Nonprofits focus a majority of their resources on fulfilling their missions, but to gain those resources in the first place, charitable organizations need to improve their marketing. Through charity marketing, nonprofits can raise awareness of their cause, bring in new supporters, and earn the donations that fuel their initiatives.
Of course, running a marketing campaign for any organization can quickly become a full-time job. Fortunately, nonprofit professionals don’t need a degree in marketing to understand the basics of how to reach their audience and inspire them to give. Instead, they just need creativity, a deep understanding of their supporters, and a few tools to help manage their campaigns.
To break down the potential complications of running a marketing campaign, this guide will explore the ins and outs of charity marketing, including:
Let’s first look at the basics of charity marketing before exploring how to launch your own campaign.
Charity Marketing FAQ
A marketing campaign is ultimately as complex as your organization makes it. Of course, those new to marketing are likely to have a few questions about what’s normal for promotional campaigns in the nonprofit sector.
What is charity marketing?
Charity marketing is essentially advertising for your nonprofit. It consists of all of the external promotional content your nonprofit develops for the purpose of attracting new donors and persuading them to support you.
Is charity marketing worth the return on investment?
All nonprofits engaging in charity marketing should aim to make a positive return on investment (ROI). However, different nonprofits will approach their marketing strategy with different goals. For example, a new nonprofit may be wholly focused on spreading awareness and attracting new supporters, whereas a more established organization might be more interested in encouraging new donors to make their second gift, increasing their retention rate.
Throughout your marketing campaign, track your expenses and the conversions you can presumably attribute to your marketing. Some third-party marketing agencies that cater specifically to nonprofits offer discounted services, which can also help improve your ROI.
How much should nonprofits spend on charity marketing?
Charity marketing is part of a nonprofit’s overhead expenses, which common nonprofit management advice states should total around 35% of a nonprofit’s budget at maximum. Of course, how much of that 35% is dedicated to marketing will depend on your organization’s size, marketing needs, and other ongoing costs.
To provide a general estimate of what is normal, studies on nonprofit advertisement report that approximately 60% of nonprofits that earn between $1-$10 million in annual revenue have dedicated marketing budgets with a median budget of $12,000. Of course, in this study were both organizations that had no dedicated marketing budget and organizations that spent over $500,000 annually on marketing.
For your organization, assess your budget to consider what revenue you have to dedicate to marketing and what ROI you hope to make with the funds you allocate.
How to Build Your Charity Marketing Plan
A charity marketing plan is a living document nonprofit teams use as a guide to determine what marketing materials to create, when and how these materials should be shared with their audience, and what they hope to achieve by sharing those materials.
The bedrock of this document is your nonprofit’s audience and your team’s knowledge of what that audience is looking for from your nonprofit. Here’s a breakdown of the first steps you should take in creating your charity marketing plan:
Determine your value proposition.
In the business world, marketers assess their product and determine why a potential customer would want to buy it. They consider the product’s features and benefits, how it differs from competitors’ products, and what needs a customer would have fulfilled by the product. Through this assessment, they establish their product’s value proposition.
Nonprofit marketing professionals usually lack a tangible product and have to get a bit more creative when considering the value proposition for making a donation. While supporters do not directly benefit from making a donation, nonprofits can still differentiate themselves from other similar charitable organizations and emphasize why it’s important a supporter invests in their cause.
When establishing your value proposition, consider your branding. What does your nonprofit do differently from others? For example, you might:
- Serve a different community
- Focus on an underfunded aspect of your cause
- Be the only organization of your kind in your area.
Then, consider how giving to your cause benefits your supporters. Some organizations may be able to articulate an indirect benefit. For example, environmental organizations might explain how donating to their cause helps protect future generations. In contrast, an animal shelter might instead appeal to a supporter’s emotional side. Their emotional appeals instead seek to make donors feel better about themselves by giving.
If you’re unsure what your value proposition is, consider the greater value your nonprofit aims to bring your community. Then, consider your audience so you can communicate that value in a way that will appeal to them.
Define your audience.
Nonprofit marketers who are passionate about their organization’s cause might feel that their audience should be anyone who is capable of making a donation. While broad appeals can help you cast a wide net, marketing messages that are meant to inspire everyone often end up vague and inspire few.
Determining who your audience is and what types of messages will appeal to that audience is arguably the most important step in your marketing plan.
Define the audience you hope to market to by first considering the audience you already have. Use your donor data to identify common characteristics your supporters share, such as their demographic data, connection to your cause, and giving level.
During this process, you will likely discover several smaller audiences within your supporter base. For example, your audiences might include local retirees who regularly give by mail, donors who work at a business that held a corporate volunteer day with your nonprofit, and young activists who give in small amounts but help promote your programs on social media and show up for advocacy events.
When you identify these groups, you can simplify your marketing efforts by creating personas.
Personas are hypothetical individuals who stand in for the audience they represent. Because it’s much easier to market to one person than an entire group, personas are a useful tool for envisioning what types of messages will appeal to your audience as a whole. To better imagine these personas, create profiles that include the following information:
- Demographic data. Give each persona a name and choose an age, gender, and career for them. For example, you might envision Carol, a 70-year-old female retiree who lives with her husband and has two married adult children. Or maybe Nate, a single 22-year-old male recent college graduate who lives at home and is looking for his first job.
- Goals. What does the persona hope to gain by interacting with your nonprofit? This could be due to a personal connection, an interest in the tax breaks, or just a desire to do good. In our examples, Carol may wish to give to a medical organization that researches Alzheimer’s due to her husband’s family having a history of the disease. By contrast, Nate donates to a nonprofit that helps refugees out of a feeling of civic duty.
- Challenges. What prevents your personas from completing their goal? Most often, this is a lack of resources, knowledge, or time. Carol may have low-tech literacy and is nervous about making online donations, while Nate has limited savings and can’t commit to giving regularly at this time.
These are the basics, but the more information you can include about your personas, the better. For example, you might expand on their hobbies, fears, and prior knowledge about your cause. This information will help you craft marketing materials that interest them and continue to engage them once they become regular donors.
Set a marketing goal.
Decide what you want your marketing campaign to accomplish. For most nonprofits, their marketing goal will include a specific revenue goal and target ROI. You can calculate your target ROI with this equation:
For example, let’s say your nonprofit aims to make $10,000 in donations through a recent digital fundraising campaign. The total expenses for buying online ad space, paying monthly subscription costs for marketing tools, and paying graphic designers to develop marketing materials are $2,000 for simplicity. This would be a 500% ROI, which most nonprofits would agree is highly desirable.
However, keep in mind that there may be additional hidden costs associated with your marketing campaign. For example, consider the salaries of your marketing team members and the time they dedicated to this marketing campaign that theoretically could have been used elsewhere. Additionally, the nonprofit only achieves this ROI if it hit its revenue target.
Determine your marketing goals by setting a budget and considering what is realistic for your nonprofit to achieve based on past fundraisers and your current resources.
Create marketing materials.
Marketing campaigns need marketing materials. For most nonprofits, this will mean working with a creative team (or even multiple teams) who can develop the needed graphics and written copy that will appeal to your audience through flyers, social media posts, or any other materials you create.
However, before reaching out to potential graphic designers, consider what materials you should produce in the first place. If you aren’t sure what platforms to use or what types of appeals are right for your campaign, refer back to your audience personas.
Considering the personas we created earlier, Carol and Nate, our hypothetical nonprofit knows it needs to create direct mail appeals that will reassure its older supporters and attention-grabbing social media posts that let donors with a lower giving capacity potentially spread your message to someone who can make a sizable donation.
Additionally, prepare your brand assets so your internal creative team or the external contractors you hire can provide materials that fit your nonprofit’s identity. The more details and assets you can provide at the early iterative design stages, the more likely your creative team is to get it right on the first few tries.
Analyze your results in real-time.
Modern nonprofit technology allows your marketing team to monitor responses to your campaign as they happen. For instance, you can see social media engagement as soon as it happens and use tracking links to determine where traffic to your donation page is coming from.
Throughout your campaign, stay on top of these results to identify both opportunities and challenges. For example, you might find that engagement isn’t as high on one social media platform as you would have hoped. However, you notice links in your emails are having a higher clickthrough rate than your last campaign.
In this situation, you might spend less time designing content for the underperforming social media site and instead focus on boosting engagement through email by adding interactive polls or sharing information about one-click donation upgrades.
8 Charity Marketing Ideas
Once you have a clear audience and goal, it’s time to get creative and start brainstorming marketing ideas. To help inspire your team, here are eight tested charity marketing ideas:
1. Explore Google Ad Grants.
Google Ad Grants are funds Google awards to 501(c)(3) organizations that can be put toward launching ad campaigns on Google. Advertisements on Google appear at the top of the search results page for relevant keywords, and the Google Ad Grant provides nonprofits with $10,000 of monthly spending for these campaigns.
To make the most of Google Ad Grants for your charity marketing campaign, you’ll need to consider what you want to promote and what keywords your supporters are likely to search for.
The Google Ad Grant can be used to promote almost any page on your nonprofit’s website. As such, you can focus your ad campaigns on spreading awareness, attracting new donors, recruiting volunteers, informing constituents about your services, or promoting your ongoing campaign.
After choosing your goal, consider what related keywords your target audiences are most likely to search for. Try to choose long-tail, less competitive keywords to put your ads in front of the most relevant audience possible.
2. Launch a multi-channel campaign.
It’s estimated that a business needs approximately eight touchpoints with a customer before they make a sale. This principle also applies to charity marketing, and also like for-profit businesses, you can create these touchpoints through multi-channel marketing.
Multi-channel marketing is an outreach method where an organization promotes itself through multiple communication channels. For your nonprofit, these channels might include:
- Social media. Refer to your audience personas to determine which social media platforms your audience uses. Additionally, explore if social media platforms offer discounted rates for nonprofit advertising and what their conversion rates are. For example, the major social media platforms of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have average conversion rates of 4.7%, 3.1%, and 0.9% respectively. However, if the majority of your audience is on one of these platforms, your personal conversion rates may differ.
- Email. Email is one of the most popular forms of nonprofit marketing due to its flexibility. Share videos, pictures, polls, and links to other content with your supporters. Be sure to segment your email lists based on your personas so the right messages go to the right inboxes. For example, emails about planned giving for Carol shouldn’t end up in Nate’s inbox.
- Your website. Consider the sales funnel, which has four main stages for nonprofits: awareness, consideration, conversion, and advocacy. A strong website is essential for supporters in the consideration phase who have become aware of your nonprofit and are looking for more information before donating.
- In-person activities. While you can earn support from donors all over the world, most nonprofits will find their most loyal supporters in their own communities. For new nonprofits especially, hosting in-person events can be an essential first step for spreading awareness and making face-to-face connections.
- Partnerships. Both corporations and other charitable organizations may be interested in working with your nonprofit. Consider the connections you have that may lead to partnerships, such as a board member being friends with a local business owner. Working together can help you and your partner organization gain access to each other’s audiences. Plus, having them vouch for you can improve your credibility.
- SMS. With the rise of smartphones, texting is one of the fastest ways to get in touch with your supporters. If you don’t collect phone numbers from your donors, consider purchasing a phone append to text them the latest updates about your campaign.
- Direct mail. Traditional mail still has its purposes in nonprofit marketing. Along with donation appeals, consider sending physical thank-you letters in exchange for online donations or even small gifts, like keychains or fridge magnets.
Keep in mind that while marketing on multiple platforms is effective, it is also time-consuming and resource-intensive. Generally, marketing is more effective when you prioritize quality over quantity, so if your organization needs to cut back, consider focusing deeply on a few channels rather than shallowly on all of them.
3. Experiment with peer-to-peer fundraising.
One of the strongest marketing channels is word-of-mouth. Supporters who believe in your organization are happy to talk about it with their friends and family. Leverage this passion by hosting a peer-to-peer campaign.
Peer-to-peer campaigns are fundraisers where a group of volunteers promote your nonprofit and collect donations on your behalf. These campaigns can have a deadline or operate on a rolling basis based on your volunteers’ availability.
Peer-to-peer fundraising is especially effective when paired with other fundraising drives. For example, you might add a peer-to-peer component to your charity marketing during Giving Tuesday when many people are already thinking about donating. With so many causes competing for their attention, they’re far more likely to act on a call to action issued by a trusted friend or family member than from an organization they’re unfamiliar with.
4. Host events.
Charity marketing often struggles with finding a reason why supporters should donate now. With events, you can give your supporters something to get excited about while also creating the perfect opportunity to make a donation.
With modern technology, events are also flexible, and each format has its own benefits:
- In-person events bring your local community together and allow them to connect with your team face-to-face. These types of events are especially useful for courting relationships with major donors who usually need to develop a personal connection with one of your major gift officers before deciding to give.
- Online events are accessible and can be hosted with video conferencing software or via a live streaming platform. Keep your online events engaging by encouraging attendees to type in your meeting’s chat and assigning a team member to moderate comments and interact with your guests.
- Hybrid events give guests the flexibility to attend in person if it’s convenient or from home if they simply prefer the comfort of remote attendance. Before your event, plan how you will engage both remote and in-person attendees to create an equivalent experience for both groups.
Events should be packed with fun activities, entertainment, and opportunities for guests to socialize. However, make sure your nonprofit’s purpose is front and center, so attendees both have a good time and understand the importance of giving to your cause.
5. Use marketing software.
To manage all of your campaign’s moving parts, invest in marketing software. Marketing tools vary widely in purpose, from automating routine tasks and organizing data to allowing you to connect with supporters in entirely new ways.
Consider how you want to reach out to supporters and list what types of technology would help you enact your strategies. Then, begin researching top marketing solutions, like:
- Email platform. Email platforms allow you to create email templates, segment email lists, and send emails to all of your supporters at once. Some systems also allow you to set up trigger emails that are sent automatically when supporters take actions like donating or signing up to volunteer.
- CRM. Your CRM stores all of your donor data, making it one of your marketing team’s most important tools for understanding your audience. Whenever you engage with a supporter, record the interaction in your CRM. Your marketing team can then look at this data to analyze trends in donor behavior, shifting demographics, and anything else related to your donors.
- Editorial calendar. Marketing requires active communication, and it can be challenging to know which messages to send when, especially if you’re launching a multi-channel campaign. An editorial calendar is a project management tool that helps keep your team on track by outlining which projects are due when and who is responsible for each task in that project.
You can also choose a unified marketing solution like Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud, which comes with basic features and can be further expanded and customized as the nonprofit needs. Solutions like Salesforce work best for large and growing organizations that need tools developed for their specific workflows. By contrast, smaller organizations can save on subscription fees and developer costs by choosing a solution with more out-of-the-box features.
6. Cultivate existing relationships
Did you know that acquiring new supporters sometimes costs 50% – 100% more than the amount the nonprofit collects from these new supporters? To avoid a net loss for your organization, make sure you’re balancing donor acquisition with donor retention.
After all, marketing is about more than just acquiring new support. In the long run, successful nonprofit marketing should also increase donor retention.
Take steps now to foster existing relationships and avoid breaking your budget. Here are some practical ways you can cultivate your existing relationships:
- Personalize your communication. Send thank you letters and conduct regular phone calls to check in with your donors. You can even use digital tools like charity eCards to send a quick, heartfelt thank you note to donors right after you receive a donation. Keep track of other special occasions like birthdays or the anniversary of their first volunteer day to celebrate them, too.
- Host an appreciation event. For donors who have given consistently, consider hosting an in-person or virtual event to celebrate their generosity. With permission, you can make the night extra special by sharing beneficiaries’ stories to show just how much of an impact your donors have made.
- Provide more engagement opportunities. To take your existing relationships to the next level, you’ll need to offer more opportunities for donors to get to know your cause. Volunteer workshops, online testimonials, or even a behind-the-scenes look into your operations are compelling opportunities for donors to learn more about you.
When you take time to prioritize your donor relationships, it shows that you care about the donor and genuinely appreciate them. This will go a long way for both your donor retention efforts and word-of-mouth marketing as people want to give where they know they will feel appreciated.
7. Create videos and other engaging content.
Stand out from the crowd by changing up your marketing strategy with compelling infographics, bold photos, and attention-grabbing videos. Video especially has become increasingly important for charity marketing, with research showing that viewers are 52% more likely to share video with friends and family than other types of content.
To create videos, your nonprofit can work with a third-party video production company or attempt to develop them in-house.
When working with an external agency, you can be assured that they will have high-quality cameras, microphones, and editing software to develop professional videos. Video production agencies also have access to assets that can elevate your videos, such as music, experience directing, and knowledge of film production fundamentals, like shot framing, color grading, and sound editing.
Of course, video production can also be expensive. Making videos yourself is likely to be less expensive, though you will potentially need to invest in the necessary filmmaking tools as an upfront investment. While your videos do not need to be movie-quality, at least go the extra mile to ensure your videos have clear audio to make your message easy to hear and understand.
8. Offer additional services.
Many nonprofits can overcome the challenge of not having a product to give in return for donations with an obvious solution: offer a product or service. Consider what assets—such as surplus funds, extra available space, staff with diverse skill sets, or any other resources—your nonprofit has and if they can be turned into a product or service. Here are just a few examples of what your nonprofit could potentially sell to donors:
- Branded merchandise
- Educational courses
- Rented space
- Experiences, such as guided nature walks, petting zoos, and theater performances
- Membership program
While the idea of making a profit similar to for-profit businesses may sound strange at first, earning revenue through marketing a service is very normal in the nonprofit sector when taking nonprofit organizations like hospitals, universities, and museums into account.
Launch Your Charity Marketing Campaign
Charity marketing brings in the revenue your nonprofit needs to fuel your mission. Launching a marketing campaign is often a major undertaking, and your first step is to conduct research on your audience, competitors’ strategies, and standard marketing practices to give your team the knowledge they need to find success.
To help kickstart your research, continue exploring Getting Attention’s library of resources on the ins and outs of charity marketing:
Charity Marketing: How to Spread Your Nonprofit’s Message
/in Nonprofit Marketing /by Jessica KingNonprofits focus a majority of their resources on fulfilling their missions, but to gain those resources in the first place, charitable organizations need to improve their marketing. Through charity marketing, nonprofits can raise awareness of their cause, bring in new supporters, and earn the donations that fuel their initiatives.
Of course, running a marketing campaign for any organization can quickly become a full-time job. Fortunately, nonprofit professionals don’t need a degree in marketing to understand the basics of how to reach their audience and inspire them to give. Instead, they just need creativity, a deep understanding of their supporters, and a few tools to help manage their campaigns.
To break down the potential complications of running a marketing campaign, this guide will explore the ins and outs of charity marketing, including:
Let’s first look at the basics of charity marketing before exploring how to launch your own campaign.
Charity Marketing FAQ
A marketing campaign is ultimately as complex as your organization makes it. Of course, those new to marketing are likely to have a few questions about what’s normal for promotional campaigns in the nonprofit sector.
What is charity marketing?
Charity marketing is essentially advertising for your nonprofit. It consists of all of the external promotional content your nonprofit develops for the purpose of attracting new donors and persuading them to support you.
Is charity marketing worth the return on investment?
All nonprofits engaging in charity marketing should aim to make a positive return on investment (ROI). However, different nonprofits will approach their marketing strategy with different goals. For example, a new nonprofit may be wholly focused on spreading awareness and attracting new supporters, whereas a more established organization might be more interested in encouraging new donors to make their second gift, increasing their retention rate.
Throughout your marketing campaign, track your expenses and the conversions you can presumably attribute to your marketing. Some third-party marketing agencies that cater specifically to nonprofits offer discounted services, which can also help improve your ROI.
How much should nonprofits spend on charity marketing?
Charity marketing is part of a nonprofit’s overhead expenses, which common nonprofit management advice states should total around 35% of a nonprofit’s budget at maximum. Of course, how much of that 35% is dedicated to marketing will depend on your organization’s size, marketing needs, and other ongoing costs.
To provide a general estimate of what is normal, studies on nonprofit advertisement report that approximately 60% of nonprofits that earn between $1-$10 million in annual revenue have dedicated marketing budgets with a median budget of $12,000. Of course, in this study were both organizations that had no dedicated marketing budget and organizations that spent over $500,000 annually on marketing.
For your organization, assess your budget to consider what revenue you have to dedicate to marketing and what ROI you hope to make with the funds you allocate.
How to Build Your Charity Marketing Plan
A charity marketing plan is a living document nonprofit teams use as a guide to determine what marketing materials to create, when and how these materials should be shared with their audience, and what they hope to achieve by sharing those materials.
The bedrock of this document is your nonprofit’s audience and your team’s knowledge of what that audience is looking for from your nonprofit. Here’s a breakdown of the first steps you should take in creating your charity marketing plan:
Determine your value proposition.
In the business world, marketers assess their product and determine why a potential customer would want to buy it. They consider the product’s features and benefits, how it differs from competitors’ products, and what needs a customer would have fulfilled by the product. Through this assessment, they establish their product’s value proposition.
When establishing your value proposition, consider your branding. What does your nonprofit do differently from others? For example, you might:
Then, consider how giving to your cause benefits your supporters. Some organizations may be able to articulate an indirect benefit. For example, environmental organizations might explain how donating to their cause helps protect future generations. In contrast, an animal shelter might instead appeal to a supporter’s emotional side. Their emotional appeals instead seek to make donors feel better about themselves by giving.
If you’re unsure what your value proposition is, consider the greater value your nonprofit aims to bring your community. Then, consider your audience so you can communicate that value in a way that will appeal to them.
Define your audience.
Nonprofit marketers who are passionate about their organization’s cause might feel that their audience should be anyone who is capable of making a donation. While broad appeals can help you cast a wide net, marketing messages that are meant to inspire everyone often end up vague and inspire few.
Determining who your audience is and what types of messages will appeal to that audience is arguably the most important step in your marketing plan.
Define the audience you hope to market to by first considering the audience you already have. Use your donor data to identify common characteristics your supporters share, such as their demographic data, connection to your cause, and giving level.
During this process, you will likely discover several smaller audiences within your supporter base. For example, your audiences might include local retirees who regularly give by mail, donors who work at a business that held a corporate volunteer day with your nonprofit, and young activists who give in small amounts but help promote your programs on social media and show up for advocacy events.
When you identify these groups, you can simplify your marketing efforts by creating personas.
Personas are hypothetical individuals who stand in for the audience they represent. Because it’s much easier to market to one person than an entire group, personas are a useful tool for envisioning what types of messages will appeal to your audience as a whole. To better imagine these personas, create profiles that include the following information:
These are the basics, but the more information you can include about your personas, the better. For example, you might expand on their hobbies, fears, and prior knowledge about your cause. This information will help you craft marketing materials that interest them and continue to engage them once they become regular donors.
Set a marketing goal.
Decide what you want your marketing campaign to accomplish. For most nonprofits, their marketing goal will include a specific revenue goal and target ROI. You can calculate your target ROI with this equation:
For example, let’s say your nonprofit aims to make $10,000 in donations through a recent digital fundraising campaign. The total expenses for buying online ad space, paying monthly subscription costs for marketing tools, and paying graphic designers to develop marketing materials are $2,000 for simplicity. This would be a 500% ROI, which most nonprofits would agree is highly desirable.
However, keep in mind that there may be additional hidden costs associated with your marketing campaign. For example, consider the salaries of your marketing team members and the time they dedicated to this marketing campaign that theoretically could have been used elsewhere. Additionally, the nonprofit only achieves this ROI if it hit its revenue target.
Determine your marketing goals by setting a budget and considering what is realistic for your nonprofit to achieve based on past fundraisers and your current resources.
Create marketing materials.
Marketing campaigns need marketing materials. For most nonprofits, this will mean working with a creative team (or even multiple teams) who can develop the needed graphics and written copy that will appeal to your audience through flyers, social media posts, or any other materials you create.
However, before reaching out to potential graphic designers, consider what materials you should produce in the first place. If you aren’t sure what platforms to use or what types of appeals are right for your campaign, refer back to your audience personas.
Considering the personas we created earlier, Carol and Nate, our hypothetical nonprofit knows it needs to create direct mail appeals that will reassure its older supporters and attention-grabbing social media posts that let donors with a lower giving capacity potentially spread your message to someone who can make a sizable donation.
Additionally, prepare your brand assets so your internal creative team or the external contractors you hire can provide materials that fit your nonprofit’s identity. The more details and assets you can provide at the early iterative design stages, the more likely your creative team is to get it right on the first few tries.
Analyze your results in real-time.
Modern nonprofit technology allows your marketing team to monitor responses to your campaign as they happen. For instance, you can see social media engagement as soon as it happens and use tracking links to determine where traffic to your donation page is coming from.
Throughout your campaign, stay on top of these results to identify both opportunities and challenges. For example, you might find that engagement isn’t as high on one social media platform as you would have hoped. However, you notice links in your emails are having a higher clickthrough rate than your last campaign.
In this situation, you might spend less time designing content for the underperforming social media site and instead focus on boosting engagement through email by adding interactive polls or sharing information about one-click donation upgrades.
8 Charity Marketing Ideas
Once you have a clear audience and goal, it’s time to get creative and start brainstorming marketing ideas. To help inspire your team, here are eight tested charity marketing ideas:
1. Explore Google Ad Grants.
Google Ad Grants are funds Google awards to 501(c)(3) organizations that can be put toward launching ad campaigns on Google. Advertisements on Google appear at the top of the search results page for relevant keywords, and the Google Ad Grant provides nonprofits with $10,000 of monthly spending for these campaigns.
The Google Ad Grant can be used to promote almost any page on your nonprofit’s website. As such, you can focus your ad campaigns on spreading awareness, attracting new donors, recruiting volunteers, informing constituents about your services, or promoting your ongoing campaign.
After choosing your goal, consider what related keywords your target audiences are most likely to search for. Try to choose long-tail, less competitive keywords to put your ads in front of the most relevant audience possible.
2. Launch a multi-channel campaign.
It’s estimated that a business needs approximately eight touchpoints with a customer before they make a sale. This principle also applies to charity marketing, and also like for-profit businesses, you can create these touchpoints through multi-channel marketing.
Multi-channel marketing is an outreach method where an organization promotes itself through multiple communication channels. For your nonprofit, these channels might include:
Keep in mind that while marketing on multiple platforms is effective, it is also time-consuming and resource-intensive. Generally, marketing is more effective when you prioritize quality over quantity, so if your organization needs to cut back, consider focusing deeply on a few channels rather than shallowly on all of them.
3. Experiment with peer-to-peer fundraising.
One of the strongest marketing channels is word-of-mouth. Supporters who believe in your organization are happy to talk about it with their friends and family. Leverage this passion by hosting a peer-to-peer campaign.
Peer-to-peer campaigns are fundraisers where a group of volunteers promote your nonprofit and collect donations on your behalf. These campaigns can have a deadline or operate on a rolling basis based on your volunteers’ availability.
Peer-to-peer fundraising is especially effective when paired with other fundraising drives. For example, you might add a peer-to-peer component to your charity marketing during Giving Tuesday when many people are already thinking about donating. With so many causes competing for their attention, they’re far more likely to act on a call to action issued by a trusted friend or family member than from an organization they’re unfamiliar with.
4. Host events.
Charity marketing often struggles with finding a reason why supporters should donate now. With events, you can give your supporters something to get excited about while also creating the perfect opportunity to make a donation.
With modern technology, events are also flexible, and each format has its own benefits:
Events should be packed with fun activities, entertainment, and opportunities for guests to socialize. However, make sure your nonprofit’s purpose is front and center, so attendees both have a good time and understand the importance of giving to your cause.
5. Use marketing software.
To manage all of your campaign’s moving parts, invest in marketing software. Marketing tools vary widely in purpose, from automating routine tasks and organizing data to allowing you to connect with supporters in entirely new ways.
Consider how you want to reach out to supporters and list what types of technology would help you enact your strategies. Then, begin researching top marketing solutions, like:
You can also choose a unified marketing solution like Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud, which comes with basic features and can be further expanded and customized as the nonprofit needs. Solutions like Salesforce work best for large and growing organizations that need tools developed for their specific workflows. By contrast, smaller organizations can save on subscription fees and developer costs by choosing a solution with more out-of-the-box features.
6. Cultivate existing relationships
Did you know that acquiring new supporters sometimes costs 50% – 100% more than the amount the nonprofit collects from these new supporters? To avoid a net loss for your organization, make sure you’re balancing donor acquisition with donor retention.
After all, marketing is about more than just acquiring new support. In the long run, successful nonprofit marketing should also increase donor retention.
Take steps now to foster existing relationships and avoid breaking your budget. Here are some practical ways you can cultivate your existing relationships:
When you take time to prioritize your donor relationships, it shows that you care about the donor and genuinely appreciate them. This will go a long way for both your donor retention efforts and word-of-mouth marketing as people want to give where they know they will feel appreciated.
7. Create videos and other engaging content.
Stand out from the crowd by changing up your marketing strategy with compelling infographics, bold photos, and attention-grabbing videos. Video especially has become increasingly important for charity marketing, with research showing that viewers are 52% more likely to share video with friends and family than other types of content.
To create videos, your nonprofit can work with a third-party video production company or attempt to develop them in-house.
When working with an external agency, you can be assured that they will have high-quality cameras, microphones, and editing software to develop professional videos. Video production agencies also have access to assets that can elevate your videos, such as music, experience directing, and knowledge of film production fundamentals, like shot framing, color grading, and sound editing.
Of course, video production can also be expensive. Making videos yourself is likely to be less expensive, though you will potentially need to invest in the necessary filmmaking tools as an upfront investment. While your videos do not need to be movie-quality, at least go the extra mile to ensure your videos have clear audio to make your message easy to hear and understand.
8. Offer additional services.
Many nonprofits can overcome the challenge of not having a product to give in return for donations with an obvious solution: offer a product or service. Consider what assets—such as surplus funds, extra available space, staff with diverse skill sets, or any other resources—your nonprofit has and if they can be turned into a product or service. Here are just a few examples of what your nonprofit could potentially sell to donors:
While the idea of making a profit similar to for-profit businesses may sound strange at first, earning revenue through marketing a service is very normal in the nonprofit sector when taking nonprofit organizations like hospitals, universities, and museums into account.
Launch Your Charity Marketing Campaign
Charity marketing brings in the revenue your nonprofit needs to fuel your mission. Launching a marketing campaign is often a major undertaking, and your first step is to conduct research on your audience, competitors’ strategies, and standard marketing practices to give your team the knowledge they need to find success.
To help kickstart your research, continue exploring Getting Attention’s library of resources on the ins and outs of charity marketing:
Top 2023 Nonprofit Marketing Trends to Inform Your Strategy
/in Nonprofit Communications /by Jessica KingThe world of marketing, especially digital marketing, is constantly adapting to consumer preferences. That means that you cannot afford to structure your nonprofit’s strategy in a vacuum—you’ll need to keep pace with the changing landscape that the diverse world of marketing presents.
As you build your strategy, you’ll need to keep that in mind as you plan to make the most of your available budget, tools, and efforts. In this guide, we’ll help you do just that by exploring recent nonprofit marketing trends and giving tips on how you can adapt your strategy to stay relevant.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
At Getting Attention, we help nonprofits diversify their marketing strategy with the power of the Google Ad Grant. While this Grant is explored in a trend later, keep in mind that it’s a valuable tool to add to your current strategy. That said, let’s take a closer look at why your nonprofit should stay on top of marketing trends.
Why Trends Matter for Your Nonprofit Marketing Strategy
It can be tempting to choose your favorite marketing channels and stick to them for all your advertising activities. After all, just because it’s “trendy” to pursue a certain marketing technique doesn’t mean it’s the right move for your organization, does it?
Short answer: yes and no. While there might be consequences to following a trend that does not quite match your nonprofit’s image, there are also consequences for not staying up to date with trends. To offer some perspective, nonprofits who maximize current, relevant trends can experience:
Following relevant trends can have a positive impact on your nonprofit’s health. Let’s take a closer look at which channels to monitor for upcoming trends.
Nonprofit Marketing Channels: An Overview
A 2022 HubSpot survey of over 1,200 marketers found that 80% said marketing has changed more in the last three years than in the last 50. That’s a lot of change, but which channels have been the most affected? The top channels you should keep an eye on are as follows:
We’ll explore each of these in the coming sections in addition to examining how strategies such as personalization and user-generated content impact the effectiveness of each channel.
Top Nonprofit Marketing Trends to Watch
Changes in the Social Media Marketing Mix
Social media marketing has been a dominant marketing channel for a few years now—a whopping 4.9 billion people worldwide identify as active social media users.
However, the preferred channels within social media have gone back and forth between Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and now TikTok. As of 2023, here’s where each social media channel stands as measured by monthly active users:
Active social media user counts:
Although ranking the smallest, TikTok is used by 42% of marketers and ties for 2nd with YouTube and Instagram as a top ROI-generating platform. This means that TikTok’s popularity is projected to rise in the coming years.
Here are ways you can leverage social media marketing:
Email Marketing is Swaying
Only a quarter of nonprofit email recipients open their emails. That means that there are inboxes full of unopened communications from your nonprofit. However, before you ditch your email newsletter, think about ways you can make it more engaging for your specific audience.
Here are ways you can increase interest in your emails:
User-Generated Content is Making Waves
About 90% of consumers report that user-generated content (UGC) influences their buying decisions more than marketing emails and even search engine results. UGC refers to any form of content created and shared by users based on their experiences with your nonprofit. For example, a new volunteer might post a short “a day in the life of a Humane Society volunteer” describing their daily tasks like walking dogs or organizing pet food.
UGC comes across as more genuine and credible than content posted by your organization. This is because people tend to trust people more than they trust organizations. Therefore, your marketing strategy should look for ways to make UGC the norm.
This means you’ll need to connect with your audience in a way that facilitates two-way communication. Thus incorporating more opportunities for “earned media” to build up credibility.
Here are ways you can encourage UGC:
Video Marketing is Now a Must-Have
Video marketing is becoming the standard as 93% of global Internet users watch digital videos each week and 73% of consumers prefer to watch a short video to learn about a product or service.
Leverage this trend by creating compelling video content. For instance, rather than simply sharing an impact report with your donors, send them a video showing the impact they’ve made on your beneficiaries.
Here are tips to create engaging video content:
Personalization Still Matters
Message personalization has been around for a while and it’s not going anywhere as 72% of consumers claim that they respond to marketing messages crafted to their choices. That means you’ll need to keep a pulse on your supporter preferences and tailor your messaging in a way that communicates that you value their contributions.
Here are ways you can personalize your messaging:
Search Ads Can Revolutionize Your Strategy
Did you know that Google controls 92% of the search engine market share? This means that investing in Google ads can have a significant positive impact on your nonprofit’s revenue generation. Luckily Google has provided a program tailor-made for nonprofits—the Google Ad Grants Program.
Since 2003, the Google Ad Grants program has provided $10 billion in free advertising to more than 115,000 nonprofits across 51 countries. This program can launch your content straight to the top of Google’s search results so that more people find you faster.
The Google Ad Grant offers:
Website SEO Marketing is Essential
Your website is the centerpiece of your marketing strategy. In fact, 60% of marketers say that inbound marketing (SEO, blog content, etc.) is their highest source of qualified leads. It’s no different for nonprofits—your website must be optimized for search engines to get the most out of your online presence.
An essential part of optimizing your website is focusing on publishing quality content. When creating content use the EEAT acronym: experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness. Following this framework will get both search engines and supporters on your side.
Here are ways you can boost your SEO:
AI Isn’t Going Anywhere
Recent research indicates that chatbots and other advanced AI technologies are here to stay. With an ever-evolving market, your nonprofit needs to learn how to leverage these tools to connect with supporters. However, bear in mind that nonprofit connections are distinctly personal and human, so use AI as a tool to refine your communications rather than as a direct replacement.
Slowly incorporate AI into your marketing workflows and assess how it can streamline your tasks. That way, you’ll have more time to research and implement new marketing strategies.
Here are ways you can use AI:
Consider how each of these trends can inform your current marketing strategy as you look for new ways to engage your audience. Track your progress as you adopt each strategy and know that not every microtrend requires immediate action.
How to Select Which Nonprofit Marketing Trends to Follow
The above trends are redefining nonprofit marketing communications and your organization should research and adopt as many as possible to sharpen your strategy.
Of course, In an ideal world, every marketing effort you invest in would produce increased funds, long-term support, and greater general awareness. However, because your resources are limited, you’re going to need to know how to sufficiently allocate them for the best marketing results. Additionally, you’ll want to choose trends that resonate with your audience, expand your supporter base, and/or increase the efficiency of your day-to-day marketing operations.
To know which trends to focus on, ask yourself these five questions:
Conclusion + Additional Resources
The development of new technologies results in more ways to connect with your supporters than ever before. That means your organization needs to consistently research and adapt your marketing strategy to stay relevant in an ever-changing environment.
As you adjust your strategy, check out these resources to keep learning:
Facebook Challenges: Social Media Fundraising for Nonprofits
/in Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Fundraising, Nonprofit Marketing /by 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.
https://twitter.com/Anne_Kanopi
https://www.drupal.org/u/annabella
https://www.linkedin.com/in/annestefanyk/