Successful Marketing Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations

Author: Carolyn Menz Category: Marketing, Non-Profit Date: July 4, 2019

Having the passion for a cause and running a nonprofit is important to local, regional or national nonprofits. Though, the passion and drive is not enough to be successful. Marketing for nonprofit organizations is equally as important to the success of your organization. Therefore we have compiled a list of marketing strategies for nonprofits to help in the success of your nonprofit.

Your Nonprofit Marketing Plan

Your nonprofit marketing plan should include several nonprofit marketing initiatives that all achieve a few common goals. These goals may include: increase advocacy for your cause, raise funds to run your nonprofit activities, increase number of volunteers for your nonprofit, attract new donors, secure corporate sponsorships or increase awareness about your cause. To achieve these goals, you’ll need to incorporate a few initiatives that are specific to marketing for nonprofit organizations.

Nonprofit Marketing through Branding

Nonprofits must leverage their brand to increase sponsorships and generate revenue. As a nonprofit, you will rely on the outside funding to fuel your mission and therefore an effective nonprofit branding strategy as part of your overall nonprofit marketing plan is important. Your branding is what is going to help drive the impact of your organization.

Event Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations

One successful marketing strategy for nonprofits is event marketing. Event marketing can include fundraising ideas, community-driven efforts, volunteer outings, and even digital fundraising efforts. Events can be very strategic marketing for nonprofit organizations because you can track your ROI from start to finish. Your first step should include an action plan that includes a detailed calendar and is tailored for your specific event.

Your plan should lead to achieving your event goals but should also leverage the overall goals of your nonprofit – whatever those are. For successful event marketing for nonprofit organizations, you should start three months prior to your event and include strategic development and cross-marketing initiatives, and include a post-event follow-up for up to eight weeks immediately following the event.

Social Media Marketing for Nonprofits

Social media marketing can help you drive your brand awareness in order to increase your donor base or visibility to corporate sponsors. There are some basic nonprofit marketing ideas that you can benefit from such as:

• Social media marketing retargeting advertising campaign
  • All marketing strategies for nonprofits should include a social media marketing retargeting campaign to advertise to anyone who visits your website or social media page.
• Create Facebook and LinkedIn custom audiences and Lookalike audiences using your current donor base.
  • This will ensure that you are targeting the individuals who are most likely to donate to your cause, volunteer or attend an event.
• Consistent posting to your social media channels:
  • Ensure that your nonprofit has a digital presence on the same social media channels that your donors, volunteers, and advocates are.

Fun Nonprofit Marketing Ideas

If you’re looking for some unique and fun nonprofit marketing ideas to achieve a successful nonprofit marketing plan, here’s a short list:

• Stream LIVE from your social media marketing channels from a community or fundraising event
• Add a pop-up to your website to increase email signups
• Repurpose your blog posts or articles into e-books to capture email addresses
• Use infographics to show the impact that your nonprofit organization has on its community

These are just a few nonprofit marketing ideas. If you are looking to develop a nonprofit marketing plan, please contact Paradigm Marketing and Design for a consultation.