Boost Attendance Of Offline Events Online

When planning live events, a common error that many nonprofits make is only to use offline resources to promote their in-person events. For example, if you are throwing a gala, a concert, or other live event, you might publicise it in your local newspaper and media outlets, and use flyers and other tangible, physical means of communication to get the word out and boost attendance. While these methods of promotion do still work, you will get better results by using online promotional tools and combining them with your in-person efforts. Consider using some of the following online tools and strategies to increase the number of guests that show up and participate at your next live event.

Create Pages Specifically for Your Event

One way to promote your upcoming events online is to create additional pages on your NFP’s website that are specifically for the event. Create a “Save the Date” splash page where invitees can sign up for reminders and updates so that your upcoming occasion stays top of mind. Use an online registration form that’s simple and easy to complete, as well as mobile friendly, and make sure that you are funnelling visitors to the appropriate pages where they can learn more about your cause and go ahead and make a donation to support your work.

Use Social Media to Spread the Word

Once you’ve created your event pages, use your social media profiles to promote your event to your online followers. Share your event on your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter Accounts. Use a custom event hashtag to make it easy for your supporters to find conversations online that relate to your event. Ask your followers to repost and retweet your event to their connections to increase the reach of your messaging. Use your social media to build excitement for the event as the date draws near by posting reminders and updates about planned activities, VIP guests and entertainment acts expected to attend and participate.

Use Twitter to Send Updates and Reminders

Due to Twitter’s design, it’s the perfect platform to use for alerts, so encourage your followers to check your Twitter feed regularly for late-breaking news, contests, polls and other news that relates to the big day. Twitter is also great for helping increase interest and engagement in your supporters that can’t attend. Live tweet your event to keep everyone in the loop!

Use Email Campaign to Build Excitement

In addition to reaching out via social media, create an email campaign to communicate with your supporters at regular intervals leading up to the vent to encourage more signups, greater engagement and to urge your supporters to go ahead and donate now, ahead of the event.

Live Stream Events

No matter how well you plan your event and how amazing the venue, food and entertainment happens to be, not all your supporters will be able to attend. Keep them interested in your work and boost your donations by streaming the event live on your own website, as well as any social media that you might have, such as Facebook Live, your NFP’s YouTube Channel, Periscope or similar platform to allow virtual attendance.

Wrapping Up

Use your social media profiles to thank your donors and other supporters for their contributions and attendance. Use an online third party to send online tokens to key donors as a thank you. This way they can redeem their online swag cash for gift certificates or small prizes from their favourite retailers that they choose. Send a follow-up email thanking each supporter, and, asking them to consider signing up to make a recurring or repeat donation.

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A Modern Approach to Fundraising with Facebook

Most nonprofits receive the bulk of their donations during the last quarter of the year. The last two weeks are especially critical if you want to capitalise on the spirit of generosity, goodwill and concern for others that is so prominent during the holidays. Use the following strategies to avoid the pitfalls and put Facebook to its best use in your end of year fundraising campaigns!

Help Your Supporters to Create and Share Personal Stories

Most Facebook users like to share content with their family and friends that show them in their best light. Help your supporters to spread the news about your nonprofit and the work that they are doing with you to help your cause. Create text and images that show what a difference a supporter’s donation or volunteer effort is making in your community and invite your volunteers and donors to use them on their own Facebook pages and other social media and ask their connections to join in and help them help you increase your impact!

Expand Your Reach with Facebook Ads

Even if you are on a tight marketing budget, Facebook Ads can be a cost-effective way to expand your audience and increase your donations. Use demographics and other built-in Facebook tools to target who is likely to see your ad and increase the chances that they will respond with a donation or other form of support.

Show Your Gratitude

Facebook isn’t just a place where you can share your nonprofit’s stories and engage with supporters. Don’t forget that it’s a great platform for expressing your thanks for the work and efforts of your volunteers and advocates as well as calling attention to donations big and small from donors of all levels. Use Facebook to give thanks to everyone that is involved in your cause and helping your community on a regular basis.

Seek Balance in Your Approach

Many nonprofits fall into one of two camps when it comes to using Facebook. They either ignore it altogether or, they use it exclusively and ignore all their other communications channels. Seek a balanced approach when it comes to using Facebook to build your brand and raise funds. Make sure that you integrate your Facebook marketing efforts into your overall marketing strategy and use a voice that brings all your messaging on all your channels into alignment with your mission and the impact that you wish to create in your community!

Want to learn more about how to create a Facebook page for your nonprofit that will improve your brand and increase your connection with your supporters? Check out our article New Facebook for NFPs, published on our sister site for more tips and tricks on using the platform to boost your results!

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Harness the Power of the Internet to Source Your Volunteers

Without volunteers, it would be impossible to advance your mission and make a true difference in the lives of others. Finding enough talent can be difficult, especially if you are a small to mid-sized nonprofit with limited resources. Use these tips to boost your online recruiting efforts.

Build a Strong Facebook Presence

If you haven’t already done so, encourage your existing staff, volunteers, board members and other supporters to connect with your NFP on its Facebook page. Post a good mix of content, on a regular basis, to raise awareness about your cause.

While articles and longer posts typically do well on Facebook, make sure that you are keeping things interesting by posting emotionally stirring images and videos. Take care to ensure that the stories that you share are moving, but are also focused on a clear purpose, and in alignment with your NFP’s values, mission and goals. Share the results of studies and other research that illustrates the need that you are trying to meet in your community. Create infographics to make statistics and other results more relatable and meaningful to your supporters.

Encourage interaction by promptly responding to any likes and comments. Conduct a poll or host a contest on your Facebook page to generate additional interest in your nonprofit and its work.

Once you’ve built an online community of supporters with your Facebook page, some individuals might simply read your posts and become interested in joining in. Taking a more active role, however, will help increase your recruiting results. Let your followers know about openings in your volunteer program in your posts.

Encourage your existing volunteers to share their experiences in the program on your Facebook page. Create posts that recognise and reward your current volunteers for their hard work. Engaging with your volunteers and other supporters on Facebook not only boosts your recruiting, but can also improve your relationships with members, donors, advocates and other stakeholders!

Create Your Own Online Database of Potential Volunteers

How easy is it for your supporters to sign-up to volunteer? Simplify the process by posting an easy to fill out online form on your NFP website. This form should collect their contact information, availability, and the pertinent details of their skills and experience. Save this information in a database that will allow you to search for volunteers based on their abilities so that you can quickly find a match.

Segment your volunteers based on skills, age, location and other demographics. Try to create opportunities that will match each segment. By making it easier for anyone to join in and help, you generate more significant interest in your work. This increases the chance that your supporters will come back for more opportunities to assist in their communities.

Create Short-Term Tasks

Think about the volunteer opportunities that are available with your organisation. Break down duties and tasks and create some “micro-jobs” that can be completed quickly, and online, where possible. This makes it a lot easier for people that are busy and crunched for time to pitch-in virtually for just a few moments. Post these opportunities on your own site, as well as third-party apps to increase awareness about these types of opportunities to connect with your organisation.

Once someone has completed a few smaller jobs, they may be more inclined to make room in their schedules for positions that require a commitment of more time. They may also become more willing to volunteer on-site in addition to their online service.

Use Third-Party Apps

There are a host of sites that seek to match potential volunteers with nonprofits. Vollie is an Australian company that matches volunteers with specific skill sets and certifications with the nonprofits that need help from individuals with specialised backgrounds. It allows anyone in the world to connect with a nonprofit that needs their specific talents and experience, with tasks being completed online. The duties that these volunteers perform are quite diverse, from answering calls to providing expert advice..

The Taproot Foundation is another third party that’s connecting experienced volunteers with nonprofits, although the opportunities that they offer may need to be completed either online, or onsite at the nonprofit’s facilities or other designated physical location.

Make Engagement Easy

One of the most straightforward ways to support your recruiting efforts online is often overlooked. Keep in mind that the easier it is for your supporters to interact with your nonprofit online, the simpler it will be for you to create an engaged, vibrant, online community that supports your work by volunteering, advocating, and donating to your cause! Take the time to update your website on a regular basis! Make sure that it loads easily, is effortless to navigate and has been optimised for mobile to ensure that engaging with your NFP is a fast and fun experience!

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How to Maximise Single Volunteer Events

One of the hottest trends in volunteering today is single day events. Australia Day and National Volunteer Week are two of the many annual events that inspire thousands to help others by donating their time, energy and talents to others! This type of volunteering allows people that are passionate about your cause to act on your behalf for a very short span of time. While single day events are very popular now, even donating as little as a a day, or just a few hours of time, can provide a significant boost to NFPs!

Like other forms of volunteering, one-day events raise awareness about the needs in your community and help your NFP make a real difference! Use these tips to make the most of these events!

Divide the Work

To make the most of a single day, and a crowd of volunteers, you will need to divide the workload up into a series of specific tasks. Divide your volunteers into teams, and have a member of your staff lead each group to help them stay on top of their tasks for the day.

Manage Work and Teams with Event Apps

Use event apps to help you keep track of the number of tasks, and hours, worked by individuals and groups of volunteers. In addition to making it easy to keep up with the contributions made by your single day volunteers, many apps will sync with social media channels, making it easy to give shout outs and offer recognition for work, and, issue challenges to others to pitch in, do their part and join in the fun!

Create a Sense of Belonging

Help your volunteers get into the spirit of things by giving participants a specially themed t-shirt or other swag that commemorates your single day service event, and helps them feel a part of your organisation and its community!

Connect Your Volunteers to One Another and Other Opportunities

Create a member directory, or, provide an online forum where volunteers can connect with one another and your organisation long after the event is over. By giving your volunteers a way to keep in touch, you further strengthen your bonds with them and your organisation, and help them feel more engaged with one another and your work, which is crucial to convincing them to volunteer again and continue supporting your work.

Know the Why

Want to keep your single day volunteers coming back for more opportunities to support your organisation? Discover their “why.” There is a reason why each volunteer chooses to donate their time to a specific cause, and it’s your job to learn this reason. Once you know it, you are more able to create a customised program that helps each volunteer meet this specific need.

It could be something simple like altruistic leanings and you are simply the closest nonprofit to their home, or, it could be something personal, such as sharing something in common with a founder, or, even one of your service recipients.

Whether someone has volunteered for just one day, or even for a longer period, once you know someone’s reason for volunteering, take the time to save this information in their volunteer profile. Mark this alongside their contact information, and list of skills, talents and preferences. This way, you can make them aware of new opportunities to volunteer with your organisation in the future, as well as be able to best match them to tasks and duties should they continue their support.

Give them a Purpose

To remain motivated throughout the day, volunteers need work that is meaningful to them. Help them stay energised by giving them a sense of purpose. Look for ways to connect tasks to the mission and help them keep the bigger picture top of mind. When assigning tasks, let your volunteers know precisely how that task benefits your service community.

Don’t Bore Them!

Avoid pigeonholing your volunteers into one or two repetitive tasks that they do over and over. Look for ways to add variety and spontaneity to their activities. Of course, there will always be tasks that are routine and that must be done more than once. However, you can help your volunteers break up the monotony.

Set Measurable Goals

All of us work harder, and better, when we have something to strive towards. That’s why its so important to give your volunteers a clearly defined, realistic goal at the start, even if they will be with you for only one day!

Don’t Forget to Say Thanks!

Once your volunteer has completed their work for the day, don’t forget to express your gratitude! In addition to saying thank you in person, post a list of your volunteers on your website, along with the results of their work! One way to show just how much work you were able to accomplish by having everyone join in and take part is to shoot some video or take candid pics of your volunteers in action. Be sure to capture clear before and after shots to show just how much difference was made during your single day of service event to encourage others to join in next time!

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Invest In Your NFP Today

Operating from a scarcity mindset often leads nonprofits to shortchange their future. It is true that there is a limit to nearly every resource imaginable, and it’s also true that nonprofit boards need to be wise stewards of the resources that they have. Your sole focus, however, shouldn’t only be on the resources that you have, and what it will cost to deploy them.

Adopt a Long-Term Outlook Rather than Focusing on Short-Term Gains

When this is your mindset, it becomes very tempting to justify your NFP’s expenditures by spending the bulk of your revenue on increasing the number of services and projects offered to the community. Instead of spreading yourself too thin, why not look for ways to increase your NFP’s efficiency and effectiveness, and enhance the quality of the core services that you already provide? It is time to invest at least some of your revenues in expanding your NFP’s ability to meet the needs of your community.

Ways to Invest in Your NFP Now

The following three strategies can help you invest in your NFP to encourage future strength and growth.

Training and Development

If you want your organisation to be powered by exceptional people that exceed expectations and deliver excellent results, then you must spend the time, money and effort necessary to train and develop them!

Leadership training and other professional development programs enable your staff to learn new skills so that your organisation has knowledgeable in-house experts to help your organisation overcome obstacles that might derail your NFP’s progress.

Update Your Technology and Actually Put it to Use!

Outdated technology hinders performance in a myriad of ways. From delays due to lost information because of computer crashes, to the inability to track and manage donor relationships, continuing to use old technology is typically more expensive than the price to upgrade when long-term costs are factored into the equation.

Upgrading your accounting software to one that’s specially designed for nonprofit use, such as Admin Bandit, and deploying newer technology, like optimising your blog for mobile users, simplifies and speeds up your processes. This one step also increases the accuracy and security of your information, making it easier to create records and reports. This will allow you to make more informed decisions and create more effective strategies.

Short on Funding? Increase Your Marketing Budget!

Building your brand, discovering what content is meaningful to your audience and learning your donor’s needs and preferences are just a few of the critical actions nonprofits must take to increase the results of their fundraising campaigns. Increasing your marketing budget makes fundraising easier and more effective. It’s also the first item in the budget that’s cut back on during difficult times. Instead of falling into this trap, look at ways to increase your funding so you have more to put back in your marketing budget!

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Let Your Mission Statement Do the Talking

The problems that you are trying to solve, and the work that your NFP does in your community, defines why your organisation exists. Your organisation’s values, what you stand for, believe in, and are passionate about, define who you are. When creating your NFP’s mission, you should take elements from both to create a statement that inspires you, your team, and your other supporters to make a positive difference.

The following suggestions can help you create a mission statement that motivates your stakeholders and community to work with your organisation for the good of everyone! Additional tips are included to help you use your new mission statement for the best effect.

Develop Your Mission

When creating your mission, you should think about both your values and your vision for your organisation. To do this, you need to first clearly define the problems or issues that your NFP wants to solve, along with the steps that you will take to achieve your mission.

Don’t just talk about what you want to do but think about the way that you want to accomplish your objectives. What actions are in keeping with your values, and which aren’t? How do you expect to treat your supporters and others in your community? Define the lines that you won’t cross.

Both Vision and Values Influence the Mission

Once you have your NFP’s value and vision clearly in focus, you can then begin to write your mission statement. If you are still having a hard time connecting with what it is that you do, and why your organisation and its work matters, consider surveying your service beneficiaries, along with your staff, volunteers, donors, and other stakeholders. Find out from them what they think of when they hear your organisation’s name.

Start a Fire with Your Mission

Choose your words carefully when defining your mission. As you read over your statement, you should find that it stirs your emotions and makes you, and others, want to get to work addressing the issues that you want to solve. It should serve as a rallying point for everyone connected to your organisation.

If your statement doesn’t move you and  compel you to act, it’s missing something. This something is likely connected to your vision and values, so think of ways to let this shine through more clearly when you rewrite your statement.

Revise, Review and Ask for Feedback

Before you release your new mission statement to the world, review it for any mistakes or contradictions. Go back and talk with some of the stakeholders that you initially surveyed and ask them if it captures the heart and soul of what your NFP is all about. Be open to suggestions and make revisions as necessary.

Align Your Team with Your Mission

Once you have written an inspiring mission statement, it’s time to put it to good use. You will want to publish your mission statement in your “about” section of your blog, and, include it in the appropriate, designated sections of your essential publications, documents, and grant applications.

It’s also important to take steps to get your staff, volunteers and other supporters to align with your mission. When others are in alignment with your NFP’s mission, it means that everyone is focusing their efforts and working together towards a common objective.

Failing to align your team with your mission leads to a lot of wasted time, effort and other resources, making it much harder to achieve any of your goals.

Alignment is the Result of Effective Leadership

Aligning your team with your mission comes down to how effective your organisation’s leadership is, at every level. Just like culture, the mission statement is defined by leadership. It is up to your leaders to model your NFP’s vision and values, making sure that their talk matches their actions and is true to the mission statement. Leaders then can speak to others from a position of authenticity and honesty, which is especially important when they hold others accountable to achieving the mission.

Communication is the Key to Alignment

Leadership should communicate your mission to the rest of the team, so that your staff, volunteers and other stakeholders know what’s at stake, and how their work specifically contributes to advancing the mission forward.

Conduct periodic surveys with your staff, volunteers and other stakeholders to see what they think about the mission statement and whether it is an accurate reflection of how they experience their connection with your organisation. If there’s a disconnect there, it’s a good idea to ask questions to learn what areas your NFP needs to address to bring the organisation, and its culture, in closer alignment with the mission.

Keep Your Core Mission Top of Mind

As time goes on and the number and types of services that you offer grows, it’s easy for leadership and other stakeholders to become distracted. Take steps to help everyone keep the mission at the forefront of their thoughts and actions.

Make Your Mission Measurable, and Meaningful on a Personal Level

Hold periodic meetings to remind your team of the mission. Tie in goals and the evaluation of your team’s group and individual performance to advancing the mission. Show how important your mission is by tying compensation, bonuses, recognition and perks to how well your team members advance the mission.

Distractions from Your Core Mission Weaken Performance

Reduce distractions by using your mission as the yardstick by which you measure proposals. If a program or service isn’t really advancing your purpose, it’s probably something that you want to at least think about reducing, eliminating, or perhaps partnering with a third party to provide. Keep the spotlight on your core mission and increase your efficiency and effectiveness in the process.

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How Your Blog Can Help Your Nonprofit

If you want to build authentic relationships that lead to increased loyalty and participation, then you need to be present in the same place as your supporters, and, be a part of their conversations. Blogging is an easy way to accomplish this task.

According to statistics provided by blogging.org, there were nearly seven million blogs in 2016. Blogger, one of the most popular blog creation sites, has over 47 million unique visitors to its blogs each month. It’s also been shown that organisations that blog generate 67% more leads, and views, than those who do not have a blog and fail to post regularly.  

This data perfect illustrates exactly why blogging is the perfect platform for nonprofits to engage with others. It’s the one online location where many of your potential supporters already happen to be!

Nonprofits that blog regularly benefit from the following advantages.

Build Trust in Your NFP’s Brand

When you share your knowledge with others through your blog posts, you quickly become a reliable source of information for those that share your values and are interested in the issues your cause is trying to address.

Establishing trust is essential, because, when others view you as trustworthy, they are more likely to become supporters and take action to help. This is true whether that action is jumping on board as a volunteer or advocate, or making a financial contribution that enables you to continue our work.

Once someone makes the conversion from being just another visitor to the site to becoming an actual supporter, they are also more likely to share your posts with others and help spread the message about the issues and the change that you are trying to create.

Keep Your Supporters Updated

What’s the best way to get the word out about important information that supports your nonprofit and its supporters? The answer really does depend on what you are trying to say.

For example, Twitter tweets are a great way to send out a reminder, or a quick alert about an upcoming event. Instagram is an ideal way to illustrate your nonprofit’s impact visually, and Facebook is awesome to share posts that ultimately increase traffic to your site and generate discussions about your latest happenings.

Blogs, by design, are really the best place to post your lengthy content. Create posts that give the details about the progress you are making, or that offers an insider’s view of the work performed by your volunteers and other supporters. It can even be a superb way to increase transparency when you discuss the actions your NFP is taking to create solutions or your success in obtaining funding for specific projects.

Raise Awareness

Blogging will also generate interest in your cause because it’s an organic way to find new supporters. Not only will your website rank higher in search engine results, but, when your blog has been created directly within your NFP’s website, every time someone shares one of your blog posts, they are sending their friends to a direct gateway to your NFP. Once they arrive at your site, it’s then easier to direct them to even more content where they can learn more about your cause and what they need to do to help!

With the exception of time, blogging requires very few resources. However, it can offer great rewards to those who put in the effort to create interesting content that is relevant to your visitors and encourages them to directly interact with your nonprofit!

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Use These Hot NFP Hashtags on Social Media

You may have spotted more than a smattering of hashtags on social media and perhaps thought they didn’t apply to you or your NFP. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. If you are not using your hashtags on social media to your advantage, then it is time to make a change.

Hashtags are easily created by adding the sign ‘#’ before a word or group of words to enhance your marketing. Your hashtag creations can then be used freely across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. It is a great way to group all of your relevant posts together. They can be particularly beneficial for fundraisers and events and can bring individuals together on one topic all through the use of a well-selected hashtag.

The posts can be viewed independently on your social media feeds or all together on your specific hashtag feed. So just to clarify, if you have created a hashtag called #FridayFundraise as an example, then you click on the hashtag and see all the posts which are connected through the use of that hashtag.

So how do you know which hashtags to use? Well, it must be relevant to you. While piggy backing on other trends will get you noticed, it is more beneficial to start your own hashtags. Keyhole can be a useful tool for research purposes.

If you consider the nature of your business, here are some suggestions. If you use these alongside your own personalised hashtags, you will increase your reach.

• #donate
• #causes
• #volunteer
• #change
• #philanthropy
• #nonprofit
• #charity
• #fundraising

Have a play around with them and see which ones bring the most appeal. Don’t be scared to add a handful to each post to get you started. This will add real meaning to your posts.

Once you get the hang of it, then you will be more confident to create your own. Use clever words or phrases such as #dogood or #spotlightonvolunteers or specific locations such as #yourcity. There is no right or wrong way to use them, except if you fail to use them at all. While you don’t have to use hashtags in every post, sprinkling them in every two or three posts will help you spread your message and keep up with current trends. #goodluck

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Is It Time For A Reputation Health Check?

The NFP industry requires charities and non-profits to be transparent in their actions. This transparency puts a large amount of focus on trust, confidence and the reputation of the charity as a whole. Often the donor requests and fundraising successes rest wholeheartedly on the reputation of the charity, and there is a lot of competition in the industry to garner support, especially from the larger organisations.

NFPs that tend to be successful in their charitable efforts can not only demonstrate their best practice governance but also communicate it effectively. All NFPs and even for-profit businesses need to manage their reputation on a regular basis. It is critical to the successful operation of the non-profit and to develop positive connections with stakeholders, donors, members, government bodies and the general public.

What exactly is reputation management?

Reputation management covers the building up and the monitoring of your brand through your efforts in media promotion and marketing. A health check enables you to look at your marketing efforts and responses to understand where your vulnerabilities lie and where you can further develop your promotional opportunities.

Auditing for risk is something that every business should do on a regular basis. It is better to create forward plans rather than panic when an issue occurs, and your organisation is forced into crisis mode. Draft out some scenarios and work out some helpful strategies that will enable you to be able to control the outcome more closely.

From a social media perspective, while it is easier to communicate directly with donors and supporters, it is also easier for NFPs to be targeted with negative comments, whether fair or irrational. Knowing this is half the battle.

How do people perceive your business?

How do stakeholders view your NFP? How does the general public see your business? Are you different from other charities working in a similar field? If you are not able to answer these questions, then you may be missing value opportunities for your NFP to safeguard and develop your brand. Talk to your donors and sponsor to get real insights on your efforts to help you develop more effective strategies and marketing efforts for the long-term. Your ability to not be able to effectively understand your competitors can also affect you negatively. Know where your strengths are to be able you to stand out from the crowd and gain the confidence of the general public.

How can you manage your online reputation?

Here are some tips to help you manage your online reputation.

• Be objective when it comes to your website. Consider whether it is easy to navigate or find relevant information. Are the contact details up to date and accessible?
• Review your social media and online strategies. Let employees and volunteers know what they can and cannot do on social media.
• How is your organisation represented on third party websites? Do a search and see where you can improve your profiles and online representations.
• Allow plenty of opportunities for members, interested stakeholders, volunteers and employees to give you regular feedback.
• Set up alerts to monitor the internet for organisational content so you can keep on top of who might be saying what.

Once you understand how your NFP is seen, you can then make steps to direct the chatter. Be proactive with your efforts so you can ensure your organisation can fulfill its mission and ultimately increase support and contributions from others.

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The Importance of Story Telling in your Marketing Campaigns

We see it time and time again. Costly PR campaigns are created and fail to gain an emotional connection with their viewers.

If you want to increase your donor funds and gain more supporters, it is imperative you tell a story that connects with your readers. Simple facts, while interesting, are just not good enough for today’s modern donors.

It doesn’t matter which way you turn; you will be undoubtedly bombarded with marketing. Magazine ads, newspaper ads, billboards, bus station advertising, television advertising, radio advertising – all of these ads are fighting for your attention. Which campaigns are you likely to remember? The one that tells a story – the one that has something to say – the one that isn’t trying to sell you a product but rather an experience.

Using storytelling to represent your brand allows your audience to see behind the scenes. It takes them past the desks of the marketers and into the lives of the volunteers making a real difference in society. You can be more than just a name or a brand – you can show your human side to draw them in and elicit an emotion. This is a wonderful way to gain customer loyalty, especially in the long term. Your audience is after an authentic story that resonates with them – they want to be part of an organisation that really makes a difference.

As you define your brand through clever storytelling, you can also give it a personality. This personality should, of course, be representative of your overall mission and values. It is through your storytelling that you can develop and build on a relationship with your target audience. Those that feel a bond with your brand will not only give; they will in all likelihood be wonderful advocates for your NFP and share your information with friends and family.

Stories also stick in our memories the most. Remember all those fairy tales and nursery rhymes with moral messages at the end? Of course you do – stories stay with us, over and above everything else.

So go out there and tell your story. Creativity above everything else is a must in your next PR or marketing campaign. The power of words can be truly magical.

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