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Fundraising Tuesday: Effectively Marketing Your Nonprofit’s Next Virtual Event

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A guest post by Dominique Desmarais of CharityBids

The COVID-19 pandemic boosted the prominence of virtual charity events. But nonprofits have continued to leverage them beyond the days of lockdown because of their many benefits.

For most of your supporters, virtual gatherings are likely unique, refreshing, and convenient to attend. Plus, they can help your organization save on costs, or tap into exclusive experiences like celebrity appearances or performances. There’s also a wide variety of online fundraising tools and strategies you can use for a virtual event.

However, just because your auction will be held via Zoom or your gala will take place in an immersive virtual reality venue doesn’t mean that your marketing efforts can take a backseat. With virtual events, you still need to pull out all the stops when it comes to promoting the occasion and encouraging people to attend.

In this guide, we’ll help you get started by providing three tips you can use to effectively market your nonprofit’s next virtual event.

1. Take a multichannel approach.

Even though your event is going to take place online, you should still cast a wide net when it comes to choosing marketing channels to promote your virtual event. Use a multichannel approach to make sure that you’re covering all of your bases.

So, what channels should you use?

  • Email
  • Social media
  • Radio and TV
  • Printed materials (such as flyers and posters)
  • Direct mail

Of course, some channels will be more useful than others, depending on what you know about your supporters. But the main idea of a multichannel approach is, according to Double the Donation, to “increase your chances of reaching out to your supporters with their preferred communication method.”

As you cast your marketing net wide, keep these best practices in mind to make your efforts as effective as possible:

  • Brand your materials to your nonprofit. No matter the channel your supporters are using to learn about your event, they should know that the messaging is coming from your nonprofit. Be consistent in using your nonprofit’s brand elements across your marketing materials. Place your name and logo in a prominent place on all of your materials, and use similar color schemes from channel to channel. This way, you’ll build brand recognition for your organization while promoting your event.

 

  • Use calls-to-action to encourage registrations. The end goal of your virtual event marketing strategy is to get your supporters to register for your event. Use calls-to-action (CTAs) to encourage them to take that step. A CTA is simply a statement that encourages people to do something. For example, you might include a CTA in an email newsletter that says, “Help end the rhino poaching crisis by registering for our webinar today.”

 

  • Pay attention to timing. Different channels will be useful at different times leading up to your virtual event. For instance, printing hundreds of flyers probably wouldn’t be a very wise move in the last few days before your event. Those materials would better serve your marketing strategy a few months prior to the big day. On the other hand, social media will be a great tool to use in the days and hours leading up to the event because they’ll reach your audience quickly.

As you select the different channels you’ll use to market your virtual event, make sure to be consistent in how you talk about your event. Share critical details like date, time, and cost to register. This way, everyone will get the same information regardless of the way they receive that information.

2. Make your website your event information hub.

Because your virtual event will likely require that your supporters register online, you should use your website as a central event information hub, directing supporters to it no matter how they hear about your event.

CharityBids’ guide to nonprofit event planning suggests creating a microsite or dedicated events page on your website that includes an easy-to-use registration form. This way, you can not only get people registering for your most current virtual event, but also establish a clear section on your website that supporters can visit regularly for news about future events.

Let’s look at some additional ways you can strengthen your website to make it an effective marketing tool for your virtual events:

  • Spotlight your event on your homepage. Put event announcements front and center on your website by including them on your homepage. This way, users will quickly learn about your events when they visit your website and be encouraged to continue their journey by learning more on your event page.

 

  • Create blog posts about your event. Your blog is a great place to plug your virtual events. For example, you might write up the history of your annual gala, share what your attendees enjoyed most about last year’s auction, or publish an interview with your event’s special guest. Don’t forget to include a CTA that encourages blog readers to register!

 

  • Add social media buttons. Once a supporter has used your website to register for your virtual event, they may want to share the event information with their personal networks. Empower them to do so by including social sharing buttons on your website. This way, your supporters can help market your event with one easy click.

As you prepare your website to be the central information hub for your next virtual event, perform some website maintenance. For example, make sure that your website is loading correctly, that every link on your site works, and that any outdated content has been removed. Additionally, ensure that your website is optimized for accessibility so that anyone can use it, regardless of ability. This way, you’ll be ready to welcome as many people as possible to engage with your event-specific web content.

3. Use personalization to make your communications more effective.

The best way to start personalizing your marketing efforts is to segment your target audience. This is the process of dividing your audience into sub-groups based on shared characteristics. Your promotional messages will better resonate with your audience when they’re tailored to specific audience groups.

To segment your nonprofit’s community of supporters, use your donor data to identify shared characteristics like:

  • Geographical location
  • Age
  • Donor status
  • Communication preference

Here’s an example of what this might look like in practice: Say that you review the donor data in your CRM and learn that 60% of your supporters live in your local community. Knowing this, your team could determine that it would be a good use of marketing dollars to hang up event posters in community centers, and ask local business owners to keep a stack of flyers by their cash registers.

To take your personalization efforts to the next level, use your recipients’ first names and reference their previous donations or involvement with your nonprofit. Personalizing your materials when you can will make your supporters feel seen as individuals and feel like your virtual event invitations are meant just for them.

The success of your nonprofit’s next virtual event will heavily depend on your ability to market it effectively. Leverage the tips in this guide to make your efforts count, and consider working with charity event planning and production experts to make the process even easier. You’ve got this!

Dominique DesMarais head shotAuthor: Dominique Desmarais, Marketing Manager at CharityBids

Dominique is the Marketing Manager at CharityBids. She earned her Bachelor of Commerce from the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University, specializing in Marketing and International Business.

Over the years, Dominique has developed a strong passion for creative direction and strategy development. She brings a unique and artistic approach to marketing, rooted in her enthusiasm for the creative, entertainment and fashion industries, and their applications to establishing and growing digital presence. Having launched her own creative agency, Dominique was able to collaborate across cultures and bring creative visions to life through disruptive innovation.

When she’s not working, you can find Dominique hunting down the best food in the city, taking in an art exhibit, or capturing the beauty of her surroundings through photographs. She has a fire to create change and a drive to fuel success, while continuously striving to learn, grow, and prosper.

Fundraising Tuesday: Annual Reports, the Long and Short of It

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What’s the right size for your nonprofit’s annual report?

In 2021, an organization with whom I have worked sent out a very brief annual report: two sides of a sheet of paper, including photos, quotable quotes, and pie charts showing their finances. They mailed it to all the postal addresses they had, and they attached it to email and sent it to the rest of their list.

In 2022, that same organization prepared what I think of as the traditional annual report: sixteen pages including a cover, a letter from the Executive Director, descriptions of all their programs and statistics about how many they served, and a list of donors by name and level.

Which approach was better?

SHC annual report coverAdvantages of a Short Annual Report

  • A two-page annual report is MUCH more likely to be read than a longer version.
  • It can be snappy and to the point.
  • The eye-catching elements (photos, captions, bold type) are a larger part of a short report than a long one. You avoid the wall of text that signals “no entry” to so many readers.
  • It’s cheaper to print and mail.

Don’t think, however, that it will take a lot less time to prepare a shorter report. Collecting and choosing the right stories, photos, and quotable quotes is a painstaking process.

(It’s like the opening line attributed to Mark Twain: “Dear ___, here is a long letter. I would have written a short letter, but I didn’t have the time.”)

You will also need to take time with the layout, to make sure you use a large enough font for your donors’ eyes and leave enough white space to make it readable and attractive AND say what you want to say.

Advantages of a Longer Annual Report

While few donors or funders will read a long report page by page, many will find it impressive. Having a lot to say, and saying it in a professional manner, will build trust that your organization is doing something worthwhile.

This is particularly true if you’re going to use your annual report to accompany phone, online, or in-person visits to donors or funders. You can either go over it with them or have a more personal conversation, not worrying that you’re leaving anything out: it’s in the report you’re leaving with them!

Some funders, and a lot of donors, may wonder why you’re spending their money on a glossy publication, or on mailing a multi-page document, instead of on program. You will want to know your particular audience and get a sense of how they’ll react.

In fact, the answer to “Which approach is better?” will always be, “It depends on who your audience is and how you will share the report with them.” Let’s talk about that in a future post.

How to Keep Your Organization Relevant Online: 3 Tips

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Online conversations move quickly. Your nonprofit fundraisers can underperform if you aren’t able to capture your supporters’ attention.

Whether your nonprofit already has a digital strategy or is just branching out to online platforms, an overview of how to maintain attention online can be helpful for maintaining your audience. We’ll review three tips for attracting and holding your supporters’ interest in highly competitive online spaces.

1. Create regular engagement opportunities.

When determining your approach to a social media site, first consider why supporters use that platform. Are they looking to connect with friends? Interact with new people? Create content themselves? Knowing what your audience is looking to do on social media first will help you shape your engagement strategy.

Your audience will likely scroll quickly through most posts they see online. However, they are far more likely to remember content that invites them to engage with it. Your approach to engaging supporters will depend on the platform, but it may include:

  • Interacting with supporters online. When someone comments on one of your posts, whether they’re asking for more information or sharing a personal story about how your cause relates to them, respond to their message. This type of communication shows that there is a person behind your organization who is interested in what supporters have to say, creating memorable connections.
  • Creating content that encourages comments. Your nonprofit should aim to create shareable content that your audience will spread to their friends and family. One approach is designing content that encourages comments. These might be posts that ask questions, invite supporters to share a story, vote in a poll, take a survey, or otherwise share their thoughts. Many social media sites also have algorithms that will promote content with many comments to other users.
  • Encouraging supporters to make their own content. You can build a community online by encouraging your current supporter base to interact with your new social media accounts through their own content. For example, during and after a volunteer day, you might help supporters take photos of their hard work, then encourage them to tag your social media accounts when they post them.

Engaging content will help you create a strong first impression. Create a social media calendar to manage your posting schedule and ensure you are regularly engaging the supporters your first posts attracted.

2. Empower your supporter community.

Regularly creating new content for your social media accounts is important but also time-consuming. To cultivate an active online community, your organization should  empower supporters to hold conversations about your nonprofit between posts.

Nonprofits rely on highly dedicated supporters known as “superfans.” These superfans are passionate about your nonprofit and willing to advocate on your behalf. You can encourage these superfans to continue promoting your nonprofit by:

  • Highlighting key supporters. Public recognition can go a long way towards deepening a supporter’s commitment to your cause. Show your appreciation and draw attention to interesting projects in your community by creating support spotlights. These could be features in your nonprofit’s newsletter, blog, or social media accounts.
  • Providing communication channels. Supporters will stay engaged with your nonprofit if they have other supporters to talk to about your cause. Encourage supporters to interact with one another in the comments of your posts, whether they’re on a social media platform or your blog. Nonprofits with membership programs can consider creating forums where supporters can engage with one another and create their own discussion threads.
  • Establishing a group identity. There are many ways to build a community, and you can encourage supporters to form a connection with your organization faster with branding. Give your dedicated supporters a name to help them identify as part of a group. For example, the Big Brothers Big Sisters youth mentoring nonprofit calls their volunteers “big brothers” and “big sisters,” providing a sense of community identity.

Ensure your supporters are aware of the resources you provide to encourage their involvement in your community. DNL OmniMedia’s nonprofit website design guide lists “ways to get involved” as one of the top items supporters should be able to find upon landing on your website. This might take the form of either a single page with engagement opportunities listed or a dropdown menu with multiple resources, including links to follow your nonprofit on your social media accounts.

3. Conduct market research.

Staying relevant with your audience requires understanding your audience’s needs and wants and knowing when those needs and wants change. This could be as simple as your audience losing interest in one social media platform in favor of another or as complex as needing to reconfigure your entire engagement strategy after a major rebrand.

To stay informed, regularly conduct market research. This includes polling your audience and taking note of supporter demographics, as well as monitoring other similar organizations and how they engage with their supporters. Also, strive to stay up to date with broader changes in the nonprofit sector. Resources like NXUnite’s nonprofit conferences page and similar listings can be useful for identifying where and when professionals in your industry are gathering.

If you are unsure how to make sense of your market research or apply your findings to your strategy, consider partnering with a nonprofit consulting firm. Nonprofit consultants that specialize in digital marketing can offer a professional, outside perspective on your current strategies. Services like this can be especially useful for launching new types of campaigns and outreach your nonprofit is trying for the first time.

Carl Diesing DNLCarl Diesing, Managing Director – Carl co-founded DNL OmniMedia in 2006 and has grown the team to accommodate clients with on-going web development projects. Together DNL OmniMedia has worked with over 100 organizations to assist them with accomplishing their online goals. As Managing Director of DNL OmniMedia, Carl works with nonprofits and their technology to foster fundraising, create awareness, cure disease, and solve social issues. Carl lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife Sarah and their two children Charlie and Evelyn.

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