The use of marketing tools by a nonprofit organization in pursuit of a variety of goals, which can range from promoting the organization and its message to fundraising, encouraging membership, engaging volunteers, and driving political or social change, is referred to as a marketing strategy for a charity or nonprofit organization.

Marketing is just as vital for non-profits as it is for businesses, but the target audience is potential contributors and volunteers, not consumers, and the problem is persuading them to provide money without expecting anything in return.

In this piece, we’ll try to explain why marketing is so vital for nonprofit organizations in the new normal defined by COVID-19, and why integrating it into the entire strategy of all available resources, both online and offline, is the ideal solution. We’ll also try to figure out which digital solutions are worth putting money into right now.

Digitally Integerating Charities and Non-Profits

The “market” for non-profits is growing increasingly congested. The causes that demand attention and quick action, both national and worldwide, appear to multiply every day in the aftermath of numerous circumstances of hardship and discomfort around the world.

Furthermore, the expansion of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on how a charity or nonprofit organization’s marketing plan might be implemented. Consider the surge in nonprofit medical research organizations or the evolution of online fundraising tools.

In this light, it may appear archaic that much of the fundraising for many NGOs is still done through traditional sales and marketing methods like the face-to-face collection. For example, while the latter appears to work in the short term, it may have a long-term influence on trust – and it isn’t always a positive one.

By reducing or eliminating face-to-face (f2f) personal contact, you may be able to move beyond single-touch (“street” or “door-to-door”) fundraising, freeing up time to focus on an online-offline campaign aimed at generating leads and qualified donations.

While these methods continue to be effective for some sectors, new measures and activities are needed to attain greater openness and personalization to intercept the exigencies, sensitivities, and demands of various donor pools. As a result, most charitable organizations’ to-do lists unavoidably include digital integration.

Digital Marketing: Social, Email, Video

When things return to “normal,” according to McKinsey, 75 percent of users who have gone digital in the last several months of lockdown and social isolation will almost certainly continue to utilize the new technologies. Offline usage, on the other hand, appears unlikely to return to pre-COVID-19 levels.

The truth is that many third-sector professionals see digital as merely a supplement to traditional channels. However, including digital into a marketing and communications strategy can assist other channels to realize their full potential within a multi-touchpoint fundraising funnel.

Some firms have taken advantage of the crisis’s exigency to undertake a digital transformation that has led to the development of more flexible techniques and tools. The pandemic has accelerated efforts to diversify money streams and supporter groups.

Simultaneously, it has hastened processes that had already begun to update firms’ communication practices, as they are increasingly forced to operate in an almost entirely digital environment.

What are the most effective digital solutions being learned by nonprofit marketing?

Marketing on social media

Nonprofits can use social media marketing to reach out to a worldwide and local audience, as well as respond promptly to catastrophes. Nonprofits can benefit from social media in a variety of ways:

Promote awareness: Make the mission, as well as new projects, campaigns, and issues, known to those who can help.

Recruit potential volunteers, speakers, sponsors, and mentors to expand the community. They develop channels and groups where individuals can engage, share resources, and keep up with current events.

Encourage people to take action through organizing sit-ins, marches, protests, and marathons, lobbying lawmakers to adopt specific legislation, and organizing fundraisers.

Make an impact by sharing: They create an engaging story by celebrating both big and little triumphs, thanking each volunteer and donor for their contributions, and reporting campaign outcomes in real-time.

Marketing via email

Email marketing is not only beneficial in promoting the business of large and small businesses, but it is also a very important tool for non-profits. Email marketing can play an essential role in contacting and involving individuals through timed direct outreach.

For NGOs, email marketing is a great way to get their name out there.

Assists in the management of workload.

Through a minimal flow of procedures, contacts all designated recipients are made.

Develops a donor base (differentiating between different levels of “loyalty”)

Increases the reach of projects by allowing them to reach more people in less time.

Given the limitation of time (and sometimes restricted resources) that most charity employees (often volunteers) confront, email marketing is one of the most effective ways to establish and maintain a relationship with donors.

Furthermore, it is possible to communicate to contributors the outcomes accomplished in terms of the impact of the donations collected, as well as the organization’s appreciation and gratitude, by email.

Marketing through video

Video, in its different forms, has been verified as one of the most often used resources in brand and institution content strategies. According to the most recent Wyzowl survey (2021 edition), videos are an important part of 93 percent of marketers’ strategies.

They are an effective instrument that:

With each passing year, video is being used more and more (the number of organizations employing video as a marketing tool has climbed by 41% since 2016);

Increases new and existing customers’ understanding of products and services, which is a goal (94 percent of people surveyed have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service).

The unusual events of 2020 have had a significant impact on video supply and demand, to the point where:

Video, according to 91 percent of marketers, has grown even more vital for brand communication.

The epidemic has had an impact on the amount of video content viewed online, according to 68 percent of consumers, and the vast majority (96 percent) feel it has grown.

Video has increased traffic to 86 percent of video marketers’ websites.

Video has helped users comprehend their product or service, according to 94 percent of video marketers.

People watch the video for an average of 18 hours per week online (up 2 hours from a year ago and up more than 7 hours in three years) and are twice as likely to share it as any other sort of material, including social network posts, blog posts and articles, and product pages.

Tips to Create Video Marketing For Charities and Non-Profits

For all of these reasons, many nonprofit marketing professionals turn to video to sharpen their organization’s voice, acquire visibility within a crowded field, engage with supporters, and raise awareness of their goals and individual causes.

The importance of marketing for nonprofits is further demonstrated by the use of videos, which have proven to be an effective way of telling tales. Storytelling can help supporters connect with the organization while also providing them with all the information they need to make informed selections.

Here are some ideas for developing a video marketing plan that is following non-profit’s principles

1. Decide what you want to achieve. Video is frequently thought of as a tool for raising awareness, but it has so much more potential for NGOs. It could, for example, contribute to fundraising efforts. Google has discovered that the best online approach for rewarding donations is through online movies. More than half of those who watch an online video about a topic they care about donate.

A video (or series of videos) can also be used to improve website hits, extend the base for email marketing campaigns, and increase social media followers.

2. Make sure your audience has access to all of the educational tools they require. Video marketing is also an excellent approach to inform your audience on all of the facts of a cause or effort, clearly explaining why you need to contribute, and emphasizing the impact the activities stated will have.

When information is delivered with empathy and matched to the specific recipient’s experience, it has a better probability of being remembered. The key is to adjust the tone of your voice and add some personality.

3. Make calls to action that are plain, obvious, and simple to understand. What activities should video communication recipients take? It is critical that the call to action is obvious if the goal is to collect funds. As a result, it’s best to keep the number of requests in a single CTA to a minimum and include links to relevant pages of the site for each campaign.
4. Post on social media. It is necessary to plan a multi-channel distribution that takes into account the functions and technical characteristics of each social network in order to take advantage of the opportunity offered by social networks and reach a targeted and motivated audience, thereby increasing the value of the video content.

In addition to organic distribution, conducting ad campaigns and continually testing and optimizing advertising may be a smart idea to acquire more views. It is also possible to establish diverse audiences and compose more effective call-to-actions using the targeting capabilities provided by various social networks.