6 Marketing Tips For Good Causes

Find more people like your current supporters

Use Facebook Lookalike Audiences

Share your message with the people who are most likely to engage.

Use Facebook Lookalike Audiences to identify what your biggest advocates have in common, then reach more people like them.

Targeting Ideas

Reach more people who look like:

• Customers who purchased your products
• Patrons who donated to your cause
• Advocates who most engage with you on social media
• Attendees who have gone to your events
• Volunteers who make it all happen

1. Define your goals

Define what’s important to you online–like donations through your website, newsletter signups, or website leads.

2. Find your audience

Facebook will look at users who have completed these goals in the past, and analyze 2,000+ dimensions to find more users who have the most in common.

3. Create a feedback loop

Better targeting will lead to more goal completions and more data about your ideal audience. This creates a positive feedback loop where your ads get more and more efficient over time.

Visualize the problem and solution

Communicate With Better Design

Like an ‘elevator pitch’, your entire message should be understood at-a-glance.

How to Design More Clearly

Ask yourself these questions

• What does the current problem look like?
• What does the solution look like?
• How do people benefit?
• How does it work?

The Problem

According to the EPA, the average American throws away about 4.5 lbs of trash per day. 52% of that waste gets landfilled.

The Solution

Blueland‘s solution to single-use soap and plastic cleaning bottle is simple: purchase one bottle, and dissolve a cleaning solution tablet into water from your own faucet.

For The World

What global benefits does Blueland focus on?

• No single-use plastic – This means less waste in our landfills and fewer microplastics in our drinking water and seafood
• Earth-friendly packaging – Product comes entirely in compostable and recyclable packaging
• Smaller carbon footprint – Cleaning products are 95% water, which is wasteful and unnecessary to transport

For Yourself

What local benefits does Blueland focus on?

• Cost savings – Inexpensive refills
• Quality of bottle – Non-leaching, BPA-free, shatterproof
• Safety of ingredients – Non-toxic

Show And Tell

Use Video To Educate

Provide more context than is possible with text and images alone.

How to Make A Good Video For Your Cause

Answer these questions in your video

• What is the problem? What is the solution?
• Who is the product or service for?
• How is your product or service different than other solutions out there?
• What do customers get out of your product or service?
• What pain points do you customers avoid by using your product or service?

What To Include In Your Video

• Ask real people to share their experience
• Demonstrate how it works
• Explain the benefits, not just the features

The Problem

The U.S. alone has lost more than half of our managed honeybees hives (2.5M colonies) in the last 30 years. This phenomenon, called ‘colony collapse disorder’, is caused by a complex of parasites, lack of flowering crops, and neonicotinoids (an insecticide) that harms pollinating bees.

The Solution

Humans rely on bees, and bees rely on us. The caretaking of bees can help mitigate colony collapse disorder. Flow Hive makes bee husbandry more accessible to more people by making honey harvesting easier for the beekeeper and gentler on the bees.

For The World

What global benefits does Flow Hive focus on?

• Symbiotic relationship – Our agriculture system relies on pollinators, and Flow Hive is introducing more people to beekeeping. While there is contested debate within the beekeeping community as to whether introducing more amateur beekeepers will help or harm colony collapse disorder, having a larger community who understands bee husbandry techniques will almost certainly be beneficial in the long run
• Sustainably-source – Wood is sustainably-sourced, and wood waste is upcycled into pollinator homes for solitary bees

For Yourself

What local benefits does Flow Hive focus on?

• Honey on tap – Keep for yourself, give it away, or sell for a profit
• Ease-of-use – While successful beekeeping still requires training & maintenance (inspecting hives, dealing with mites, monitoring for diseases, making splits), the process of harvesting the honey has been made drastically easier–simply turn a lever to extract pure, raw honey
• Support your garden – Enjoy a more thriving flowering garden with the help of pollinators

Raise money passively

Sell Merchandise With A Purpose

Why Merch Works

People want to broadcast their values and they want to participate in good causes–even if only financially.

Your cause needs advocates to share your message publicly–merch gives them the tools to do so while raising money for your mission.

How To Make It Work

Narrowly define what a customer is funding with their purchase.

Define it specifically. How many meals does it provide the hungry? How much water does it provide the thirsty? How many books does it bring into classrooms? For how many pets does it provide a home?

4ocean promises to pull one pound of trash from the ocean for every product purchased.

Help your patrons understand how a purchase specifically helps others.

The Problem

The average plastic water bottle degrades in the ocean over 400 years, leaching toxicants and small plastic particles into our water and the food we eat. 90% of trash enters the ocean from rivers in developing countries who rely on the same consumer products we do, but don’t yet have the infrastructure to manage it as well.

The Solution

4ocean isn’t a nonprofit and doesn’t accept donations. Instead, they clean up one pound of trash from the ocean for every product purchased.

1.

4ocean sells products, like these:

2.

Profit is used to hire people and purchase equipment

3.

Reclaimed materials, like glass & plastic, are used to make more products, like these:

4.

Repeat.

For The World

What global benefits does 4ocean focus on?

• Sustainably-made products – Merch made from 100% GOTS-certified organic cotton, post-consumer plastic & glass collected from the ocean
• Closed-loop program – Don’t throw your merch away, sending it back to 4ocean, they’ll even pay for the shipping
• One pound promise – Oh, did we mention that they’ll clean up a pound of trash out of the ocean for every purchase made? They’re mission is 100% funded by the purchase of sustainably-source & recycled merch.

For Yourself

What local benefits does 4ocean focus on?

• Quality products – Braclets to show off, totes for carrying goods, drinkware that insulates your beverages, and apparel to clothe your body
• Badge value – Users can sport the 4ocean logo, broadcasting their values to others

Shoutout Your Biggest Supporters

Curate User Content

Curate & share the content of your base.

Credit and praise your supporters publicly & they’ll continue to show others how they interact with your brand.

Are you a non-profit?

Sign Up For Google Ad Grants

Get $10,000/mo in free advertising on Google for your non-profit.

No joke. $10,000 per month in free advertising. This allows you to show up at the top of Google when users search for keywords related to your service and mission.

Use free advertising in Google to:

• Raise awareness
• Increase donations
• Attract volunteers
• Help people locate support services

Use Evocative Imagery

A photo by Justin Hofman, and promoted by SeaLegacy, an organization committed to ocean conservation through visual storytelling that rallys global support for ocean projects. This image captures the heartbreaking ubiquity of single-use pollution in our oceans.

Another photo from SeaLegacy, giving context to the effects of mass marine extinction caused by overfishing, pollution, and ocean acidification.