Tips For Nonprofits: COVID-19 Communications and Marketing

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Tips For Nonprofits: COVID-19 Communications and Marketing

Many of us began this year with an optimistic outlook, creating plans for the future. Even for nonprofit professionals, there were marketing strategies and business tactics up for execution. However, all that came crashing down when the virus hit. Now that 2020 will always be referred to as the year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the next plan should be focused on changing the route to an effective COVID-19 communications and marketing campaigns.

The solution here is to adjust the methods, not the goal. Therefore, nonprofit storytelling must go on. Your nonprofit should only get better with time. With social distancing in place, all organizations need to reimagine and reinvent ways to cope with the current situation. GiveCentral has listed down a few ways in which the benefit can still be yours. 

More power to donors and partners

Even without a pandemic, your donors and the organizations that you raise funds for, are two of the most important parts of your nonprofit. This is simply due to the fact that your organization wouldn’t be able to function without them. Your supporters must feel included and it must be remembered that they are the true power holders.

Resort to Facebook and Instagram Live in order to drive engagement. Also, get one of your partners or sponsors to speak in your live session. If your partner is from the education industry, he/she can talk about the various ways in which educational institutes are taking initiatives to fight the pandemic, or rather, survive in the face of it. Your nonprofit can also offer new services to your partners, for example, an email template made specifically for hard times such as this. 

Pay attention to internal communication

As you prepare to perfect your external communications, an internal one also holds much of a significance. The quality of team work is going to show its impact on the final result of all your campaigns, hence it is a wise choice to not neglect how well connected your team is. Nonprofit storytelling stems from within the organization, it starts from you. Miscommunication, for instance, can lead to a delivery of wrong information on different platforms and this can have a long term negative impact on the performance and reputation of your nonprofit. Your entire office might be working from home, so getting on a live session with your team isn’t a bad idea.

GiveCentral LIVE is the perfect platform for this as you can have all your staff members participate on one screen and discuss plans, seamlessly. This tool can be used by your partners too, to communicate with donors, sustain existing relationships and create new ones. 

Analyze your fundraising strategies

Do a quick check on your nonprofit. You can begin by looking at your digital presence, namely website, application and social media. Does your website have a clear and direct call to action? Will your load time test the patience of visitors? It is ideal that your site features a key fundraising message with a proper call to action button.

Have you tried text-to-give tools as a remote giving method? How is your email marketing working out for your nonprofit? Do you have the right tools to measure your results? Are you talking about important issues on social media? All these questions can lead you to answers from which you can climb your way to improved results. Online crowdfunding too is a popular method right now, it helps in connecting a larger group of people on a digital platform. 

Media outreach

This is a very important exercise that all nonprofits must practice. Your nonprofit has been coming up with ways to survive and your social media is full of it, however you need to make an effort to reach the right people. There are different media platforms, blogs and websites that are compiling a list of Covid-19 resources, find them on Google or even social media nonprofit groups and reach out to them.

Most websites respond and actually list you down, thus increasing your visibility. Even if your resource doesn’t get picked up immediately, there is a high chance that you can be at the top of the mind recall. 

Fuel your nonprofit storytelling with testimonies and videos about the cause that you’re helping. Secondly, communicate with your supporters through emails and newsletters. keep them in the loop. Although nonprofits are not in the best place, it doesn’t hurt too bad to show an attitude of gratitude via your communication materials.

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