It is becoming more common to see non-profits using some form of social media when marketing for their organization. . Social media helps in creating relationships, in making their organization known, and by getting feedback from stakeholders. This has helped social media become a popular and effective way of fundraising for non-profits.
Email marketing is CHEAP and EFFECTIVE means to marketing in a nonprofit but there is a wrong way to do it. This article outlines the importance of not upsetting people with SPAM. A targeted, restrained outreach is more effective in the long run.
Thanks to technology, email accounts, social networking sites, and cell phones are now prime marketing real estate. In order to strike the right balance between marketing to the masses and generating revenue, organizations should do two things right away. First, establish communication guidelines that reflect the organization's vision, mission, short and long-term objectives (collectively, the brand)-not what the business Joneses are doing. Second, ask constituents what matters to them.
I'm always up for something fun and helpful. With the social web, there are some tried and true ways that I approach cause marketing and raising money for nonprofits.
* Online is the fastest-growing fundraising channel for nonprofits. In 2010, Convio's clients raised more than $1.3 billion online, up 40 percent from 2009.
* The median growth rate in online giving was 20 percent. The median growth rate was 14 percent in 2009.
Nonprofits get excited when a celebrity wants to join their advisory board or endorse their campaign. But do celebrity endorsements across different channels work these days? It depends. (click and read on!)
One very revealing panel (in a web-streamed Advocacy Live event in March) included Eric Jones, the top technology person for Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who provided tips and advice about ways that online organizers might boost their campaigns' impact on members of Congress and their staffers. Recorded video event posted by Blackbaud on this webpage.