Marketing for a non-profit organization is a unique niche—like a business, you need “customers,” but you’re offering your devotees something a little less tangible than what’s found at the mega-mall! A successful non-profit marketing plan is essential for improving the visibility of your organization, building your foundation of patrons, and increasing your donations!

1. Know your non-profit backwards and forwards

If your non-profit has been doing its work properly, there is plenty of information available about what it seeks to accomplish, who will accomplish this, and how it will be accomplished! The more information you command about your organization and the more specifically it has defined its goals, the better. Once you have your mission in sight, you are in a better place to focus all your efforts on that target!

2. Know your target demographic

A commercial business needs to understand who its customer is, how it can reach this customer, and how to give this customer what it wants—things are no different for a non-profit! What do your patrons want? Why are they interested in or involved with your organization? Where can they be found? What sources are most likely to reach them? It is essential that you understand the answers to these questions in order to expand your patron base and maximize funding for your goals!

3. Research all the latest marketing strategies

A non-profit exists to serve altruistic purposes, but it still needs to utilize all the moneymaking and marketing tricks used by big business. For a minimum investment that leads to superlative returns, I would suggest our non profit marketing course. It covers all the latest marketing tactics your non profit can use to maximize its online fundraising. More funds will allow you to expand your non profit quickly so you can do more good!

4. Create a budget

Whatever your non-profit hopes to achieve, you need to understand how much money you have to work with and how much money you need in order to move forward! Creating a budget is one of the most important tasks in your marketing plan! Whether you need to spread the news about an event or to offer a service to the community, your organization needs funds to get the mission accomplished! Of course, marketing isn’t the sole purpose of your non-profit, so you want the largest portion of your budget devoted to your mission—advertising and marketing costs are a necessary expenditure that moves you towards achieving your objective.

5. Create steps and take action to execute your plan properly

Once the previous steps are in place, you should be ready to outline exactly HOW your non-profit will proceed! Focus on the purpose of your organization and decide the key points of your plan of action! Layout the method that you will use for your output—whether that means providing food and shelter to those in need or offering free art classes to at-risk children—and then formulate a strategy to provide the necessary financial input, through donations and fundraisers.

Please check out our non profit marketing eBook for more great tips.