Marketing for a charity can be really difficult, as those of you working in the charity sector will know. Not only is the nonprofit network underfunded, but it also lacks the necessary experts too. This means that charities are missing the techniques that are needed in order to better market themselves to potential fundraisers, corporate partners and donors (not to mention those who may be in need of their services). So, just how can nonprofits better climb the marketing ladder? How can they teach themselves the tech-savvy tools necessary to better accumulate those funds and improve those websites? There are a few options below!

First things first…

Okay so, this is just a little rant on behalf of society. There really should be more funding available for not for profit organisations. Have you ever noticed that there are hardly any developers, coders and marketing people in the industry? Who wants to be underpaid while working for a charity...right? Well, yeah. This is a wider issue that should, at some point, be addressed more thoroughly. increasing tech and marketing professionals in the not for profit sector is imperative to providing charities with the tools necessary to raise more money!

Rant over, now lets see what nonprofits can actually do to improve their sites, marketing and (hopefully) their donated amounts too!

Learning the basics

It can be time consuming to learn about web development, but it is not impossible. There are so many resources available online that it may just be worth learning the basics. There are ways that you can build a website with just HTML too, so the process may be a bit simpler! Hyper Text Markup Language is the basic content coding for your site. It will help you to add links, images embed video content and format your content. You can also take a look at basic CSS and how you can better style your site to fit with what works best. Cascading Style Sheets are the visual aspects of your site, so this is really important too! But before that, it may be worth taking a look at some of the smaller (and less technical) ways that you can begin building an online presence!

Nonprofit Hack: You can use non coding platforms like Wordpress to make the process a bit easier! There are areas where HTML and CSS experience is handy, but it is not entirely necessary to begin with!

Reaching out to other companies for help

It is common for not for profits not to have the tools available to them to market correctly (or maybe even well). This does not mean that you can’t ask for help! It is always worth remembering that there are good people in this world, and there is always someone that will be happy to offer a helping hand. Take a look at volunteer web developers, marketers or companies that are willing to help you with your marketing efforts. After all, it is good PR for them as well. My Favourite Voucher Codes is a site that donates to charity each month, and they do so through a poll that encourages supporter engagement (and thus marketing!) They also promote the charities on their website and social media channels.

Nonprofit Hack: Post work on volunteer sites or make use of web developer forums to get the help that you need! Donate:code is a good example of a site that helps to provide developer expertise for not for profits too!

Having a good site = attracting more opportunities

One of the most important factors that affects whether or not a site makes any conversions is the way that it looks and the way that it is laid out. This means that if your site is complex, outdated or not simplistic, then people will be a lot less likely to stay on it, let alone enter their card details to donate! So, making sure that your site is clean and user friendly is imperative, but how do we do this?

Make sure your website speed is good: By making use of Google’s Page Speed Insights you can check that the speed of your site is up to date!

Simple design: Using the same colours throughout the site, as well as a simple logo and easy-to-read font is always a great way to simplify a charity site for users, thus making it easier for them to donate or reach out regarding fundraising partnerships!

Easy navigation: Take a look at doing some A/B testing on your site in order to track what layout better keeps people on your site. This can be an easy technique to undergo with just a little bit of research and it can have really positive results too!

Include CTA’s: What are CTA’s I hear you ask? Why they are calls to action of course! Having calls to action such as “Help Us By Donating” rather than just “Donate” can improve conversion rates for nonprofits!

Forget the technical components and start content marketing

Content marketing is where an organisation produces content specifically for sharing online. The more some content is spread, the better an organization's message is disseminated! There are a lot of content marketing tools available online, but some good old fashioned outreach and social media focus can help you to get the results that you are after. Things like guest posting and opening several social media accounts can help charities to better market themselves to potential supporters.

Creating a site and an online presence as a not for profit company is often very complicated. It has its ups and its downs, but it is certainly more difficult than profitable companies! But these are just a few of the basics and less technical ways that you can begin to up your web development and get the site that you really want.