Lead Generation Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations

By LGG Media

Nonprofit lead generation is the process of identifying people who support your mission and generating interest in your organization. The goal is to generate as many leads as possible, convert those leads to donors, and grow your long-term donor base.

Lead generation is critical for any organization, but it is especially critical for nonprofits. If you want others to support your purpose, they must be aware of it. And they won’t know about it unless you use effective nonprofit lead generation. You will want to raise awareness, foster involvement, secure donations, and encourage participation for your nonprofit.

Doing so, it is best to find people who share the same views and passion as you do for your mission. Engaging with the right people at the right time and persuading them to donate their time, money, and other resources is a difficult task, but it is critical to the survival and growth of nonprofits.

Top Platforms

Google Ads

Google Ads, previously Google AdWords, is a difficult technology to master. When used in conjunction with effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Google Ads can help you attract more visitors to your website and generate more leads, resulting in more memberships being sold. Google Ads is one of the most effective platforms for contacting new members of your local target market, and it could be the tool you need to find the people you need.

When it comes to helping their clients grow their reach and acquire new prospects, digital marketing agencies are experts, but they frequently run across roadblocks when it comes to doing the same for themselves.

Google Ads operates on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis. This means you can use Google to target a specific keyword for the ads you’ve created and place bids on that keyword to compete with others who want it. You decide how much you’re willing to pay for an ad placement and how much you’re willing to pay per day for ads. If you win the bid, your ad will be displayed in the search results.

Google My Business

Google My Business is ideal for all non-profit organizations. If you have previously used Google Places, Google Local, or Google+ pages to manage your non-profit organization’s online presence, your account will have been automatically upgraded to Google My Business. One of the primary advantages of Google My Business is that it makes updating and standardizing your own information across Google Search, Google+, and Google Maps easier than ever. It’s kind of like a one-stop-shop control panel for your company’s public-facing presence on Google properties.

There are several ways for online users to find your non-profile profit’s and learn more about you. Using your Google my Business listing option with Google search, on the other hand, is one of the major gateways to your nonprofit, allowing you to take digital control of your project and interact with existing and potential donors, members, and customers.

Facebook

It’s no secret that Facebook has a massive following. There are currently nearly 3 billion monthly Facebook users, with 1.84 billion of them accessing the site on a daily basis. As a result, Facebook is an excellent platform for promoting your nonprofit and placing fundraising ads.

Nonetheless, advertising on Facebook necessitates some careful planning, not only in terms of how you spend your money, but also in terms of how you construct your ads.

You will want to use the following Facebook methods in order to sell more products, scale your company, and grow a larger community of members who will advocate for your business:

Facebook page
Facebook Groups
Facebook Ads
Facebook Marketplace

Nonprofits commonly use two types of Facebook Ads: Page Post Engagement and Call to Action ads. Both can help you raise awareness of your nonprofit or get people to engage in your events.

Allow our team to do the thinking for you and implement the most cutting-edge Facebook marketing strategies to propel your company forward.

Instagram

Instagram is used to engage with people through videos and images, which allows you to be as innovative as you wish with your marketing communications. Many companies utilize Instagram to make it simple for potential clients to contact and interact with their business. There are a variety of ways to accomplish this on Instagram, but to get the greatest results, keep the following ideas in mind:

Post a strong image. Make sure the image you post is something the audience can relate to. You will want high-quality visual content that catches the eye and draws them in, but at the same time isn’t too much to look atl.
Make sure you have a clear, engaging caption that is not too lengthy. It is also a good idea to use a CTA (Call-to-Action) in Instagram stories that will invite the viewer to interact with the company such as “Swipe up to learn more!” or “Click the link in our bio!”
Post story highlights: If your nonprofit regularly shares stories on Instagram, create custom Highlight covers with a graphic design tool or a mobile app to make a strong first impression. This way, the people who visit your Instagram can see the most important posts and links on your page.
Post frequently. If you want potential viewers to be fully engaged in your Instagram presence, use it on a regular basis. According to studies, brand accounts with the most followers post a minimum of 2 to 3 times each day on average.
Engage with your audience. Take the time to respond to anybody who comments on your post and start a conversation. If someone expresses a concern or sends you a message or comment, be sure to respond as soon as possible.
Add your account category and contact information. Under Edit Profile > Category, add the category “nonprofit organization.” You can also add contact information, which will add a “Contact,” “Call,” or “Email” button to your profile depending on which contact information you provide. If you are a nonprofit with a physical location, such as a museum or zoo, include your address as well.

Instagram is a hashtag-heavy platform, with many of its users searching for keywords and hashtags to find good content (or even following hashtags that interest them). You can drive a lot of traffic to your account if you use the right amount of the right hashtags in the right places.

According to LinkedIn, nonprofits are “growing and thriving” on the platform, thanks in part to the fact that LinkedIn members are much more likely to donate to charities than the average internet user.

LinkedIn Ads are an effective marketing tool that can help your company reach a professional audience. In addition to more precise targeting options, LinkedIn enables advertisers to run campaigns with clearly defined objectives such as brand awareness, lead generation, and engagement.

LinkedIn Ads are also a great way for nonprofits that receive revenue from for-profit companies and other nonprofits to target specific job titles, company sizes, industries, and much more. You can, for example, target upper-level management or leaders at large corporations to solicit donations or support. You can target specific companies, or you can target an industry as a whole, such as the marketing industry, the technology industry, or even the nonprofit sector.

There are a handful of different ads you can use on LinkedIn as a nonprofit organization including sponsored content, sponsored in mail ads, text ads and dynamic ads. This being said, you will want to make sure you are familiar with each kind of ad in order to figure out which will be best for your mission.

YouTube

Although YouTube is mostly used for video and streaming, it is helpful to look at it in the same way as your other social media accounts. You share content that piques your audience’s attention and pleases them. You may also turn participation into action by linking to your website and contribution pages.

The first step is to develop content that is relevant to your objective and resonates to your target audience. Much of the nonprofit YouTube content falls into one of a few major categories. These categories include:

Awareness and Education

One of the most important reasons for NGOs to use YouTube is to raise awareness of their cause and organization. It’s an excellent technique to reach out to both new and established audiences. Nonprofits use content to inform the public about the issues they are addressing and the programs they are implementing.

Appreciation and Influence

Just as you want to inform and motivate your audience to donate, you should also show them what they are assisting you with. That is why you should create YouTube content that demonstrates the impact of your programs and expresses gratitude to your supporters.

Promotional Campaigns and Events

YouTube is also an excellent platform for disseminating information about your most recent fundraising campaign or upcoming event. To promote their holiday campaign, Heifer International created a series of short videos in which supporters could donate cows, chickens, or other livestock in honor of a loved one.

TikTok

TikTok is one of the newest venues for video content creation. It’s a youthful and lively market, so if your target group uses TikTok, you might want to explore transferring some of your fitness content there. Brands are discovering new ways to engage their target audience, form meaningful connections, and win the race for consumer attention and purchases on TikTok.

Lead Generation Methodologies and Tactics for Nonprofit Organizations

Lead generation is one aspect of nonprofit marketing – its primary goal is to generate interest in your organization. In the nonprofit world, this entails both bringing in and engaging people who support your platform and mission. This involvement can take the form of donations, volunteerism, activism, or another resource.

Lead generation is especially important because a nonprofit cannot exist without the assistance of others. In fact, even sporadic lead generation is insufficient; it must be continuous. To continue supporting your cause, consistent lead generation is required, so the first step is to set up a system that will do so automatically.

PPC Advertising for Non-profits

PPC campaigns are an important method of advertising for nonprofits. A Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign appears as a small “ad” indicator at the top, bottom, and sometimes side of a search result page. PPC campaigns use a budget based on how much time you want to devote to that ad to push your website ranking to the top. You only pay for ad space when a user clicks on one of your ads, thus the term “pay-per-click.” While calculated SEO strategies can help you improve your search engine ranking, PPC ads are a quick way to the top of a search result.

There are numerous advantages to using PPC advertising within your nonprofit, including:

Achieve business and marketing objectives
The outcomes are measurable and trackable.
The process of optimization is quick, and you can see results almost immediately.
You have complete control over how you reach out to potential customers.
It works well in conjunction with other marketing channels.
There are numerous targeting opportunities and options.
You have access to a wealth of information.

Nonprofit Social Media Marketing

Having a social media presence can help your program grow and even increase its return on investment. In essence, social media serves as marketing for nonprofit organizations. It can be used to boost email outreach, charity events, and other forms of advertising. Nonprofits can increase exposure, enhance fundraising efforts, recruit potential volunteers, and even drive social change by effectively utilizing social media. What specific ways do nonprofits use social media? The following are the top five reasons why nonprofits use social media:

Inform others about their organization’s news
Increase brand recognition
Disseminate information about a specific cause
Fundraise
Find volunteers

Create Quality Content

Nonprofits can create videos, articles, or any other form of content that can convey their agency’s story and advocacy. If the non-profit is about animal rescue, they can make videos showing their animal rescue efforts and telling the backstory of the animal being saved. If the organization’s mission is to assist poor children in attending school, the organization can create a mini documentary telling the story of one of their benefactors.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Google is one of the most reliable brands in the world, where SEO is highly effective at lead generation. The invisibility of its business model, in which searchers’ data feeds a familiar online ad program, contributes to the perception that Google is a free resource.

The concept of using SEO for lead generation is straightforward: publish original, insightful content that specifically targets transactional keywords at least twice a week and you will receive a steady flow of leads. It is much more difficult to put into action. To choose those keywords, analyze their search intent, and create high-quality content for each one, you’ll need a team of experts—writers, editors, web developers, an SEO strategist, and a graphic designer.

Budgeting for Lead Generation for a Nonprofit Organization

A budget is a tool that can assist a nonprofit in both planning for the future and assessing its existing financial situation. It is normal practice to evaluate the budget on a regular basis and compare it to actual cash flow and expenses to see if things are going as planned throughout the year. It’s possible that the budget will need to be adjusted throughout the year.

The easiest strategy to determine a marketing budget is to think about what it will take to complete the task. Consider the types of marketing approaches you’ll use and the resources you’ll need to put them in place. Don’t be scared to spend as much as it takes to get the results you want. If assigning more than 15% of the operational budget makes you nervous, you can always use the incremental method, in which you track and review performance on a regular basis (typically quarterly or bi-annually), then increase or decrease as needed. Of course, the more you spend, the more you’ll need to track and measure results to justify your actions.

How LGG Can Help

To generate leads, not all charities or nonprofits must do the same thing. Instead, you must experiment with various approaches until you find what works. Because the leads you receive will differ, you must tailor your content to those differences.

However, regardless of who is donating, the information must be as clear and accurate as possible. Then you can proceed to the next step in the website design and internet marketing process.

We have a full team of lead generation professionals at LGG who are well-versed in all the tried-and-true strategies of generating leads online. We’ve previously worked with nonprofits, assisting them in obtaining the donations and volunteers they require for success. We can do the same for you!