Digital Marketing for Nonprofits: Trends and Strategies

When I mention that I am a digital marketing consultant for small businesses, it isn’t long before the topic of marketing for nonprofit organizations arises. After all, small businesses and nonprofits often have a lot in common.

If small businesses are the heart of our communities, then nonprofit organizations are the veins, delivering tremendous support and resources to those in our communities who need it the most.

Consequently, we strive to enhance the visibility of these organizations and aid them in expanding their audience. Together, we can make a significant difference.

Solutions in Nonprofit Marketing

Nonprofit organizations need marketing solutions for a number of reasons. First of all, they need to be able to reach prospective donors. They need to use digital marketing to tell their stories and raise money, which allows them to continue their work.

Secondly, they must be able to connect with community members who may need their help. If people don’t know the nonprofit is there, or what kind of services the organization provides, they won’t be able to utilize the services they need.

Nonprofit marketing is not incredibly different from small business marketing, but there are a few strategies these organizations should incorporate in their nonprofit marketing plans to maximize their reach and help accomplish their goals.

Personalization

Nonprofit organizations should strive to make their content personal. Scientifically, people love interacting with people, and so by putting a genuine voice behind your organization, you will find that your marketing efforts are more effective.

This may be more or less difficult depending on how your nonprofit is organized. If you are a small nonprofit spearheaded by one or two people, you can easily make your voice the voice of the organization and create content based on your personal experiences and the tone that you want your organization to have.

If you are part of a larger nonprofit organization, personalizing your content is still feasible, it will just take a few decisions to make sure the voice is consistent. Will you have one person who is the “face” of the organization? Will you share multiple perspectives of people who work for your nonprofit? Or maybe you will choose to focus on the voices of the people your organization has already helped.

Aside from your organization’s voice, you should also determine how to personalize content for your specific audience. One way to do this is to make sure you are using the appropriate social media channels. Make sure that you are creating content for an audience that will see the value in it. Furthermore, target your ideal audience with the correct content type and voice that will resonate with them.

Video Content & Story-telling

Storytelling is huge in small business marketing (stay tuned for a blog-post tutorial on this next week!), but it can be even more effective for nonprofit marketing. Think about it–nonprofit organizations are full of stories of how they came to be formed and people that they have helped.

Why do stories make a difference? Remember when I said that people want to interact with people? Stories make your nonprofit’s work more personal, and your potential donors are better able to resonate with your organization’s mission.

You can leverage this information by making your content center around sharing stories.

Think of it this way: Let’s pretend your nonprofit provides grants to single mothers who want to go back to school. Which one makes you more likely to donate your time and resources?

A collection of statistics? 31% of single mothers ages 25 and older held a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 54% of comparable married mothers (Institute for Women’s Policy Research).

Or a story about Cathy, a 25-year-old single mom who never thought she could make it, but just graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and 4 job offers, thanks to the generosity of your organization and its donors. The website includes an image of her and her son attending her college graduation.

A quick note on confidentiality: many nonprofits deal with sensitive topics, and many of your constituents won’t want to be the walking billboard for your organization, Always get permission before sharing someone’s story, and depending on the nature of your work, you may want to substitute identifying details to ensure your character’s identity remains anonymous.

Collaborate with Influencers

When we think of social media influencers, we often think of jet setting blonde girls who spend all their time shopping and making YouTube videos, but in 2023, influencers have become people just like you and me.

Of course, every influencer has their niche (there are plenty of wonderful jetsetting blondes in the travel industry), but you can easily find someone who supports your organization’s mission enough to share it with their followers on social media.

For example, to maximize their reach and raise awareness, a nonprofit organization that works to provide resources for suicide prevention among America’s farmers and ranchers may collaborate with an influencer whose primary audience consists of people living and working in agriculture.

Digital Giving

Finally, in this day in age it is imperative to make it super convenient for donors to give charitably to your organization. If people have to think about dropping a check off at your office, they are much less likely to actually donate.

However, if you have an easy giving platform where people can donate online, you are much more likely to increase your donations. In the Global Trends in Giving Report, 55% of people polled reported that they prefer to donate online using their debit or credit cards.

While you may already be familiar with online platforms that allow you to take payment for services on your website, there are other platforms that are meant specifically for charitable giving, such as Donorbox or OneCause.

Funding Digital Marketing for Nonprofits

So where should you start? Digital marketing services are not cheap. Even if you are looking to jump in and DIY your nonprofit marketing strategy, websites and software tend to cost a lot of money. On top of that, the time you are spending trying to learn how to market your organization quickly takes away from the time you could be spending doing other important work.

You could pay an expert to market for you, but even an expert giving you a nonprofit discount (here at 3 Mile Marketing, we offer a 10% discount to all of our non-profit clients!) still costs money. What options do you have?

Below is a list of grants to check out that may be able to help with your company’s marketing and PR expenses. Be sure to read them carefully as they sometimes have geographical stipulations or other special requirements.

And if you have any questions while applying for nonprofit marketing grants, please reach out! We would love to help you secure funding for your nonprofit digital marketing needs!