Marketing to potential and loyal donors for your charity organization requires upkeep and new strategies. Whether it is charity auction fundraising events or raising awareness, marketing can be exhausting.
And with the vast array of possibilities and strategies for online marketing, the limitless options can feel overwhelming.
Now, there are too many routes for marketing, and not enough time.
So what is the best strategy?
Additionally, it’s hard to gauge success.
Has your organization ever asked these questions: How much is too much on social media? Are we sending out too many or too few emails/newsletters? What are other organizations doing? Do they see results? Should we be expecting different results?
Online-Marketing: In the Cloud
Thanks to Double the Donation, we can look at statistics to help you orient your organization in the limitless world of social media and email marketing.
Online giving consistently grows.
We looked at this in our last article “4 Ways to Thank Online Donors and Charity Auction Mobile Bidders”.
The rising use of online donations makes online marketing more important to focus on than ever before.
Social Media
THE STATS, according to Double the Donation:
“On average, nonprofits post to Facebook and Twitter once a day and to Instagram twice a week.
Self-reported “effective” marketing strategies created roughly 9.4 short-form blog articles, 2.1 mid-form articles, an 1 long-form article per month; nonprofits dissatisfied with their own marketing results typically produced fewer pieces of digital content overall.
For every 1,000 email addresses, the average organization has 474 Facebook fans, 186 Twitter followers, and 41 Instagram followers.
Instagram was the fastest-growing social media platform for nonprofits in 2017, with a 44% increase in followers.”
What do these statistics tell us?
Engaging with Social media is crucial, particularly for the millennial demographic.
Posting regularly and writing donor-focused (not industry focused) blogs are the two best ways to keep your audience engaged, updated, and aware.
Understanding how many followers/fans your organization should be shooting for will help you orient your social media strategies. It may prompt you to focus more attention on your social media platforms. It may show you that you are sitting pretty. But it’s important to know so as to allocate the proper amount of time to all of your organization’s marketing tasks.
Email Fundraising
THE STATS, according to Double the Donation:
Nonprofits send an average of 3 email newsletters and 2 donation appeals monthly.
Nonprofits send an average of 2 print newsletters and 3 print donation appeals per year.
For every 1,000 fundraising emails sent to subscribers, nonprofits raised an average of $42, with small organizations (fewer than 100,000 subscribers) receiving the most donation revenue per email. However, large nonprofits have seen an increase in revenue per message since 2016.
Fundraising email response rates have seen a 9% decline, and click-through rates fell to .42% in 2017.
Cultural missions have seen a decline in donation revenue from email marketing, while international-focused organizations have seen the largest increase.
What do these statistics tell us?
While the average nonprofit sends 3 email newsletters and 2 donation appeals monthly electronically, print newsletters and donation appeals during the year is still standard. Don’t neglect either of these routes!
Email fundraising still highly effective for smaller nonprofits, less so for larger organizations.
On the Ground: Traditional Marketing
What does traditional marketing look like for nonprofits today?
Face to Face volunteering
According to Global Trends in Giving Report 66% of donors have volunteered within the last 12 months. 85% donated to the nonprofit that they volunteered for.
85%.
Let that sink in.
The majority of donors consistently volunteer.
The large majority of volunteers also donate again.
This is where focus and attention should be directed. The type of relationship your organization builds with its volunteers can have a great impact on the overall health and progress of your organization.
