An organization that seeks to do good also needs to be able to extend its reach to do the most good where it can.
Whether you’re a small nonprofit seeking to grow its operations or a well-established organization with a large volunteer base.
It’s essential to work consistently at getting your name and mission out there through good marketing.
Marketing your nonprofit helps you cultivate essential connections with important entities such as current and potential donors, volunteers, media, and even the government to nurture them effectively.
You need support from all of these corners, after all, for your nonprofit to thrive, grow, and pursue its mission efficiently and sustainably.
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The best part is that there are many simple and resource-efficient courses of action you can take to begin developing successful marketing strategies; look no further than the list of helpful tips below.
Sell Official Merchandise
One popular marketing method that’s stood the test of time is coming out with useful and memorable merchandise for your supporters to buy. Place your organization’s logo, name, and/or tagline on T-shirts, notebooks, or custom tumblers, and watch these items essentially function as tangible advertisements.
Advocates of your cause using your organization’s merchandise in their daily lives are sure to get you noticed, and they may even start productive conversations about you and your mission. Who knows? It might even lead to more interested donors or volunteers seeking you out down the road.
Maintain a Professional-Looking Website
Your website is often the source of first contact between you and people who are interested in your organization, so don’t be one of those groups that puts up a single basic webpage and then leaves it to gather dust.
If you’ve got someone on staff who knows their way around web design, enlist their help to spruce up your existing site or create a new one from a simple template. If you have the resources for it, consider hiring a professional designer for a clean, comprehensive site that’s easy to navigate.
Once you have your site up and running, dedicate some personnel to updating it regularly (ideally, once a month), to send the message that your organization is active and on the ball. After all, you want all your organization’s most essential and current information its mission statement, services, success stories, and contact details-readily accessible to those looking for it.
Take to Social Media
Social media is a hotbed of information on relevant current events, trends, and social issues all over the world. This ubiquity makes it an important potential jumping-off point for activism and other community-oriented endeavours.
Developing an effective social media marketing strategy, however, need not involve jumping onto all the major social networks out there. The process can be as simple as identifying two or three platforms that you think will gel well with your company’s image and target market.
From there, focus on maintaining a consistent and involved presence through regular updates. Share news on your organization’s latest efforts, or post interesting statistics about the work that you do. Disseminate details on currently running projects to give followers opportunities to get involved both online and offline.
Seek Out Worthwhile Partners
Marketing your nonprofit well isn’t a one-and-done deal. It’s an effort- and resource-intensive process that you’ll be working on over time. However, there’s no need to worry about having to do it all alone. Good partners will also do their bit to help promote your work, so look into cultivating warm and lasting relationships with influential organizations that share your values.
For instance, you could explore opportunities to collaborate with other nonprofits that advocate similar causes and advance each other’s interests through joint projects. Connect with businesses aiming to get involved in humanitarian work as part of corporate social responsibility, or you can also offer your support to relevant government agencies.
Lastly, don’t forget how far encouraging media coverage can take you, especially if your nonprofit has particular current achievements or other positive developments to share.
Always Aim to Tell a Story
Humanitarian work is about people. It only stands to reason then that, whatever the other particulars of your nonprofit’s marketing strategy, storytelling should be a central aspect. Using your platform to tell the stories of those you work with puts a human face to the work that you do.
It provides concrete and compelling proof of your organization’s impact in the real world, and it also allows stakeholders to share their experiences.
In the process, such storytelling highlights the importance of your cause by showing how it concretely impacts the lives of actual people. These stories, in turn, will motivate supporters to invest both materially and emotionally in your cause.
As with any successful business, it’s just as essential to invest in good marketing for your nonprofit to help it thrive. Well-developed marketing efforts encourage greater community participation, strengthen current connections, and open up new avenues for fruitful partnerships that will serve it well throughout its life.
After all, such efforts are about spreading the word about the advocacy you do it all for and in turn, about creating more opportunities to help as many people as you possibly can.