New Study On Marketing by Nonprofits
A new study by Lipman Hearne and the American Marketing Association attempts to “provide the nonprofit industry with benchmark data on challenges, priorities, budgets, staffing, strategies and spending to guide decisionmaking about marketing.” Beginning in May 2008, Lipman and AMA contacted marketing professionals at a number of different types of nonprofits. The results of the study show that nonprofit marketers are working “hard to build awareness and engage their constituents, often with limited resources and limited metrics. But as experienced marketers— often with years of for-profit marketing experience—they are doing so with creativity and an eye to ensuring that their missions get the attention they deserve.” Here are the study’s findings:
Finding #1: Building awareness, generating revenue, branding and acquiring and retaining members and customers are top marketing priorities for nonprofit organizations.
Finding #2: Public relations, community relations and customer and member relations are considered the most effective strategies to build awareness and visibility.
Finding #3: The nation’s nonprofit marketers are limited when it comes to measuring the effectiveness of marketing programs. They track event participation, overall revenue and member recruitment, but are less satisfied with their ability to measure the impact of advertising, search engine optimization, earned media and web traffic, among others.
Finding #4: Five years from now, marketers believe that they will be challenged to generate revenue, enter new markets and channels and leverage the web more effectively. Organizations with more than $20 million in operating budgets expect to focus on branding and positioning.
Finding #5: Marketing spending for half of nonprofits is small, reflecting the small size of most organizations.
Finding #6: Marketing departments share responsibility throughout the organization—even in areas of marketing priorities.
For the entire study, see “The State of Nonprofit Marketing: A Report on Priorities, Spending, Measurement and the Challenges Ahead” (available at http://www.lipmanhearne.com/nonprofitreport/).
DAB