by Alice Sinden

Created on: October 20, 2007   Last Updated: December 01, 2007

Non-profit organizations cover a wide range of groups with a wider range of interests. Local, national and international non-profit organizations are a part of our lives, whether as funders, donors or clients.

Marketing to donors and potential donors includes public relations, media play, political endorsements, corporate and private presentations.

Define your non-profit:

- What is its purpose? Boil it down to a very short sentence or phrase,
preferably "catchy" and action-oriented. Help, achieve and reach are
good words. Stop, teach, relieve and train are also good words.

- Who/what does it benefit? Animals, children, youth, community, homeless
and hungry you get the idea. Your programs are your "features." What
those programs do/provide are your benefits.

- Where is its appeal to donors and potential donors? How will supporting
your organization look to their stockholders, employees and customers?
Will it make them look "caring" or intelligent, or provide "free"
benevolent advertising? Can you tie any of your features and benefits
to their corporate structure?

- Who/what are your clients? How can you make your clients your spokesperson
or poster child? Remember that if you deal in some type of human service,
your clients ARE human, and deserve to gain, retain and maintain their
dignity. Demographic information can provide the impetus to support your
non-profit.

Now that you've defined your agency, create a "fact sheet" about it and about each of its programs. You can either use these fact sheets by themselves, or turn them into brochures.

This is also a good time to evaluate your agency's fiscal responsibility. What share of your annual budget goes for administration? How much goes directly for program or client expenses? How accountable is your agency? Are there regular audits, both internal and external? Create at least two different fact sheets around this, one based on administrative costs, and the other(s) on program/client expenses.

Marketing to sole-source funders (usually federal, state or local) is vastly different and is primarily an "inside" function, based on how successful an organization is at meeting various goals and objectives specified by the funding source. Marketing in this situation relies on how you use and present the relevant information to the funders. You can use words and numbers to persuade the funder of your organization's ability to achieve the funder's stated goals and objectives.

Marketing to clients and potential clients (or

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