There’s no better time than the new year to launch your new nonprofit and meet needs in your community!
You’ve got the team, the location and the mission. Now that you’re ready to share your story with a bigger audience. Where do you start?
Continue reading for our step-by-step guide to developing a successful marketing plan for your first year.
If you’re close to launching your new organization, defining your mission should be pretty easy! But before you start ironing out the details of your marketing plan, we recommend taking the time to revisit your mission and asking these classic questions: who, what, when, where and why?
Who will you serve? And who do you need to recruit to help you serve?
What do you need to accomplish your mission? And what sets your organization apart?
When do you need this support?
Where will you serve? And where can your partners join you?
Why is this mission personal to you?
They may seem simple, but these questions are foundational to the rest of your marketing plan.
Before you move on to the next steps, take some time to write down your answers to each question in a document or notebook so you can revise and revisit as needed.
This is where you tell the logical side of your brain to be quiet (temporarily!).
With the answers you just wrote down fresh in your mind, plot out a big goal for the whole year and smaller goals for each quarter and each month.
Maybe you’re asking yourself:
How many people would I like to serve in the first month?
What initiatives should be up and running by the end of the second quarter?
How many donors would I like to recruit by the end of the year?
Free the optimist in you and don’t be afraid to dream big. If you feel a little stuck, you have our permission to use AI to jumpstart your brainstorming!
First, review your goals with your team, encourage honest feedback and ask them to contribute ideas for reaching these goals.
Once you’ve refined some of these goals, then connect with potential donors, nonprofit executives and community leaders and ask for their advice. These conversations will help you learn what has and hasn’t worked in the past — all the while you’re laying the groundwork for future partnerships and donations.
After you’ve gathered feedback, adjust your goals accordingly for a realistic plan for each month, quarter and year.
The dreaded “b” word!
It’s no secret that a lot of great ideas fall by the wayside because of budget restraints. But instead of limiting your ideas on the front-end to stay in budget, you can now select the ideas you believe will have the most impact during your first year and shelve the others for the future.
(Also, if you have a former or current creative on your board of directors or elsewhere within your network, they just might be willing to help fund your first year of marketing to get you off the ground. They’re likely to understand the value that marketing will bring in helping spread your mission, and it never hurts to ask whether they’d like to contribute!)
Let your target audience, your mission and the stories you want to tell inform your color choices, font style and tone of your content.
Once you’ve developed a graphic design brand kit, you’re ready to determine how you’ll share your message. (If you’re stuck on the balance of social media, emails or events, check out our recent blog post for our take!)
Now you can start teasing your organization’s launch and sharing your story, keeping in mind the goals you’ve set for each month, quarter and year. These goals will inform how many stories you share each month, when you’ll ask for volunteers or donations and how often you should express the need you’re meeting in the community.
As you nail down these last details before your launch, we wish you and your organization the best of luck! If you’re looking for an agency to walk with you through this process, we’d love to chat.