Marketing goals for nonprofit organizations

A company’s yearly marketing goals often fall into 4 main categories. For a unique sector like the nonprofit industry, those goals often differ slightly from those of for-profit companies.

Here are a few examples of how some of the nonprofits we’ve worked with have achieved their various marketing goals:

Identity maintenance for nonprofits

For nonprofits, identity maintenance is all about looking worthy of investment. When people decide whether or not to freely give their time or money to support an organization, they often have a common fear that needs to be addressed before they have the confidence to donate: Is this organization well managed enough to steward my donation well?

This fear can take multiple directions. If your brand, website, or physical location show signs of neglect, they may worry that you are poorly organized and don’t have the capacity to make the most of your gift. Conversely, if your brand and website are in top shape but your messaging about your mission, process, and impact is too vague, they may worry that their donation is feeding your bloated overhead instead of going to support the cause. A brand message that clearly communicates with your audience and rallies them to take action should be the bedrock of your marketing strategy.

The website, message, and brand identity of a nonprofit vary greatly depending on the organization. Here are a few examples:

The United Way of Greater Cincinnati needed a website that blended the brand standards of United Way Worldwide with their specific offerings and Cincinnati’s local flair. The Thomistic Institute’s website is focused more heavily on sharing its educational resources and connecting people with its programs and events. The website of Cincinnati Experience, a program of the Cincinnati Regional Chamber created to support the region's quality of life, is designed to market the Greater Cincinnati Area and help locals to do the same.

Brand awareness for nonprofits

The first determining factor for whether or not a nonprofit succeeds or fails is whether people know it exists. Because of this, many nonprofits looking to get started in marketing focus first on brand awareness. However, as with most marketing activities, taking a scattergun approach to brand awareness is a waste of energy.

Many nonprofits use digital advertising to gain awareness among their target audience. As a regional economic development nonprofit, OhioSE’s job is to connect site selectors with the local resources they need to choose to locate a business in Southeastern Ohio. It runs programmatic display and connected TV advertising campaigns to show the region’s many unique advantages to a targeted audience. While most of the deal architecture actually takes place at the county level, OhioSE’s brand awareness campaigns help this underrepresented region of Ohio broaden its reach.

Lead generation and promotion for nonprofits

A “lead” can mean many different things to a nonprofit. While nonprofit leads are commonly associated with donors (and thus revenue streams), a nonprofit could also be looking to attract volunteers, program participants, or even sales. We ran paid social advertisements for a St. Vincent de Paul CityThrift location to drive visitors to their store.

Most often, however, nonprofit lead generation involves multichannel campaigns to push for donations. Our client, Franciscan Missions, the organization that funds the charitable work of Franciscan friars around the world, raises millions of dollars every year through a multichannel strategy of digital advertising, organic social media, and email marketing. As the age demographics of their audience have changed over time, these digital initiatives have become significantly more important than their traditional direct mail advertising. Read their full story.

Audience engagement for nonprofits

Nonprofits are often quite good at building a dedicated audience of people united by the mission that they support. Staying in touch with that audience through marketing can keep them engaged and ready to share their time, money, or resources.

It is common for nonprofits to send email newsletters to share progress updates with their audience. As mentioned above, we help Franciscan Missions plan, write, and design their emails, which they use to stay in touch with their audience and request aid during certain appeals. Even if you never use your newsletter to make an “ask” from your audience, it can still be incredibly helpful for keeping your audience excited to support your cause.

Sometimes, audience engagement simply means encouraging the community to take advantage of the services a nonprofit provides. The United Way of Greater Cincinnati also built a custom 211 widget to help members of the Cincinnati community learn about the local resources available to them.