A Crash Course in Effective Community Engagement Strategies
The word “capital” is commonly used in business contexts. This term might conjure images of bank statements or investors. However, there’s another type of capital that’s equally important for the long-term success of an organization: social capital.
Simply put, social capital consists of the strength of the networks, connections, reputation, and relationships that organizations build with community members. It’s the foundation for relationships that an organization has that allow it to flourish and achieve its goals.
This is where community engagement strategies come in. Community engagement is what helps an organization build new relationships, strengthen existing bonds, and ultimately generate more social capital. Whether you’re a business trying to increase sales or a nonprofit looking for volunteers, visible community engagement is critically important.
Thankfully, you don’t need to be a large company or have a communications or PR expert to get started engaging your community— simple steps (like the ones we’ll discuss here) can make a big difference to your success.
Here’s what we’ll be covering in our crash course in community engagement strategies:
Let’s explore how you can boost your outreach efforts to grow your network and social capital and make a bigger impact in your community and your organization.
Community Engagement FAQ
Before we dive into our community outreach best practices, let’s answer some fundamental questions about community engagement.
What are the principles of community engagement?
Community engagement is the strategic process of connecting with others in the community or with shared missions and interests, typically to achieve a specific goal. It’s one of the foundational elements of social capital that your organization can use to expand connections and involve your stakeholders.
Community engagement has different applications based on your organization. Businesses often seek to make new connections with the goal of increasing their visibility and acquiring customers, while a nonprofit seeks engagement to raise donations and drive impact. Instead of being a one-time public-facing event or campaign, ongoing programs or initiatives aimed at engaging target markets are usually more successful overall. That’s why it’s essential that an organization has a strong grasp on its goals and resources before jumping into outreach activities.
Why is community engagement important?
Building social capital opens doors for you to reach untapped audiences and broaden your organization’s offerings. Without ample ability to leverage social capital, an organization risks relying on a static support base or having to spend more money on paid advertising and marketing. Social capital and the trust you build with it open doors for longer-term success, such as higher customer or donor satisfaction rates, partnerships with other nonprofits and businesses, and opportunities to expand into new markets.
What do I need to do beforehand?
Before embarking on any community-building activities, your nonprofit or business needs to create a plan for your outreach campaigns. You’ll want to decide the following:
Your #1 desired outcome. Keep your goals at the forefront of your mind when planning your community engagement strategies. This will help you stay focused on the parts of your campaign that really matter.
Your organization’s focus area. It’s always a smart idea for your nonprofit or business to get involved with programs or events that relate to your niche, as you’ll be able to draw in supporters who are interested in your core offerings, too.
Your desired audience. Be as specific as possible when deciding who you plan to target; just saying “as many people as possible” is too vague. Really hone in on characteristics such as hobbies, lifestyle, interests, favorite brands or influencers, and possibly ages and geographic locations of the people you want to engage and what will attract their attention.
What worked in the past. If you have a popular initiative that’s worked in the past, you should bring its winning elements into your new plan. Perhaps you can work with your team to update it or see how you can make it even better.
Current trends or events. Consider throwing an event or promotion based on the time of year or season, such as a holiday celebration or something special to your industry.
Your bandwidth and resources. Your organization might be a small nonprofit or business with finite resources, and that’s okay. Be sure to take your capabilities into account when planning your outreach.
Your desired campaign timeline. Draft a rough timeline so you can periodically evaluate your progress and adjust, if necessary.
The scale of the change. Your approach will vary if you’re planning a one-time event versus a long-term operational shift. Be sure to grasp the scope of your changes and who they will involve, internally and externally, so you know how to prepare.
There isn’t one catch-all approach to developing your community engagement strategies. Your organization needs to take care to look introspectively during the process so your solution will be properly tailored to your needs and target audience.
General Community-Building Tips
It’s true that nonprofits and businesses have different classifications under the IRS, but beyond that, they actually have many similarities. Both types of organizations are focused on raising money to achieve their goals and need ample social capital to expand and thrive.
That being said, let’s explore some ways that organizations in either sector can get the public involved in their activities.
Find a community engagement partner in the other sector.
Nonprofits and businesses have a lot to gain from working with each other. On the business side, starting a corporate philanthropy program offers significant benefits, such as:
Positive publicity. 77% of consumers are motivated to support businesses that actively try to make the world a better place. Associating your business with a beloved community nonprofit is a great way to appeal to this crowd.
Greater loyalty from customers. If your business has and promotes its partnership with beloved causes, its donors are more likely to shop with you instead of a competitor.
Employee engagement. One of the best benefits you can offer your team is the chance to participate in corporate philanthropy. Work together to make a difference both in the world and in your workplace by offering opportunities such as matching their charitable gifts.
A tax write-off. Your business might be able to cut down your taxes while helping out causes you believe in with the IRS’s charitable deduction program.
As for nonprofits, teaming up with a business offers advantages such as increased financial stability, access to valuable in-kind donations of products and services, money to fund projects, and exposure to the business' employees and customers.
If you’re in either sector and want to find a partner but are unsure where to look, corporate giving platforms like DonationMatch can help you get paired with corporate philanthropy partners that align with your goals, focus area, and bandwidth. It takes the guesswork out of setting up a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program and is an effortless way to build valuable social capital. Plus, DonationMatch is free to get started, so it's an accessible solution for both nonprofits and businesses.
2. Prioritize customer service and relations.
Growing your connections is a crucial, yet uncertain process. You can't just focus on attracting new customers and partners - you have to actively work to keep them engaged, which is an ongoing process. This is why having a seamless customer service approach is so vital for the success of your organization.
While you can’t control what everyone thinks about your work or products or services, you can control many parts of their experience with your organization. Positive word-of-mouth in your community is among the best advertising you can get, and it’s free. Here are some easy ways to strengthen your customer relations:
Make it easy for people to reach you. Whether it’s updating your Google My Business profile with your current contact information, adding a chatbot on your website, or responding to social media direct messages, staying on top of communications with the public should be a top priority.
Take feedback from your audience. Sometimes, it’s difficult to see your organization’s blind spots from the inside. Conduct satisfaction surveys periodically so you know how to improve your offerings to match your audience’s intent and goals. Let your audience know that you value their input so you can better serve them.
Choose a customer-minded team. While recruiting new team members, ensure that you gauge their attitude toward customer service. During the interview process, ask your interviewees how they would handle certain situations with customers, teammates, and management. They should value skills and traits such as active listening, friendliness, optimism, and best-in-class responsiveness.
You can have the best events and CSR campaigns around, but you’re unlikely to maintain long-term community engagement without great customer service as well. Encouraging a positive environment in your nonprofit or business is crucial for building connections across your community.
3. Invest in the right community-building tools.
Technology has never been more accessible and useful for nonprofits and businesses trying to reach out to the public. There are numerous platforms your organization can use to manage and grow its network of connections. Here are some tips on technology that will aid your community engagement:
Social media. In 2021, 72% of American adults used social media to connect with others. To tap into this large audience, social media accounts can be used to engage your community more often and informally. Many platforms even offer business profiles with special features. Before you sign up, do research to determine which platforms your target audience uses and what kind of content they prefer so you can effectively draw their attention.
Customer relationship management system (CRM). A CRM is a software solution that functions as a database for nonprofits and businesses. Depending on the platform, you can manage all relevant customer communication data, such as contact information, sales/donation analytics, and marketing automation. This software is essential to streamline your outreach efforts and track the touchpoints in your relationships.
Automated communication systems. Besides social media, your nonprofit or business can use other digital communication platforms, such as text-to-give and email listservs.
These are just a few of the technology solutions available that can streamline and support your community engagement efforts. Consider working with a technology consultant to help you identify ways that technology can support your community-building goals and fill in those gaps with new solutions.
4. Use distinct branding.
The largest corporations and nonprofits in the world all have one thing in common: they’re recognizable by their branding. In order to be memorable and recognizable, your organization should make sure that your brand identity reflects your values and focus area and stands out.
If you need help making or updating your logo, there are numerous tools that both businesses and nonprofits can use. Nonprofits can even get discounted services and licenses from some providers with proof that they’re registered as a 501(c)(3).
Don’t forget that your branding should be versatile enough to put it on all of your external deliverables and communications. Consider working with a professional graphic designer for extra help.
Community Engagement Strategies for Nonprofits
Chances are, community members will want to engage with your organization, but might not know about you or how to help. It’s up to you to eliminate the barriers.
1. Engage your entire community with fundraising.
The best way to entice more prospects to give is by inviting new community members to your events. While profitable, a nonprofit only holding high-end events such as annual galas will appeal to only a narrow group of donors. In addition to member- or donor-only events, which are important to reward those already supporting you, consider throwing an open-invite event that can include everyone else. Here are some events that could draw a crowd:
Funfair/carnival. This is a great opportunity for businesses and nonprofits to team up to throw an all-ages event. Sponsorships, in-kind donations of a venue, food, games, and prizes, and helping to source volunteers are very common partnerships.
Give-back fundraising nights/days. Many retail businesses and restaurants are open to this mutually-beneficial opportunity to donate a portion of the sales during a specific time to a designated nonprofit. Be sure to look up and follow any applicable state regulations regarding such “commercial co-ventures” when marketing these.
Peer-to-peer fundraisers. Put the power of fundraising in the public’s hands. Launch a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign that benefits one of your core initiatives with a fun activity, such as a dance-a-thon or park clean-up. Then, advertise it to the community as an opportunity to support their neighborhood. Leveraging the networks within your area will help news of your event to spread rapidly and get people interested in your brand, event, and cause.
Community-wide fundraisers provide the chance to get to know local supporters on a personal level and show them the work that your nonprofit does. Your connections are one of your most valuable resources, so make them count!
2. Work with influencers to boost your visibility.
You can leverage the connectivity of social media by syncing with influencers in your industry. If you have any colleagues or connections with considerable followings in the nonprofit social media space, invite them to speak on one of your webinars, write a guest post for your blog, or participate in an interview for your podcast. When they market this appearance to their many followers, you’ll get an influx of visibility for your cause, as well as status for being affiliated with a thought leader.
3. Make it easy to donate.
No matter what fundraiser you choose to put on, a seamless and accessible donation process is imperative. If the process is convoluted and the barriers to participation are too high, potential donors will get discouraged and give up. Here are some ways you can make your fundraisers go as smoothly as possible:
Accept multiple types of donations. To activate more giving across the board, accept multiple types of gifts beyond financial donations, such as in-kind donations of products and services like food, supplies, and items that can serve as prizes or incentives. Additionally, time is a valuable gift. Set up a volunteer program so your supporters can help you operate your programs in their free time.
Use a mobile-friendly donation page. In the digital age, donors want the giving process to be straightforward and quick. Offering an online, mobile-friendly donation page provides donors the ease of donating without turning off their phones. Plus, modern options are simple to integrate into your website and CRM, ensuring all data is effortlessly and automatically reported.
These adjustments are simple, cost-effective, and user-friendly. Always listen to your donors’ feedback to continue streamlining the giving process for continued growth.
4. Apply for the Google Ad Grant.
A pain point for many nonprofits is the paradoxical issue of needing to spend money in order to effectively fundraise. To maximize your returns on investments, your nonprofit should focus on cost-effective yet highly visible marketing opportunities. Google offers nonprofits a way to save on advertising in the form of the Google Ad Grant.
This program awards certain types of accredited 501(c)(3) organizations the opportunity to appear on the top of the search engine results page for keywords of their choosing related to their work. This type of advertising can easily cost thousands of dollars monthly, but through this program, nonprofits can get up to $10,000 of advertising per month for free.
Community Engagement Strategies for Businesses
While businesses aren’t bound to public service like nonprofits are, they can realize growth by engaging in charitable activity and forging relationships throughout their community. If you’re a business owner and could use more ideas for public outreach, here are some easy tips.
1. Undertake a CSR initiative.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the idea that businesses have an obligation to improve the quality of life in their communities. For-profit companies can participate by starting their own CSR initiatives. Your business might choose to make several smaller gifts to many different nonprofits or enter an in-depth collaboration with one nonprofit as a sponsor.
Here are some essential steps to starting a CSR initiative:
Establish your goals.
Gather the necessary technology.
Connect with nonprofit partners.
Build excitement around your initiatives.
Track and report on your progress.
However you want to structure your corporate philanthropy efforts, you should always strive to find nonprofit partners that best fit your needs. To learn more about these steps and other CSR programming options, check out DonationMatch’s complete guide to corporate philanthropy.
2. Team up with other Community-oriented businesses.
To get new customers in the door, it’s helpful to tap into markets that you haven’t encountered yet.
A mutually beneficial way to reach new audiences is to team up with complementary companies in your area. For instance, a sporting goods store might choose to collaborate with a local restaurant for a basketball tournament in which teams register to compete using the store’s equipment and the restaurant caters for the championship match.
To find a local business that would be a good fit, first consider any contacts you currently have at local businesses. You could also ask for referrals to other businesses in your community that will fit in well with the event you’re planning. Finally, work with your partners to put together an event that’s mutually beneficial and perhaps even profitable. You’ll hopefully both be able to increase your visibility to each others’ customer bases and the public.
3. Leverage a loyalty program.
Constantly acquiring new customers is time- and resource-consuming. In fact, selling to a returning customer has a 60-70% success rate while converting to a brand new prospect has merely a 5-20% success rate. To minimize these impacts and build more reliable revenue streams, bolstering customer loyalty is imperative.
Incentivize your customers with loyalty programs, such as a rewards card or special membership perks, to encourage your customers to keep patronizing your business over your competitors. Thankfully, apps now exist that can integrate with e-commerce and POS systems and track purchases by phone number or email address so less paperwork is involved.
To launch a loyalty program, you’ll first want to establish goals so that you can keep them central to your plans–are they more frequent visits, higher total purchases, or maybe more referrals? Next, determine how your customers will generate points to receive rewards—classic models include earning points per dollar spent or using a punch card to track each visit.
Next, consider how you’ll promote the program. You can advertise your loyalty program by asking each customer if they’d like to join and including it in your marketing materials posted at your registers and on social media. Finally, ensure that you’re keeping records on how many customers register for the program and how your total sales change after implementing the loyalty card. Use a CRM that can register and report on your loyalty program and how it’s impacting your business.
Wrapping Up
Undertaking new community engagement strategies can be a daunting task, especially without extensive existing connections within your local area. And with everyone being so busy, it’s hard to keep track of possible partners and their current focuses.
To bridge the gap between you, your community, and new audiences of supporters and partners, many companies use DonationMatch's donation management platform. Our solution helps companies and nonprofits find potential partners and event opportunities for donated products and services to be showcased. We customize your search so donations are only shown to organizations that meet their criteria, reducing the work for everyone. And it’s free for nonprofits and businesses to sign up. Eliminate the guesswork, save precious time, and become a name your community will never forget with DonationMatch.
Additional Resources
In-Kind Donations: Everything Your Organization Should Know. Take a deeper look at in-kind donations and how to include them in your fundraising strategy.
Corporate Philanthropy: What Your Business Needs to Know. Corporate philanthropy has transformed the nonprofit world and has the potential to transform your business too. Learn more about the world of corporate philanthropy in this guide.
Corporate Giving Program: Give Smarter with DonationMatch. Considering uniting with a company or nonprofit and want some guidance? Explore how DonationMatch’s corporate giving platform can help your organization today.
In-Kind Donations and Tax Deductions 101. While in-kind donations are an essential part of giving, quantifying just how much their tax deduction is can be puzzling. Learn the ins and outs of in-kind donations and tax exemptions with DonationMatch’s tips and tricks.