Top Concerns for Nonprofit Marketers Today (And How They're Addressing Them)

If you struggle to keep up with the changing nonprofit marketing landscape, you're not alone. From new supporter behaviors to cultural shifts and capacity problems, here are trending challenges nonprofit marketers are facing this year and how they're tackling them.

The Old Nonprofit Marketing Rules No Longer Apply

Fast-moving changes to donor expectations and behaviors have forced marketers to revisit their old strategies. Here is what nonprofit marketing teams are changing up this year:

New Strategies

Some nonprofit verticals have experienced major changes in supporter behaviors in the last few years. In particular, the sales cycle for promoting arts and cultural performances and exhibitions has dramatically shortened, and once-reliable buying patterns are now unpredictable. As a result, data-driven strategy is no longer a future goal but a necessity; digital marketers are now forced to study analytics and return on investment (ROI) more frequently and carefully than ever before.

Modern Impact Stories 

Nonprofit marketers are adopting an updated approach to storytelling, recognizing that old methods have quickly become less effective. In response, some organizations successfully increase engagement, inspire empathy, and ease compassion fatigue by sharing inspiring aspects of a person's life before and after engaging with nonprofit services.

Website Updates

With campaign performance lagging, nonprofit marketers have prioritized replacing underperforming websites this year. Emphasizing sophisticated strategies and key performance indicators (KPIs), they’re working with professional content architects and UI experts to ensure ROI.

In addition to focusing on website strategy, nonprofits prioritize frictionless, mobile-friendly digital experiences by rethinking above-the-fold page real estate, cleaning up cluttered navigation, and installing mobile-friendly payment gateways like ApplePay and GooglePay. 

On top of it all, nonprofit leaders urgently call for updates that ensure their websites are compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to accommodate visitors with disabilities and avoid litigation.

Doing More With Less

Many nonprofits have not fully recovered from the "great resignation" and continue to struggle with downsized staff rosters and dwindling budgets. Some nonprofit marketers respond by trying new tactics to maximize ROI despite reduced resources.

Embracing Automation

To compensate for limited staff resources, some marketers are investing in specialized training on the platforms they're already using. They're learning to deploy email automation sequences, use onboard AI content assistance in social scheduling tools, and take advantage of advanced website CMS tools and AI chatbots. 

Jobbing It Out

Nonprofits suffering from reduced marketing staff have moved to "jobbing out" their paid campaigns rather than trying to do it with reduced in-house teams to a diminishing outcome. In a time when retaining revenue is even more challenging, nonprofits with clearly defined and measurable KPIs can more efficiently expand reach and revenue when experts strategize, deploy, monitor, and adjust their campaigns, yielding a faster return on their investment.

Loss of Brand Resonance 

Tectonic cultural and economic shifts in recent years have placed new pressures on nonprofits to remain relevant with donors and prospective supporters. Here are ways marketers are updating their brands this year:

Launching Brand Overhauls 

Winning the affinity of prospective donors has become more complex in recent years, forcing marketers to refresh, if not overhaul, their branding. Many nonprofits have realized a need to revise their brand messaging and positioning to reflect shifting priorities and values in response to external pressures. Marketers are even expanding recently overhauled brand guidelines to double down on consistency and reign in rogue campaigns that have drifted off point.

Managing Brand Mergers

This year has seen an increase in nonprofits merging with others. Whether aimed at improving efficiencies, compensating for lagging revenue, or offsetting strained capacity, these mergers create unanticipated public-facing marketing challenges such as market confusion and loss of valuable brand equity. Forward-thinking marketers are proactively urging leadership to prioritize branding alongside legal and logistical merger planning, emphasizing new brand architecture and positioning, rewriting the brand narrative and messaging, and designing new brand visuals.

Increasing Accountability

Donors are demanding more transparency and accountability from nonprofits. Marketers this year are dovetailing concrete impact metrics with compelling storytelling to show evidence-based, measurable outcomes that build trust. Tools like online impact reports with interactive stats and video testimonials are helping increase donor engagement and inspire them to contribute to the cause.

With shifting supporter behaviors, cultural changes, and resource constraints, nonprofit marketers are innovating to stay ahead despite the challenges. By taking these proactive measures, nonprofit marketers are taking the necessary steps to engage their supporters and drive meaningful impact.

The preceding blog was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of NonProfit PRO.