For those coming into the nonprofit world from corporate communications, perhaps the most perplexing realization is that most nonprofit communications teams don’t draft and manage their own budgets. But they should!

According to the 2024 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report, only 36% of nonprofit communications teams draft and manage their own budgets. Another 19% manage a budget given to them, but they do not create that budget.

Another third (35%) may be able to access funds controlled by others outside their team (17%) or “find” the money within the organization (18%).

We see that the most effective teams do draft and manage their own budgets; the least effective teams must find the money.

With respect to nonprofit communications team models, Internal Agency and Centralized teams are most likely to be responsible for drafting their own budgets.  Fundraising and CEO-led teams are most likely to have to find money or to say they have no access to funds.

The online search landscape is changing. A November 2023 study by HubSpot highlighted a shift towards social media over search engines for information, especially among younger audiences like Gen Z and Millennials. They go on to share that their Trends report shows 31% of consumers now use social platforms for finding information.

Another report from DataReportal stated that back in 2022, 75% of internet users used social media to research products, look for reviews, and recommendations. And another 27.9% used social media to find inspiration for things to do and buy. All signs and reports point to that number having increased today.

Social SEO, as a result, is now becoming as popular as traditional SEO once was. Unlike traditional SEO, which optimizes for search engines like Google and Bing, Social SEO focuses on making content visible on social platforms. It’s about making our content easier to find and ensuring it shows up in users’ feeds.

The American Marketing Association named Social SEO as one of the top six 2024 trends for marketers. This highlights how important Social SEO is for nonprofits like ours, especially as social media search and AI chatbots become more common.

So, what does optimizing social media platforms for search look like?

Top Tips for Enhancing Social SEO:

1. Tailoring content for each social platform.
2. Incorporating keywords and phrases relevant to your audience’s search habits.
3. Optimizing your social media profiles for SEO.
4. Using relevant hashtags to improve discoverability.
5. Analyzing and adapting content based on performance insights.
6. Using interactive campaigns to engage and inform.
7. Optimizing posts for visibility and search relevance.
8. Sharing high-quality, shareable content that aligns with your mission.

Now let’s see it in practice for mission-based organizations. Let’s take a look at some examples of Social SEO in action:

Optimizing Profiles for SEO

Example: A homeless shelter nonprofit enhancing its Facebook profile by including keywords such as “homeless support services” and “emergency shelter” in its bio section. They also link directly to their donation page and use a consistent naming convention across platforms to improve their searchability and brand recognition.

Optimizing Posts for Search Relevance

Example: A mental health nonprofit uses Instagram to share content that directly addresses common search queries, such as “how to cope with anxiety.” They include these phrases in their post captions and video content, making their posts more likely to be discovered by users seeking information on these topics.

Tailored Content for Each Platform

Example: A literacy nonprofit can share quick tips on Twitter/X, in-depth articles or long post content on LinkedIn, and visual testimonials on Instagram to connect with different segments of their audience.

Interactive Campaigns

Example: Hosting live Q&A sessions on social platforms to address common queries that come into the organization and encouraging followers to submit questions before, during, and after.

Strategic Hashtag Use

Example: An environmental nonprofit could increase content discoverability and connect with like-minded users by using targeted but somewhat mainstream hashtags such as #PlasticFreeOceans to connect with a targeted audience.

Engaging Visual Content

Example: Sharing compelling stories and images of rescued animals, an animal welfare nonprofit can use Instagram Stories or Facebook Live to boost engagement and visibility.

Community Building Through Engagement

Example: Fostering two-way conversation through comments and shares, to build deeper connections with your audience.

Befriend the Algorithms

The shift towards social media as a primary search tool offers nonprofits an invaluable opportunity to connect with their audience on a deeper level. By leveraging the unique strengths of each social platform and aligning your content strategy with your audience’s search behaviors, your nonprofit can significantly enhance its social SEO. The addition of strategic hashtag use, engaging visual content, and community building through engagement further enriches this approach, ensuring your nonprofit’s message not only reaches but resonates with the right audience.

With every hashtag, every shareable moment, and every community dialogue, we’re not just reaching audiences; we’re inviting them into our story. Stay curious, stay engaged, and let’s make every search a step towards new relationships and achieving your mission.

During our recent webinar on nonprofit editorial calendars, we discussed several ways to improve your current work.

Here are three tips for improving your nonprofit editorial calendar and how the webinar participants responded to our questions on each of these tips.

Know Which Content Drives the Rest of the Editorial Calendar

Finding and building patterns in your work is an important way to save time and be more strategic.  One of those patterns is how content creation flows in your organization. For example, do you typically start with content in one communications channel and repurpose it in others? One example would be that you often write a blog post first. That becomes a teaser with a link in an email newsletter. You also create relevant social media posts that link back to your blog.

Sometimes, it’s the type of content itself rather than the communications channel. For example, if you do a lot of events, the promotion schedules for those events may drive your editorial planning. Or maybe you do a lot of storytelling. When you’ve finished writing a story, that triggers a whole series of communications work in different channels.

There is no wrong or right answer. But knowing the answer for your organization will help you fill your editorial calendar in a more strategic way that mirrors your actual content development workflows rather than fighting against them.

We asked the webinar participants which communications channel or type of content drove their communications plan now. Here’s the word cloud of their answers:

Know What’s Most Important to See in Your Editorial Calendar

It doesn’t really matter what editorial calendar software you use. What matters is that you can see what you think is most important to see! A well-designed editorial calendar will make you feel smarter and help you keep what’s most important front and center. Knowing what you want to see first will be a huge help as you set up your software.

One of these three things is usually most important:

1. The to-do list with who’s responsible and deadlines
2. The topics and themes for that time period
3. The stage the content is in (idea, draft, review, etc.)

In our webinar poll, here’s how the participants ranked these factors

Remember, you will likely want to see all three. But choose your first priority to drive the way you set it up.

Build Repurposing into Your Editorial Calendar

One of our content creation mantras is that every piece of content gets used in at least three ways or it’s not worth creating. That means you are repurposing everything you create into different formats, for different channels, or at different periods.  As you decide how you will repurpose that content, it fills in the “second third” in our recommended editorial planning process.

We asked participants where they wanted to focus first with repurposing, and here is how they responded:

If you need more help setting up a nonprofit editorial calendar, start with our Editorial Calendar FAQ page.

As a nonprofit marketer, getting your budget items or overall budget approved is a crucial part of rolling out an effective marketing strategic plan but can sometimes be intimidating. Here are 4 ways to get you there!

For more on nonprofit marketing budgets, join us for Strategic Nonprofit Marketing Budgets: Your Roadmap to Approval and Impact. You can pay $99 to register for just this webinar or attend ALL of our 2024 webinars and workshops for only $599 with an All-Access Pass (normally $799; sale ends 1/5/24). To learn more about what we are offering in 2024, see Reveal Video: Our 2024 Nonprofit Communications Training Schedule.

1. Align with Strategic Goals

Understanding and aligning your budget request with the organization’s strategic plan and business goals is numero uno. Successful leaders are focused on propelling their organizations forward with sustainable revenue and impact. Whatever aspect of marketing your request pertains to, it must demonstrate a clear return on investment (ROI) in relation to one of these two objectives. You must be able to articulate how those marketing activities will contribute to generating more revenue or increasing impact. The idea is to leave no doubt that we are all on the same page with achieving mission outcomes.

Gone are the days when marketing activities could solely be justified for “awareness” purposes; now, it’s all about tangible outcomes.

2. Build Strong Relationships

First things first is always people. Make sure you have a solid connection with your finance team or accounting person. You should be meeting with them regularly, or at least more than once a year, to grasp the organization’s current financial status. Understanding your team’s financial situation, even if it’s a one-person team, is equally important. If meeting with finance isn’t an option, maintain open communication with your supervisor to stay informed about the financial landscape. This context is essential when you’re considering your budget request.

Additionally, it’s beneficial to find a champion within senior leadership or someone with influence who understands your goals. Having an advocate makes everything easier. Try to locate someone who can help lay the groundwork for your request in advance.

Remember that your final budget should align with a clear and strategic marketing plan that fits within the organization’s financial capacity at that time. Being aware of the current financial outlook is crucial.

3. Benchmark and Measure with KPIs

Incorporate benchmarking practices to compare your marketing efforts and costs with industry standards and best practices.  This can be a little tricky the more niche you try to get with your organization’s cause but do the best you can.

Simultaneously, establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your initiatives. Utilize these metrics to demonstrate the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns in achieving organizational goals. Data-driven insights show that you are serious about using the funds effectively and are compelling when seeking budget approval.

4. Responsible Fund Management

Show responsible management of previous funds or projects, especially if you’ve been working with limited resources. Highlight what you’ve achieved with these constraints and illustrate how additional financial support could lead to even greater accomplishments.

If you’ve had a budget in the past, be prepared to discuss the ROI it generated. That history of success can pave the way for future fund allocation.

Bonus Tip: Avoid Excessive Underspending!

While we all know that it’s essential to be mindful of budget spend, you want to steer clear of excessive underspending or being overly frugal. Request an amount that you genuinely believe is necessary for effectiveness and then use it.

What you should be doing is monitoring the use of funds as you go, ensuring they are being used effectively and efficiently. This proactive approach allows you to adjust your budget as needed.

Remember that striking the right balance of funds is key to reaching your target audience effectively,  enhancing visibility, and boosting engagement. Massive underspending is a no-no if you want to avoid the risk of being seen as so frugal in the past that future funding may be denied.

—

Incorporate these strategies into your budget request process and you will  be sure to get at least a little closer to yes. Remember, it’s not just about asking for funds; it’s about making a compelling case for investing in your mission-driven marketing efforts.

Creating a nonprofit marketing budget is much like growing and tending plants – though kind of in reverse.

You have to ensure you have all the right ingredients and components necessary to help your activities grow and flourish.

And as you go through the process, you have to diligently monitor to ensure everything is moving as it should. Regularly checking for pesky surprise guests or deviations is essential because, without proper attention, things can dry up quickly and, in the worst case, wither to an irreversible halt.

Let that happen, and you’ll have a tough chance at receiving a healthy quantity of plants (or dollars) again. However, if you do it all the right way, you will witness the blooming growth of your nonprofit’s impact. Your carefully nurtured marketing efforts will yield fruitful results.

And if you think you don’t need them, good luck trying to operate without them. Get it? Plants need oxygen to survive, and marketing needs funds to thrive.

Digging In

On the serious side, marketing budgets help you become aware of just how much of your nonprofit org’s budget is being used to support goals like:

1. Promoting and amplifying services
2. Enhancing donor communications
3. Increasing community engagement
4. Expanding outreach efforts

And a dedicated marketing and communications budget helps ensure your strategy is in alignment with these and other organizational goals.

As you discuss and itemize a proposed yearly budget with finance or leadership, you are really discussing the strategic marketing plans to support the overall organizational plans. How much goes where is a reflection of your future strategy.

Benefits of having a budget

Creating a nonprofit marketing budget is a great opportunity to clarify and co-align your marketing and communications vision with your staff, colleagues, and leadership while also organizing and compartmentalizing your efforts.

It also helps you analyze which of your strategies and tactics are working down the road. Spent $25,000 on that billboard last two quarters, but no one called the custom number? Could be something to look at next go around.

We also need to show impact and return on investment (ROI) for our marcomm activities and your budget is the starting point for that. Your spend is your baseline for your return.

And if you can’t measure your activities now, starting with a budget and baseline goals, how can you adjust it for the future?

Creating the marketing budget

What will you need?

1. A marketing strategy – as mentioned earlier, a well-defined marketing strategy serves as the foundation for your budgeting process. It outlines your goals, target audience, key messages, and the tactics you’ll employ to achieve your objectives.
2. An organizational strategy – to create an effective marketing strategy, you need to align it with your overall organizational strategy. When your organizational goals change, your marketing plan and budget must adapt accordingly. For instance, if your strategic plan involves a significant increase in the number of people served, it will have a direct impact on your marketing activities. Planning how to support and promote this growth becomes a crucial component of your marketing strategy and budgeting process.
3. Historical data and performance analysis – reviewing past marketing initiatives and their outcomes can provide valuable insights. Analyzing the performance of previous campaigns, the return on investment (ROI), and key metrics can help inform your budget allocation decisions. By understanding what has worked in the past and what hasn’t, you can optimize your resources and improve the effectiveness of future marketing efforts.

By incorporating these three elements into your budgeting process, you’ll be better equipped to allocate resources strategically, align your marketing activities with organizational goals, and maximize the impact of your nonprofit’s marketing initiatives.

Learn more about creating a marketing strategy here.

Getting to a final

In some cases, marketing funds may be charged as overhead, meaning they are allocated from a general budget pool. In other cases, the budget could be charged directly to specific services or programs. And in certain scenarios, it may be a combination of both approaches. Your finance team will help you understand exactly how it works and how they arrive at your final approved number.

This is important to understand and emphasizes the importance of your relationship, or at least, communication, with your finance and accounting teams.

Making good with finance

A good partnership with finance can be key. Having one allows you to:

• Gain access to the most recent financial information: Whether it’s your specific budget performance, variances from the plan, or the overall organizational finances, the finance team can help you access the necessary documents or systems to view this information.
• Create new line items as your plans evolve: Line items and allocations help you track your spending accurately. For example, if you’re planning to incorporate social media ads or digital advertising in the future, but haven’t done so before, you can request the finance team to create a new line item, such as “digital advertising” or “advertising.” This ensures these costs are properly allocated, avoiding them getting lost within other categories during review.
• See the bigger financial picture: By partnering with finance, you gain visibility into not only your own financial goals and performance but also those of the larger organization. This broader perspective allows you to understand the ripple effects on your operations and adjust your plans accordingly.
• Leverage finance expertise in budget creation: Finance folks often have the experience at creating budgets and can be a good resource to support you in this entire process.

What’s in it?

Salaries, outside labor, advertising costs, promotional items, staff training, equipment, shared costs like building rent, and supplies – the list goes on! Each should have its own code or item line for tracking.

When planning costs, don’t forget about the big picture. Good tactics need good staff and reliable vendors. Consider the value of quality when estimating expenses.

Once finalized, know what can be cut if needed. Keep the essentials but also include nice-to-haves. In reality, some things may get cut. Make sure the non-essential items take the hit, not the critical ones.

When do I need to do it?

The best time to start working on your marketing and communications budget is now.

It’s crucial to begin the budgeting process well in advance, ideally before the start of the fiscal year, to allow ample time for strategic planning and thoughtful allocation of resources. Your finance team typically has a designated timeline for budgeting. Seeking guidance from them regarding the specific timeline will ensure that you align your marketing budget with the overall organizational budgeting process.

Tip: The further out you can project your marketing plans the easier it will be to also forecast budgets beyond this fiscal year. While the numbers may be speculative due to the uncertain nature of the future, it allows you to anticipate potential challenges and opportunities, giving you a strategic advantage in your decision-making process.

What number though?

Your budget will likely be a combination of what your marketing plan will cost (all of those innovative tactics and creative materials!) and what the organization can afford.

Curious what the average is in the industry? Check out the latest trends report for those details and more!

You may also be able to have your programs or services include marketing dollars in their budget to amplify your total spend but that depends on how your nonprofit is setup and how many individual services with separate budgets you may have.

Talk to your finance partners asap!

Don’t let it wither

There are a few things you definitely want to avoid when creating, justifying, monitoring, and evaluating your budget.

• It’s not fundraising and should not be grouped with the fundraising budget. Why? Because while fundraising focuses on generating revenue, the marketing budget is specifically allocated to support promotional activities and enhance communication efforts. Grouping them together can blur the lines and hinder your ability to track the effectiveness of each area.
• Not looking at regularly. Infrequent review of your budget can result in missed opportunities and inefficiencies. By regularly monitoring and reviewing your budget, you can identify areas of overspending, adjust allocations based on performance, and make informed decisions for future budget planning.
• Being extra frugal and/or greatly underspending. This one might surprise you, but guess what? It’s bad just like overspending is. And I had to learn this one the hard way. I’ll tell you why it can be bad. When you excessively underspend or overly focus on saving every penny, it can limit your ability to reach your target audience effectively. Insufficient investment in marketing activities can lead to missed opportunities, decreased visibility, and lower engagement. Finding the right balance is crucial to ensure optimal outcomes and maximize the impact of your marketing efforts.

A well-planned and adequately funded marketing and communications budget is essential for the success of your nonprofit organization. It enables strategic resource allocation, measurement of impact, and adaptation to changing circumstances. By cultivating a strong partnership with your finance team and finding the right balance, you can ensure that your marketing efforts thrive, enabling your organization to make a significant difference in the world.

Our senior advisor, Anysa Holder, talked about how nonprofit marketers are using AI this past March in Unlocking the Power of AI for Nonprofit Communications. In that post, she shared 11 ways you can use artificial intelligence as well as some pitfalls you need to be aware of.

This past month Hubspot put out The State of AI in Marketing in 2023 which expounds on some of what Anysa shared with us including:

• How AI has gained in popularity
• Why it’s time to look into using AI
• How marketers are saving time with it
• How marketing AI tools are being used
• Tips for incorporating it into your work
• Hesitations about using it
• Predictions for the future of AI

Read the full report.

Marketers are mainly using generative AI for:

• Market Research: You can use an AI tool to tell you what the most popular nonprofits are in your area. Or find who has a similar mission. It can also list those organizations’ social media follower counts and average Google review score.
• SEO Planning and Keyword Research: AI can sift through keyword ideas, help map out keyword research for campaigns, and track website page ranks for various keywords.
• Content Creation and Scaling: While AI can create your content for you, only 5% of marketers say they use it to write entire pieces of content. And according to the report, only 4% make no edits whatsoever to AI-generated content. More often marketers are using AI to help them outline their content or brainstorm ideas.
• Repurposing Content: 21% use it to summarize larger text into key points in order to be used across different channels
• Social Media and Email: Today 31% of marketers are using AI to create social media posts and 28% use it to create and answer emails.
• Product Descriptions: AI rephrasing tools can help teams find new ways of getting the most important features of their products across.
• Performance Optimization: AI can help you analyze your existing content. That includes asking it to provide a list of your underperforming articles or those that need updating.
• Data Analysis: Use it to create quarterly reports or to gather other important data.

Read the full report.

To use AI effectively, you should:

1. Identify the areas that can be improved by using AI
2. Find the right AI tools for you
3. Learn how to write prompts
4. See if services/platforms you already use are adding AI and use those

But remember AI has limitations:

Anysa touched on these in her post too, but here are the mains reasons marketers are hesitant about using AI:

• Inaccuracy
• Bias
• Over-reliance

The report shares ways to solve these issues, but you really do need to beware! And ALWAYS fact-check its work.

To find out how else artificial intelligence is changing marketing, get your full copy of The State of AI in Marketing in 2023.

In my first blog about how I use Asana, I outlined how I (who is, again, by no means an Asana expert) use this platform to capture, organize and create stories for our organization. I use these collected stories as blogs, newsletter articles, media pitches, and social media content. You may be wondering how I organize all of this communication. If you guessed Asana, you get the day’s gold star. Pat yourself on the back. Take the day off. Ok, maybe don’t go that far. You have things to communicate!

Today, I want to share how I utilize Asana to organize my social media and communications calendar. Full disclosure. I used to use Microsoft Outlook calendar to manage this. I thought I was being productive, transparent, and organized when I first pitched the idea of adding a “communications calendar” to our organization. However, I soon discovered that I was the only one utilizing it. I would get questions like, “When is this topic getting posted to social media?” or “When is eNews distributed?”

When LM switched to Asana, I explored their existing templates and found that I could easily customize them to fit our communications needs. Here’s how I do it:

Calendar:

This view is straightforward. When planning out the calendar (especially the social media side of things), I find it helpful to map out the subjects of my content and assign it to my social media channels. Each channel has a specific color so I can see what content I post and to what channel. I also include scheduled eblasts and ideas for content (By the way, did you know that NPMG has a helpful monthly content guide? I was not asked to mention it, but I use it ALL THE TIME. So helpful!) As I mentioned in my last blog, I use several views of the same project to keep me on task.

Here is the same project in List View:

Here, I get a clearer picture of scheduled content and ideas that are being discussed among the team.

Let’s move on to the meat of the tasks.

Tasks:

Here, I begin to organize my posts. I decide on the social media channel, the post format (Is it a gif? Photo? Article? Video? Etc.), and the content type. (promotion, engagement/feedback, thought leadership, etc.) I will also assign a person to handle the post and, if I am SUPER organized, the verbiage that will accompany the post. I also love Asana because I can add subtasks. So, if I need to create accompanying graphics, I can add them here, along with any instructions for the designer. This is the perfect place to assign a subtask if you work with an outside designer or team member. In this case, I left off the subtask because the designer is me.

Linked Tasks:

Speaking of working with others, Asana allows you to link tasks to multiple projects. Part of our work includes engagement with Alumni, so I work with our Senior Manager of Alumni Engagement for specific communication items like eBlasts. When she assigns them to me in her Alumni Engagement Project, she will add the task to the Social Media/Communications Calendar at the same time. This way, with one click, I can ensure that this communication fits into my calendar and plan. It will also include the tags established in both projects so that we both stay organized.

Finally, I am a massive fan of workflows in Asana. I configure specific flows that automatically move my tasks from “ideas” to “completed.”

Workflows:

The organizational possibilities are endless. If you don’t know where to start, start with a template. It will allow you to include the critical components and organize them for your organization’s specific needs.

How do you track your organization’s communications?

Kaarmin Ford, MA (She/Her/Hers)

Mission-forward work has been a mainstay throughout Kaarmin’s career. In her role as Senior Director, Communications & Engagement at Leadership Montgomery, she works to create and execute the organization’s communications, branding, and outreach strategy. Prior to her role with LM, Kaarmin spent seven years with the Alzheimer’s Association as part of the outreach and development team. Outside of the nonprofit world, Kaarmin has worked in media, banking, and state government.  A native West Virginian (Country Roads, anyone?), Kaarmin currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area and enjoys trivia, a good cup of tea, and all things America’s Test Kitchen.

Need more help with software platforms? Join our Free Membership to access our Private Community with dedicated spaces to software choices, content creation, and more.