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Marketing ideas for charity organisations

by Cringer
9 replies
Hi all,

I am looking into the idea of working with charity organisations on a voluntary basis and was curious to know whether any of you Offliners have worked with charities and if so, what were you able to do for them?

I've thought about things like:
Facebook fan page
Twitter account
Sell seasonal gifts "holiday baskets" that could have been donated from local businesses and thus keep the profits
Create an email newsletter and keep doners upto date on latest news
Have an "auction" for donated products?
Organise charity runs with local schools - clothing - books etc
organise celebrity event where they come and give a talk - sell tickets...
Associate with certain organisations - target doners (golf clubs for example)

Online ideas:
Google Places account creation
Optimise site
Kind of stuck here...



Really looking forward to your ideas. Charity begins at home
#charity #ideas #ideas or suggestions #marketing #organisations
  • Profile picture of the author John Callaghan
    Last winter I helped organize a fund raising event for a local charity. They are a free healthcare clinic located in an underprivileged part of the city. Most of their patients are homeless. One of their biggest challenges is being able to afford medication for patients that needed long term help (e.g., diabetics)

    The event was a concert at a local church. First we created an overall campaign theme and lined up a celebrity singer. We built a website that accepted ticket orders and donations (through paypal). Next we put announcements into church bulletins within 25 miles of the event to drive traffic to the site.

    We had to be careful not to oversell it because the church only had room for 300 people. The night of the concert...we filled the place and raised enough money to provide a full year of medication to 150 homeless people.

    Next time we'll find a bigger church for the concert and raise even more money...
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    • Profile picture of the author Cringer
      Hi John,

      Thanks for sharing that story. A bigger church is definately needed for the next one
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  • Profile picture of the author Alessandro Zamboni
    Hi Cringer, in my life I worked only with a Tibetan charity organization.
    All what I did was first doing and promoting pins on eBay, then I gave all the earnings to them.

    You can get a lot of help diffusing their message on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg and so on.
    People loves to help for charity organizations, so you can get some help, opening for example a Facebook Page.

    See you,
    Alessandro
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  • Profile picture of the author Digital Traffic
    I would establish a web site for the charity that utilizes affiliate marketing.

    Build a shopping page on it that is loaded with all types of affiliate marketing. Ebay, Amazon, Office Max, Netflix, Home Depot, Walmart, etc.. The more the better.

    By every vendor ad, make a small blurb about what percentage of the sale is going to support the charity.

    Create a e-mail list of their supporters and let them know that by using the charity's web site to begin the buying process and with every purchase made through the site, the charity receives a percentage of the transaction.

    Have your charity and it's supporters start spreading the word through other charities, friends, family, facebook, press releases, word-of-mouth, etc.
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    • Profile picture of the author balrog92
      have you considered using a website such as getmemedia.com. they offer advertins solutions and sponsorship ideas.

      I've used them in the past and they helped me create a buzz for my graphic design business around my local community.
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  • Profile picture of the author geegel
    Pretty sound advice here. One extra, worth mentioning, is to contact the local schools and ask if they wish to get involved. Maybe the children could organize a concert singing carols, sell tickets to it and the donations would come from their parents.

    From my experience, people involved in education are very much charity oriented, especially if the cause touches them. It's definitely worth a try.

    Hope this helps.

    Regards,
    George
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    • Profile picture of the author JamieSEO
      Building or revamping their website is a big one.

      One of the most successful campaigns I ran was a dual online/offline one.

      It was titled "donate an hour" and I marketed it based on each person involved being able to choose between donating either one hour of their time, or if they were too busy, one hour of their pay.

      This worked extremely well because I didn't really offer a third option... rather than a "please donate", it was more of a "so will that be time or cash?" approach

      The key to this type of campaign is to contact a bunch of your local businesses (especially larger office based businesses) and get just one person from that business to be as enthused about the idea as you are.

      Peer pressure tends to then come into play and the office environment will help spread the word.

      If you approach it from more of a sales perspective you will do better. The attitude that works is "I know you want to help out, so here is how you can" - then throw the time or money options at them.

      BTW - The campaign I am talking about was to raise funds for a minibus for handicapped students

      I genuinely believe that most people want to help out charities, but just don't have the time, the cash or are not sure how. If you give them a clear map of what they can do they are more likely to contribute.
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      • Profile picture of the author ileneg
        Originally Posted by JamieSEO View Post

        One of the most successful campaigns I ran was a dual online/offline one.

        It was titled "donate an hour" and I marketed it based on each person involved being able to choose between donating either one hour of their time, or if they were too busy, one hour of their pay.

        This worked extremely well because I didn't really offer a third option... rather than a "please donate", it was more of a "so will that be time or cash?" approach
        Love that JamieSEO!

        Marketing. It's not really all that different for non-profit organizations than it is for for-profit businesses. Many of the same or similar strategies can be used. You need to tell people about your cause and ask for their help.

        ileneg
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  • Profile picture of the author lanbo
    It's worth a try, go for it
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