Marketing and Visibility

Raising awareness and recruiting volunteers take a significant amount of planning time when done correctly. When engaging community members, it’s important to have a strategy behind your interaction. If the audience is interested in volunteering or making a donation, the presenter needs to be prepared with upcoming participatory opportunities. Additionally, putting time into developing eye-catching promotional materials is an investment in recruitment and awareness. Canva.com is a great, free resource for people who don’t have advanced graphic design skills.

What informs the creation of a marketing and visibility strategic plan? Knowing what further support an organization needs and where present community relations stand. Solicit the support of organizational leadership in crafting a message, and take advantage of input from seasoned volunteers. Personal relationships or widespread surveys can be leveraged to gain an understanding of wider community perception regarding a particular organization or program.

Organizational visibility is most easily achieved through educational outreach efforts. These may be presentations to local schools, boards, and community groups. They may be promotional flyers posted in high-traffic areas with eye-catching graphics on what population an organization is serving. Is decreasing stigma an organizational goal? A successful nonprofit marketing campaign can use statistics to raise awareness about how many children, families, and elderly are suffering from hunger in the local community. Over 90% of surveyed Vashon Food Bank clients said that they would eat more fruits and veggies if price were not a concern. Such a statistic provided with an opportunity to help can increase collective awareness and participation. 

Explore where potential opportunities for increased marketing success exist. When promoting participation in a gleaning program, handouts will go far at a local Fruit or Gardening Club event. Local giving and service organizations such as Rotary have frequent meetings, and welcome guest presenters.