By: Christina Nguyen
As a nonprofit, you're on a mission to drive social change and make a positive impact. You have a community to take care of, but you have to keep your organization thriving as well. There's much more you can do outside of just hosting fancy benefit galas to promote your cause and organization, much of which can be done right at home online.
Here are some of the ways you can market your nonprofit on a limited budget.
1. Apply for a Google ad grant.
If paid ads make sense for your organization, you might not need to set aside a big budget for this one – Google consistently gives qualifying nonprofits grants of up to $10,000 a month to advertise on its search pages. Here's how to determine whether you're eligible.
2 . Stir up some emotions with videos.
You don't have to follow in the footsteps of that famous "Angel" animal abuse commercial to tug at some heartstrings. A well-thought out video with appropriate music gives your visitors a more in-depth visual representation of who you are and of the community you serve. Don't exaggerate or over dramatize their issues since this could make you look inauthentic. Depict your cause in a way that humanizes it and encourages genuine, compassionate engagement rather than a charity case to be pitied.
3. Connect to influential people and organizations.
Any strategy you'll choose will have more punch if it's in collaboration with a more well-known public figure or organization. Several well-known corporations, celebrities, and influential figures, in general, have teamed up with nonprofits in the past to promote and fundraise for a cause dear to their hearts, such as access to clean drinking water or preventing animal abuse.
While you probably won't get Beyonce telling her fans to donate to you at her concerts, you will likely run into at least a few individuals or businesses with a following of 10k or even 100k on Instagram -- which is more than enough to get your message out to way more people than you'd be able to reach independently.
4. Keep your community up to date with emails.
Email marketing generally provides more bang for your buck than most strategies, returning about $36 for every $1 spent. For a nonprofit, email marketing keeps your community aware of relevant current events and actions that can tend to make an impact, such as links to petitions. Through email, you can send out bite-sized infographics, facts of the day or articles on tangentially related issues to keep your community informed and updated on your cause.
5. Use the right CRM
Some CRMs (customer relationship management systems) are made specifically for nonprofits. A great example is Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud – on just one platform, you can manage fundraising, marketing, and volunteering. It also includes Volunteers for Salesforce, an app that helps you match volunteers with the appropriate positions, schedule their shifts, post opportunities on a calendar, and automate sending thank you emails. A unified view of your organization's operations will seriously simplify your work, so you aren't spending time digging for folders or switching between screens.
What are your tips for building a successful, engaging nonprofit outreach strategy? Let us know in the comments below!
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