The Top 5 NFP Problems Solved

There are over 1.5 million NFP (Not-for-profit), NGO (non-government organizations) and NPO (non-profit organizations) businesses in the US alone, making this industry the 3rd largest workforce in America, behind Manufacturing and Retail. Regardless of its size and impact, similar to many other industries, NFPs have been negatively affected by ongoing economic uncertainty, subsequently resulting in financial reductions both inside and outside the business.

Funders, philanthropists and community giving schemes have all tightened their budgets to cope with uncertain times, meaning NFPs are being hit the hardest by economic challenge. This is because they rely heavily on the participation and financial support of third parties and have access to less funding to support nominated recipients, providing back lower returns on investments when compared to other industries.  

However, all is not lost in the NFP world, many have used this down time to optimize and seek out solutions for ongoing issues while optimizing existing member relations. Improving not only their membership numbers and brand awareness, but also their internal processes.  

Here are the top 5 problems NFPs encounter and how to overcome them 

Problem 1 – How do I attract more contributors? 

The number one and most frequently asked question NFPs call out is “how do I get more contributors?”. For NFPs, contributors are the life and soul of the party as they donate and act as ambassadors, with little to no payback required. Instead, contributors platform the NFP out of the goodness of their own hearts and bring passion to a project, needing only to feel like they have made a difference to further motivate their activities. With this in mind, active contributors are essentially highly appreciated gold dust for NFPs, but back to the age-old question, how do you find more of them? 

Generally speaking, there are two types of campaigns NFPs use on a frequent basis; one is fundraising-focused while the other is message-focused. Fundraising campaigns focus on asking people (usually contributors) to donate money, while messaging typically raises awareness through campaigns that center on fixing a problem or addressing a situation. 

When building strategies to attract more contributors, messaging campaigns are usually more fruitful as they can motivate, empower and in many ways evoke emotion more effectively than fundraising campaigns which can sometimes be seen as a money grab if communicated ineffectively.  

With this in mind, once a key message has been chosen getting that message out there is the next huge hurdle for NFPs to overcome when strategically searching for new contributors.  

Solution: Social media is one of the greatest tools for NFPs to use when spreading a message and encouraging audience involvement but it is often not used to its fullest. Stats show that Facebook is the most popular and successful platform for NFPs during a campaign but depending on the type of message you want to spread, each platform has its own benefits and can be optimized to yield the greatest results.  

For instance, when using visual assets in your messaging campaign Instagram is the best option, whereas TikTok can be used for participation challenges as potential and existing contributors participate in projects through short video formats. A perfect example of the power of social media can be shown through the ASL Ice Bucket challenge which took over our social media feeds as everyone, including celebrities, took part in the challenge. 

The greater your presence and reach on social media, the more people see your message and become a member. 

Scheduling, tracking and managing ROI are all key building blocks that result in a successful social media messaging campaign. Find out more about the power of social media by clicking here. 

Problem 2 – How can I engage more with my community and get them involved? 

As mentioned above, social media is fantastic at spreading a message across the internet but what about communications between you and your community? You can’t rely on social media alone to update people as some community members might not be very active or even follow your main account. And let’s also not forget communications with key funders and teams who will expect a different type of message when compared to your average community member.  

Email marketing is often viewed as the go-to method for general communications but this is not the only option NFPs have available to them, especially if they want to boost open rates. The adoption of SMS marketing strategies has risen considerably due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic with over 40% of businesses using it in their marketing strategy, and it shows no signs of slowing down.  

Read our latest blog about the benefits of SMS marketing for nonprofits 

SMS marketing not only puts your NFP into the limelight but it also opens up more opportunities to further cater customer experiences, as recipients can be segmented and sent instant updates personalized to them depending on who they are and what they want.  

Fact – Nearly 70% of consumers prefer mobile messaging or consider it their second preferred communication choice.

This type of strategy creates more valuable and meaningful relationships between your NFP and your recipients, communicating value, updates and more in a user friendly and instantaneous manner. Let’s also not forget that text messages have a 98% open rate! Compare that to emails which average around, 20% (depending on the industry) and SMS marketing is clearly a powerful tool NFPs need to make sure they are optimizing.   

Want to get started with SMS marketing? Click here to begin your journey and maximize your open rates! 

 Problem 3 – How can I prevent membership declines?  

For NFPs, getting contributors and keeping contributors are two completely different problems, especially with economic uncertainty making everyone more cautious about their spending habits. For NFPs the hard truth of membership declines is: 

Avoiding membership declines and setting up strategies to combat high levels of churn involves a different type of marketing mindset and greatly relies on understanding why contributors joined your NFP to begin with.  

In further depth 

The lifecycle of a member goes Acquisition, Onboarding, Engagement, Retention and Reactivation, and for now we will just focus on the last two stages.  

Retention of customers means revenue and the ways NFPs can build up strategies that increase revenue include, data analysis and renewal campaigns. 

Data analysis – Track contributors throughout their membership cycle so far, looking at which content pieces such as emails, or events they engaged with and further provide materials that feed into their interests.  

Renewal Campaigns – When a membership is close to its completion date, provide updates reminding customers to renew their membership and also showcase their efforts so far. For example, did a member participate in a certain event a few years ago? Remind them of this event and provide the customer journey required for this member to get involved again.  

Both of the above examples require NFPs to have the tools to track and further engage with contributors on a personal level, which can only be done through intelligent Marketing Automation solutions. Find out more about Marketing Automation here. 

Problem 4 – How can I optimize my internal team? 

Did you know that 70% of the staff at NFPs are paid workers, while 29% are volunteers?  

In any industry, whether it’s an NFP or a manufacturing company, internal teams are the life of a business, making sure that processes run smoothly, and customers are provided with the right products or solutions. But there is a stark difference between a team that is good and one that is great! 

Utilizing existing staff members who already know how the business works and what processes need to be performed saves leaders both time and money.  

Scott Hurley – A highly skilled marketing team creates more efficient strategies, who tell the NFP’s story and in turn invoke action. For all businesses with a Marketing team, upskilling existing employees not only helps the business grow but also leads to a greater level of loyalty as team members feel valued and invested in. Altogether, upskilling contributes to greater ROI on marketing campaigns and happier employees with less turnover.  

Upskilling employees and volunteer staff is greatly important for NFPs as dedication and loyalty are paramount when trying to arrange fundraisers or other such activities, leading to overall growth and happier team members.   

Want to find out more about upskilling your internal teams? Talk to our Marketing Services team here 

Problem 5 – What tools are out there to help me succeed?  

There are hundreds of tools out there available to NFPs and the landscape can be quite confusing especially when understanding how and which tools will provide your business with everything you need to succeed.  

Above we have mentioned a range of tools from SMS marketing to data analysis and social media, all of which (and more) can improve your NFPs brand awareness, communication and retention when used intelligently, and even better, in unison. 

Marketing Automation solutions allow you to do this and more, but working out which offering best fits your NFP can be difficult.  

Our latest case studies talk through how two different NFPs use Marketing Automation solutions to further improve their business. 

CLARB (Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards)  

“We selected ClickDimensions over competing solutions because it offered the best value, along with ease of use and provided topnotch training and support options. Thanks to the system’s native integration, it also allowed us to keep our data where it was currently housed and to realize tremendous time savings – creating emails in half the time, in most cases.” 

Amnesty International 

“ClickDimensions has allowed Amnesty to eliminate a number of manual processes, which ultimately allows more internal resources to be focused directly on the organization’s cause rather than administrative tasks.” 

Find out more about ClickDimensions Marketing Solution by requesting a demo and talking to our team here. 

Economic changes have made the current landscape difficult with budget restrictions limiting resources both internally and externally for NFPs. As memberships threaten to churn, volunteer participation drops and revenues stagnate or decline, utilizing automation tools to not only optimizes existing marketing efforts but also introduces new ones could be the solution to maintaining and improving the health of your business, providing a better experience for your customers but also your internal teams.