Nonprofit Marketing on a Budget

Our marketing team recently conducted a survey and they asked Nonprofits, “when it comes to your Nonprofit's Website and Growing Your Donations Online, what’s the single biggest challenge, question, or frustration you’ve been struggling with?” We found out that next to donor relations, the biggest challenge for organizations was allocating funds for proper marketing. Meaning their website, online presence, professionals were all lacking.

Today, we are here to teach you how to advocate for a satisfactory marketing budget at your organization. The two scenarios we are going to be touching on are:

• Scenario #1: Your organization is fully aware that they need professional help, but they do not have the money. 
• Scenario #2: Your organization has a professional, but the leaders do not fully understand what marketing can do for your organization. 

Let’s begin with scenario number one. Your website is outdated, your online presence is lacking and you’re frustrated. Our first piece of advice is to take a deep breath, and think about where your organization really stands. You know you need help, but you know you really cannot afford to take a full-time employee on.

If you want to go the professional route, we have two suggestions. One suggestion is to see if a part-time marketing employee is feasible to your budget. Part-time employees are great because you are not taking on a full-time employee, which means the salary requirements can be set lower, and no benefits.

If your organization truly doesn’t have the budget for that, we have two suggestions. First, partnering with a local tech school, college or graduate school and setting up an internship program is a great way to get the help you need. It will be for free, and the intern will be getting real experience, while getting class credit as well. Plus, not to mention you will be getting all the new, and most useful marketing tips in the current field!

Then, our second suggestion is to train a current employee, or board member, with the latest marketing skills. You can do this through free webinars online, Facebook groups, Youtube videos and reading the latest articles- just like ours!

Now, scenario number two.

“Convincing organization leadership that enhancing and optimizing our website and online presence is important.”

If you do marketing for a Nonprofit, it’s likely you’ve been here before. You know how important marketing is for your organization, especially in today’s competitive marketing world, but your organization does not see it so much.

Let’s go back to  2008 when a study conducted by the American Marketing Association and Liman Hearne found that “the average Nonprofit marketing budget was between two and three percent of the total operating budget. Nonprofits lag behind for-profit companies in spending on marketing.”  Less than a year later, Nancy E. Schwartz, a marketing and communications consultant in New York, recommended that Nonprofit groups should be spending between 10 and 20 percent.

Over 10 years later and most Nonprofits are operating on 5% of their operating budget for marketing. Think about how technology has advanced since these studies, and recommendations came out. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Tik Tok have become an advertising animal. We’ve developed cookies to track what you are searching on the internet and then have it pop up in your browser when you’re searching the internet. We can track which Facebook post took you where on a website. So, why won’t your Nonprofit take your job and/or plan seriously?

We don’t have the answer for that, we do have answers on how to advocate for the importance of marketing to the leaders at your organization, in hopes to get a marketing budget, or to increase your current one. Begin by researching marketing trends that pertain to Nonprofit organizations.

While you are researching, we suggest conducting a survey within your organization. If your goal is to use the proposed marketing budget for more social media campaigns, ask questions that relate to social media, and so on. Be sure to keep all results organized.

With the marketing trends and survey results, we suggest sitting down and making a marketing plan. This will include your research, goal, realistic examples and the proposed cost. You may also suggest the importance of having your own budget, instead of using from the operating budget.

This is all a ton of information, but it’s all so important. Let’s review: 

• Scenario #1: Your organization is fully aware that they need professional help, but they do not have the money. 
  • Suggestions: Train a current employee, hire a part-time employee, partner with a local tech school, college or graduate school to create an internship. 
• Scenario #2: Your organization has a professional, but the leaders do not fully understand what marketing can do for your organization. 
  • Present Nonprofit marketing trends, conduct marketing research within your organization, create a clear and concise marketing plan to present to your organization’s leaders. 

Now get out there and do it!