What is the biggest challenge for your organization? There is a big chance that it is the same as most non-profit organizations all over the world. The most difficult challenge they all face is fundraising.
How to find a budget for your projects, support the organization and cover its expenses that are necessary for running activities, setting up initiatives, planning projects, and completing them successfully when you are not earning money? Naturally – raising funds in many different ways.
Now the question is, how to raise the money and improve the efficiency of NPO fundraising campaigns? Working on your positioning, promotion, and actual marketing? Yes, marketing for non-profits is kind of a magic tool you really need if you want to keep on making a difference.
This article will help you learn more about the specifics of marketing for non-profits, some techniques, and peculiarities. Marketing strategies are not only going to improve your fundraising results but also the performance of your whole organization with multiple goals, develop it, and grow naturally and smoothly.
Before we start
Here is one very important thing to keep in mind before you proceed to learn more about marketing strategies and maybe even choose one for your non-profit.
Strategy is the base. There is actually nothing you can do without a strategy to predict the results.
In case you already have a good experience in marketing, even for non-profits, you will agree with this statement, but if you are just considering your options to complete your NPO objectives then it can seem not important enough.
Many NGOs tyro imply short-term solutions, use advertising channels chaotically, and generally skip the planning stage or do not include the marketing part in it, concentrating more on organizational issues. There is nothing you should do without a plan if. It is not possible to create a plan that doesn’t have a tactical approach. And where do the tactics come from? Directly from the strategy. Strategy defines the direction for your organization to move and the way to approach that direction.
Now let’s move to the strategies.
There are 6 main ones we are going to cover today. They include:
1. Get $156,000 USD/year in free ads with Google Ad Grants and Microsoft Ads for Social Impact
If you think you do not have a budget to promote your organization through Google Ads, then you do not know about Google Ad Grants and Microsoft Ads for Social Impact.
These are programs that financially support non-profits, so they could you the funds received for advertising on the Google and Bing search engine networks. There is no better contextual advertising than Google and Microsoft Ads, no more advanced and smart system you could take advantage of and attract any kind of audience you need. Multiple tools, advanced statistics and analytics, various targeting options, clever support, and guidance so that even a beginner could manage running his first campaign – imagine all those tools used for the sake of your organization.
Of course, there will be certain limits applied to non-profit campaigns you run under the programs. For example, you will not be able to spend more than $10,000 USD (Google) and $3,000 USD (Microsoft) and your cost-per-click bids will be limited to a maximum of $2 USD (Google), but most probably you will not even notice that limitation.
There are three things you will need to apply for the grant: Google Ads & non-profit accounts, and Google Ads ID, and a few on the Microsoft side as well.
If you don’t have time to learn how Google and/or Microsoft Ads work or aren’t sure you can manage a campaign, then you can always call an expert to make available resources that will be used efficiently and bring the necessary results.
Emotionally-directed video approach
Does content format matter? Definitely. Especially when we are considering content to be promoted by non-profits. Among all options available, the most efficient one is video format. It contains multiple elements to affect the view in a complex way: sound, picture, dynamics, and text. Just hearing a story or seeing an image will not be as effective (we didn’t even mention simple tables or pure text) as a video.
Video is like a quintessence of the best elements used together.
Why do we pay so much attention to the power of content? Because it can be used to bring emotions to people – to make them feel. An emotional way of delivering your messages to people is going to faster the actions they should take.
There are many online resources to help you create videos without investing much money. Modern smartphones also record high-quality videos, so you could process them afterward. Moreover, most Social Media (one of the best marketing channels for non-profits) confirms that video content is the most efficient.
Personal influence
You know about brand ambassadors and how important they are for the promotion of a company, organization, event, product, service – anything! But what about becoming an ambassador of your organization?
Organize and run events, and speak publically about your organization and what you do there. Mention your workers, your donors, your volunteers, and your supporters. Make friends with other organizations and attract donors. The more publically you do that, the more attention you will attract to raise awareness of your company and expand the community of your supporters.
Targeted ads on Social Media
Social Media deserves the most serious approach and needs a special plan. Why? Because this marketing channel is closer to your audience than any other. There are many important things to consider when talking about Social Media Marketing, but today we will focus on the targeted ads available there.
Consider forming some budget to run paid campaigns on, for example, Facebook and Instagram. Well-prepared profiles of your donors will help you target your campaign correctly and get fantastic results. Test different formats and options to find the most efficient and cost-effective one or ask somebody to help you, for example, one of your supporters who are interested in SMM and want to practice at the same time, understanding and respecting your activities to put the effort in their work.
Email marketing
Email marketing is a well-known marketing channel that does not lose its efficiency with time. A well-prepared and run email marketing campaign can bring 40x more than you invest in it.
It means that if you spend $5,000 you can attract up to $200,000 in funds! Doesn’t look bad, does it?
You need to work on your email list and collect a good base of potential and existing donors, then you should form email marketing funnels, and work on the template for your letters as well as their content. Decide on the key performance indicators to track, track them regularly, and constantly improve. For example, the open rate is a very important metric to be taken into account.
Influencers for free
Influencer marketing brings fantastic results, but there are not many influencers that are ready to work for free or with a small budget. Also, great results require a great approach. This is why one of the strategic models to include in your plan is finding an influencer that is world-famous.
There are no guarantees you will get a Hollywood star promoting your agency, but you can concentrate on people who are very supported, respected, and thus important in different organizations, and communities and ask them for a collaboration. Tell them about your projects and initiatives. Explain why they are so important and what problems you solve. Show them you care for what you do, and they might start caring for it as well.
How to use those strategies? Practical approach
You can choose any of those models as a base for further processing within your strategic plan, or combine a few. Usually, it’s the combination that creates a perfect approach for you, but there are no ready ones – you will still need to check and adjust them for yourself.
The digital world of marketing is there for you to help you reach goals, see fantastic results, and make this world a better place for all of us. Don’t hesitate to discover it and use its opportunities and tools to the fullest.
Create positive experiences for your constituents while acquiring valuable insights to help remain agile and quickly address the issues of today, and solve for the challenges of tomorrow.