5 Steps to a Thrifty (but Effective) Marketing Budget for Your Nonprofit

For so many nonprofits, the story is the same each year. Demand for services is up, costs are up, donations may (or may not) be keeping pace. Your board is looking to you to make your budget leaner and do more with less.

Less??? You’re on a shoestring already!

But a good marketing plan is not beyond your reach, even if your budget is lean. There are five simple steps you can take that will help you craft a thrifty, yet highly effective, marketing effort for the new year. 

1. Determine your (measurable) end goal for this year? Hard to figure out how well your marketing is working if you don’t have an end goal in mind. What is it you want to do in 2018? Make it a reasonable goal, of course – doubling your donations in 12 months probably isn’t a practical objective. But increasing your total fundraising by X percentage, or adding Y number of people to your volunteer force? That could be very doable. What is it you want your marketing to achieve in the coming year?
   
   
2. Prioritize. Now that you know your destination, you’ll need to prioritize. What marketing strategies are most likely to get you where you want to go? Looking at the past year and crunching the data is important as you create your marketing blueprint for 2018.

3. Identify and Utilize the (Sometimes Hidden) Talent Around You. I truly believe that everyone has amazing gifts to share, and sometimes we don’t know all the talents that lie within our staffers, our volunteers and even ourselves. Remember, we’re aiming for a thrifty marketing budget and that sometimes means everyone on the team has to wear multiple hats to help hit the mark.

   So find out if your bookkeeper has a secret flair for graphic design, your front office manager would like to write social media posts, or if your executive assistant has a passion for website maintenance. You don’t need to hire expensive outside pros for every aspect of your marketing – with some training and maybe a little software, you might be able to do it in house at a fraction of the cost. (This isn’t to say that you won’t ever need outside help; just that you need to identify when your return on investment is better served by engaging an expert.)

   Plus, if you assume that every member of your staff or volunteer crew has something to contribute to your marketing efforts, it’s going to give a whole new energy to your outreach – and make your workers more invested and engaged in your organization, as long as they aren’t too overwhelmed with the tasks.

4. Thrifty Tools. We are blessed to live in an era where technology has provided some amazingly low-cost (and sometimes free) marketing tools. The design platform Canva, for example, has a premium option that’s free for nonprofits. You can venture into the world of video creation with a Facebook account and smart phone. Don’t have a budget for print advertisements or radio plugs? See if a low-cost Google ad would work better for you.

   All of these tools make it possible for smaller nonprofits to market as effectively as bigger NPOs. But almost as important as accessing these digital tools is having an employee or volunteer who is comfortable, interested and motivated to investigate and learn one or more of these digital options.

   Another thrifty tool is the wealth of inexpensive educational opportunities out there for you and your staff, particularly webinars on donor retention, social media strategies and successful email marketing campaigns.

5. Monitor. The last step to thrifty marketing is monitoring and making changes when necessary.
   
   This is one of the more exciting parts of the whole process. You’ll get to see what’s working, identify gaps and adjust your plan as needed. By reviewing and revising, preferably on a monthly basis, you’ll maximize the effectiveness of your marketing budget and make it more likely that you will meet – or even exceed – your goals.

Marketing on a shoestring is never easy, but by adopting these steps, your organization can create smart and savvy communications strategies that won’t break the budget.