Sometimes it seems ridiculously unfair to nonprofits that they can't make money like everyone else. We've worked with several nonprofits ranging from a Catholic book publisher to a LGBT health clinic in New York City, so we understand the struggle that NPOs sometimes face.
I've previously written a very basic intro to marketing strategies for nonprofits post to talk about a few ways that nonprofits can try to close the gap a little, but the struggle is still very real.
How Does a Nonprofit Make Money if They're Supposed to be...Not-Profiting?
The purpose of a nonprofit is not to make a profit for their stockholders or stakeholders, like for-profit companies. The reason why a nonprofit exists is to achieve its mission and end goals. For example, Apicha, our LGBT health clinic client's goals are to reach as many lower-income people in New York City with health care as possible, and they receive their funding with that purpose in mind.
The primary way that nonprofits receive that funding is grants. Apicha gets a significant amount of their budget from grants. Enough for them to have several professional grant writers on their staff.
Sidenote: Speaking of grants, if your nonprofit is listed as a 501(c)(3), you could be eligible for a grant from Google AdWords. They'll give you $10,000-$40,000 a month to spend on Google AdWords advertising. Learn more about it here.
Inbound marketing can get a lot done for a lot less money than traditional marketing, and won't leave people with a bad taste in their mouth about your brand.
Interested in learning more? Check out the Inbound Readiness Workshop.
The other way that nonprofits make money is through donations. As mentioned in my previously written post, many nonprofits have to rely on the goodness of people's hearts and the hope that their story will resonate with a few hundred people out there who have an extra $100. Unless...
Maybe there are other ways that nonprofits can work towards getting donations, besides telling their stories and hoping that someone will hear them. We delved in deeper to find the best marketing strategies for nonprofits that can earn them some spare donation money.
The Best Marketing Strategies for Nonprofits Who Want Donations
...if there are a few of you that aren't interested in increasing your donations, I'm not sure how helpful you will find the next five points. Just a disclaimer.
1. Make it easy for people to donate!
You want as many donations as possible, so make it as easy as possible for people to donate when they are inspired by your work. Have a donate tab on your site. Set it up to work with PayPal or Google Wallet, and you're golden. Also check out these tools that can make accepting donations online easier.
2. Use social media
There are so many great ways to use social media to work that donation bucket. Social media is such an emotionally fueled marketing platform already, your mission will resonate that much more. The trick is to create the feeling of intimacy between your organization and your donors, or potential donors.
Adding that intimacy of your donor knowing exactly how their donation helped your cause will make them, and all of your followers, feel all warm and fuzzy.
Pinterest
Get your NPO a Pinterest account. Pinterest is still a very under-utilized social media channel, even though a study from Shareaholic reported that 21% of users have followed through with a purchase after discovering it on Pinterest.
Develop several awesome Pinterest boards full of images that are important to your organization and your cause. Remember to include pictures from the daily grind to harness that intimacy factor! Then, choose a few particularly powerful ones and link out to that donation page we talked about earlier.
Don't forget about LinkedIn! Even if you feel like LinkedIn is too stuffy or professional for your particular organization's culture, there are still great ways to utilize it while maintaining a laid-back feel.
LinkedIn has been growing in popularity as a channel to publish blog posts, so it would be a great place to write posts relating to the work that your organization does, complete with images of volunteers hard at work.
Also, the undeniable fact is that LinkedIn has become the go-to place to scope out and develop professional relationships. Not only will having a presence on this social media platform help give your organization visibility to donors that may not have found you elsewhere, (business professionals are busy people), it will also give you a chance to make some advantageous partnerships with other organizations on a professional, real-deal level.
More social media info:
3. Think about how to get your donors engaged in your brand
Every organization's dream is to achieve several solid brand advocates. These are people who believe so much in what you're doing and how you're doing it that they will actively spread your good word for you. These people are your golden tickets to success, especially in the emotionally connected landscape of the NPOs.
First, you find those people. They are probably out there sharing your every post on Facebook, make it to at least one of your volunteer events per month, and make it a point to donate once a year. Find those people and reach out to them.
Guest Blog Post
Ask them if they would like to do a guest blog post on your blog. This could be a blog post of their own choice about something they feel passionate about, or this could be someone from your team sitting down with them and recording them talking about why they love your organization so much. Draw on all of that emotion that they hold for your organization and share it with the masses.
Remember, the trick is to create intimacy between your organization and potential donors, and drawing on the deep-emotions that come with life-changing experiences can do that.
Social Media Manager
You could also offer them the chance to 'guest manage' your Facebook profile for a week. Obviously, this would be the kind of thing you would only offer to a volunteer/donor that you have a close relationship with, and you may want to monitor this pretty closely, just in case.
However, if you're careful about it, the risk of an embarrassing post is outweighed by that opportunity that they get to share their personal outlook of your organization with the world.
4. Utilize those emails!
You're probably looking at me through narrowed eyes right now, saying, but you're an inbound marketer, and email marketing could be seen as intrusive...what's that about?
As inbound marketers, we still use email marketing because it just plain works. Direct mailers get automatically thrown away. However I, without fail, still open every Bath & Body Works promotional email I get, and sometimes I even click on their CTAs to take me to the site to tempt my obsession that could quickly spiral out of control. But how can you, as an NPO, use email?
Follow our general theme. Email newsletters are a great way to reconnect with your donors, or potential donors, and tell them all about where their money has gone this past month. Tell them exactly how many pairs of shoes their donations bought for the homeless last month, or how many STD/HIV tests you were able to give. You can create that intimacy and emotion in an email just as easily as you can in a social media post.
Make sure you include a call-to-action in your email giving readers a chance to click to your donation page.
Also make sure your email, and your site as a whole by the way, is mobile responsive. Half of the emails opened today are opened on a mobile device, and your images won't be quite as moving when the rescued puppies are too tiny for the reader to see.
Find some more good practices for email marketing strategies for nonprofits in this helpful infographic.
5. Hold special events for donors
Having a very fancy, high-end event, like a gala or silent auction, for those donors who have gone above-and-beyond the call of duty makes them feel singled-out and very special (intimacy and emotion!!!).
If they have to buy a special outfit just for that occasion, that will only increase those warm and fuzzy feelings, and make them more likely to donate again to make sure they get invited next year.
However, any special event you hold should be looked at like a perk for your high-rollers. It can certainly be said that holding a special, high-end event might encourage more people to come, which therefore might help you raise donations. And it will certainly not negatively impact any relationships you might have with donors. Just don't put all your eggs in the special events basket, as it is not necessarily the gift that keeps on giving all year long.
New to organizing special events? Learn how to best promote your event to potential attendees.
When your organization is funded partially out of the goodness of other people's hearts, it can be tough to know how to tap that capital. That is why understanding good marketing strategies for nonprofits is so important, as well as acknowledging that sometimes you're going to have to get a little creative. Once you embrace those factors, you'll be well on your way to reaching as many people as possible with your message!
If you have any other techniques that have worked for your organization in the past, share the love and tell us about them in the comments!
