A non-profit marketing plan is a document that outlines marketing activity for an organization’s campaign. Three types of non profit organizations include public charities, private foundations, and private operating foundations. A non-profit organization’s marketing plan focuses on what marketing materials need to be created and the messages that are communicated through the campaign. The document should be written in a strategic, thoughtful and purposeful way so that it can be shared with everyone in the organization. The marketing plan document will help the non-profit organization reach new and bigger audiences by addressing the following areas of a marketing campaign. A marketing plan needs to be in place to provide clarity, keep team members and tasks organized, focus on increasing donors and increasing awareness of the organization’s mission.
Create a message
One of the first pieces for creating a marketing plan for a nonprofit organization is to understand your audience and what messages would inspire participation to spread the word about your worthwhile cause.
Storytelling is a way to tell personal stories that will influence a donor’s decision to give towards the organization. People relate to personal events. Maybe it is a story about overcoming a challenge or maybe it’s a story of loss, but those are both ways to attract attention to why the cause is important. Other techniques that can influence a story are emotion and pictures to grab attention. It can also be helpful to encourage questions from those that are supporting the cause and to be transparent about the focus and function of the organization.
Another important part to factor in for the marketing campaign would be how frequent communication will be updated. One way to maintain communication with donors and those interested in your cause is by scheduling regular emails with a newsletter that updates information for future donations, event invitations, and anything new happening with the organization.
A SWOT Analysis is a helpful tool for your campaign team to understand the important areas of the organization. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunity, and threats. Examples of a strength are what your organization excels at and what separates it from competitors. An example of weaknesses are what causes the organization to fall short, like inadequate revenue and vacant staff positions. Opportunity is considered favorable external factors that help boost your company above competitors, like sponsorships or positive legislation. Lastly threats are any negative external factors, for example increasing costs.
Pick a goal for the organization
It is important to focus on one goal at a time. Ideas of common marketing goals include acquiring new members or donors, deepening community engagement, raising awareness of a worthwhile mission, increasing your volunteer network, attracting corporate sponsors or nonprofit partners, or becoming a thought leader and go-to resource on an issue.
A helpful tool for figuring out how to achieve your marketing goals for the organization can be to use the acronym SMART: be Specific by choosing an objective with one main result, be Measurable by having clear performance indicators to measure performance, be Achievable (and ambitious) by choosing a goal to accomplish based on time, expertise, and budget, be Relevant and choose something that will contribute to the success of the organization, and lastly be Time-based and adhere to a realistic deadline to accomplish the goal.
Support your mission
Be passionate. Focus on your community. Create campaigns that are a part of holidays, awareness days, and other observances that relate to your cause. Newsjacking can be a beneficial marketing technique as well. Newsjacking refers to injecting your ideas into a breaking news story to help generate media coverage and social media engagement for your cause. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter can be great places to share different types of campaigns with the world. Facebook is a social networking site that can be used for long form content and building relationships with family and friends. Twitter is a good place to reach younger generations and share and exchange short thoughts and messages. Instagram is a great place to share video and photo content. Tiktok is a place to share videos with average users between ages 16 and 24 and is an app for sharing 15 second videos on any topic.
Building a website can be a great place to have all of the updated contact information, mission and vision for the non-profit organization. The non-profit website should include a simple donation page, links to social media or a blog about the cause, use graphics that support the cause, and should be mobile friendly. A website can be used for people to donate to the campaigns as well as a place to learn about the cause. Google ads is an ad grants program that allows up to $10k per month in free advertising space for eligible nonprofits which can help share the organization as well as bring new potential donors to the website.
There are 3 simple ways to develop a marketing plan for a non profit organization. We have talked through creating a message, focusing on goals, and how to support the mission to help develop a marketing plan for a non profit organization.