3 Thrifty Tips For Marketing Your Nonprofit
Marketing for a nonprofit is complicated. You’re trying to raise awareness of your cause, and you’ve got to raise money, but you might not have much of a budget behind you. Thankfully there are plenty of digital marketing tools available to help you DIY the content you need for your website, email marketing, social media, direct mail and more.
If you’re not already taking advantage of these tools, add them to your strategy ASAP:
Get a Google Ads Grant
Did you know your nonprofit could qualify for up to $10,000 worth of free online ads per month? Everyone uses Google, and running Google ads enables your organization to get in front of people while they’re actively searching for relevant topics. By prompting those searchers to visit your website, you can encourage them to learn more about what you do, donate and get involved. Since Google Ads can get pricey depending on the competition, this grant is a huge boon for nonprofits. So sign up and apply for that Google money stat!
In exchange for a massive spending allowance, Google requires that your ads meet a certain quality threshold to keep running from month to month. If you’re not familiar with managing a pay-per-click advertising campaign, getting started with Google Ads could feel intimidating. You don’t have to do it alone: Ask an agency partner to help you strategize, set up your ads and make adjustments to get the results you want.
Use free stock photos
Quality photography can be expensive, and not every cause lends itself to easy imagery. Sometimes your organization is unable to share photos of clients due to confidentiality issues, but it’s still important to portray the human aspect of your work. Taking your own high-quality photos is always preferable, but if you don’t have the skills or budget for a professional, good stock photos can suffice. (Hint: More diversity = higher quality.) Try these websites for good free images:
Bonus: Tackle your own graphic design work with a free Canva account. Nonprofits and students can make accounts for free, and teams can share access to designs. It’s easy to make professional-grade content with pre-made templates and tools, plus you can save your organization’s colors, fonts and custom templates to keep all your designs on-brand.
Befriend Facebook’s fundraising tools
Social media is an effective supplement to fundraising activities, and Facebook has released several sweet features to help nonprofits promote their campaigns.
Check out this nifty guide to all their nonprofit-friendly tools.
For fundraising specifically, you can apply to post a Donate button on your organization’s page, and you can host fundraiser events that supporters can share with their friends. And let’s not overlook the super convenient birthday donation option, because it requires minimal effort from nonprofits themselves and results in actual money. All I’m saying is: If you require every board member to solicit donations from Facebook friends on their birthday, you won’t hear any griping about social media marketing and ROI.
For more information about how social media can aid fundraising and help you build support for your cause, check out this resource.
In conclusion: Don’t let a tight budget hold back your ideas
Working within constraints is tough, but it also forces creativity. Taking advantage of free tools and options can help shave down costs in some areas of your marketing budget, leaving more dollars available for other activities. If you have a great idea for a campaign, find a way to make it happen on the cheap.
Interested in developing a comprehensive marketing strategy for your organization? We can help! Let’s talk about your goals and establish a plan of action.