If your nonprofit is considering starting an awareness campaign, you’re entering a great space where you can educate people about your cause—but you’re also entering a competitive space.
First,let’sstart with some basic information:What is an awareness campaign? And how can you master theArt of First Impressions?
Awareness campaignsare typically basedaround awiderawareness day, week, or month. They areone ofthe most popular ways to educate people about your nonprofit and a specific cause.
If you want tomake your nonprofit stand outfrom others promoting thesamecause, try following these strategies for putting on an effective campaign:
- Do your research.
- Choose therightdate.
- Find your target audience.
- Craft your campaign message.
- Secure sponsors and ambassadors.
- Use multiple channels.
- Optimize your donation site.
An awareness campaigncannotstartwithoutproper planning and resources.Are you ready to examine these ideas for your campaign launch? Let’s get started!
1. Do your research
The first part of starting an effective awareness campaign is doing your research. While awareness days arefairlycommon, you must find the right one that fits your mission.Otherwise, youwon’tgetas muchattentionasyou might hope.
While doing your research, you should:
- Observe other charitable campaigns.Note what they’re doing well and what you could do even better.
- Determine the type of campaign you’ll run.Study your current donor information and decide what kind of campaign would excite them.Thiscould mean determining whether they’re interested in annual giving or social giving.
- Think about long-term plans.Consider what part of your mission you want to focus onand the types of events your donors might support. You can also decide if you’re only trying to appeal to current donors or if you want to expand your network.
Doing your research before you get started is necessary so you can decide how you want to set up your awareness campaign. By being observant and making critical decisions, you’ll set your campaign up for success.
2. Choose the rightdate
If you want to run a successful awareness campaign, choosing therightdate is an essential piece of the puzzle. Schedule your campaign so your team has enough time to plan and your donors have enough time to become engaged.
Here are a couple of items to consider when choosing your date:
- The set time frame. Usually, an awareness campaign has a set time frame you should keep in mind, which is during alargerawareness day, week, or month. Be sure your campaign coincides with the appropriate time frame.
- The length of the campaign.Once you’ve determined the time frame during which your campaign should occur, decide how long it will run. For example, an awareness week could coincide with the length of your campaign.
Having your date correspond with alargerawareness day, week, etc., can help build awareness about your cause and allow you to take advantage of themarketing surrounding thelongerawareness period.Once you choose your date, start promoting it to your target audience so that they can start planning.
3. Find your targetaudience
Once you’ve determined the date(s) of your campaign, it’s important to determine your target audience, whichwill impact how you promote it. Using different communication methods for different groups of donors will help you achieve better overall outreach.
For example, if your donors are:
- Baby Boomers or the Silent Generation:You might consider performing your outreach through direct mail or email. These more traditional audiences tendto be more responsive to those methods of communication.
- Millennial or Gen Z donors:You may want to focus on communicating through social media and incorporate a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. For more information, check outtheOneCause guide to peer-to-peer fundraising.
4. Craft your campaignmessage
The main idea is that you want toharness your donors’ empathy. So, reach out to them in a way that resonates and is easily accessible. Your target audience plays a significant role in how you run your awareness campaign.
After you determineyour target audience and how you’ll reach out to them, it’s time to craft your campaign message! Your goal is to increase awareness around your particular cause by putting in the extra effort to fine-tuneyour message.
All of this comes down to understanding the purpose of your campaign and demonstrating this purpose in your message. Just as you would communicate your purpose whilesendingout fundraising letters, your message should be loud and clear in your awareness campaign.
Keep these ideas in mind when crafting your message:
- Connect it back to your overall mission.Sometimes, nonprofits brand their awareness campaigns differently than their general message to make themselves stand out more. Be sure that your new message still connects back to your mission so that the donors interested in your cause will be likelier to complete their donations.
- Make it stand out.How can you ensure that your nonprofit’s message stands out from all the others with similar awareness campaigns?You can start by making it easy for donors to connect with yournonprofitandby reachingout on multiple platforms.From there, you’ll be able to start creating even more awareness (more on these ideas later!).
By keeping your awareness campaign’s message clear and tied to your overall charitable mission, you’ll be well on your way to having an effective campaign.
When you think of sponsors and ambassadors, it might sound like a lot morework than you’d like to do.But both of these sources of support cangreatlyincrease your donation revenue and help make your awareness campaign stand out.
Ambassador fundraising takes social fundraising up a notch, driving in more revenue by working with topsupporters of a nonprofit. It can often be contests, challenges, or team fundraising. Here’s how it works:
- Your nonprofitchooses ambassadorsfrom among your top supporters.
- These ambassadorsaregivensocial fundraising tools.
- The ambassadors then use individual fundraising pages tosecure donations from theirgreaternetworksand attractmoresupporters to your cause.
If you want to learn more about this process, theOneCauseguide to ambassador fundraisingis a great place to start.
In addition to selecting ambassadors, be sure to secure sponsors. Partnering up with a sponsor can help you stand out from other nonprofits running awareness campaigns for the same cause. Try reaching out to local businesses, celebrities, or even a radio station so that you can drive in more revenue from their customers or listeners.
From there, consider running a t-shirt fundraiser as part of your campaign (with the help of aplatform like this!) and list the sponsors on your t-shirts for extra exposure.
6. Use multiple channels
As we’ve already touched on, it’s essential to determine how you want to communicate with your supporters. Whenit comes tomarketing and promoting your awareness campaign, it is helpful to use multiple channels for outreach.
Consider using:
- Social media
- Direct mail
- Phone calls
That said, you want to ensure you’re meeting your supporters onthe platforms they’re using.For that reason, once you find your target audience, determine what they use most effectively. If you discover they’re more responsive to social media outreach, much of your focus should be on using social media platforms. This year’slargedigital trendis social listening, so sending out surveys to your supporters is also a great way to learn what they use.
Using multiple channels to reach out canhave a more significant impact on your fundraising resultsthan if you only focused on one or two.Just be sure to use the platforms your supporters are most actively a part of and promote your awareness campaign through those channels.
6. Optimize your donationsite
In preparation for your awareness campaign, there’s one more part that needs to fit in: there must be an easy way for supporters to donate! If you want to streamline this process, try using an online donation platform that offers the following features:
- Customization,so you canbrand and embed the form into your website and determine the donor data you want to collect.
- Mobile optimization,so donors can easily give from their mobile devices.
- Analytics,so you can gather reports and data on the donations you’ve received.
Toengage your website visitors, ensure your donation page is optimized and easy to use. Stand out with a simple process that minimizes donor shopping cart abandonment and encourages your supporters to give.
Starting an awareness campaign can seem daunting, but if you bring in the right resources and do your research, you can achieve a lot within the time frame. Try out these strategies to get you started on your best campaign yet!
Ready to dive in deeper? Download our guide onThe Art of First Impressions.
About the Author
Kelly Velasquez-Hague brings over 20 years of fundraising, nonprofit management, and sales/marketing experience to her role as the Director of Content Marketing forOneCause. As a member of the OneCause sales and marketing team, Kelly manages the company’s content strategy and execution. She is passionate about empowering great missions and loves that her current role allows her to continue helping nonprofits reach new donors and raise more funds for their cause.
