Content marketing is a powerful tool for nonprofits, offering a unique way to engage supporters by highlighting the importance of their cause and the impact of contributions. By prioritizing value and helpfulness, this approach enables you to forge meaningful connections with your target audience to inspire action.
Whether you're new to content marketing or looking to refine your existing strategy, this post provides actionable insights to innovate and engage your supporters more effectively.
We'll cover the fundamentals of content strategy, its importance for your organization, and the steps to create a robust plan. Find valuable tips and free templates to start with marketing for your nonprofit.
Table of contents
Why should your nonprofit focus on content marketing?
6 steps to develop a content marketing strategy for your nonprofit
5 best practices to level up nonprofit content marketing
Nonprofit content marketing plan and calendar template
Final thoughts on content marketing strategy
FAQs on content marketing for nonprofits
What is content marketing?
Content marketing focuses on creating and distributing valuable written, audio or visual content to inspire interest in your nonprofit's mission and initiatives. It covers videos, blog posts, emails, podcasts, magazines, eBooks, and landing pages.
Content marketing even extends to social media platforms, where longer pieces of content can be repurposed as reels, stories, or posts.
Nonprofit content marketing differs from for-profit strategies by focusing on inspiring support rather than promoting products or services.
Unlike for-profits, nonprofits don't target customers with product-centric messages or promotions. Instead, they inform and educate about their cause by using emotional appeals and stories to engage donors and volunteers.
The ultimate goal is to build a dedicated and loyal community around its mission to maximize the nonprofit’s impact.
Why should your nonprofit focus on content marketing?
1. Builds awareness and visibility
Awareness is the first step in attracting people and generating support for a cause. Content marketing for nonprofits allows you to clearly explain to the audience your nonprofit mission and the issue it works for. You can effectively broaden your reach by distributing well-crafted articles, videos, infographics, and other content across various platforms, from websites to social media.
For example, consider the Movember Foundation with the mission to change the face of men’s health. Movember shares practical tips, personal stories, and statistics on its website and social channels to inform the public about men's health issues.
2. Establishes authority and credibility
If you want the public to trust you, you need to show confidence in your work. You can prove your knowledge by publishing original research, interviewing experts, and creating educational resources that address people's issues or give them important bits of information.
When your organization is perceived as authoritative and credible, supporters will be more inclined to support its mission.
Annual reports and impact statements also play a crucial role in building credibility. These documents provide transparent insights into your organization's achievements, financial health, and overall impact, reinforcing trust with stakeholders and potential donors.
Consider the March of Dimes, a widely recognized and trusted nonprofit that fights for the health of all moms and babies. The organization deeply understands maternity-related issues and shows itself as a knowledgeable and trustworthy source through various methods:
- Purpose-driven resources: Their "Find Support" center directly supports their mission by sharing tips and tools to help families with maternity
- Expert engagement: Regular interviews and podcasts with gynecologists showcase field expertise
- Data-driven reporting: Publishing reports on maternal and infant health highlights pressing issues
3. Drives fundraising and donor engagement
When your cause resonates with individuals, they are more likely to advocate, support, and spread the word about it. A content strategy makes your cause more relevant to your ideal audience by highlighting its uniqueness, success stories, and community impact. Getting more supporters to believe in your cause drives engagement and fundraising.
Demonstrating the direct benefits of people’s contributions through weekly newsletters and social media postings, you can compel individuals to continue to support your cause.
For instance, Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) sends subscribers an update from their blog with a personal story of a child helped through their programs. For the supporters, this provides tangible proof of their contributions. Because the newsletter is sent weekly, it keeps FMSC content fresh in their minds, engaging and reminding them to continue to support and help children.
4. Reduces marketing costs
Traditional marketing tactics like print advertisements require investments in design, printing, and distribution, and their costs escalate based on factors like placement, ad size, and frequency.
In contrast, content marketing leverages inbound and digital marketing channels to deliver content to a target audience at a fraction of the cost of traditional channels, provided you have in-house resources for content creation.
6 steps to develop a content marketing strategy for your nonprofit
- Determine clear objectives for your content strategy
- Establish key performance metrics (KPIs)
- Understand your audience persona
- Decide on the kind of content to create
- Choose the right marketing channels
- Create a content calendar
1. Determine clear objectives for your content strategy
Start by defining your aim for producing content.
- Is it to grow your donor base?
- Are you looking to drive more website traffic to increase donations?
- Is it to maintain ongoing engagement with supporters?
- Do you want to raise awareness about your mission-related activities?
- Do you want to attract more volunteers and engage them in your mission?
Ensure each objective is in line with your organization's purpose and passion. For example, a nonprofit with the mission to provide clean drinking water might aim to attract 30% more "Water Champions" to their digital hub, empowering them with knowledge about global water access.
By reframing the goal in this way, the organization ensures that efforts to increase traffic align with the organization's core purpose. It becomes not just about getting more clicks but about expanding the community of informed and engaged individuals who can contribute to the mission.
This approach also energizes the team creating the content, as they're not just chasing numbers but actively working towards a purpose. It helps to create content that resonates with your audience and provides a richer, more emotionally connected experience.
No matter the objectives you decide, ensure they're also sustainable in the long run. They connect to your nonprofit's strategic plan goals, marketing goals, and mission.
2. Establish key performance metrics (KPIs)
Once you've established objectives, it's time to define clear metrics for each one. Establishing metrics and key performance indicators helps measure the content's success. They help you address questions like which pieces of content drive the most leads and which content marketing channel is best for your nonprofit.
For instance, if you aim to increase brand awareness, you will measure engagement rates. For donor acquisition, you will track conversion rates from content viewers to donors.
3. Understand your audience persona
When developing your nonprofit's marketing strategy, it’s essential to identify your target audience. This knowledge helps decide what kind of content to create and where and how to share it so that your potential donors are more likely to see and engage with it.
For your content marketing strategy, you don't need to just know them; you need to know where they stand in the donor journey.
The donor journey describes the sequential path by which your supporters:
- Learn about your organization
- Become interested in your cause
- Get inspired to give
- Stay engaged with your nonprofit
Breakdown of the stages of the donor journey
- Awareness: It is the very first step, which refers to potential donors discovering your nonprofit and understanding its mission
- Consideration: Once they're aware of your mission, they will likely do further research to see if they want to support your cause and how they can do that
- Action: Now that the prospective donor is familiar with your organization and its cause. They will show intent in some way – by donating a gift, signing up for newsletters, following social media accounts, or more
- Engagement: They have supported your nonprofit, and it's time to keep them connected to your mission and develop a long-standing relationship
Each stage of the journey clues you in on how to best engage with potential donors and successfully receive support
4. Decide on the kind of content to create
To effectively implement your content marketing strategy, it's crucial to select the right types of content based on your goals and audience preferences. Prioritize offering a variety of content types to cater to different consumption habits and maximize your reach.
Some of the common types of content your nonprofit can consider creating include:
Impact Reports
Transform your annual report from a boring administrative task into a persuasive tool. By infusing elements of creativity and interactivity in your report, you can showcase your nonprofit's impact in a visually stunning format. This approach goes beyond mere reporting. It creates compelling content that celebrates achievements and inspires donors.
Charity: Water's annual report addresses the global water crisis with vivid imagery. They use bright colors and the happy faces of their beneficiaries to tell an uplifting story and motivate continuous support. This approach helps turn a complex issue into a clear, inspiring message.
Podcasts
Podcasts have exploded in popularity across the United States and beyond. A recent study shows that 144 million Americans have listened to podcasts at least once. Of these, 74% listen to learn new things. This growing trend offers a powerful way to connect with potential and existing donors through audio content.
The Southern Poverty Law Center launched its podcast "Sounds Like Hate," which has boosted the nonprofit's visibility and spread its message powerfully. CEO Margaret Huang hoped it would show Americans how extremism looks today. The series aims to inspire listeners to fight hate in their communities.
Through storytelling, it exposes hate groups and reveals how money and politics fuel bigotry. It demonstrates how a well-crafted audio narrative can have a huge impact, especially when it comes to challenging issues that are difficult to read and write about.
Blogs
Blogs give nonprofits a platform to share in-depth content about their work and mission. They allow you to explore topics in detail, showing thought leadership and educating readers. While creating your blog content, ensure that it's optimized for search engines to drive more people to your website, which could result in more donors.
By posting weekly or bi-weekly, you can keep your content fresh and your audience coming back for more.
Infographics
Using infographics allows you to simplify complex information in an easy-to-understand and visually appealing manner. They quickly grab attention and are also easily shared on different channels, from emails to social media and the website. They are perfect for illustrating the impact of fundraisers and explaining the scope of a problem and your efforts to address it.
For instance, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) uses infographics to show the importance of conservation efforts, showing data on habitat loss and endangered species effectively.
Case Studies
Case studies deliver tangible proof of your impact through stories of people you've helped or projects you've completed. They build trust by showing real-life examples of how you make a difference.
Videos
Videos are the most-consumed content, providing a dynamic way to tell stories, showcase impact, and connect emotionally with the audiences. This content form brings the nonprofit's mission to life, making it more compelling and relatable.
Short-form video content, particularly on platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, has become increasingly popular. These brief, engaging videos can quickly capture attention and convey your message to younger audiences.
Consider creating 15-60 second clips highlighting your impact, sharing quick facts, or showcasing behind-the-scenes moments.
A nice example is Charity: Water, which uses video content to demonstrate the impact of clean water initiatives on communities. Their content often features personal tales from the field, creating a transparent view of initiative outcomes.
5. Choose the right marketing channels
Once you've narrowed down your content types, you need to decide how you're going to publish it.
Choosing the right promotional channels involves understanding where your ideal supporter base is most active. You also need to consider your budget, resources, and features of different channels to learn which best fits your purpose, content, and audience.
Some of the popular channels your nonprofit can consider focusing on include:
Email marketing
Use email marketing for more than just sharing information about upcoming events and initiatives. Consider sending out a regular newsletter to your subscribers.
You can attract subscribers by having an easy-to-fill sign-up form on your website and promoting it through your social media channels. Some tips to maximize success with email marketing are:
- Segment email list based on different groups, volunteers, donors, sponsors, and others
- Personalize whatever possible - starting with their name
- Make it informative, attractive, and compelling
- Include a CTA at the end, engaging recipients beyond reading the mail
- A/B test your subject line, CTAs, and sending times to optimize performance
Social media marketing
Social media is a powerful tool for distributing content, especially success stories about your work or advocacy calls-to-action related to urgent, timely issues. Consider reposting talking points from long blog posts you've created. This helps to direct social media traffic towards your website.
You can also create short-form content directly for social media. This includes video check-ins with your members or interviews with people you've helped.
Remember one thing: Visual content is the key to boosting social media engagement. Posts with relevant visuals boast 180% higher engagement than those without them.
PPC/paid advertising
By applying for the Google Ad Grants Program, you can secure up to $10,000/month in free advertising. With that, you can come up with and promote your content to a specific audience based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. It allows you to run search ads based on different goals, from engagement to fundraising, targeting specific keywords.
Consider experimenting with different channels and measure their effectiveness before specifying them in your content strategy.
6. Create a content calendar
A content calendar is key to organizing your nonprofit's content strategy. It helps you plan and ensure everyone knows their role while maintaining consistent output across channels.
Include details like content type, publishing platforms, assigned creators, deadlines, and posting dates. By planning at least a quarter in advance, you can align your content with important dates and campaigns, making your messaging more effective and timely.
Use tools like Google Calendar and Microsoft Excel for basic content planning. You can also invest in dedicated content calendar tools like Trello, CoSchedule, and Hootsuite. These tools help you plan, set reminders, and collaborate easily.
If you need something more advanced to manage multiple content producers and complex publishing schedules, marketing tools such as Buffer and Later are available.
5 best practices to level up nonprofit content marketing
1. Conduct content audit and analysis
A content audit helps you assess what's effective and what's not in your current content strategy. By analyzing your existing pieces, you can identify:
- Content and topics that are delivering results (e.g., blog posts discussing the rising cost of food, children suffering from malnutrition, etc.)
- Content that's not gaining any traction (e.g., white papers about food bank statistics)
- Topics that are missing or need more coverage
Use tools like Google Analytics and social media insights to measure content performance. Look for patterns in successful content to inform your future content creations.
Repurpose high-performing content across different channels. For instance, turn a successful webinar into smaller snippets and update it on your social media channels. Or you could take your top-performing blog post and convert it into a podcast or video by inviting your stakeholders to discuss the topic in detail.
2. Integrate storytelling into your content strategy
By weaving compelling narratives into your content, you can inspire action, foster deeper engagement, and create a lasting bond between supporters and your cause. To elevate your content through storytelling, you should:
- Share personal stories behind why your founders, volunteers, members, and choose to be part of what you're doing
- Highlight real-life examples of ways your organization has made a difference in the lives of people or communities you support
- Focus on behind-the-scenes content, highlighting your team working for your cause (e.g., saving injured animals)
- Talk about significant achievements and milestones for your nonprofit
To make your stories more appealing, use media content like images and videos while creating content to show real people in action.
Take inspiration from Battersea Animal Shelter, which shares short and sweet stories of animals in need to make donation appeals.
Each story has a well-described main character, a struggle, and an impact statement alongside a strategically placed donations button to guide donors to make a difference. Their storytelling approach demonstrates how a few carefully chosen words and an emotionally evocative visual can create a moving and effective fundraising narrative.
3. Use SEO to support content discoverability
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is key to making your content visible. It is a set of optimization strategies for blogs, sites, and web pages that aim to improve your visibility in organic search engine results. Some of the best SEO practices that your nonprofit can adopt include:
- Find and incorporate keywords found in popular online searches so that when someone makes that search, they're directed toward your content
- Include social sharing buttons so people can share your content with their network on social media
- Encourage volunteers of your nonprofit or people who are part of your membership services to leave online reviews
- Use your network of partner organizations to ask for backlinks and make your content more trustworthy
Implement local SEO strategies if your nonprofit serves a specific geographic area. This includes optimizing for location-based keywords, claiming your Google My Business listing, and encouraging local reviews to improve visibility in local search results.
4. Encourage user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) adds trustworthiness and authenticity to your messaging. It serves as social proof, encouraging potential donors to support your nonprofit. UGC also provides you with fresh content to share on your content marketing channels.
Some popular ideas for leveraging UGC include:
- Encouraging supporters to share their experiences with your mission through written stories, photos, or videos
- Using testimonials from volunteers, beneficiaries, and other stakeholders to strengthen your narrative and provide diverse perspectives
- Asking participants at your events to share live updates, photos, and videos on social media
- Organizing contests or social media campaigns where supporters complete a task and post about it using specific hashtags
Take Habitat for Humanity's #HomeIsTheKey campaign as an example. This campaign showcases how Habitat brings people together to build homes and communities. The nonprofit encourages volunteers and supporters to share their building experiences and the impact of providing homes for those in need.
5. Broaden your requests with CTAs
Your content should convey a clear message that goes beyond simply asking for donations. Effective content marketing can inspire supporters to take various actions like:
- Volunteering for your cause
- Sharing expertise to enhance your mission reach
- Offering resources for help
- Spreading the word about your cause with others
These requests offer supporters the opportunity to give to your cause in the ways they find workable. They also allow you to attract different kinds of donors. Some may not be financially capable of supporting your cause but may have a genuine affinity, making them your biggest spokesperson or advocate.
One nonprofit that effectively uses different and impactful calls to action is Redwood Empire Food Bank. Take a look at the variety of CTAs this organization uses on its website homepage.
Nonprofit content marketing plan and calendar template
Ready to get started with your own content marketing strategy? Download our content strategy and content calendar template to develop a robust strategy.
Final thoughts on content marketing strategy
Content marketing empowers nonprofits to amplify their mission and engage supporters effectively. By understanding your audience, crafting compelling narratives, and leveraging diverse content across multiple channels, you can create a lasting impact.
Zeffy's 100% free donor management solution seamlessly integrates with your content strategy, allowing you to segment your audience, personalize communications, and track engagement. With Zeffy's tools, you can easily share your content, measure its impact, and nurture donor relationships throughout their journey.
