Don’t just post gala photos on Facebook after the event. Leverage social media to make your gala bigger and better.

Incorporating social media into events is nothing new. Think back to the ALS Association and how their Ice Bucket Challenge took over the internet. This year’s version of that is Red Nose Day. These campaigns use people’s obsession with selfies to their advantage: Leveraging the vanity of others makes for good marketing as long as you include hashtags. Large nonprofit organizations have social media teams, camera crews, and extra funding for promotion. The average nonprofit organization may have one or two people in charge of social media, a photographer, and an extensive list of things to do outside of social promotion.

But even a small, overworked staff can generate interest in their organization by generating buzz on social media.  Doing so is free event promotion and puts the nonprofit steps ahead of peer organizations who aren’t social media savvy. It may even make those who didn’t take part get jealous. The last reason may be slightly petty, but those same people may decide to join in next year. Nonprofit galas and award shows have a variety of attendees, but your audience is not just the attendees. The people who see your coverage on social channels may not buy a seat for the event, but they’ll know the organization and may donate on their own.

A common event for nonprofit organizations is a fashion show. Let’s see how that could be covered using social media.

Before the Event

I like to call this the heavy-lifting phase for the social media manager. The Red Rooster Foundation, which does not actually exist, is having its Annual Fashion Show. On their invitations, they added “#RRFfashion” to let people know that the event is social. The hashtag is unique, simple, and short ,which is what you should aim for when creating one. Using your hashtag, begin promoting your event with social media blasts across all of your organization’s channels. Each detail about the event can be a post to social media, while using the event hashtag.

To publicize the Red Rooster Foundation’s Annual Fashion Show even further, I would reach out to local community outlets, fashion blogs, and other relevant platforms to create awareness and propose stories. The reach-out phase, is a good opportunity to schedule photo opportunities during the show.

To attract a younger demographic, I’d make it a live tweeting event and would provide special seating for those who join in or record videos because some people may not want to participate in the social media aspect of the event or sit next to people who are. It is also a best practice to know what social media channels people are using and which are best suited for event coverage.

Twitter is one of the best platforms for covering an event on social media. People live-tweet award shows, sporting events, and news all the time. If the fashion show attendees tweet under a unique, specific hashtag for your event, you can search Twitter for the top or most recent results for that hashtag and collect them for later use. While I believe Twitter to be the best option for live event coverage, you don’t have to limit yourself to only one platform. Options include, but aren’t limited to Vine, Periscope, and Facebook. Vine is a good option for micro video posts and tagging. Periscope is a free app exclusively for live streaming and allows you to stream the whole event. The stream can be shared instantly with Twitter. Facebook is a good general option because it is somewhat of a default social media channel for people if they’re not on Twitter.

A few days before the event, send a few reminders to your followers that you’ll be covering your fashion show on social media. Some users may not want their feeds flooded with posts about an event they’re not attending. Users can mute your account without unfollowing; it’s basically a kind version of “shut up.”

During the Event

The people who are attending will be doing most of the work from here. Your preparation is what led up to this moment. You can do several things to promote the event while enjoying the show. Take pictures, record snippets of video, tag people in posts, and monitor feeds. Your event will most likely have an emcee, who should know the hashtag and announce it.

When tweeting about the event from your organization’s account, don’t speak as the institution, be personal. Respond quickly to dialogue, monitor your mentions, and know what social media channels attendees are using or ask them to stick to a specific one.

After the Event

Don’t get comfortable, your work is not over. Leverage your user-generated content! Whether it’s a blog post, a video, or a Storify story from collected tweets, push the content to keep the event going even after it has concluded. Use social media scheduling software to upload posts across all of your social media channels. Schedule posts at consistent times about your fashion show with your created hashtag for the event.

Create a private Twitter list of those who interacted and tweeted about the event; you can do this by going to the links where the follower count and tweets are and click on “lists.” Thank those people for attending and build those relationships so they look forward to coming to your next event.

Event coverage using social media is free, fun, and a lot of work. However, it’s rewarding and surprisingly effective.

By Jade McCall,  Digital Strategist at Red Rooster Group.

When companies match employee donations, everybody wins.

Matching Gift Programs (MGP) are a great way for companies, donors, and nonprofits to combine forces and double their impact. Companies are perceived as socially responsible when they match donations to causes their employees support. Donors double their donations, and nonprofits and those they serve benefit tremendously from the contributions. However, MGPs are sometimes not well publicized, which is a huge opportunity-loss for everyone. As a company, employee, or nonprofit fundraiser, it’s never too late to get started.

Companies: Get More Bang for Your Buck

A company should publicize its MGP initiative to increase public awareness of how well it is living up to its social responsibility. For example, Macmillan, a leading publishing company, has a Matching Gift Program. It asked its employees to suggest organizations with missions and interests similar to its own: education and humanitarianism. One of our clients is a great fit because it is the largest educational organization in India. Macmillan could use this mutually beneficial partnership to leverage its contribution to education and literacy issues throughout the world.

Donors and Employees: There’s No Harm in Asking

Donors can stretch their dollars by asking if their employers have an MGP. If they have one, make sure it is publicized. If your company doesn’t have a matching gift program, make a case for setting one up. Enlisting other employees who’d like the opportunity to help nonprofits will make your argument stronger. Be persistent: If you don’t push for change,
who will?

Nonprofits: Reach Out and Speak Up

It’s in your nonprofit’s best interest to seek out companies that align with your values and inquire about Matching Gift Programs. Make a case for support: State similarities between your nonprofit and the company, show your organization’s impact, and offer to include the company’s logo in your materials to enhance their reputation and give your organization good PR. Taking this initiative can garner more corporate interest in your nonprofit. Corporations with money and resources need motivation to do social good, so reach out and inspire them!

Take a minute to browse your nonprofit’s website and ask yourself these questions: Is the ‘Donate’ button visible? Does it stand out? Is it on every page of your website? Does your website make it easy to donate? If your answers aren’t a definitive yes, you may be missing out on a lot of money.

We all know that 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on your car insurance, but one minute could earn your nonprofit a lot more!

Where’s the ‘Donate’ Button? Should Never be a FAQ

Whether your organization focuses more on programs, services, or research, it’s still crucial to get donations. Your website is the first place people will go to learn more about your organization and contribute to your cause. If it’s hard to figure out where the donate button is on your website, potential donors will quickly give up trying. And that’s more of a loss for you than it is for them.

Donation Buttons Should be Quickly Noticed

A great way to solicit contributions is to specify a call to action. A call to action may be to sign a petition, volunteer, or join a club. For nonprofits, one of the most important calls to action is to make a donation. And what better way to facilitate this than by having a donation button on every page of your website? (If you want to take it a step further, you can have multiple donation buttons on each page). Be sure to make it easy for your viewers by distinguishing the “Donate” button from other engagement options on your website.

Simplicity is Key

The donation process can be the tipping point between a donor’s decision to continuously contribute to your cause or not contribute at all. Try donating on your nonprofit’s website from a third-party perspective. Do you get so frustrated that you want to “X” out of the window or do you see your confirmation quickly pop up? Just remember, your answers say a lot about how others view your site, too.

By Natalie Glaser, a marketing intern at Red Rooster Group.

To stay in business and make the world a better place, nonprofits need to raise funds. Not an easy task these days!

Recent research indicates that charitable impulses are just barely keeping up with inflation but not really adding much in the way of new resources to the overall funding pool for which all nonprofits compete.

About one-third of nonprofits don’t expect their fundraising results to improve in 2014 and almost half only held steady during 2013, according to 2014 Fundraising Technology Trends Study by Find Accounting Software. These fundraisers also noted that finding contributors, deepening relationships with them, and standing out from other nonprofits were their greatest challenges.

So how do you make sure that your organization has what it takes to pay higher rent, increased utility bills, and upgrade to needed new software? One way, according to the Trends study, is to leverage your website. These days, your nonprofit’s website is likely to be the first point of contact with clients, donors, members, and volunteers — whether on a desktop computer as in the old days — or on mobile device as is more likely.

Maximize the impact of your website and you can take on those three fundraising challenges: find contributors, deepen relationships, and stand out.

Focus on your audience

The key to successful website design is user experience. The members of each target audience must easily find the content they seek, in language they understand, and in a design that is visually enticing. The key word in that formula: audience. The website should focus on the audiences you want to reach, and the messages and images that will resonate with them.

Make your case

If you want to reach donors, think like a donor. They want to know what you do, how well you do it, and why you are a better recipient of their generosity than the nonprofit at the next URL. And they don’t have all day to get the answers to those questions.

The design of your nonprofit’s website should give donors those answers quickly while evoking a visceral response that “these are really good guys.”

Keep it simple

Don’t get carried away by your enthusiasm! While it’s good to be passionate about your cause, it’s unlikely that you can share every aspect, and every experience that you and your staff have had that fuels your excitement. Scrolling through lengthy text will not engage people.

Be real

People need people, even when surfing the web. Your website will be more powerful if it has a human face, literally in the graphics, and figuratively in the personality, content, and language it uses to describe its reason for being. Let donors know who they are dealing with. Don’t always ask for something. Give something as well — information, kudos, etc. That’s how relationships are built: person to person.

Make it easy

Have a very conspicuous donate button as well as easy to find links to social media sites so donors can let their friends know they donated and why.

As an added incentive for a website makeover, consider this: Online donations increased 12.7% for three months, ending August 2014, compared to the same period in 2013. But overall charitable giving increased only 4% in the same time period.

Successful branding requires targeting all your nonprofit’s audiences with the right messages.

Most nonprofits make the mistake of focusing on a limited number of audiences: donors, members, or clients. But every nonprofit has a wide array of audiences that can help it succeed. Consider them all when crafting marketing messages and choosing which media to use.

To focus your brand messages, explore the values of the audiences you want to reach and the ways in which they interact with your organization. Be sure to look ahead, at the audiences you want to reach going forward, not just those you now reach.

TYPES OF AUDIENCES

Staff

Executive staff, department heads, and front-line staff must be able to speak cogently about your organization. They are all brand ambassadors. When developing your brand, assess what staff knows about your organization’s mission, services, and success. You’ll also want to find out what keeps them working with you so you know how to attract qualified new employees.

Board

Board members are your key brand emissaries. Give them messages that help them articulate why your nonprofit matters and eases their fundraising efforts. Most important, keep them engaged and interested in the organization.

Partners

People and organizations will be much more willing to work with your organization if it is known as professional and responsible. Find out what characteristics of your organization are most valuable to those you are likely to partner with and whether you have communicated those values and common interests clearly.

Affiliates

If yours is a national organization with chapters or affiliates, others may be looking to you for guidance on how to best present your organizational story. Depending upon your relationship, involving other parties in the message development or branding process may be crucial to maintaining allegiance among these groups. For some organizations, it’s just a matter of clearly communicating brand guidelines to those on the front lines. For others, engagement in the branding process by affiliates may be required.

Clients

Clients are the reason most nonprofits exist.  If clients have a choice of service providers, they want to know why they should chose your organization. They want to know what your organization offers that similar organizations do not offer and whether your services fill their particular needs. This information guides not only outreach but also may show you how to improve services. Perhaps some programs should be expanded and others dropped.

Members

Membership organizations need to know what motivates people to join and why others choose not to. Which membership benefits attract people and which are not meaningful? To keep your recruitment and renewal rates up, make sure you assess your members’ needs on an ongoing basis and communicate the value that your organization provides.

Volunteers

Whether individual volunteers or groups of volunteers (such as classes or businesses), you must ensure that the volunteer experience with your organization is a good one and that it generates the positive word of mouth you desire. Volunteers can become long-term donors and encourage others to do so as well.

Referrers

Organizations that depend on other agencies or even other people within their own agency to refer clients to its programs, must make clear what services are offered and what distinguishes  them from those offered by similar nonprofits. You want to know people choose one organization over another when referring clients.

Vendors

Have you considered that the people and companies your organization deals with everyday can be crucial allies in your cause? Your vendors may be talking to thousands of other companies this year. Make sure that they know your mission and involve them in your cause. They can spread the word, donate their goods or services, support your events, or introduce you to potential partners, funders, volunteers or supporters.

Neighbors

Good relationships with neighbors — the people who live near your service sites but do not use your services — can be critical. If they don’t understand what you are doing, they may complain to elected officials or block expansion plans. This is especially true for shelters, halfway houses, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers. But neighbors are important to all nonprofits. From their ranks, you can get volunteers, in-kind donations, monetary or other support. Neighbors also make good partners-whether a restaurant donating surplus food to your organization or a retail store with a point of purchase display promoting your cause or hanging your flyer in their window.

Media

Media coverage is important, particularly when there is breaking news about your issue. To get media attention when you need it, you must be proactive: Make sure that key media — print, broadcast and online — know about your organization before you need publicity. Maintain lists of journalists you want to reach and cultivate ongoing relationships with them.

Legislators

If you are an issue-based organization that relies on regulation, legislation or funding at the local, state, or federal levels, then legislators will be on the top of the list of audiences you’ll want to communicate with regularly. But all nonprofits need good relations with government. You never know when funding legislation will be proposed or new rules enacted that affect your clients. Nonprofits have more leeway to lobby than they realize, so don’t take this group for granted. You can lobby on an issue but you just can’t advocate for a political candidate. Include key public officials (whether elected officials or their staff) on your email lists, send print newsletters, issue briefings, and annual reports, and make time to meet with key contacts in person on a periodic basis.

Donors 

Donor audiences — a key audience for nonprofits — can vary greatly, from someone donating $1 to a food pantry at grocery store checkout to a philanthropist leaving a $10 million bequest. Make sure that you fully understand your donors, their values, and interests as well as their motivations for donating to your organization. Explore new ways to engage them in supporting your organization, such as planned giving programs.

Businesses

Whether large corporations or local businesses, the for-profit world can be an effective partner for your organization. But you need to know how to speak their language and appeal to their interests. Businesses want to know how they can leverage your goodwill to reach more potential customers, so it’s essential that partnering and sponsorship opportunities be presented as marketing opportunities for them.

Sponsors 

What attracts sponsors to your organization? Crafting messages that demonstrate shared values and interests is more powerful than simply asking for support based on tiered dollar amounts. Knowing how to appeal to sponsors’ interests will be critical for building long-term support.

Funders

These days, you can’t expect foundations or other funders to see the value in your organization or expect them to renew their grants automatically. You need to demonstrate your organization’s impact. Funders want measurement, accountability, and transparency. You need to communicate your success in a way that they can appreciate. And for organizations seeking foundation support, it’s important to develop relationships with the foundations years before applying to grants. Start paving the way with clear messages about what your organization stands for.

What audiences have you overlooked in developing a marketing strategy for your nonprofit? The more you learn about them, the more effectively you can build your brand and inspire the support your nonprofit needs.

Whether online or offline make sure your marketing materials further your nonprofit’s goals, by making people aware of its mission, willing to donate, interested in joining or eager to participate in its fundraising event.

An e-newsletter, like all points of contact with your organization’s stakeholders, should bring your organization closer to meeting its goals and keep its mission clear in people’s minds. Make sure outreach materials reflect what your organization does as well as what it hopes to achieve.

Your nonprofit may be facing big changes: a new location or program, a merger or change of focus. Or your main funding sources may be drying up as government fundings shrivels or donors age out so replacement funders are needed. Just as likely, the organization has experienced “mission creep” so what it does now is not fully reflected in its current name, tagline, and logo. In any of these instances, your marketing messages may not be catching the attention of the people your organization now needs to engage.

Part of building your brand is ensuring that outreach is conveying the right messages to the right audiences. Building such a brand requires a clear understanding of just what your organization’s mission and goals are.

Define Your Needs

What do you want your outreach to accomplish? That’s the first question you need to answer, and doing so may require input from your development department and your program heads as well as from your board and staff.

Is funding needed for a specific goal or project? Have programs changed but clients don’t yet know about the changes? Are there opportunities for new revenue sources, such as partnerships or sponsorships? Is your advocacy organization gearing up to support specific legislation? Does your nonprofit school want to attract more students or a more diverse student population?

A fresh look at the goals your marketing materials are designed to attain can be prompted by any of these. Goals can be categories in many ways and the categories often overlap. Here, we’ve used four categories as a guide for establishing what your nonprofit’s goals are.

Organizational Goals

Goals derived from your strategic plan and your organization’s mission determine where your organization is going in the future. Organizational goals have to do with your agency’s services and facilities, staffing and board, major initiatives, and partnerships — essentially, the overall direction and operations of your organization, such as:

• The demographics of the neighborhood served by a social service agency is changing and with that change, new services are needed. The agency wants to introduce new programs and make the community aware of its the change in focus.
• A senior center wants to leverage its reputation and experience with seniors to start a fee-for-service consulting service.

Fundraising Goals

Fundraising goals may be short-term — money for a special project — or long-term — establishing new revenue sources to ensure sustainability, for example:

• Diversifying your fundraising base
• Starting an individual donor campaign
• Attracting corporate sponsors
• Starting a planned giving program
• Raising the money for the new location

Marketing Goals

These goals are about reaching your audiences and change as you organizational needs change. They are as varied as the mission of nonprofits and include:

• Attracting new members
• Encouraging people to use your services
• Creating goodwill for your organization
• An organization with an aging membership and board wants to attract younger members to its performances and its board
• A civic organization wants to galvanize more businesses to participate in its programs

Branding Goals

Branding goals define your organization in the public eye and make sure its mission and value are recognized. Most branding goals incorporate several areas, meeting both organizational and fundraising goals, such as:

• A community organization known for one signature program wants to create awareness of the parent organization so overall fundraising is more effective.
• An international relief organization wants to create a more seamless connection between all of its chapters and affiliates so its full reach is recognized.

Once you know what your marketing should accomplish, your next step is determining who your audiences are and how best to reach them. We’ll address that next.

A strong brand can make the difference between achieving your nonprofit’s mission and tilting at windmills.

To some nonprofit leaders, the idea of branding is anathema. It sounds so commercial, so businesslike, so focused on advertising instead of outreach. But just as nonprofits must adhere to the business rules of positive cash flow and accurate accounting, they must also accept the business concept of branding. A strong brand means your nonprofit is known for the success of its efforts to address a social problem. Branding can bring both external and internal benefits that improve your organization’s ability to do the good it set out to accomplish.

A strong brand carries your  organization’s message and the importance of its mission to all the audiences you may want to reach. It sets you apart from other nonprofits by conveying the value your organization adds to its community and its clients.

Fundraising

• Facilitates fundraising by making your organization recognized and trusted.
• Positions the organization to attract foundation or corporate support as well as individual donors.
• Diversifies the donor base so you have many, strong, individual supporters rather than relying on a few large donors or government grants.

Mission

• Eases delivery of services and attracts clients
• Appeals to partner organizations, both other nonprofits with whom you want to affiliate and for-profits partners for cause-marketing campaigns.
• Attracts donors, community leaders, and potential partners, all of whom are critical to a nonprofit’s sustainability.
• Clarifies the relationship between your organization and its programs so all aspects of your mission are visible and supported.

Public Relations

• Creates awareness and increased visibility around your issue, which can bring about new laws or services to benefit your clients.
• Clarifies mission to critical audiences, including government officials and the media.
• Develops positive public relations in your town or local area so that your organization is welcome, which is particularly valuable for organizations with not-in-my-backyard missions, such as clinics and homeless shelters.
• Helps the organization withstand negative publicity.

Overall Brand Benefits

A strong brand with a carefully chosen name and consistent visual image benefits everyone associated with the organization, including your staff and clients.

• Facilitates communications because staff and board are clear about what the organization stands for and can articulate the mission and services.
• Helps board be more effective as brand ambassadors because they may better articulate the organization’s mission and impact more clearly.
• Attracts higher quality staff at all levels.
• Contributes to higher morale and dedication among employees because the organization is perceived as professional and credible.
• Facilitates development of fundraising and marketing materials because colors, typefaces, and templates are fixed.

In this era when donors and funders are looking for an immediate impact from their donations, it’s important to understand that investing in your brand builds long-term viability for your organization. The value is cumulative over time as recognition builds up and the brand becomes better known. While there is no guarantee about results, think about the major nonprofits that have invested in their brands.

Ready to Refresh Your Brand?

What do you do you feel when you look at the logos above or when you see a yellow gel wristband or a picture of Smokey the Bear? The reaction you just had is the result of branding. Successful nonprofits have invested in it for years. Is it time for your nonprofit to do the same?

The Case for Support document is exactly what its name says: a written statement that explains why people should support your organization.

Your nonprofit’s Case for Support can be as short as one page or as long as a booklet. It may be mailed to potential donors or made into a video for your website. No matter what form it takes, it should incorporate the following elements:

The Problem Your Organization Addresses

Describe the problem your organization is trying to solve, both statistically — number of people affected, dollar cost to society — and anecdotally — stories of individuals affected by the problem. Whenever possible, use photography to convey emotional appeal and use graphs or infographics to make numbers easy to understand by making the problem come to life.

What Your Organization Does to Solve the Problem

From direct services to advocacy, explain what your organization is doing to solve the problem. This is your opportunity to point out your organization’s unique approach to the problem whether it be method of delivering services or a focus on a specific population in need. Donors and funders are increasingly looking for organizations that have unique models and approaches —utilizing crowdsourcing, technology, or market forces — to scale quickly and to create greater impact.

The Impact Your Organization Has Had

Show the effectiveness of your program with measurements and with anecdotes. Substantiate the value of your organization’s work by stating how many people you have helped and tell the story of individuals whose lives your organizations has improved. Include progress on your issue, advocacy wins, new treatments developed, etc. Discuss your lessons learned from programs that were not as successful.

How People Can Get Involved with Your Organization’s Good Work

Lay out the different levels of support (one-time donation to planned giving), ways of donating (by mail, donate button, etc.), getting involved in volunteer committees, and how donations are used. In this section, you can your organization’s credibility as a worthwhile charity by listing your Charity Navigator rating, awards, or respected foundations that support your organization. But add these things judiciously so that you don’t distract too much from the “ask”.

How to Use Your Case for Support

The Case for Support is the keystone of your organization’s fundraising efforts. In writing the Case for Support, you have examined your mission, vision, what makes your organization different, your values, and your approach to services. It can be used as a presentation at a gala or a brochure to hand out at your events or a guide to designing your website or to inspire staff.