Once you have set your goals and analyzed your environment, you are ready to start implementing your project. Fundraising is one of your primary tasks. This means the procurement of all necessary resources – at the lowest cost possible. Carefully list everything you will need for the project, such as:
- Money (donations, membership fees, etc.)
- Contributions in kind (vehicle donations, technology, clothing etc.)
- Services (donations in the form of voluntary commitments)
From your list, you can then determine the marketing instruments and communications channels that need to be used. In general, you should make use of several communication options to obtain resources. Which one you choose, on the one hand, depends on the target group and, on the other hand, on the cost-benefit balance. In nonprofit marketing, you can choose between different, sometimes cost effective channels:
- Personal contact through events or house visits
- Internet (postal campaigns for members, donations, or a general newsletter)
- Event marketing
- Mass media (press, TV, radio)
- Telephone fundraising
- SMS donations
Especially in e-commerce, cost saving and time saving communication channels are easy to find. Online fundraising is particularly useful for petitions, memberships, and donations, because it can reach a large number of people within a very short time, at a very low cost. In addition to traditional e-mails, newsletters, and websites with donation forms, new ways of communicating have emerged. For example, entire online communities have formed on social media platforms (Facebook, blogs, etc.) to acquire donations, members, and other resources.
Examples of professional nonprofit marketing campaigns show that advertising messages over the internet can be a wild success. YouTube, in particular, has become the second-largest search engine to become a popular platform where NPOs can upload advertising clips without any effort and costs, and reach people all over the world.
Amnesty International regularly uploads small clips on YouTube and other social media platforms to educate the population about the world’s grievances and to protest human rights violations. To mark the 50th jubilee, they showed a video clip stating that their organization stands for the freedom of the people of the world: