Building a Nonprofit's Online Presence
These days, everyone is online. And if your nonprofit isn’t online, it should be! It’s easy, cheap and one of the best ways to stay engaged with your supporters. Here are five things we think every nonprofit should be doing online.
1. Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr. All of these are free for you to use, so why not? They are a fun, interactive way to communicate with your supporter base (who—spoiler alert—are already spending all their time on these platforms anyway). People love to promote causes they care about on Facebook especially, so make sure your cause is in the mix!
2. Online Fundraising: Online fundraising is a zillion times cheaper than other forms of fundraising. And many times, all it takes is adding a link to your website where people can donate. The trick is, you need to make sure that link is visible and easily accessible to people.
3. Website: These days, everyone has a website, so don’t get left behind! Gone are the days of websites costing thousands of dollars to build. There are tons of really cost effective platforms out there that allow you to host your site and even design it in a fun and creative way.
4. Online Supporters: Building online supporters is key to both online fundraising and online advocacy. And since everyone is online, you should be building a base of support online as well! There are a few ways you can do this. First, you can use your social media sites to increase your followers. Second, you can take advantage of online petition tools like Change.org and Care2 to promote an issue that is important to your cause. This will help you gain supporters who are specifically interested in the cause you represent. Once you have a small base of supporters, you should be sending out regular email communication to keep these supporters engaged.
5. Online advertising: Online advertising is incredibly cost-effective and really easy to manage. From Facebook ads to Google search ads, you can start out simple and expand to more advanced ads as you grow. Using online ads to bring in more supporters and/or to raise money is a great way to take advantage of the tools available these days. Learn more tips and strategies by downloading our free advocacy e-book below: