The Best Marketing Resources for Nonprofits

For nonprofits, marketing represents an interesting challenge–on one hand, it’s absolutely vital that you draw attention to your cause and attract potential volunteers/donors. Knowing where to start can be difficult, however, since you’re marketing a cause rather than a product or service. To help with this, Keep Doing Good has compiled a list of websites and services that you can use to streamline and master your marketing techniques.

Canva

• Free graphic design tool where users can take advantage of pre-designed templates, provided photos/graphics, and an array of fonts and other elements for their design purposes.
• Features a user-friendly interface with several how-to courses, meaning you don’t need to be a design pro to make professional designs!

Canva offers a free version of their plan, along with a paid version called Canva Pro…but certain qualifying nonprofits can use Canva Pro for free! Whether you need logos, social media posts, infographics, or presentations–Canva has you covered.

Mailchimp

• Allows users to build customized email campaigns with an easy-to-use system/interface.
• Easily add buttons, images, links, and more to your emails so they’re perfect for your needs.
• Schedule emails to be sent at an optimal time, and track the open rates/clicks on your emails easily!

Email marketing is one of the most important and effective ways of communicating with your community. Sending announcements, event information, fundraising campaigns, and other similar information about your organization is a guaranteed way to increase your engagement–let Mailchimp make that easy for your nonprofit.

Grammarly

• Free writing tool that proofreads and checks your work as your write
• Alerts you of grammatical errors and writing mistakes, allowing you to write strong and effective copy for your nonprofit advertising.
• Works on a variety of applications across different platforms and devices.

Making sure your writing is clear, engaging, and error-free is necessary for both your advertising copy and your communication with the community. Let Grammarly provide you with one less thing to worry about!

Sendible

• Allows you to track and manage your social media accounts.
• Users can create and schedule posts, respond to comments on select platforms, and view interaction rates/reports.
• Not free, but different pricing plans are available.

Keeping up with your social media page can be overwhelming and intimidating–and it’s likely you’re trying to keep up with more than one! Sendible is an extremely helpful tool that allows you to manage everything social media-related from one place. Take a look at the pricing plans today and see if Sendible can help you streamline your social media posting process.

Google Analytics

• Used to determine how effective your website is
• Specific emphasis on website layout and navigation, ensuring that users can find the information they need.

It doesn’t matter how snazzy your nonprofit’s website is if nobody can find the information they need when they need it–and that’s where Google Analytics can help. Let this tool assist you in tracking views, interactions, and the overall performance of your ads and websites.

Asana

• Project management tool that allows you to organize, plan, track, and manage your marketing campaigns.
• Allows users to share documents and files, assign tasks to users, comment on tasks, set deadlines, keep notes, and more.

Project management doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated, and Asana makes this clear with its easy-to-learn, user-friendly interface. Getting started is simple, and the free version provides a large suite of features that may be sufficient for many nonprofits (with an option to upgrade to the paid, pro plan).

Unsplash

• Features a diverse library of stock photos that can be used for free on any platform and in any post.
• Search for and download photos for free!
• Substantial collection included in the free version, with even more available with the pro plan.

Using professional photos for your social media and website goes a long way towards presenting your nonprofit as a valuable, dedicated, and trustworthy presence in your community. With Unsplash, you can be sure you’re using quality photos without the need for an expensive camera or professional photographer.

No matter how much (or how little) experience you have with marketing, these resources make it a breeze to plan fundraising campaigns, manage events, and stay in touch with your supporters.