Boost Your Brand Awareness With Marketing Tips for Nonprofits

National Nonprofit Day is coming up on August 17th! Whether you’re giving shoes to foster kids, helping the homeless, or creating clean water sources in other countries, National Nonprofit Day is the day to make everything all about your company, the hard work that you do, and the amazing volunteers that make it all possible. To honor your hard work, we want to help you grow your audience and expand your brand awareness with marketing tips for nonprofits. 

When you’re in the business of helping people, it’s important to make your message heard in order to attract volunteers, donations, and bring awareness to the cause you stand for. However, when most of your time and money are focused on helping others, it can be difficult to find the resources to spare for marketing. That’s why we’re teaching you how to market for a nonprofit in ways specifically designed to get you the most awareness as efficiently as possible. 

Digital Marketing for Nonprofits

Social Media

They say if it isn’t on social media, it didn’t happen. That means if you want your efforts to be recognized, you need to be posting about it on social media. To start, get Facebook and Instagram accounts set up for your nonprofit. Put your contact information, office location if you have one, and whatever you most want people to know about what you do and why. These pages will go a long way towards improving your brand awareness as it will allow your local and even global communities to interact directly with your nonprofit. Here, they can easily contact you with questions on how to contribute as well as see what it is you do.  

If you’re feeling at a loss for what to post about, don’t overthink it, just post about what you do. Put up pictures of your volunteers hard at work, share blog articles from your website, and let people see all the good work your charity does. Social media is a free and natural source of marketing for nonprofits that allows people to engage easily with you and see where their donations are being used. If you have accounts set up, make sure you celebrate National Nonprofit Day with a post! 

You should also set up a Linkedin profile for your company. This site helps you establish credibility as a company, both with those looking to volunteer as well as with other companies that may wish to contribute to your cause. This also allows you a chance to give back a little to your volunteers by allowing their work to be more easily attached to job applications and resumes. 

Website

If you’re going to do nothing else for online nonprofit marketing, you at least need a website. This is where people will get all of their information about your nonprofit, including how to donate, your location, how to volunteer, what you do, how you do it, and why. You should also include a secure way for people to donate money through your website.  

The most successful way people get donations is to have tiered donations with a thank-you gift associated with each. The more they pay, the more gifts they’re eligible for. These gifts can be simple and cheap, such as coffee mugs with your company logo, branded canvas bags, or personal planners. Having these gifts carry your company logo also serves as an easy additional way to raise brand awareness. 

Blog

You should also have a blog connected to your website. Every time your volunteers go out and help someone, you update your blog with pictures and details. When people see exactly what you do and how you do it, they’re more likely to feel confident in donating money. Your blog will also raise your brand awareness by creating a following of those who enjoy seeing the good your charity does. 

This is also the perfect place to pull some heartstrings with the personal stories of your volunteers, the people you’re trying to help, and what inspires your nonprofit to do what they do. You can also post statistics and research behind how your charity is helping and how much the donations you receive are helping others. This is an essential tactic in marketing for nonprofits, as it helps further establish that brand awareness and sense of trust in your charity. 

Traditional Marketing for Nonprofits

Fundraising Events

One of the most-used marketing ideas for nonprofits is fundraising events, and for good reason. People love a party, and you can raise a lot of money quickly while also building your relationship within your local community. You can do pay-to-enter events, or you can host a public event where vendors donate food, service vouchers, and electronics to raffle off or let party-goers bid on.  

While raising money, you can let the event double as a chance to raise your brand awareness. To every guest, give out an informational pamphlet with links to your website, blog, and social media, as well as information on your charity’s mission and inspiration for what you do. You can also give out branded pens or refrigerator magnets with the brochures to help keep your brand visible in their home. Nonprofit marketing tactics like these help make your events more educational to your guests and help improve brand awareness, which makes your nonprofit one that people feel they can trust their money with. 

Promotional Sales

You don’t have to wait for a give-away event to use promotional products. You can actually sell branded merchandise on your website. This is a very easy way to raise money that a nonprofit of any size can do, and the branded merchandise then works as further nonprofit marketing wherever it gets used and seen.  

T-shirts, hats, coffee mugs, and backpacks are all popular items to sell, but you can also go bigger with branded blankets, beach balls, umbrellas, and more. You can even have specialty items made for certain holidays, such as National Nonprofit Day, to help people celebrate while also donating to your cause. 

Make Your Brand Visible

Selling promotional products shouldn’t be the only place you’re sticking your brand out to be seen. You also want to make sure that you are putting your logo wherever you can so people become familiar with your brand.  

Having volunteers wear branded hats and t-shirts when they do volunteer work is a popular nonprofit marketing technique that makes for great photos for your blog and social media. You should also put it on any charity-owned vehicles you use and anywhere else that makes sense with what you do. The more people see your logo, the more they will believe you are a legitimate charity to donate to. 

When you’re doing good for the world, it’s important to make sure that people know about it and how to help. That’s where marketing for nonprofits becomes an essential part of charity work. For this National Nonprofit Day, we want to give you tips that allow you to get that essential marketing done while also raising money and doing all the good work you already do.