Event Activation Strategies for Socially-Responsible Brands

Have you ever looked for exciting nonprofit events for product sampling and brand activation and found one with your ideal target audience, only to discover that a competitor already snagged an exclusive category sponsorship? 

Don’t fret, there are usually other ways you can reach the same event’s audience. Repetition breeds familiarity and trust, and there are many low and no-cost ways to help your target customers get to that loyal comfort zone with you.

In-kind product donations, a.k.a. sending products to events for attendees to sample, is a well-known marketing and CSR practice that not only spreads brand awareness but also boosts your brand’s reputation. Founders of brands like Stone Brewing, Hint Water, and Kind Bar have been outspoken about using this strategy to generate growth and loyalty through charity and community events. 

Leveraging the power of reciprocity, sampling removes the barriers and financial risk of trying something new for your prospective customers. When your products are at an event that supports a cause they care about, this alignment can enhance their positive feelings about your brand even more.

Let’s explore some event activation strategies so your brand can reach target consumers at highly desirable events without a paid sponsorship.

Why engage in CSR?

Corporate social responsibility, or CSR, is the idea that businesses have an obligation to devote some of their resources towards charitable causes to make the world a better place.

While it initially might not seem productive to “donate,” there are many benefits for you as a donor company as well as the beneficiary in a CSR partnership. Consider the following data from Harvard Business School:

• 77% of consumers are motivated to patronize socially-minded companies over competitors.

• 92% of employees working at socially-minded companies said they’d be more likely to recommend their workplace to those looking for a job.

• 90% of employees working at socially-minded companies say they’re more motivated, hard-working, and loyal.

Not only will you attract prospective customers with your charitable activity, but you’ll make your work environment more satisfying as well. Plus, you may be able to receive a tax deduction for your contributions, which reduces the financial barriers of donating.

What is event activation?

Event activation is a form of brand activation in which your business supplies products or gift certificates to an event for partnership and promotion. In turn, this shares your brand and increases your visibility among new audiences.

This tactic is especially useful as part of a CSR campaign because it allows you to build a charitable reputation while promoting your products and services. So, find nonprofit events that match your values and target market and offer to supply samples for their next event. For example, if you run a pet store, excellent nonprofit partners might be animal shelters or pet clubs and associations.
Unlike TV commercials or social media ads, events are all about socialization and connection, providing you the opportunity to personally connect with potential customers. So be sure to offer ways for attendees to stay in touch, such as signing up to receive special offers on the products they sampled.

Why donate in-kind gifts?

While nonprofits appreciate monetary donations, in-kind contributions can be just as, if not more, valuable to your partner. Some unique traits of in-kind gifts include:

• Scalability. In-kind contributions can be more flexible and scalable than monetary gifts, which may need budgetary review. You could donate excess goods, products designated for marketing promotions, time, or experiences based on your resources and bandwidth.

• Tax-deductibility. In-kind donations may be tax-deductible, so your business can minimize the financial impact.

• More impact for less cost. Your products might be able to help nonprofits offset expenses, but cost you much less than the retail value. In these cases, something that your company may consider excess inventory or a product/service, such as tickets to a museum, that you have ample ability to provide will attribute a much higher value of generosity and support. 

Donating in-kind gifts is an especially useful tactic for brands and services with broad target markets as they can support the nonprofit while spreading brand awareness. So, if your brand qualifies, this is an excellent opportunity to kill two birds with one stone!

Top Event Activation Strategies for Product-Based Brands

Why would a nonprofit consider accepting products from multiple companies for an event? Often, an event requires more variety and volume than one brand can provide. If one event is effectively closed to you due to sponsor preference, other events held by the same organization may not be covered by the same exclusivity clauses. 

Before determining how you’ll present your products, it’s crucial to ensure you find the right events for your needs. Though the prospect of working a large gala fundraiser is tempting, you need to be realistic and consider your time and budget’s flexibility. 

When budgets are tight and you don’t have as much product to give, the trick is finding other highly targeted opportunities like VIP appreciation events or happy hours. While these events are smaller, they’re potentially more personal, impactful, and affordable. 

Now, let’s explore some event activation channels you can use to spread your brand awareness.

Gift Bags

Sponsor exclusivity may not extend to products included in gift bags. When providing products for an event’s gift bags, consider: 

• Pros: Everyone at the event gets your product.

• Cons: You won’t directly interact with consumers, increasing the need for bouncebacks. 

Gift bags are a smart option if you have products to send but are short on time or staff. This low-touch opportunity can establish some brand recognition without pulling too much from your human resources.

Vendor Booth 

Regardless of what competitors are doing, you may still be able to purchase a vendor booth where you can interact with attendees and give away samples. Reach out to see if buying a booth is a viable option for your team. Consider:

• Pros: People get to interact with your team, try your product, and give direct feedback.

• Cons: You’ll have to consider the cost of the booth itself and staff time, especially if events last multiple days.

Vendor booths are the best option if you have the time, staff, and budget to make it happen.

Incentives

Fundraising campaigns and a-thons may use packages created with your products to reward participants who reach certain levels. When offering your products to be used as incentives, consider:

• Pros: You receive extra promotion of your items as a coveted prize, lending your brand prestige. Links to your website and social media may be used/promoted as well.

• Cons: Typically no direct interaction with attendees. 

Try this strategy if you can offer universally-desirable, unique packages and want to save time.

Silent Auction or Raffle

If an event has a silent auction or raffle, this may be the easiest way to get brand exposure. Donating a larger basket or bundle, exceeding any competitor’s package if you can, can draw as much attention as a sponsor’s name on a program. Here’s what to expect from this strategy:

• Pros: This is a very common need of nonprofits and schools that fundraise, so can be easily scalable to promote your brand and products and engage as many people at events as you want it's relatively easy to put together a package, such as a bundle of brand favorites or a gift certificate for a popular starter service.

• Cons: There’s no direct interaction with attendees unless you attend the event yourself.

This strategy is best for brands looking for a quick, easy way to get in front of attendees, including new product launches One of the most successful companies to utilize this tactic, becoming the foremost brand in their industry, was Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, which established a national reputation for generosity and was able to introduce their Keurig machines, pods, and convenience into tens of thousands of households through donating to silent auctions alone. 

Day-of Volunteering

If the event is in your community, consider gathering a team to volunteer together. Wear branded attire and talk up your own contributions such as gift bag items or auction or raffle prizes, when meeting attendees. Volunteering considerations include:

• Pros: This strategy is scalable to involve as many or as few of your employees as you want. It also gives you an experience from an attendee’s perspective, so you can evaluate how much to sponsor or participate in future events. Plus, it involves your employees directly, offering them a sense of purpose.

• Cons: This requires your employees and friends to participate, so it’s up to you to encourage them to volunteer. 

This approach is best for causes that are universally liked by your employees. Creating fundraising teams for races and runs can also provide similar exposure.

Committee Volunteering

Allowing your team to join event planning committees as company-paid volunteering can give you the inside scoop on opportunities you may not otherwise hear about, as well as form relationships that can benefit your brand in the future.

• Pros: You’ll gain access to insider information and opportunities. Plus, you could get first rights of refusal for the promotion of your products.

• Cons: It’s a more involved time commitment, depending on the event size, history, and your selected role. 

Consider committee volunteering if you have highly dedicated team members willing to represent your company by taking on more involved roles in community partnerships.

Getting Started

Whether you’re new to partnering with nonprofits or looking for new collaborators, it can be daunting to find the perfect match for your business. But, with the help of event databases and platforms, it’s never been easier to connect with the right organizations. 

A corporate giving platform like DonationMatch enables you to set parameters for finding events by size, location, audience demographics, and event type to identify and directly reach out to event organizers. In turn, you’ll save significant time, effort, and money. 

To start your event activation strategy strong, use DonationMatch to find collaborators that align with your values and goals. Then, plan which event activation tactics work best for you, and start spreading the word about your brand. If you consistently apply these strategies to build and strengthen relationships with consumers through nonprofit partners, your brand will flourish along with your social impact.

The Customer Journey: What It Is and Why It Matters

While it’s obvious that attracting and retaining customers is essential to a business’s success, many organizations actually lack a framework for analyzing key interactions they have with their customers. Interactions ranging from initial conversations with a member of your sales team to troubleshooting technical issues can determine whether a customer continues to support your business over the long run. 

All of these interactions make up the customer journey, and understanding these steps is key to their continued satisfaction and your business’s continued success. Businesses with a strong strategy for analyzing and improving their customers’ journeys can provide their customers, employees, and other stakeholders with an overall better experience. 

To help your business better understand the customer journey, this guide will explore three questions that can help you improve your own customer journey strategy:

• What is the customer journey?

• Why does the customer journey matter?

• How can my business improve the customer journey?

While this may be a new way of looking at customers’ experiences with your business, remember that the principles behind it are ones that your business likely already values. Approach customers with empathy, aim to create frictionless experiences, and constantly strive to improve how customers interact with your business.

What is the customer journey?

The customer journey consists of all of the interactions customers have with your business in the entire course of your relationship. This includes their initial discovery of your business by interacting with marketing materials, their first sales process and purchase, their use of your product or service, the support and communication they receive from your business, and the efforts your business makes to retain them as a customer over time. 

On the surface, the customer journey looks like a simple series of interactions. However, businesses interested in developing a holistic customer journey strategy need a more nuanced understanding of the other concepts and elements that inform a journey, including:

• Customer experience. Customer experience (CX) is somewhat synonymous with the term customer journey, but it also refers to the broader framework and programs that businesses develop to improve their customer interactions. Specifically, a CX program is a dedicated effort a business makes to collect feedback from customers after key touchpoints in their journey to learn how these pivotal moments can be improved. Your journey mapping and strategy fall under the broader umbrella of CX management.

• Moments of truth. A moment of truth, or pain point, is a high-stakes touchpoint in the customer journey that can often determine whether a customer sticks with a business or not. For example, a customer contacting a software provider’s support line for assistance to solve an urgent problem with the product would be considered a moment of truth. In this scenario, the customer is likely frustrated and a poor interaction may lead to them seeking an alternative service. By identifying moments of truth in your customer journey, your business can actively implement improvements to minimize negative emotions, show empathy to the customer’s struggles, and provide a solution. 

• Voice of the customer. Voice of the customer (VoC) refers to your customers’ perspectives on your business. This includes their expectations, likes, dislikes, and any other feedback they have provided. By surveying your customers, you can better understand their unique voice and how changes in your business impact them. A VoC or feedback collection program should be an integral part of your broader CX efforts.

How exactly these concepts and programs should be approached will depend on how your customer journey and communication channels are constructed. For example, a business that uses automated communication for the majority of the process will have different moments of truth to consider than one that focuses more heavily on building one-on-one relationships with individual clients. 

Why does the customer journey matter?

Customers find and stick with your business for many reasons. They might first find you through your standout marketing strategies or stellar reputation in the space. They might stick around because they appreciate your brand’s philanthropic efforts and identity or feel that your product is superior to your competitors. Among these reasons, customers will heavily weigh the service they experienced and the process of making a purchase at your business. 

Your customer journeys matter because all of the individual interactions and factors at play contribute to your ultimate likelihood of retaining their long-term business, which should be a primary goal for any organization. 

In other words, the customer journey your business offers will directly and indirectly impact how customers view your business and if they will buy from you again. There are other benefits to improving your customer journey as well, such as:

• Improved customer loyalty. Customers who feel that your business created a positive experience for them, showed empathy for their struggles, and implemented their feedback will likely feel increased brand loyalty. This means they will likely be retained not just as long-term customers but as active promoters of your brand. 

• Faster response time. Part of building a customer journey strategy involves creating a process for responding to negative feedback. For example, during a moment of truth that goes poorly, a customer might fill out a survey that reflects their negative experience. With an effective program in place, your business will be able to reach out to the customer quickly to resolve their issues, potentially saving your relationship with them. 

• Better data collection. Deliberately monitoring your customer journey will allow you to collect more data on your customers, their needs, and preferences. This information can be used for marketing purposes or planning new activities and products they might like.  

CX and the customer journey are continuous processes, and regularly reassessing what goes into them at your business will allow you to keep up with changes in customer preferences. Make sure to routinely collect feedback during pivotal touchpoints to check if your improvements have succeeded, as well as how customer needs naturally shift over time. 

How can my business improve the customer journey?

The customer journey can be improved through deliberate tracking, analysis, and implementation. Just like many other internal processes at your business, such as communication, budgeting, and project management, there are software solutions that can help you monitor and generate reports on your customers’ journeys. 

Explore CX software solutions that have customizable survey tools, allowing you to tailor them to ask pertinent questions about your customers’ experiences during critical moments in their journeys. Before designing these surveys, consider your customer journey map. 

The customer journey map is a visual representation of how your customers or customer segments interact with various parts of your business during their journeys. It considers a business's different audiences, each touchpoint, and can help explain why certain outcomes happened. 

PeopleMetrics’ guide to customer journey maps walks through the six core components of creating a map for your business:

1. Determine your objectives. Establish a specific goal for your map to help focus your efforts. This will be related to the overall scope of your customer journey map. For instance, does your map cover the entire customer journey or hone in on a specific moment of truth? 

2. Define your personas. Take a look at your customer data to create personas. These personas represent various groups of customers with shared characteristics, such as their product or service tier, motivations, common pain points, and goals. 

3. Break the journey down. Work with your team to break down the customer journey into distinct steps. Consider the voice of the customer during this step by dividing the customer journey based on what actions the customer is taking, rather than what may be happening internally at your business. 

4. List all touchpoints. Working through the steps you just identified in the customer journey, list all of the touchpoints customers have with your business in each stage. Consider both actions the customer takes and processes that happen internally that may impact the customer’s experience along the way. 

5. Compile touchpoints. Identify which touchpoints are relevant to the customer journey in question and organize them based on your map’s overarching purpose. Pay special attention to potential moments of truth and other critical touchpoints—referencing past customer feedback can help you identify these. 

6. Test your customer journey. Present your map to your team for feedback. Discuss touchpoints they would consider as moments of truth, and make adjustments based on their feedback. Study your customer interactions going forward to see if they follow the course you’ve outlined, collect more information, and make tweaks over time.

If you have difficulty organizing your customer journey map, remember that these journeys are a continuous, non-linear cycle. Try zooming in on specific points of the customer journey to make better sense of moments of truth, rather than analyzing your customer journeys as a potentially overwhelming whole. Doing so can help you identify outcomes related to individual interactions, which can easily get lost when looking at the entire customer journey at once. 

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Your business should strive to make your customers’ experiences with your business as frictionless and positive as possible. By analyzing your customer journey and taking steps to improve it, you can retain more customers, build brand loyalty, and stay up to date with changing preferences. Improve your customer journey by mapping it out, creating surveys, and investing in new tools to support your organized, intentional approach.

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About the Author:

This is a guest post contributed by Sean McDade.

Sean McDade has been helping companies optimize customer experiences for over twenty years. An angel investor in the Philadelphia region, he is also the founder, CEO, and visionary of PeopleMetrics, a leading provider of experience management software and advisory services. In addition to working with a number of leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, he is the author of two books.

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:

• Community Engagement FAQ

• General Community-building Tips

• Community Engagement Strategies for Nonprofits

• Community Engagement Strategies for Businesses

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.      

1. 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.