offer to members, sponsors, employees, and other stakeholders who all rely on your work.
Ensure your organization’s mission is aligned with stakeholders.
Survey stakeholders like members, staff, and sponsors to ensure that your nonprofit’s vision and goals are aligned with theirs. Use what you learn from these findings to either adjust your organization’s vision accordingly, or to target a new group of stakeholders who are better aligned.
Select the best membership structure.
With a better understanding of your members and other stakeholders, you can now choose the most appropriate structure. This might mean paid memberships and memberships with different levels, including:
Or, you might have memberships for different groups, such as:
But remember, if you’re setting up a paid membership structure, it’s crucial to consider the return on investment. After all, attracting new members can cost you, and you want to ensure that you have the funds to provide them with all the member benefits they may have joined for.
Keep the marketing ball rolling
Once you’ve created your membership model, you’ll want to make sure you keep all of your current members engaged and keep building a case for new members to join. Keep on top of your marketing communications by reaching members where they’re most likely to hear you, such as through your organization’s newsletter, website, or social media channels.
3. Choose Membership Management Software
Efficiently managing your organization’s member data is crucial for creating a membership program that serves all stakeholders effectively. That’s why it’s imperative to choose membership management software that is compatible with your organization’s needs.
When searching for the right membership management software, here are some essential features to look for:
By choosing the right membership management software, you can strengthen your relationships with members, enhancing their engagement and fostering a thriving community.
4. Promote Your Nonprofit’s Membership Program
Now that you have built your membership program, it’s time to focus on promoting it and getting prospective members on board. Promoting your organization’s membership program is essential for converting supporters into active members.
Make use of the valuable insights from your donor profiles to tailor your communications and target current supporters who are more likely to become members. With this data, learn where your supporters are most active and spread the word across multiple marketing channels. Those might include:
While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to communicating with prospective members, using targeted and strategic promotion will allow you to meet them where they are and make converting donors into members a seamless process.
5. Determine How to Engage and Retain Members
Having successfully launched your organization’s membership program and acquired members, the key to your program’s long-term success is in retaining those members.
One effective strategy is to craft a comprehensive member communication plan that facilitates ongoing engagement. Your plan should include regular interactions with members so that your organization can gain insights into their interests and needs.
By understanding their motivations, you can tailor activities, events, and opportunities to align with their preferences, increasing the likelihood of their continued involvement.
Equally important is continuously appreciating your members and making them feel valued. Show your gratitude by recognizing their contributions and efforts through personalized gestures, such as sending thank-you notes and organizing member appreciation events.
By nurturing a sense of belonging and appreciation, you cultivate a supportive community that encourages long-term member commitment.
To ensure long-term success, it’s crucial to optimize the member experience and journey. By aligning your nonprofit’s membership program with your supporters’ interests and needs, you can foster a thriving community that is committed for the long run.
Remember, the key is to continually assess and adapt your approach to provide the best member experience possible. Following these steps, you can start a membership program that will make a lasting impact.