Nonprofit Marketing Guide to Setting Priorities

Many nonprofits don’t have a robust marketing department. Some don’t differentiate between what is “marketing” and what is “fundraising.” But there is a difference, and to get better fundraising results your nonprofit organization needs to invest in marketing outreach. This requires developing a cadence for meaningful contact with existing donors, sponsors and funders as well as working a plan to bring fresh contacts into your organization’s marketing funnel.

How to Strengthen your Nonprofit’s Marketing Activities

Your marketing plan can range from simple to complex, and cover as much detail as your organization can manage. You may be able to craft a plan using internal resources, or by bringing in a skilled nonprofit marketing consultant. This is the first of a 3-part series that will help you establish priorities, identify resources needed (both human and tech stack), and develop an actionable plan to measure success against. 

Establishing your Nonprofit’s Marketing Priorities

Evaluate your Fundraising + Marketing Mix

It may be helpful to start with taking a fresh look at your existing fundraising efforts. If you map out your fundraising communications cadence, what does that look like from your audience’s viewpoint? What messages are you sending about which topics? How often are you making fundraising asks? Are you communicating about the organization’s goals, vision, and how you’re pursuing/accomplishing its mission? Where, how, and when?

Conduct a Marketing-Focused Communications Audit

Sometimes, though unintentional, new prospects or first-time donors get much more marketing attention than your most valuable existing supporters. This is where literally mapping out your communications can be very revealing. It’s very worthwhile to take the time to fully assess what you are already communicating, and to whom. Then you can assume a marketer’s viewpoint to consider what’s missing, and identify the marketing priorities that can fill in those gaps. (This is an area where a nonprofit marketing consultant’s fresh perspective can be especially useful.) 

Questions to Guide your Marketing Plan Development

It’s important to identify your top organizational priorities and messaging. Then you can do a communications audit to ensure they are getting the proper marketing support.  

• What’s your mission statement? 
• What are all the things your organization does to accomplish its mission? 
• Are you communicating this clearly and appropriately, and how often?

Sometimes, though unintentional, new prospects or first-time donors get more marketing attention than your most valuable existing supporters. 

• Do your best supporters receive acknowledgement of their importance, or just more fundraising asks? 
• Are you cultivating them toward deeper involvement and more meaningful contributions (monetary and otherwise)?
• Do you have a communications program that keeps your Board of Directors informed and engaged?

It’s easy to fall into the assumption that your supporters know everything you do, what’s available to them, and how to best support your nonprofit.

• Are you staying in front of all supporters regularly to keep them feeling connected? 
• Do you encourage them to represent your organization in their personal and professional circles? 
• What do communications look like at all levels of support?  

Sometimes the low-hanging fruit is hiding in plain sight. 

• How can you turn more existing supporters into prepared and effective advocates? 
• What community organizations might you partner with to quickly reach large groups of new prospective donors?
• Are leads being effectively followed up? (Are you certain?)

Make sure you’re optimizing all of the resources already at your disposal to market the organization’s mission and effectiveness. This likely requires a communications platform audit. 

• Are there legacy communications that could be revamped to better reflect the organization’s status and programs now? (eNewsletters, sponsorship ads, etc.)
• Are there new communications types you could begin to use effectively (i.e. SMS messaging)?
• Do your communications platforms adequately help you identify and cultivate new donors, sponsors and funder relationships? 

Identifying the most important marketing priorities creates a crucial foundation for selecting your organization’s marketing strategies, and tactics to implement those strategies. Then you can support each of your marketing priorities effectively, using some pointed new messaging and refreshed campaigns.

Chances are, your human capital and financial resources for marketing will require you to carefully prioritize your strategies and budget accordingly. Our next topic: How to Identify the Marketing Resources your Nonprofit Needs.