Marketing Archives ⋆ Hands-On Fundraising

Why aren’t nonprofits getting the recognition they deserve?

Attention, please!

When you work at a nonprofit, long hours and tons of responsibility go with the territory.

It’s not about making money or getting accolades; it’s about creating an impact.

You’re working hard, you’re making a difference. But your friends, family, and sometimes even colleagues don’t have a clear idea of what you do. They certainly don’t understand how much you’re pouring into your cause.

Does any of that sound familiar?

As the owner of a marketing agency that helps nonprofits eliminate confusion through clear messaging, I have had the opportunity to work with a wide range of organizations. I’m always impressed by the dedication and passion of the people working in the nonprofit sector. But I have also noticed that they often struggle to gain the recognition and support they deserve in their communities.

Challenges facing nonprofits

One of the primary challenges that nonprofits face when it comes to marketing is limited resources.

Tight budgets

Many nonprofits operate on tight budgets, which means they have less money to devote to marketing and advertising efforts. This can make it difficult for them to get their message out and attract the attention of potential donors, funders, and volunteers.

Competition from the for-profit world

Competing with for-profit businesses for attention and resources is another major challenge for nonprofits. In a world where businesses are constantly vying for consumer attention, nonprofits can get lost in the noise. This is especially true when it comes to fundraising efforts. Donors and sponsors have limited funds, which for-profits will try to capture as much as possible.

Making matters worse, these are just the concerns that affect all organizations, including small businesses. Nonprofits face an uphill battle with their own unique challenges.

Balancing mission and marketing

For example, nonprofits must also strike a balance between mission-driven messaging and the desire to attract support. It can be difficult to effectively communicate the importance of your work and the impact you are having on your community while also making an emotional appeal to potential donors.

Another factor that can hold your nonprofit back from gaining the recognition you deserve is a failure to self-promote. If you work in the nonprofit sector, you are likely deeply committed to your cause and are driven by a desire to make a positive impact in the world. However, you may not be as comfortable with the idea of self-promotion as someone in a for-profit business. You may even feel that it is not in line with your values or mission.

This reluctance to self-promote can be a self-imposed struggle for nonprofits. It can prevent you from effectively communicating the value of your work and the impact you are having. While it is important to be humble and modest, it is also okay to take credit for the good work that your nonprofit does and to share your successes with others. By promoting your work, you can inspire others to get involved and support your efforts.

Share your successes and the credit

Sharing your success stories helps build trust because it allows people to see the impact that your organization is making. When people see that a nonprofit is achieving its goals and making a difference in the world, they are more likely to trust the organization and feel confident in supporting it. This is especially true when you are transparent about your work. Share specific examples of the positive impact you are having.

By sharing your successes, you let people see the good work that you’re doing. In turn, they may be more motivated to volunteer their time, donate money, or advocate for your cause. But share the credit as well. Supporters are part of your work! This can help to build a sense of community and support around your organization, which can be crucial for its long-term health.

Build trust to inspire support

Ultimately, sharing your success is about more than just promoting your work. It’s about building trust and connection with your supporters and the broader community. By being open about your achievements, you can inspire others to join you in your mission and work together to make a positive difference in the world. So, it’s always a good idea for nonprofits to share their successes and build trust with their supporters.

You need to strike a balance between being humble and being proud of your accomplishments. You do that by sharing the credit: your supporters make your work possible!

By being more proactive in promoting your work, your nonprofit can gain the recognition and support it deserves and continue to make a positive impact in your community.

Recognition doesn’t just feed your ego

Why is it so important to gain recognition in your community? The impact of under-recognition on nonprofits can be significant. When your nonprofit struggles to gain visibility and support, you may have difficulty attracting volunteers and donors. That can hinder your ability to fulfill your mission and achieve your goals.

Limited recognition can also make it harder for nonprofits to build partnerships and collaborations, as you may not be as visible to potential partners.

What’s the solution?

So what can be done to improve recognition for your nonprofit?

Owned media for nonprofits

It’s important to leverage low-cost marketing channels to reach a wider audience. By building a strong online presence and engaging with followers on social media, you can attract new supporters and raise awareness of your work.

In marketing, we call channels like your website and social media posts owned media. These channels are important because you control the content and can build them out by investing time, and not just money.

Earned media for nonprofits

It’s also important to leverage earned media, which is the buzz you start to get when community champions start to share your messaging for you.

A key way to kickstart your earned media is by reaching out to your local network. Building relationships with local media outlets and influencers can be a powerful way to increase recognition for your nonprofit. By working with journalists and influencers who have a large following, you can get your message out to a larger audience and attract more support.

Tell stories to attract attention

Another key part of your strategy for improving your nonprofit recognition is to use storytelling and emotional appeals to connect with your audience. By sharing stories about the people and communities that you serve, you can create a sense of connection and inspire people to take action.

Work together with other nonprofits

Finally, collaborating with other nonprofits and community organizations can be an effective way to increase recognition for your own organization. By working together, nonprofits can pool their resources and reach a larger audience, which can help to raise awareness and support for their causes.

To be effective with this approach, it’s important to have a very clear message about what you do and who you serve. In local communities, a lack of clarity of purpose can confuse your audience, especially if there are similar organizations in your network.

Recognition in a nutshell…

We both know that nonprofits play a vital role in addressing social issues and improving the lives of people in their communities. However, they often struggle to gain the recognition and support they deserve.

As a nonprofit, you can start to increase your recognition by:

leveraging affordable marketing channels
building relationships with media outlets and influencers
using storytelling and emotional appeals
collaborating with other organizations

If you can nail these tactics, you can improve your nonprofit’s recognition and position yourself to do even more good. As a marketing specialist, I help organizations with these things all the time. But the best way to start is to get comfortable with self-promoting. Share your success yourself, and develop a clear message for your community.

If you take one thing away from this article, remember, you’re doing good work; it’s okay to brag about it.

Aron Murch

Aron Murch is the Co-Owner and CIO of 2H Media. Aron helps nonprofits improve their visibility by building video-driven websites that reduce confusion and encourage engagement. Leveraging close to 20 years of marketing experience, Aron oversees and implements crucial strategic projects for nonprofits.

Photo by Shane on Unsplash

How Changing your Mindset Will Help You Attract New Donors

Do you want to attract new donors?

When it comes to fundraising, investing in your relationship with current donors is the most important (and effective) thing to do. Just as in business, it costs five times more to acquire a new customer than to retain one.

Yet every year, every nonprofit loses donors, and if that trend continues you can see where it might go. Furthermore, because growing your donor base is much harder than donor retention, it’s much harder to get good information on it!

That’s why I’ve written this article.

Marketing seems to hold the promise to help your organization attract donors, but it often must take a back seat to your mission and fundraising—there’s only so much time for the busy ED!

This is why a fundamental shift in your approach to marketing, fundraising, and your mission is needed.

When marketing can align both your mission and fundraising efforts, it stops becoming stressful and overwhelming.

Instead, marketing becomes exciting when it can expand your nonprofit’s mission in new and powerful ways.

Specifically, how does it do this?

By making it your mission to serve donors, too.

If you’d like a detailed guide about how to take on this approach in your organization and marketing, get it here!

3 Questions for Your Org’s Leaders

Before you start any campaign, there are 3 fundamental, almost identity-level questions that you need to be able to answer. The answers to these questions will guide you and your team in the most effective way to implement this strategy.

I recommend that the ED and the Board, or the ED and the Development & Marketing team, sit down for a 30-minute meeting to discuss these three questions, take notes, and make a plan.

Question 1. Who is our donor?

To best understand who your donors are, I recommend using a concept called the donor persona. A donor persona is a generalized representation of your ideal supporters, based on insights you gather from actual donors and from market research.

A donor persona makes it easier to create specific content that will help new potential donors. Persona profiles include demographics, interests, online platforms they use, and most importantly their specific needs, concerns, and behaviors.

Question 2. What are our areas of expertise?

This question essentially means: where are your strengths, and how are you fulfilling your mission?

You need to consider your potential areas of expertise—both your organizational strengths, and the strengths of all of those in leadership.

During the meeting, take the time to write down all the potential areas where you take the knowledge, experience, and skills you have collectively, to create resources to serve others.

Question 3. Where do our areas of expertise overlap with our donor’s needs?

This diagram illustrates the important area to identify in this last part of your meeting: where do your potential donor’s needs align with your areas of expertise?

Once you’ve identified an area of big (or broad) need for potential donors where you could also help them, you need to start brainstorming a resource you could use to serve them.

Keep your mind open to changing plans if needed; this meeting nevertheless will be valuable because the exercise of thinking through your donor persona, your expertise, and this area of overlap might uncover new opportunities for your organization’s growth or mission, or in a rare instance, might show you that your strengths aren’t in direct alignment with your mission!

When finished, your Development/Marketing Director can take your conclusions and turn them into a practical campaign capable of consistently finding new donors. In the next part of this article, we’ll look at how to create this type of campaign.

If you want a more detailed guide, you can download one here.

Guest Author

Chris Barlow is the author of this article, the Director of Beeline, and masterfully puts his two youngest boys down for a nap every day.
Expecting to work in a cause-focused career or ministry when he grew up, he was surprised to discover his passion for business. Five years ago, he came full-circle and has been happily serving nonprofits ever since.
Beeline helps align your mission and fundraising through marketing that serves.

Top photo by Zulmaury Saavedra on Unsplash

Advocacy for Nonprofits: Taking It a Step Further

Advocacy involves taking a stand for a particular cause to create change. Advocates fight to make the world a better place, many times hand-in-hand (or for) nonprofits to establish a greater good.

Nonprofit advocacy builds on the idea that although no individual can save the world by themself, people who work together can create real change.

Advocacy campaigns differ from traditional nonprofit-run campaigns. The main objective is typically not to raise funds. But donations can build on other objectives such as increased awareness or policy change.

Whether you’re already in the middle of a fight for social change or you’re considering launching an advocacy campaign in the future, it’s important to establish a solid foundation for your mission. You’ll want to effectively define and relay your worthwhile cause¹ and offering a relevant solution for the issue.

Check out these 7 tips to get started with your advocacy campaign (and take it even further):

Gather supporters.
Use the right tools.
Try new methods.
Ensure user-friendliness.
Be persuasive.
Leverage current events.
Keep your heart in it.

Ready to get started? Let’s jump in!

1. Motivate supporters.

The first step to launching an effective advocacy campaign is to find other enthusiastic people who share your passion for the mission. Remember, no one person can do it all. Finding a group of advocates allows you to divide the workload, amplify your voice, and generate new ideas.

You can reach like-minded individuals through:

Social media: Using social media as an advocacy tool is an excellent way to grow your network. Hashtags can help you find others talking about the same issues and gather inspiration from other passionate advocates. Take notice of how people interact with similar accounts, which can provide valuable insights.

Community events: Whether it’s an event hosted by your nonprofit or by a partner in your community, using events as a way to get the word out is a great strategy. Consider making a widespread announcement, hanging posters, or distributing flyers to the crowd with a call to action for them to get involved.

Word-of-mouth: This is a classic grassroots strategy. Find a few supporters, and encourage them to invite their own friends and families to participate in advocacy activities. When combined with social media, this strategy will encourage your supporters to share posts through their own networks. That increases your reach.

And don’t forget to leverage your current donors, volunteers, and constituents. Encourage them to get involved as well. With a mix of new and established supporters, you create the voice you need to be heard.

2. Diversify your types of campaigns.

It’s important to keep things fresh by introducing new ideas. Even the most dedicated supporters get bored with seeing the same repetitive campaigns.

Test different types of fundraising campaigns to add some variation⁵ for your supporters in order to keep them engaged.

You may consider advocacy campaign types such as:

Click-to-call campaigns: If your campaign is focused on bringing about policy change, a great way to get the attention of local legislators is through click-to-call campaigns. Click-to-call software automatically connects a user to the correct representative and provides callers with a script that guides them through the call.

Tweet-a-rep campaigns: Similar to click-to-call, these campaigns provide users with a recommended script to copy over to Twitter (or other social networking platforms) and tag their representatives. This grabs the attention of representatives, with the added benefit that the user’s friends and followers are exposed to the message as well.

Petitions: Digital petitions often circulate online and collect signatures from interested supporters. Petitions demonstrate to representatives that a particular concern is of importance to hundreds or thousands of supporters, so it is a great way of amplifying the voice behind your cause.

Advocacy events: Hosting an event is a great way to boost awareness surrounding your cause. Gathering community members at an exciting event creates a platform for sharing key background information on the cause. And it can also attract outside attention ( from your legislators or the press!).

When you use different methods of advocacy, take note of which are the most successful and which are not as engaging. Keep track of not only initial but ongoing engagement. For example, you might get thousands of signatures on a petition but significantly fewer calls to representatives. But some of those petition signers will continue to engage with your organization. Try to understand which events and channels truly drive the most engagement. These insights will assist in the planning of your next campaigns!

3. Use the right tools.

Get started by taking an inventory of your current resources. Compare those with the tools you might need for a successful campaign. Having the correct tools available goes a long way toward ensuring the efficiency of your campaign. Lacking key tools would be like eating soup with a fork!

Consider these 4 types of tools:

Fundraising software: Although fundraising may not be the main objective of your campaign, it’s always a good idea to keep the line open for donations from generous supporters. Fundraising software and mobile apps designed to boost nonprofit advocacy² provide a streamlined donation process for the donor and lead to increased donations.

Automated messaging: When you automate much of your communication with supporters, you free up time for other important tasks. Emails and text messages will still go out. But the digital tools take on a lot of the grunt work. Using customizable templates is an excellent practice because you can still address each individual by name!

CRM: Your CRM, or constituent relationship management,³system is a vital tool in your advocacy campaign. This software provides easy access to pertinent information about your supporters, which allows you to easily engage with each individual.

Advertisements: Ad placements reach further than your own network of supporters. Buying Facebook ads⁴ or sponsored Instagram posts can substantially increase the impressions for your message.

Combining the necessary tools is a great way to personalize your campaign and bring about the results you wish to see.

4. Ensure user-friendliness.

To see the greatest impact of your advocacy, make sure user-friendliness is a top priority. Supporters have their own busy lives with thousands of other tasks on their to-do lists. So they won’t spend a lot of time figuring out how to take part in your campaign.

Important things to keep in mind include:

Simplify requests: Functions like click-to-call and tweet-a-rep are both excellent examples of simplifying your requests with streamlined communication opportunities. With software doing much of the prep work ahead of time, supporters automatically connect with the appropriate representative. They’re even provided with a script to use. You’ll get more willing participants this way, as opposed to complicated directions and tons of required background research.

Mobile optimization: With your audience constantly on the go, it’s crucial to make sure everything is accessible for mobile users. Supporters can sign your petition on their daily commute in a spare second. That’s easier than requiring them to use a desktop computer. And it’s more likely to be carried through.

Donation page: With your fundraising software in tow, you should already have a well-designed donation page for your campaign. With clear calls to action, straightforward navigation, and an overall engaging website you can drive traffic right to your optimized donation page.⁶

When you design your advocacy campaign around what’s best for your supporters, you greatly boost audience engagement with your campaign. Get to know your supporters better so that you can cater to their needs more effectively.

5. Be persuasive.

Persuasion⁷ is key when it comes to marketing your nonprofit’s advocacy campaign. You need to make sure your supporters care about the cause, trust in your organization, and feel good about their contribution right away.

Here are a few tricks to harness persuasion in a positive way:

Return the favor: Offering a small gift to a supporter participating in your advocacy campaign is an effective way to increase conversions. People love getting rewards— even if that reward is something small like a pen or a sticker.

Use the bandwagon method: Encourage people to participate in your campaign by pointing out that thousands of others are doing it too. This is a great way to take advantage of human nature and the fear of missing out. Consider taglines such as “Thousands in your neighborhood have signed this petition. Will you?”

Prove your credibility: Earn supporters’ trust before you ask them to help. You can point to your years of experience as a nonprofit. Or to specific success stories. Or your overall authority in the area of your mission. When the public trusts you, they’ll be more willing to take action.

Persuasion isn’t manipulation. It’s simply all about showing your supporters that your organization is credible and able to make a difference. Be open, honest, and share the information necessary to demonstrate your commitment to your cause.

6. Leverage current events.

When your advocacy aligns with current events or global happenings,⁸ you can use that to your advantage.

Often, people become engaged around a current event. But they don’t know how to get involved. Emotions can run high. So find a way to direct those emotions toward your cause. Link to news stories and your organization’s responses. Or use trending hashtags on your social channels, and make sure your organization is part of the conversation!

A recent trend in giving is referred to as rage giving. This is when supporters decide to steer their outrage toward a good cause. It helps them avoid feeling helpless at the hand of current events. For example, a significant number of donations to Planned Parenthood were made in Mike Pence’s name following specific comments he made in 2016.

Motivate your supporters to participate and be a force for change!

7. Keep your heart in it.

As nonprofits automate workloads in order to increase efficiency, they sometimes lose the valuable personal aspect that attracts (and retains) so many of your donors and supporters. But you can do both!

Automate your workflows with the best tech. But don’t forget to add back in personal touches. Those show your supporters you care about the cause and about them. Show supporters the passion behind the project,⁹ and others will want to get involved as well. Don’t be afraid to add more personal interactions with your larger donors or more active supporters.

Here are three strategies to re-personalize your campaign:

Donate to your own campaign. When you and your team donate to your own campaign (and sign your petitions, share your posts, etc.) it shows your cause is important.

Share your personal connection. Is there a story behind your passion for the cause, and is it something you can share with your network? Sharing your personal reasons for involvement encourages others to consider their own connections.

Promote success stories. If your team fought for a successful policy change in the past, leverage that as proof that advocacy really does make a difference.

By keeping your heart in the campaign, new supporters will become attracted to the authenticity and personal reasoning behind the fight for change.

Taking advantage of these 7 tips will start your advocacy campaign and bring it to the next level as you attract other dedicated supporters and make real change. And you can work together with your supporters to make the world a better place!

If you’re looking for additional information about advocacy campaigns for nonprofits or any of the other topics discussed in this article, check out the links below:

Guest author: Gerard Tonti

Gerard Tonti is the Senior Creative Developer at Salsa Labs, the premier fundraising software company for growth-focused nonprofits.

Gerard’s marketing focus on content creation, conversion optimization, and modern marketing technology helps him coach nonprofit development teams on digital fundraising best practices.