Nonprofits are always pressed for funds, especially when it comes to their marketing budgets. There are so many exciting marketing ideas for nonprofits, but your organization might not have the resources to pull them off.

It’s important for your organization to know how to market on a budget. Effective nonprofit marketing allows people to find your organization, learn about your cause, and show their support. Without a strong marketing strategy, your organization cannot grow and reach its intended audiences.

Your organization can create a successful marketing strategy without spending tons on extra resources, though. In this article, we’ll walk you through over 40 marketing ideas for nonprofits that will help promote your organization without breaking the bank.

We’ll teach you how to use the resources you already have and introduce you to free and affordable resources you can leverage. Here’s a sneak peek at the categories of nonprofit marketing ideas we’ll cover:

• Nonprofit Marketing Basics
• Building Your Mission
• Advertising Your Services
• Leveraging Technology
• Marketing on a Budget
• Forming Stakeholder Relationships
• Staying in Touch with Your Supporters

It’s our job at Double the Donation to connect nonprofits with matching gift opportunities. Since we work with organizations looking to maximize their fundraising potential, we know just how important every last penny in your budget is. That’s why we’ve created this guide to marketing ideas for nonprofits that will help you promote your organization at little to no cost.

Now that we know where we’re headed, let’s jump right into these proven marketing ideas for nonprofits!

Nonprofit Marketing Basics

The term “nonprofit marketing” refers to the use of typical marketing strategies for nonprofit purposes such as amplifying your organization’s cause and mission, soliciting donations, and recruiting supporters.

As a nonprofit, your main goal is accomplishing your organization’s mission. To make your aspirations a reality, you’ll need to get others involved in your organization. It takes donors, volunteers, board members, and event attendees among others to ensure that your nonprofit can give back to the community it serves.

To let others know about the great work you’re doing, you’ll need to leverage a combination of proven marketing ideas for nonprofits.

Benefits of Effective Nonprofit Marketing

However, it’s easier said than done to pull off a nonprofit marketing campaign. There’s a lot of planning involved in developing a well-thought-out marketing plan. Despite the challenges that may come with nonprofit marketing, the resulting benefits will help your organization soar.

Nonprofit marketing can empower your organization to:

• Rally support for your cause. Educating people about your mission is a crucial part of nonprofit marketing. It allows people to understand not only the work your organization does but also why you do it and how they can help.
• Fundraise. Perhaps the most concrete way to measure your organization’s success is by the amount of money you’re able to raise for your cause. Sharing your nonprofit with others will help your fundraising efforts immensely.
• Foster donor relationships. One-time donations are not a sustainable fundraising source for your organization. Studies show that recurring donations are better for maximizing your fundraising potential. The best way to ensure regular donations is to curate good relationships with donors through consistent marketing.
• Recruit other supporters. While donors are great assets to your organization, they’re not the only people who can help. Volunteers, board members, and event attendees all serve important roles for your organization. Marketing your nonprofit effectively will allow you to gather all the support you need.
• Advertise your services. Before contributing to your cause, most people will want to know exactly what your organization does in service of its mission. With effective marketing ideas, you can make sure potential supporters understand the services your nonprofit provides.

It’s clear to see that nonprofit marketing offers so many advantages for your organization. However, you might be wondering where to start in the marketing process. To help you out, we’ll go over the best marketing ideas for nonprofits in a variety of useful categories.

Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits Building Their Missions

As we’ve mentioned before, your nonprofit’s mission is central to its goals and aspirations. It should also be one of the main focuses of your marketing efforts. Since it lays the groundwork for your organization’s values, your mission should inform your branding, outreach tactics, and promotional content.

If you don’t have a well-developed mission or want to give yours a refresh, try some of these nonprofit marketing ideas for building your organization’s mission:

• Write a powerful tagline. When it comes to marketing, people absorb more information when it’s concise. Your mission is one of the most important aspects of your organization, so you’ll want prospective supporters to understand it right away. Take the time to condense your mission into a short tagline that you can use in your marketing materials.
• Establish standards for design, personality, and attitude. Make a good first impression with cohesive branding. From the way your website looks to the way your employees act, every aspect of your organization should work together to form a perfect picture of your nonprofit.
• Rework your nonprofit’s appearance. Speaking of branding, changing yours up can bring new life to your organization. A funky new logo or elevated graphics can entice potential supporters and demonstrate your willingness to improve your nonprofit. You can even reach out to a graphic design company for help with your organization’s new look.
• Be upfront about your organization’s goals and results. People interested in your organization want to know what you’re trying to accomplish and what you’ve been able to achieve so far. Being open about your nonprofit’s operations lays a solid foundation for great relationships with potential supporters.
• Share what you do well. It never hurts to brag a little! Your organization is doing amazing work, and people should see that. If you show confidence in your nonprofit and highlight its strengths, people will be more eager to get involved.
• Use storytelling. Giving people specific examples of individuals you’ve helped fosters deeper connections between your supporters and your organization. Stories make your marketing more personal and digestible for prospective supporters.
• Create a marketing plan. To stay focused and organized, you’ll need a comprehensive marketing plan. That way, you’ll have all of your goals and intentions in one place for you to easily go back and reference.

Your mission is the foundation of your marketing efforts, but now it’s time to expand them! Head to your nearest computer or phone to start sharing your incredible organization with others.

Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits Advertising Their Services

Letting others know what your organization does is essential to earning their support. Your nonprofit does great work, so why not show it off? Advertise your services with the following online and offline marketing ideas for nonprofits.

Online Advertising Ideas

The internet allows you to share your services with a variety of people with the click of a button. Whether you want to invest in paid advertising or create eye-catching merchandise, there are endless ways to stand out in the digital space. Try out these online marketing ideas for nonprofits:

• Participate in the Google Ad Grant program. When looking for more information about a nonprofit, a cause, or truly anything, most people turn to Google first. That’s what makes the Google Ad Grant program so powerful. If you’re a qualifying nonprofit, Google will give your organization $10,000 per month in ad credits for free. All you have to do is apply and follow all program requirements. If you need help wielding this amazing resource, reach out to a Google Grants agency. We recommend Getting Attention! They’ll assist you with every step, including applying for the program, choosing keywords to target, and making sure your account is compliant with all requirements.
  
• Tell your supporters about peer-to-peer fundraising. Your supporters can help fundraise for your organization and advertise your nonprofit in the process. With peer-to-peer fundraising, people raise money by collecting donations from their friends and family. To encourage your supporters to participate, teach them how to set up a peer-to-peer fundraising page. An even easier method is to leverage the built-in peer-to-peer fundraising options on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. This fundraising option is especially popular around holidays and birthdays, so if you know your supporters’ birthdates, you can proactively reach out and encourage them to create a fundraiser on your nonprofit’s behalf
• Track your analytics. Data is the key to figuring out which of your marketing efforts are effective. Use Google Analytics or another similar tool to track and review website traffic and the actions people take once they’re there. That way, you can see if there are any patterns or areas where you can improve. For example, if a certain landing page on your site isn’t getting much traffic, it might be time to refresh it to make it more worthwhile for your supporters.
• Sell branded merchandise. Turn your supporters into walking advertisements with branded merchandise! It’s a win-win situation because you’ll get to collect more for your cause and receive free advertising, while your supporters will get to show the world what they believe in. Branded t-shirts are always a great idea, but you could also go with hats, tote bags, or mugs depending on your audience’s preferences. Once you work with a graphic design company to bring your merchandise to life, you can set up an online store and let your supporters know all about it!

Online advertising is a proven way to connect with larger audiences than ever before. Break down geographical barriers by leveraging some of these marketing strategies.

Offline Advertising Ideas

Digital marketing is all the rage these days, and for good reason. However, that doesn’t mean that more traditional offline marketing efforts should go extinct. While online marketing can expand your reach, offline marketing can help create a personal experience for your supporters. Use these offline marketing ideas for nonprofits in conjunction with your online ones:

• Create flyers. A good old-fashioned flyer is a great way to grab potential supporters’ attention. It allows you to fit an abundance of information about your organization into a small, foldable, and engaging handout. You can send flyers in your direct mail campaigns, hand them out at events, or keep them in your organization’s office for walk-ins. People will love the opportunity to learn about your organization’s services in an easily digestible format.
• Recruit brand ambassadors. Influencer marketing is a fairly new yet powerful way to promote your organization. Finding people with an online presence who truly care about your nonprofit’s mission and are willing to spread the word can help you reach new audiences quickly. These brand ambassadors can also help you host in-person events or sell your branded merchandise to get people excited about your organization.
• Research larger organizations. If you want to be the best, you’ll have to learn from the best. Look into what larger, more experienced nonprofits are doing and see if yours can replicate it. You can even reach out to someone on the team of an organization you admire and ask if they’d be willing to give you some advice for your nonprofit.
• Personalize your outreach. Reaching out to people using offline methods allows you to create more personal connections with them. For example, you could go up to a volunteer at an event to learn more about them or send your donors more information about matching gift opportunities in a customized postcard. People will appreciate the thoughtfulness that goes into these outreach methods and associate that quality with your organization.

For the best results, use a combination of online and offline marketing ideas. That way, you’ll reach different audiences and see which methods work best for which supporter segments.

Your mission is the foundation of your marketing efforts, but now it’s time to expand them! Head to your nearest computer or phone to start sharing your incredible organization with others.

Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits Leveraging Technology

These days, there’s so much technology at our disposal to help us improve and innovate our everyday lives. For nonprofits, leveraging technology appropriately can expand their impact and help them reach new audiences through different channels.

To make sure your nonprofit knows how to use each type of technology effectively, we’ve split our technology nonprofit marketing ideas into three separate categories.

Website

Like all organizations, nonprofits use their websites to teach others about what they do and what they stand for. Ensure your organization’s website is the best it can be with these website nonprofit marketing ideas:

• Create and update your nonprofit’s website. Of course, the first step in having a great nonprofit website is to create your website in the first place. From Squarespace to Wix to WordPress, there are so many website-building platforms that make the process easy. After your website’s all set up, remember to update it often. Include information about current and upcoming events and initiatives to entice potential supporters to become involved in your organization.
• Start a blog. More and more organizations are taking advantage of content marketing. Keeping an up-to-date blog allows you to display news about your organization and industry with long-form, informative content. Writing blog content about nonprofit-related topics also establishes your organization as a reputable source of information in the field.
• Invest time in good writing. Your nonprofit’s website could have tons of informational pages and blog articles, but if they don’t feature good quality writing, then they might actually be doing your organization a disservice. Take the time to make sure your copy is clear and concise. It’s always a good idea to break the text up with graphics wherever possible to help the reader follow along. If you have the resources, hiring a qualified copywriting team will help to make sure the copy across your site is strong and cohesive.
• Make SEO a habit. It doesn’t matter how great your website is if no one can find it. Search engine optimization helps people find your organization’s website on Google and other search engines. Research which relevant keywords you should include on your website often to keep up with any new trends. Additionally, make sure your website is mobile-friendly to improve your ranking in mobile search results. We’ll explore how paid advertising can complement your efforts to increase organic traffic a bit later.

Your website is the core of your digital strategy. It’s where you’ll consistently drive supporters across your different campaigns. Although nonprofit websites are a tried and true marketing tool, there are other ways to engage with your supporters online.

Social Media

Social media is not only how people stay connected to their family and friends, but also to the companies and organizations they care about. With nearly every organization out there maintaining a social media presence, it’s important to understand how you can make yours stand out. Here’s what we suggest:

• Utilize different platforms. To connect with as many people as you can, your organization should create social media accounts on several different platforms. Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube are great places to start. Twitter, TikTok, and Snapchat also offer unique ways to engage with your younger supporters.
• Participate in trends. Perhaps the most important part of your social media presence is playing into current trends like using humor and short videos over images. That way, your content stays fresh and engaging for your supporters.
• Create marketing videos. While images can be very informative, videos are better for eliciting emotion. Creating and sharing videos about your mission on social media will allow you to connect with your audience on a deeper level.
• Take advantage of social media advertising. If you don’t feel that you’re reaching the correct audience organically, you can create ads on the social media platforms you’re using. For example, Facebook allows you to set up campaigns that target people based on a variety of factors such as age, gender, location, and interests. This approach can help you segment your supporters into different groups and communicate with them accordingly.
• Connect your online assets. To promote your online presence, make it easy for people to jump from platform to platform. For example, you can create a social media post about a new blog article and add a link to the article in your social media account’s bio. That way, you’ll drive traffic from your social media page to your website’s blog. Doing so can allow people to interact with your organization in a different way and perhaps learn more about what your nonprofit does.

Your nonprofit’s website and social media accounts are your biggest online assets. Now that we’ve covered them, it’s time to learn some general online marketing ideas for nonprofits.

General Online Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits

To get the most out of your online presence, it’s important to follow general digital marketing best practices. Check out these marketing ideas for nonprofits looking to rule the marketing game online:

• Leverage multi-channel marketing. Just as it’s useful to have multiple social media platforms, it’s also important to take advantage of every digital marketing opportunity. Post on social media and update your website, but combine them with more traditional marketing methods such as emails, phone calls, and direct mail. This way, you’ll increase your chances of reaching out to your supporters with their preferred communication method.
• Encourage your supporters to take action. Informing your supporters about your organization is great, but what exactly do you want them to do to help you out? Use calls to action across your marketing materials to work towards your goals. For example, include the link to your donation page in your Instagram bio and create a post encouraging people to contribute. To help promote your events, add your event registration link to your regular email newsletter. Note that the most effective calls-to-action start with determining what actions you want your supporters to take and making it easy for them to do so.
• Host virtual events. In the past couple of years, we’ve seen virtual events take off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t still use them as a marketing tool. Hosting events online, such as webinars and panels, allows more people to participate than ever before. Since no physical space is required, people can easily participate in virtual events from wherever they are, presenting a unique opportunity to engage with all different types of supporters at once.

Leveraging technology effectively allows you to reach your intended audience and rally support for your cause. We know that your nonprofit is likely working with a tight marketing budget, though. To make sure your organization has the resources it needs to create the best online content possible, we’ll teach you how to save money in other marketing areas.

Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits On a Budget

Marketing can get expensive. However, there are ways that nonprofits can promote their organizations while still keeping costs low. Maximize your marketing potential while minimizing your spending with these marketing ideas for nonprofits on a budget:

• Determine your marketing budget. It’s easiest to keep costs down when you have a clear budget in mind. That way, you’ll know exactly how much you can spend on your nonprofit’s marketing and allocate your resources accordingly. Include costs such as those for physical marketing collateral, marketing software, and staff time.
• Plan your printing. Printing can get expensive very quickly. Besides, there are so many digital marketing methods your organization can leverage. Only print what needs to be printed, and try to print double-sided and in batches.
• Use unbranded envelopes for direct mail. If you do need to print materials for a direct mail campaign, there are ways to keep your costs down. Sending unbranded envelopes will help you save money. Just remember to indicate that the mail is from your organization in a different way so recipients don’t mistake it for junk mail.
• Add a “Donate Now” button to your Facebook page. As we mentioned before, calls to action are key to motivating your supporters to contribute to your cause. Adding a “Donate Now” button to your nonprofit’s Facebook page is an easy way to encourage donations. The best part is that it’s free as long as your nonprofit qualifies for Facebook’s fundraising tools.
• Work with a local business. To help you out financially, many companies are happy to pair up with a nonprofit. While you get extra funding or resources for your marketing efforts, they get to give back to their community. Before you look for a local business willing to work with you, determine what you want to get out of the partnership. Examples of corporate philanthropy include companies donating money directly to your organization, keeping a donation bucket in their store, or contributing food or supplies for your event.
• Enroll in AmazonSmile. Your supporters can contribute to your cause without directly donating themselves. Through the AmazonSmile program, Amazon donates 0.5% of people’s eligible purchases to a nonprofit of their choosing. It’s free for your organization to sign up for the program as long as it is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3). If you’re interested, AmazonSmile’s guidelines for charitable organizations will walk you through the program and signup details.

It’s important to create a marketing budget and try to conserve resources when possible to save up for more expensive marketing efforts. These budget-friendly marketing ideas for nonprofits are a great place to start to maximize every dollar your organization earns!

Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits Forming Stakeholder Relationships

There are so many different stakeholders involved in your organization. Donors, partners, volunteers, board members, sponsors, and event attendees all play a huge role in your nonprofit’s success. With that, it’s important to form good relationships with your stakeholders so you can build a strong support network.

In this section, we’ll go over some marketing ideas for nonprofits starting and stewarding relationships with their stakeholders.

Starting the Stakeholder Relationship

Building a good foundation for your relationships with stakeholders is essential to making sure your connections are long-lasting. Here are some marketing ideas for nonprofits beginning new stakeholder relationships:

• Look for opportunities to form new connections. For newer organizations especially, it can be tough to find stakeholders to work with. You have to put your organization out there and seek out potential partnerships. Leverage any connections you may already have and form new ones by reaching out on social media or attending a nonprofit conference in your industry. That way, you can start to meet people who may be potential stakeholders and have their own network of potential stakeholders they’re willing to share with you.
• Create a welcome package. Once you initiate a relationship with a new stakeholder, it’s time to make them feel welcome in your community. Curate a package of information and branded merchandise to introduce new stakeholders to your nonprofit. You can include items as small as stickers of your logo to yard signs they can display to show their support for your organization. No matter what you send your new stakeholders, you’re showing them that you care.
• Treat them to a meal. To form a more personal connection with a stakeholder, take them out to lunch or coffee. Learn more about your stakeholders and teach them more about your organization. You can answer any questions they may have and gather their feedback about their work with you so far. Not to mention, this is a great opportunity to learn more about who they are and what drives them to support causes like yours
• Inform new donors of matching gift opportunities. Some of your new donors may not know what matching gifts are or if they’re eligible to participate. Make it easy for donors to identify matching gift opportunities by providing matching gift software that shows if their employers are willing to match their donations. That way, you can earn more, and your new donors can feel good about making an even bigger impact on your organization.

Now that you know how to start your stakeholder relationships off strong, it’s time to learn how to keep them that way with effective stewardship.

Stewarding the Stakeholder Relationship

Maintaining relationships with your stakeholders requires care and commitment. You must communicate with them well and respond to their needs. That way, you can build long-lasting connections that drive your work forward.

Practice good supporter stewardship with these marketing ideas for nonprofits:

• Communicate regularly and strategically. Like with any relationship, maintaining supporter relationships requires communication. Establish effective communication habits with your stakeholders by reaching out to them individually and sending email newsletters for each stakeholder type. You may want to assign different people to manage different stakeholder relationships so you don’t overwhelm any one person on your team. Additionally, you’ll want to choose an opportune time to communicate with your stakeholders. Factors that might influence the messages, timing, and platforms you use to communicate with supporters might include their age, career, lifestyle, or time zone.
• Reach out to lapsed donors. Sometimes, donors will only contribute to your organization once. If so, you can encourage them to up their support, or inform them of different ways they can still support your nonprofit without contributing monetarily, such as by volunteering or sharing your social media posts. For recurring donors who haven’t contributed in a while, try sending them a gift or explaining new features of your donor program to spark that relationship once again.
• Collect feedback. Listen to your stakeholders and any feedback they give you, whether it’s solicited or not. Stay true to your organization’s stakeholder guidelines, but also hear your stakeholders out. You want to provide them with a positive experience with your organization, and they may have some valuable suggestions for how to improve that experience.

If you’ve learned anything from this section, it should be that stakeholder relationships require effective communication. In the next section, we’ll dive into more nonprofit marketing ideas specifically focused on improving your organization’s communication skills.

Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits Staying in Touch with Their Supporters

It takes a lot of effort to keep up relationships with your supporters. With effective and regular communication, your nonprofit can keep supporters around and continue to grow your network. We’ll give you some marketing ideas for nonprofits working on their communication style and supporter involvement.

Communication Style

You already know that the messages you communicate to your supporters are vital, but how you communicate those messages is just as important. Here are a few pointers to make sure you send the right messages to the right people in ways that will resonate with them.

• Be timely. Simply responding to your supporters’ messages quickly shows that you care. Not only does it communicate that you want to address their concerns, but also that you want to respect their time.
• Stay positive. Keeping a positive attitude in your communications will help supporters create a positive association with your nonprofit. Besides, it’s always more enjoyable to interact with organizations that have an optimistic outlook and kind employees.
• Store individuals’ preferences in your supporter database. Organizing your supporters’ information in a database not only helps you learn more about them but also how they like to communicate. If you ask for supporters’ communication preferences and store that information in your database, then you can interact with supporters in the ways they prefer.
• Create supporter segments. Segmentation is when you divide your supporters into categories based on certain characteristics in order to communicate with each group more effectively. There are various ways to segment your supporters. You may choose to divide them by stakeholder type with categories like donors, partners, clients, and board members. Another way to group supporters is by age, location, or length of involvement with your organization. That way, you can send relevant messages to the right people without flooding their inboxes with unnecessary messages.

Communicating with your supporters effectively will create a better reputation for your organization and lead to stronger stakeholder relationships.

Supporter Involvement

Communication goes both ways. You inform your supporters about what’s going on within your organization, but they report back to you with their thoughts and feelings about your nonprofit. These marketing ideas for nonprofits will help you get supporters more involved in your organization:

• Survey your supporters. Your staff can brainstorm ways to make your organization better, but you’ll never know what more your supporters need unless you ask them. Sending out a survey will allow you to collect valuable feedback and show that you care about improving your supporters’ experiences with your organization.
• Engage supporters on social media. Social media is built to help people create connections with each other. Strengthen your bonds with your supporters by making your social media presence interactive. For example, take advantage of polls, live stream capabilities, and Q&A features in the platforms you use.
• Host events. What better way to get people involved than by gathering together in person? Hosting an event allows you to show off your organization and get your supporters excited about it. Deck out your event in branded materials such as table runners for a cohesive look. You can also plan activities such as raffles and games to make the event fun for everyone involved.
• Interview supporters. As we discussed before, storytelling is a great way to make your marketing personal. For storytelling to work, you’ll need to collect stories from real people involved in your organization. Interview interested supporters so you can learn more about their experiences with your organization and use their quotes to promote your nonprofit across different channels.

Treating your supporters with the utmost care and respect begins with proper communication. You should use a give-and-take approach in which you update supporters about your organization and they give you feedback about your nonprofit in response. That way, you can work together with your supporters to constantly improve your organization.

Conclusion & Additional Resources

Nonprofit marketing encompasses a range of considerations. In addition to the regular business concerns of how to promote your organization effectively, nonprofits must also worry about how to do so on a budget. With these marketing ideas for nonprofits, we’ve given you a head start on your marketing strategy to save you time and money.

We went over a ton of marketing ideas for nonprofits in this guide, but there may be some that you want to learn more about. To help you out, we’ve provided some resources that will allow you to dive deeper into some of our suggested nonprofit marketing ideas, including:

• Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits: The Complete Guide. The Google Ad Grant program is a proven way to push your cause forward. Learn more about marketing your cause using paid advertising with this guide from Getting Attention.
• 7 Steps to Design Your Nonprofit Logo. Logos build brand recognition among your supporters. Whether you’re creating your organization’s very first logo or refreshing an old one, take a look at this guide to help you out.
• Creating Your Best Fundraising Flyer: 8 FAQs. If you’re looking for an easy and effective way to promote your organization or upcoming fundraiser, consider creating flyers. This article will answer frequently asked questions about fundraising flyers.
• 12 Best Nonprofit Graphic Design Tools. A huge element of nonprofit marketing is creating a cohesive experience for your supporters. Using the right graphic design tools will allow you to create images that align with your organization’s branding and design standards.
• 

Email marketing is an extremely cost-effective way to reach out to your supporters. Compared to other types of marketing, email campaigns don’t require any physical materials or the same level of staff time. Not to mention, they also offer a higher response rate than other marketing methods such as direct mail or phone calls.

Therefore, email marketing is an effective communication channel for getting in touch with your supporters and sending them valuable information.

However, the email addresses in your supporter database may not be accurate or may be missing entirely for some supporters. With email appends, you can stay on top of your email address data and have more time to focus on your campaigns’ content.

We’re here to answer your questions about email appends, so you can successfully deliver more emails and ultimately boost your marketing ROI. To cover all of the essential topics, we’ve compiled a list of the most frequently asked email append questions, including:

• What Is an Email Append?
• Why Does My Organization Need Email Appends?
• How Will My Nonprofit Benefit from Email Appends?
• How Can My Organization Obtain Email Appends?
• Are There Other Types of Data Appends Beyond Email Appends?
• How Can Different Nonprofits Leverage Email Appends?
• What Qualities Should a Good Email Append Service Possess?

At Double the Donation, we help connect nonprofits with matching gift opportunities. Email is one of our primary forms of communication with our clients and their match-eligible donors, so we understand how important it is to have the correct email addresses for each of your contacts. That’s why we’ve written this guide to email appends. Our goal is to make sure your nonprofit can leverage this useful data for easier communication with your supporters.

Since we have a lot to cover in this guide, let’s should get started!

What Is an Email Append?

An email append occurs when an organization submits information from its supporter database to an email append service and receives updated supporter email addresses in return.

To help correctly locate email addresses, some of the identifying information the nonprofit might share with the data appends provider can include full names, postal addresses, past email addresses, and other details they have on file. The provider will then match the information against their database to obtain the most recent contact information. Since it’s easy for email addresses to become outdated, email appends are extremely helpful in making sure you can stay in touch with your supporters.

Why Does My Organization Need Email Appends?

It’s very common for email addresses in your supporter database to be incorrect. Think about how many times you’ve changed an email address, abandoned one, or gotten a new one. Here are some examples of situations that could cause email addresses to be incorrect or become outdated:

• Typos
• People using fake email addresses when signing up for your email list
• People moving
• Changing jobs or graduating
• Switching to a different email address
• Abandoning email addresses or forgetting passwords
• Passing away
• Missing email addresses from some supporters entirely

With this lengthy list in mind, it’s clear to see how it’s incredibly likely that your supporter database includes invalid email addresses, which can make your communication with your supporters less effective.

How Will My Nonprofit Benefit from Email Appends?

As we previously discussed, you may have missing or inaccurate information regarding your supporters’ email addresses. Email appends will help fill in the gaps so you can communicate with as many of your supporters as possible.

When you have a strong collection of supporter email addresses, opportunities open up for how you can communicate and share information with them. Check out these six areas that will improve by using email appends:

• Newsletters. Your organization likely already sends out email newsletters to your supporters. However, using email appends will allow you to expand your newsletter audience.
• Online donations. When you have the right email addresses for your supporters, it’ll be easier to increase conversions for donation requests.
• Survey feedback. Since more people will receive your surveys, you’ll be able to get more feedback and apply it to your organization.
• Relationships with supporters. It’s possible that you could lose your relationships with some of your biggest donors and supporters due to outdated email address data. Retain the bonds you’ve created with your supporters by keeping accurate contact information for them.
• Time saved. Think about how long it would take people on your team to manually search for the matching email addresses for every supporter in your database. Save time that could be reallocated for better purposes by using email appends.
• Matching gifts. Equipped with email appends, your organization can easily follow up with donors about matching gift opportunities. If a donor shares their business email with your organization, then your nonprofit can easily determine whether their employer has a matching gift program.

How Email Appends Will Impact Your Marketing Performance

In addition to the ones listed above, there are so many other benefits that email appends provide, specifically for the quality of your email communications. Some of the most impactful benefits you can expect on your marketing performance include:

• Improved email deliverability. Sometimes, emails won’t go through for various reasons. They might bounce back and send you a notification, but it’s difficult to address the reason each email didn’t go through individually. Email appends will improve your email deliverability by providing you with the most current email addresses for your supporters.
• Increased open rates. The more emails that go out to the correct email addresses, the more people will open them. Make sure your email campaigns don’t go to waste by sending them to the wrong email addresses.
• Protection against spam traps. Spam traps are email addresses used to catch senders sending spam emails. Some organizations will repurpose outdated email addresses to create spam traps. If your organization falls for a spam trap, it can have serious repercussions for your email deliverability, bounce rates, and overall sender reputation. Cleaning your supporter database periodically will help to prevent spam traps.

Email appends can help you with your marketing efforts and overall data hygiene. To add the updated contact information to your supporter database, you’ll need to work with an email append service for help with the process.

How Can My Organization Obtain Email Appends?

If your organization is interested in email appends, you’ll need some help getting the necessary data. That’s where an email append service comes in.

Hiring an email append service simplifies the email append process. It will be your job to give them access to the relevant identifying donor data from your supporter database. In return, they’ll send you the email appends they find.

Here’s a list of different information types you can send an email append service to utilize as they search for your supporters’ current email addresses:

• Unique ID number
• Name
• Region
• Past email addresses
• College or university
• Class year and major/degree
• Last gift amount
• Date of last donation
• Date entry was last updated

Email append service providers will know that you probably don’t have all of this information on hand, and that’s okay. Just give them as much as you have to make their job easier.

Using the data you provide them, your email append service provider will find your email appends in different online databases. To ensure that they’re accurate, most providers will perform some sort of accuracy check or scan before sending them back to your organization.

Are There Other Types of Data Appends Beyond Email Appends?

Email appends aren’t the only data append type out there. If you’re missing other data from your supporters, chances are there are appends available to help acquire that information.

Here are some kinds of data appends that data append services typically offer:

• Employer. Finding out your supporters’ employers can help you to identify matching gift opportunities. People may be more likely to donate to your cause if they know their employer will match their donation. With employer appends, you can inform potential donors of the expanded impact their donation could have.
• Postal address. Improve your direct mail campaigns with address appends. Request donations, send important updates, or thank your donors with a letter for a personal touch.
• Phone number. Contacting people by phone is a highly effective outreach strategy. Use phone number appends to host a successful phone-a-thon or text-to-give campaign.
• Date of birth. Knowing your supporters’ birthdates can help you create customized campaigns based on age. Date of birth appends also provide the opportunity to send your supporters birthday gifts or perks.

Combining your appended email addresses with other data appends can create even more value for your nonprofit. For example, you can use date of birth appends to segment your supporters by age. Then, you can leverage your email appends to send personalized newsletters to each age group with relevant organization updates and opportunities.

To knock out all your data appends at once, it’s best to find a data append service that will provide all the data append types you need. That way, they can extract all the information and import it into your CRM all at once.

How Can Different Nonprofits Leverage Email Appends?

Organizations of all kinds communicate with their supporters via email. Therefore, there’s a high chance your nonprofit could benefit from email appends by emulating the ways other organizations leverage them.

If you’re not sure how your organization could best leverage email appends, we have a couple of examples of how different nonprofits use them to assist them in their communication with their supporters.

Bear in mind that to leverage email appends to their fullest potential, you’ll need to contact an email append service provider and chat about your nonprofit’s unique needs.

To start, use these examples for inspiration:

Environmental Nonprofits

It’s important that your organization’s operations align with your nonprofit’s values. That’s why environmental nonprofits choose to communicate in ways that are better for the environment. Direct mail can waste paper that can be saved by communicating through email instead.

Email appends ensure that these organizations can stay true to their missions while still fostering effective communication with their supporters.

Schools

Schools and universities rely on their alumni for donations, volunteers, and feedback. However, once people graduate, they typically abandon their university email accounts. Additionally, young alumni may start new jobs or enroll in graduate school, acquiring new email addresses as they go.

With the help of email appends, schools and universities can make sure they continue their relationships with alumni wherever they go after graduation.

Associations

It can be difficult to reach association members through direct mail, especially if they’re spread out around the globe. Staying in contact with members through email is important because it reminds them of the perks of their membership and updates them about upcoming events and initiatives.

Cultural Institutions

Cultural institutions such as museums, zoos, and aquariums are nothing without their members and visitors. They depend on membership fees and ticket revenue to stay running. Therefore, it’s necessary to keep supporters engaged through email to encourage them to come back and check out new events and exhibits.

Political Organizations

Informing people about important issues can be difficult over the phone and through text messages. Emails from political organizations allow people to digest the information on their own time and refer back to it when it’s time to vote.

All Nonprofits

Any nonprofit can use email appends to identify matching gift opportunities. With business email appends, your organization can easily identify your supporters’ employers and research their matching gift programs. If you already know your supporters’ employers, you can leverage email appends to reach out to potential donors and inform them of their employers’ matching gift programs to encourage them to donate.

What Qualities Should a Good Email Append Service Possess?

There are lots of email append services out there, so what makes one right for your organization? If you’ve never used an email append service before, it can be difficult to know what to look for and which claims are actually important.

Here’s a list of qualities that every reliable email append service should possess:

• Verifies your email appends for accuracy. There can be some uncertainty surrounding whether email appends are actually accurate or not. Ensure that your email append service has the necessary measures in place to check for correctness.
• Offers other kinds of appends. It’s way easier to use one data append service for all of your data append needs than to hire an individual service for each one. Think about which types of data you’re looking for and find a service that supplies all of them.
• Accepts entire data files. Effective email append services will allow you to send complete data files from your supporter database and pick out the information they need. That way, you don’t have to spend time selecting certain columns or clearing out unnecessary information.
• Gets back to you quickly. Once you decide to append email addresses, you’ll probably start planning how you’ll want to implement them fairly quickly. Find an email append service that can return accurate results efficiently so you can use your new data right away.
• Provides quotes. It’s extremely helpful to know ahead of time how much a service will cost your nonprofit. Some email append services will take a look at your data needs ahead of time and offer you a quote for their assistance.

When you’re looking for your email append service, keep these qualities in mind to find the best service for your organization. NPOInfo by Double the Donation possesses all of the qualities we’ve mentioned above. They’ll be happy to assist you with email address appending!

Conclusion

Considering how widespread email newsletters, updates, and general communications are for nonprofits, it makes sense that any organization would benefit from email appends.

At their core, email appends ensure that you’re reaching your intended audience and retaining relationships with your supporters. Additionally, they’ll provide more information about your supporters, which is always helpful for guiding your decisions as an organization.

Now that you know all about email appends, you might want to learn more about other types of data appends that could benefit your organization. Check out these data append resources below:

• Phone Appends: A Nonprofit’s Data Enrichment Guide. Does your organization reach out to supporters over the phone or through text messages? Phone appends could be a useful tool for your nonprofit.
• Power Up Your Fundraising Campaign With Employer Appends. Employer appends can help you identify matching gift opportunities for your supporters. Learn more about them with this helpful article.
• What Is an Address Append? Ultimate Guide for Nonprofits. If you’re looking to improve your direct mail campaigns, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s a guide to address appends.

These days, people are glued to their phones, and most would probably consider either texting or calling as their primary form of communication with others. Therefore, making sure the phone numbers you have for your supporters are up to date is essential for smooth and effective communication with them.

Even if you know how important it is to have phone numbers for your supporters, you may not know how to go about gathering that information. Of course, you could periodically ask your supporters if they’ve gotten a new phone number. However, phone number appending is a much simpler way to collect phone numbers without bothering your supporters.

Phone number appending ensures that you have accurate phone numbers so that you can effectively reach out to your supporters and keep them engaged with your organization. Whether you’re updating contact information or missing phone numbers from several individuals, phone appends can help you round out your supporter data without your supporters having to lift a finger.

Before seriously considering this type of service, you might have some questions about the phone number appending process. Here are some questions we’ll go over in this article:

• What is Phone Number Appending?
• What Advantages Does Phone Number Appending Provide?
• What Does the Phone Number Appending Process Look Like?
• Can I Get Other Kinds of Data Appends?
• What Are Some Examples of How Nonprofits Actually Use Phone Appends?
• Are There Guidelines for Selecting a Phone Append Service?

At Double the Donation, our main focus is educating nonprofits about matching gift opportunities and software. Matching gift software makes the process of acquiring matching gifts easier, just as phone appends make gathering current contact information for your supporters more efficient. We’re happy to help nonprofits find ways to get the resources they need that will make their operations run smoother. That way, they can save time and reallocate it where it’s really needed.

Click on the questions you’re wondering about to learn more or keep scrolling to answer them all!

What is Phone Number Appending?

Phone number appending is the process of inputting supporter data into phone append software and receiving missing and updated phone numbers back.

When leveraging a data append provider, you’ll simply provide them with identifying information for each supporter. Then, they’ll use that information to correctly identify them within their comprehensive database of phone numbers. That way, you can contact your supporters using the correct information. Doing so will ensure that you’re reaching your target audience.

What Advantages Does Phone Number Appending Provide?

Your organization likely already has phone numbers for some or all of your supporters. However, people change their phone numbers all the time, so the ones you have may no longer be accurate.

Phone number appending provides several general benefits for your organization, such as:

• Updated contact information. Having the most current contact information for your supporters not only ensures that you can reach them but also that you can continue building relationships with them. Plus, you can do so without ever having to ask them to update their information.
• Less time wasted on unviable numbers. Even if your organization has phone numbers for all of your supporters, chances are some of them are outdated. Calling or texting old or incorrect phone numbers wastes your time and energy that could be used to contact the people who will lend you their support.
• Well-rounded supporter database. With any type of data, the more you have of it, the more robust and well-informed decisions you can make. Phone appends are no different. Having correct phone numbers for your supporters can help you to focus on the content of your campaigns rather than the method of communication.

In addition to these general advantages of phone appending, there are certain types of fundraising and outreach that your organization can leverage or improve with updated supporter phone number data.

Specific Use Cases for Phone Number Appends

Of course, the top advantage of phone number appending is being able to actually reach your supporters, but what does that look like in different scenarios? Here are three different areas where phone number appending is particularly useful:

• Phone banking. Calling people up and asking them to donate to your cause can be a more personal way of gathering funds. Take advantage of this fundraising method by using the most current phone numbers for your donors.
• Text messaging. While calling is a great way to reach people, texting can elicit even quicker responses and opens up the opportunity for text-to-give. With cell phone appends, you can reach your supporters and receive donations even faster than before.
• Phonathons. Schools and universities in particular love to fundraise by having current students call alumni and request donations. To reach your fundraising goals and avoid any mixups, you’ll want to make sure your students have accurate contact information for the people they’re calling.

If we’ve convinced you how important phone appends are, you might want to jump right into the process. Lucky for you, we’ll walk you through it step by step.

What Does the Phone Number Appending Process Look Like?

Hiring a reliable phone append service provider makes phone number appending a breeze. All you have to do is supply them with the supporter information you do have so they can give you the phone numbers you need.

Examples of information you can provide to a phone append provider include:

• A unique ID number
• Full name
• Region and postal address
• Email address
• Education information such as school, year, and major
• Last donation amount and date
• Date entry was last updated

You don’t need to have all of this information to go through the phone number appending process. However, the more data you give to your phone append provider, the easier it will be for them to find accurate data.

Once your phone append service provider has your supporters’ information, they can use it to find recent numbers for your constituents. In most cases, they’ll obtain the numbers from a variety of data sources online.

To help you determine how accurate the phone appends they’ve found are, some phone append providers will run the numbers through software that checks for accuracy and may even conduct manual checks. They will then rate the accuracy of each append so you know how much you can trust each one.

Lastly, your phone append service will send you the complete phone appends. From here, update your nonprofit’s CRM with the new and missing phone numbers for your supporters.

Can I Get Other Kinds of Data Appends?

Yes! There are plenty of other kinds of data appends, and most phone append services will offer them in addition to phone appends. If your nonprofit needs other data appends, check which ones your phone append service provides. Since they’ll likely pull the data all at once, they’ll probably them back to you at the same time as your phone appends.

Our quick guide to nonprofit data appends explains that there are several common types of data appends you can leverage, including:

• Employer appends
• Email appends
• Address appends
• Date of birth appends

While employer appends can help you identify matching gift opportunities, email, postal address, and date of birth appends can improve your communication with supporters. Ultimately, strengthening your database with this information will allow you to cultivate stronger relationships and push your work forward altogether.

What Are Some Examples of How Nonprofits Actually Use Phone Appends?

If you’re still unclear about whether your nonprofit could benefit from phone appends, it might help to hear some real examples of how organizations have used them in the past. That way, you can compare these organizations’ situations to your own to figure out if you should move forward with the phone number appending process.

Here are some organization types that use phone appends and what they use them for:

Universities

We mentioned before how phonathons are a great way to connect with alumni and potentially receive donations from them. Besides phonathons, universities can also use phone appends to update alumni about current campus initiatives and invite them to alumni-specific events.

Political Organizations

Especially in the midst of election seasons, it’s important to communicate your most important issues to voters and how your organization aims to solve them. However, these issues can be too complicated to spell out in a text or email. Contacting constituents over the phone presents the opportunity for you to actually converse with them about important topics and answer any questions they may have.

Advocacy Groups

If any of your supporters are young adults, you’ll want to contact them in their preferred style of communication: texting. With phone appends, advocacy groups can share information about their causes with younger supporters using SMS outreach. That way, they can be sure that they’re reaching out to their supporters in ways that work best for them.

Public Broadcasting Services

Does your organization run pledge drives on the radio or TV? Chances are, it’d be helpful to feature testimonies from real supporters. By calling previous donors and asking them to give a statement about their involvement with your nonprofit, you can encourage new donors to donate and one-time donors to convert into recurring donors.

Takeaway: Phone appends provide all sorts of benefits depending on your organization’s needs. If you’re unsure how it might play into your team’s strategies, feel free to ask your service provider about how they’ve seen other organizations leverage them. With that in mind, it’s time to find a phone append service that will provide you with accurate results.

Are There Guidelines for Selecting a Phone Append Service?

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when choosing a phone append service. After all, picking the right one could make the process quick and easy whereas selecting one that does not fit your organization’s needs or standards could be a waste of your time.

There are some guidelines for picking the phone append service provider that’s right for your nonprofit. For example, you’ll want to find a phone append provider that:

• Checks your current phone numbers. Receiving missing phone numbers is helpful, but what about the incorrect or outdated ones hiding in your supporter database? A good phone append service will check the phone numbers you currently have and update any that are no longer viable.
• Offers other types of appends. If you need multiple kinds of data appends, it’s best to get them all from the same service provider. This cuts down on costs and time needed to receive your data. To make the process easier, look for a phone append service that offers other types of appends in addition to phone appends, such as postal address and employer appends.
• Provides landline and cell phone numbers. These days, most people communicate using their cell phone numbers, but some may prefer their landlines. It’s important to find a phone append service provider that can find all relevant phone numbers no matter what type.
• Checks for accuracy. The whole point of phone appends is that they will prevent you from calling the wrong numbers and wasting your time. Make sure that’s the case by selecting a phone append service that has checks in place for accuracy.
• Finds phone appends for individuals and businesses. Perhaps your organization has some businesses they need to update contact information for in addition to individuals. A good phone append service will be able to find appends for both individuals and businesses.
• Works quickly. You probably won’t want to wait long to incorporate your phone appends into your CRM and start putting them to use. See if your phone append service can provide an estimate of how quickly they’ll be able to return your phone appends.
• Gives nonprofits quotes. It’s likely your organization has a budget for how much they’re willing to spend on phone appends. Get an idea of how much a phone append service will cost you with a quote.

Think about which of these guidelines are most important to your organization and prioritize them when you conduct your phone append service search. It’s even possible to find a phone append provider that has it all. For example, NPOInfo by Double the Donation offers everything we’ve listed above.

Wrapping Up

Communication with your donors and volunteers is what ensures lasting relationships and support. To make sure you can effectively reach out to your supporters through texts or phone calls, reach out to a phone append service and learn more about how they could help you find the phone numbers you need.

Once you have your phone appends, you might be looking for more tips that will help you keep donors and volunteers around. Check out these resources for advice on how to retain your supporters and put your phone appends to good use:

• Improving the Donor Journey with Matching Gifts. Knowing that their employer will match their donations to your cause can get donors excited about the expanded impact they can have on your organization. Make sure to use your phone appends to inform your donors of any matching gift opportunities available to them.
• Donor Thank-You Letters: What You Need to Say. Showing donors how much you appreciate them is an important part of your relationships with your supporters. Sending a simple thank-you text message or making a thank-you call can show how much you care.
• Volunteer Engagement | Strategies for Smart Organizations. The best way to keep volunteers around is to make sure they’re engaged and excited about helping your organization. This article will provide you with some tips for retaining volunteers. You’re already off to a great start with phone appends because they’ll allow you to stay in touch with your volunteers.