One day, you saw a problem in the world and decided to do something about it. Now you’re heading an organization that transforms lives every day, but not many people seem to know about it. We hear you – nonprofit advertising and fundraising can feel so frustrating. Maybe your brain just doesn’t think that way. Maybe you’re burnt out.
Take a breath.
Soulheart shares your zeal for wanting to make a difference. We live and breathe nonprofit marketing. We’re passionate about making it easier for you to understand it because ultimately we know effective marketing means more lives (positively) impacted. To make things simple, we’ve gathered seven advertising and fundraising rules relevant to all nonprofits today. Check it out – you’ve got this!
Have a robust marketing budget
How do you make your organization known if you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel for marketing funds? Marketing shouldn’t be an afterthought. It’s an integral part of your nonprofit’s strategy to make the world a better place. Experts agree that you should allocate 5-15% of your budget to marketing. If 5-15% seems scary, remember that your marketing budget is an investment that works to see high returns for your cause.
Tell stories, not pitches
All marketing experts agree the best type of marketing is storytelling, and this is especially true in nonprofit advertising and fundraising. Stories aren’t a part of your marketing; they’re what your marketing revolves around. While statistics and data can persuade people (there’s definitely a place for them in marketing), they don’t move them to act. They don’t resonate or connect with them. Stories do. Nonprofits are chock-full of stories, so use them to your advantage on blogs, social media, and email newsletters.
Apply for Google Ad Grants
Have you ever Googled something and noticed the first few results have “AD” next to them? These are called Google Ads. People pay for them so their business pops up first when someone Googles a term related to their services. Google Ad accounts have to pay every time someone clicks on their ad, but you don’t have to! Nonprofits in the Google Ad Grant program are given up to $10,000 worth of ad spend each month, meaning you can advertise for free.
Advertise on Facebook
In 2022, Facebook recorded 1.97 billion active daily users and 2.93 billion active monthly users. That’s a lot of people your nonprofit could be advertising to. While Facebook doesn’t have an ad grant program for nonprofits yet, it’s money worth spending. The ads you place on Facebook can target your specific audience down to the time they typically log on. We have entire blogs dedicated to explaining Facebook ads and of course, team members ready to help you create and manage them. Just schedule a call!
Hold your fundraisers on Facebook, too
Did you know nonprofits raised a collective $5 billion using Facebook’s fundraising tools? Long gone are the days of telethons. Social media is now the new platform to fundraise effectively. Facebook’s free fundraising methods let you easily create fundraising pages and even live stream fundraisers, both with donate buttons. Make sure you also allow people to hold fundraisers on their personal Facebook pages for your organization – here’s a quick how-to!
Fundraise on the hottest social media right now: TikTok
Last year, TikTok made headlines when it beat Google as the number one website. Why should you care? Because TikTok recently joined the world of social media fundraising. All you need to do is be verified as a charitable organization on Tiltify (TikTok’s fundraising partner). Once you do that, you can have a donate button on your profile and link to your fundraiser in posts. You’ll also be able to use donation stickers placed directly on your videos, allowing viewers to click and donate immediately instead of looking for the donate link in your caption. This is also a great way to add a spark of personality to your organization while still bringing awareness to your fundraiser.
Strategize email marketing giving campaigns
An email marketing giving campaign should never be planned last minute and slapped together. Every element of it, from the words to the design, need to be thought out and planned ahead of time. What subject line will you use to capture people’s attention? What moving stories and photos are you going to feature? The timing is essential as well. Does your organization have a big event on the calendar in six months? Is a major holiday coming up? Those are perfect times to campaign, so start planning now! As a HubSpot partner, we also want to give you some best practices for general email marketing.
Bonus tip: work with marketing professionals who understand nonprofits
You don’t need to become a marketing guru overnight. You were called to make a difference, and you’re doing that right now. Our job is to be the experts in nonprofit marketing so we can help you understand it and be empowered to use it effectively. Soulheart has years of experience placing nonprofits in front of their ideal audience and helping increase donations to their cause. In other words, we’ve got you.
