Why You Need to Invest in Digital Now

The Situation

Many nonprofit staff members have trouble getting their leadership on board with a digital marketing plan. Implementing a new marketing strategy can be tough for any nonprofit, particularly for the board members who have a fiduciary responsibility to the company, but simply saying you don’t want to try it isn’t the way to go about it. It is the mindset that is important. Do you want your organization to be sustainable and ultimately to grow?  

Why Digital?

We have been encouraging nonprofit leaders for seven years that digital is the future, but it boils down to where people’s attention is. Today, we are online, we Google things, we are on mobile, on Facebook, on Instagram and we live in our email inbox. This is the world we live in. Marketing is putting a message where people’s attention is. A great marketer pays attention to this as it changes over time and right now the attention is on digital. 

How to Convince Your Leadership

First, you must realize how your leadership makes decisions. Are they data-driven? Show them online analytics of past campaigns that have run for similar nonprofits. Does emotion drive them? Tell them the story of a nonprofit’s mission, the tactics they used, and how it worked for them. They should also know that it does not have to be a massive annual budget line item right out of the gate. Run a small test. It might not work perfectly the first time, but what your team can learn from the results is just as valuable.

Technology is not slowing down. Digital is the most scalable channel for most organizations and there are so many stories of nonprofits that have done that well. Organizations not investing or learning how to do digital well are truly putting their organization’s health at risk in the next three to five years. Show the team your vision and where you want to take the organization. Once they see that, it’s up to you to execute.

Cameron Ripley