While marketing always involves a lot of the same steps and activities, it really should be different everywhere. Every business or organization has its own goals for its own target market and needs to develop its own specific approach. That said, there are several general things that differ when marketing at a nonprofit compared to marketing at a business. Here are some things to keep in mind with nonprofit marketing:
- Strategy is more important. Regardless of industry, lack of strategy is the number one problem with all marketing everywhere. It might seem counterintuitive that strategy would be more important when sales are not involved, but nonprofits are usually working with smaller budgets and fewer human resources. It’s not uncommon for one person or a small team to be handling everything from donor outreach to event planning to branding. A solid plan is necessary to keep focused when the sheer volume of work is overwhelming. The more you can do upfront, the better.
- Results are more important. Nonprofits are held to different standards of accountability. They’re under scrutiny from the public and their own Board of Directors. Sometimes they are overseen by government officials as well. Nonprofits must account for every dollar that comes and goes. They must demonstrate the impact of programs on the people they serve and of fundraising on their programs. They must market to many different audiences (see #3), so their KPIs will be very different and likely more complex than business marketers. It’s important to have a good system for analyzing success so that there are concrete results demonstrating ROI.
- The target audience has many segments, and each segment has unique expectations. At a minimum, nonprofits are marketing to the people they serve as well as donors and potential donors, volunteers, sponsors, event attendees, and grantors. They usually also need to educate the public, recruit staff, and market to their own Board of Directors. Depending on the population they serve and whether they are secular or religious, they may also need to demonstrate impact to government officials and/or leaders in a religious community.
Audiences must be segmented carefully because all of these groups require specific kinds of communications. Marketers need to know as much as possible about these audience segments: how they became involved, why they care about the cause, demographic information, and how they prefer to receive communications. Rather than just having typical buyer personas, marketers at small to medium nonprofits usually know real facts about the actual people they’re speaking to, which is more effective and more time consuming. In addition, they must keep track of analytic data, paying attention to who is visiting their websites, which pages, and for how long in order to attract new people to most of these groups. - The goals are more nuanced. While there are many goals in business marketing, they all fall under the umbrella of increasing sales. In nonprofits, there must be at least two overarching objectives: furthering the mission of the organization and increasing funding. These objectives go hand in hand, but they aren’t identical. The needs of the cause must be at the forefront of one’s mind when developing educational content, raising awareness, and creating materials for the people served. The needs of the organization must be prioritized when creating a strategic plan, reaching out to businesses for event sponsorships, and writing cases for support.
Nonprofits have to run like businesses, but their supporters must be in a mindset of giving rather than buying. Messaging and marketing materials for donors must appeal to ethical priorities like justice and harm reduction, and emotional considerations like compassion and the joy of giving. Corporate sponsors will often require the same messaging as well as information on tax deductions and marketing benefits of their own, including exposure to their own target market (who must be in attendance at sponsored events) through program ads, signage, and social media recognition. The goals of each campaign become very layered very quickly.
Nonprofit marketers must build deeper relationships and really understand their audience’s why. Every person has their own motivation for giving time, money, and attention. Nonprofit marketing professionals have to drill down on these in order to do their best for both the company and the cause. - Technology is arguably more important. Again, this may seem counterintuitive. It’s obviously unwise to devote a ton of money to tech, especially if you are a small organization. But tech shouldn’t be ignored for two very important reasons:
1) A nonprofit’s website must provide information about the cause and the organization, as well as a way to donate. The website should not be thrown together willy nilly and it should definitely not be non-responsive or difficult to use. The money saved by having someone with no experience or skills throw together a website will be lost ten times over by paying staff to spend days solving problems a designer could solve in minutes. Having a donate page that’s hard to use is one of the worst things a nonprofit can do. Never make it hard for people to give you money! If there is truly no money at all for a website, at least use a clean, responsive theme or template paired with a PayPal landing page for donations.
2) Social media marketing is vital to nonprofit organizations because it’s free and has huge reach. However, even though it’s free, it takes time to do well. Nonprofits should not think of it as a free add-on to their marketing plans. Time should be devoted to creating a real social strategy and carrying it out. Except in the smallest organizations, the person doing the social media should be paid to do so and have the necessary training. There should also be a check by another person before posts go out. - The ethical considerations are different and deeper. There are lines people might cross in business marketing that absolutely must not be crossed in nonprofit marketing. Nonprofit marketers must bring in money so the organization can continue doing good work. However, if there is any conflict between what will bring in the most money and what is best for the people the nonprofit serves, the people served must always come first.
For example, every marketer is aware that powerful stories bring in more money than facts. In the nonprofit world, the stories tend to be incredibly moving. However, telling them can negatively impact the people involved. Nonprofit marketers must be sensitive to issues of safety (nonprofits working with victims of domestic violence, etc.), consent (nonprofits working with children or people with cognitive impairments, etc.), and exploitation. Marketers must never tell someone’s story if doing so will harm them in any way, even if telling those stories would further the good work of the nonprofit. Marketers must always be aware of these issues and find creative approaches to furthering the goals of the organization without compromising the real people it helps.
Substance and Style 