Starting a charity is a noble feat; however the fundamentals of marketing it are no different from those of a for-profit business. For the most part, marketing not-for-profit organizations can even be more challenging. You may face the issue of many people finding it hard to trust that their support goes into the cause, as they’ve seen many case studies of charities diverting funds for personal use and high figure salaries and bonuses. To help you keep a strong image for the public, you may choose to outsource some of the work to a private foundation administration service. This will show the public that you are trustworthy and that the finances will be handled accordingly. It will also help to take some of the strain off of your workload, allowing you to take care of some of the other main marketing strategies.

Therefore, it’s crucial to be a step ahead in marketing your good cause to the potential donors and volunteers. Here are four marketing tips for charities.

• Simple Copies and Messages Win.

Simplicity will always have a place in marketing. You’ll find its value in terms like “less is more” among many others. The value of simplicity cuts across multiple marketing forms, from traditional to digital. As a charity, using simple messages to drive your core objective makes it easier for well-wishers to rally behind your organization, volunteering their support, voice, and funds.

Marketing simplicity for charities can transcend beyond messaging to platforms. While it’s good to make use of all marketing platforms for higher visibility, it’s crucial to acknowledge that some platforms may be more sophisticated than others. You can compare multiple platforms to find the ones most suited to you based on your core target audience. As a charity, this can alternate based on your projects. 

For instance, a project to raise awareness of menstrual health may attract a female audience. Assessing multiple platforms for insights on how they fit your plan does half the work in reaching your target engagement. Sometimes, an SMS campaign can be all you need, rather than a TikTok trend. If you need help, here is a winnable fundraising SMS sample that you can use for your campaign.

• Focus On Storytelling

A huge part of your charity’s work will involve educating and encouraging individuals and other stakeholders to buy into your cause. Posting on social media without influencing their perceptions can generate minimal results in sensitizing your audience. Storytelling is an ancient art helping early humans communicate and connect. Your charity can generate a similar impact from your storytelling efforts. It involves recalling human experiences to connect with them and form lasting relationships. Through storytelling, you can understand customers and develop context-led copies to influence audience perceptions. Stories are powerful tools that can help shape how people see your charity and inform their decisions to support your cause.

• Use Visually Appealing Creatives

Going visual is non-negotiable for businesses seeking to increase visibility and improve marketing ROI (Return on Investment). Certainly, people absorb multimedia information faster than other forms. In 2020, a quarter of businesses spent between ten and twenty-five percent of their budgets on visual strategies alone. 

Marketing researchers also predict that more than 80 percent of all internet traffic will be video in the next few years. As a not-for-profit company, taking the opportunity to leverage these statistics to ramp up visibility should never be passed up.

• Be Clear With Your Call to Action.

The easier you make it for prospective supporters to reach you and do what your charity wants, the better for your charity to attract the funding and support it needs to grow. At every point, you need an active call-to-action button to lead prospective support toward your goals. Generally, platforms like Facebook make efforts to make it easier for non-profit companies to generate funds through its “Donate Now” call-to-action button. 

All in all, these tips can lead your non-profit from one successful marketing campaign to another.