All that glitters is not gold. Likewise, all advertisements do not aim to sell products. Non-profit advertisements are that type of commercial.
Unlike other corporate entities, non-profit or charity organizations do not sell products to make money. It doesn’t work like that, sorry. They mainly pull off their campaigns and other activities through donations, grants, and charities.
As you have come to read this blog, it’s safe to assume you are new to this world of non-profit. Say you have some business with this world. For example, you want to start a nonprofit organization, donate to one, or simply plan to work with one. You have then probably come across the term “Non-profit advertisements”.
If you are trying to know about this “oxymoronic” term in detail, let me tell you that you have come to the right place. Let me give you a tour of the ins and outs, ups and downs of nonprofit advertisements in this blog.
Defining Non-Profit Advertisement
Nonprofit advertisements are not your typical 20 feet billboard or tv commercial breaks. They are quite unorthodox types of commercials. Unlike mainstream advertisements, they do not aim to sell products or bring you profits.
No profit, no promotion, no sales, then what’s the point of nonprofit advertisements? They mainly work to carry out the activities and the message of non-profit organizations. But whatever may be the communication, their aim is always to grab the attention of potential donors, trustees, and volunteers.
Every day billions of dollars are spent on corporate advertisements on billboards, tv commercials, and so on. But nonprofit advertisements are very much different from all these. Their aim is not to sell products, nor do they intend to promote any service. Their main goal is to ensure the funding of their nonprofit works and activities. They do all these by diverting donors to their cause. Of course, they do all these through their advertisements.
Names of Some of the Largest Non-Profit Organizations
According to Largest.org, these are the top 10 giants in the nonprofit world:
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Welcome Trust
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Garfield Weston Foundation
- Ford Foundation
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation
- Stichting INGKA Foundation
- Azim Premji Foundation
- Lilly Endowment
- Kamehameha Schools
Take A Glance At the Role Models
Here are some excellent examples of non-profit advertisements from leading organizations in the field:
WWF: #Endangered Emoji
WWF, or World Wild Fund for Nature launched their emoji-based campaign in 2015 for endangered species around the world. The campaign was meant for gathering support for their goal to ensure the habitat of endangered species around the world.
UNICEF: Tap Project
Launched in 2007, it was a statewide initiative called the UNICEF Tap Project aimed to raise funds for providing children in underdeveloped countries access to safe and clean water.
WaterAid: Give a Shit
WaterAid launched an unorthodox campaign in 2015 through their app that lets you customize your “shit”, emoji, and share it with others. This app was launched on World Toilet Day, for bringing attention to the global sanitation crisis that affects around 2 billion people in the world.
Types of Non-Profit Advertisements
Just like profit-making commercials, nonprofit advertisements too have some types among them:
Ad Within Ad
These advertisements are generally embedded into other regular advertisement. They are programmed to request donations from potential donors while they are purchasing another regular product.
Say you are filthy rich (!) and purchasing a luxury product. In between the transaction, you see a proposal of donating money to a charity for flood victims. Hope you get an idea of what I’m trying to say here.
Transactional Advertisement
Nonprofit organizations often cut partnership deals with typical corporate entities. Then they motivate the customers to buy the products in order to support their cause.
For example, every winter Vaseline runs a campaign in Bangladesh. It is named “The Healing Project”, urging people to buy their petroleum jelly. In return, they promise to spend a portion of their profits on people living under the poverty line who do not have access to warm clothes.
Classic Social Media Advertising
Social media is now a definitive platform for advertising purposes. It will be a classic move to exploit this for your non-profit ads.
Nowadays, advertising on Facebook is much more optimized than before. You can choose your targeted audience and their residence area. You can even set a specific budget for your ads. So finding out possible donors can be done in a more efficient way through social media campaigns.
The Influence Mechanism
Influencers will promote your cause as long as they get paid. You can take the better of this chance. Many nonprofit organizations use influencers on social media to promote their cause to possible donors.
Influencers are usually public figures with a lot of followers on their accounts. When you advertise with influencers, the credibility of your organization automatically goes up. Because the donors already trust the influencer, who will be speaking out on your behalf.
Email It
Last but not least, another classic way of marketing remains email marketing. Nonprofit organizations use this technique on a regular basis. By email marketing, you can reach the person you are targeting for your donations. In the email, you can describe your cause to them and encourage them to fund your cause.
5 Rules To Follow in Non-Profit Advertising
Of course, rules are made to be broken. Then again, who are we without them?
Let’s explore some ground rules for nonprofit advertising:
1. Stand Firm on Legal Grounds
Yes, your advertisements are different from regular product-selling ads. But remember you are advertising to gather donations. So, in simple words, you are trying to collect money. And as the famous Chinese philosopher said, “Where there is money, there are legal bindings.”
So be sure of what legal grounds you have to cover before running such advertisements. Because no one wants to hand over their hard-earned money to the government for a silly legal mistake.
2. Don’t Fool Around with Your Audience
Always be clear to your donors about your course of action.
If you are collecting a donation, tell them how it is being collected, the exact amount of donation, and how you will use it for your cause. If you are doing a transactional advertisement, say what percentage of the transaction/profit goes to the deprived people. Whatever may be your intention or plan, inform them clearly.
3. Remember, You Are Not Here to Sell
This is one of the most crucial points to remember for nonprofit advertisements. Marketing veterans always prefer storytelling over sales pitches. This point is more applicable to nonprofit advertisements.
Though you are doing this to collect money in a broader sense, your approach should be totally different from typical selling advertisements. Always keep in mind that you are collecting donations, not selling products or services. So, tell stories to your donors instead of pitching like salesmen.
4. Keep Up with Social Media
Sure most people use social media for fooling around and sharing their unsolicited opinions. Although social media are unavoidable platforms for promoting your nonprofit advertisements. Some even hire digital marketing agencies to run and plan their advertisements. But before you hire one, you should know about these 5 things. So while running your campaigns, remember to target your potential donors on social media too.
5. Tax! Tax! Tax!
Beware of taxes! As I said before, nobody likes to lose their hard-earned money to the government, especially to the tax department. Again, you also don’t want to be a tax fraud criminal. So what to do then?
Before collecting money from your donors, consult with your legal advisor about tax-related procedures. If you can avoid paying taxes against the donation money, try your best to avoid it. Otherwise, fill out your taxes. Whatever you do among these, be prepared and acknowledged.
Non-Profit Advertising and Public Service Advertising (PSA); Same or Different?
Both of these have the essence of “NO PROFIT”. Though they sound almost the same, their purposes are quite different.
Public service announcements, or PSAs, are typically shown on TV without charge. These are mostly run on tv channels by the government itself to inform the public about any issues. A TV network must grant a time-slot request from a PSA sponsor. A price is often imposed when the station agrees to air the PSA.
In the case of nonprofit advertisements, sure they do not want to sell products to you. But unlike PSAs, these advertisements have financial motives. Nonprofit advertisements are mainly run for gathering donations or promoting the cause of a nonprofit organization.
One is totally different from the other in the application. PSAs can not be used to raise charity or donations. Likewise, nonprofit advertisements don’t aim to work for the awareness of people.
Nonprofit Advertisements Budget
Your ideas would not mean a thing if you don’t have the money to bankroll them. It is as important to keep the budget in mind as the idea.
Before all, create a clear budget for your advertisements, aka, your marketing campaigns. Creating a budget will bring you three benefits:
- A definitive budget will help to determine your marketing goals
- An efficient budget will keep your board members happy and
- A transparent budget plan will maintain transparency with the donors
So create a working budget plan, optimize it, and share it with your board members as well as benefactors.
Goodbye
Just because nonprofit advertisements do not sell products, do not think they do not carry any importance or they are very easy to conduct. In my opinion, these advertisements are just as important as regular ones, and more crucial in some cases.
A well-targeted nonprofit advertisement can bring you significant outcomes. Particularly for an organization that is trying to increase its influence, nonprofit advertising is a crucial component of any organization’s overall marketing plan.
Hope this blog was enough to educate you well about nonprofit advertisements. Best wishes!
