10 Tips For Last-Minute Year-End Fundraising

Here we are again at the end of another year. It’s always coming, yet always seems to sneak up on us! And for nonprofit leaders who are up to their ears each day in helping others, long-term planning can sometimes feel like a luxury.

But year-end fundraising is essential for nonprofits because the general public is caught up in the spirit of giving and generosity (and tax deductions). And with so many others soliciting donations right now, your organization should get a piece of the pie, too. After all, there are so many people who could benefit from your work.

When the good folks at GiveCentral asked if they could share 10 tips for last-minute year-end fundraising, I easily and eagerly said yes. Whether you’ve been planning for December since this summer or are are only realizing that the New Year is around the corner, you will find a few gems below to put into practice immediately.

Wishing you much success in your year-end fundraising!

10 Tips For Last-Minute Year-End Fundraising

For nonprofit organizations, year-end fundraising is of undeniable importance. This is so because it is between October and December that nonprofits receive half of all annual donations. Understanding your donors and really getting to know them is important, and that’s how you will pave a way to line up your supporters.

For any kind of fundraising in the nonprofit industry, technology plays an important role. Of course, there have been changes in the nonprofit landscape after the pandemic hit and it's a mistake to try to make the old ways work in every situation. It is good news that new and improved methods have been adopted by organizations at large.

As for year-end giving, there is a lot of planning that goes into making the campaign work. However, there are a few last minute actions you can take to make sure that you are on the right track. 


1. Check Priority Goals

It is very true that all nonprofit organizations wish to perform better each year. In order to precede last year’s result, you must look at your downgrades and upgrades. Have a look at your retention—your database can indeed be a gold mine while reviewing your year-end fundraising objectives. Additionally, go over the nonprofit fundraising trends that have worked for nonprofits this year and draw a quick takeaway for your own year-end fundraising plan. 


2. Be Website Ready

Sometimes, you’re so busy paying attention to bigger things that you miss out on the simpler and the more obvious aspects. Your website is a representation of you, and what you display on it speaks volumes about your organization as a nonprofit. Fundraising for nonprofits requires updated and functional donations forms and Calls-To-Action on your website. Buttons, banners, and visuals that talk rightly about your cause and campaign is definitely a prerequisite. 

3. Go Mobile

Definitely a must-do if you haven’t already since 52.2% of website traffic is known to be generated from mobile phones. Nonprofits can increase their donations by 126% on average simply by incorporating mobile-responsive design to their websites. Therefore, mobile optimization of your website and all your communication materials is essential. Adoption of modern giving tools such as text-to-give and choosing a good keyword for the same should absolutely be on your checklist.


4. Personalized Communication

It is not easy to get people to talk about you and your organization. Yet, communication can help increase the attention that you receive. Tailored communication requires an excellent segmentation of donors. It is likely that most nonprofits already have a good sense of audience segmentation. These are mostly current donors, lapsed donors, prospective donors, and so on. Personalizing every message to each section of your audience is the best practice. Rather than launching a generic blast to your entire list, tailored messaging for each segment is more likely to result in donations and gifts. At the very least, include their name in the email to make it more individualized.


5. Adopt A Year-End Email Series

In addition to the above point, having a year-end blitz is recommended—at least three e-appeals between December 26th and 31st can help you get a better response. Set up your emailers in such a way that you can also talk about it on your blog posts. For example, write a year-end fundraising trend article on your blog that is an introduction to the emails that you’ll be sending later. As for your email subject lines, try to be engaging yet short and crisp. Considering the fact that there are more than 4.2 billion daily email users around the world, you wouldn’t want to miss out on this chance. 


6. Steward Bigger Donors

Not that you should ignore the mid-size and smaller donors, but pay extra attention to the bigger donors. At the end of the day, your goal is to bring in more funds while turning your donors into passionate fans. Have the top professionals in your organization such as Executive Director and Chairman to reach out personally to these major donors. Send personal, one-on-one emails and messages thanking your big donors and talk to them on a phone call. Know the interest of your audience and weave the conversation around it. 


7. Lest We Forget Social Media

Social media has become an everyday habit for many. Well, nothing wrong in that but this is exactly why some nonprofit organizations miss out on creating a well strategized social media communication plan. Improving your organization’s social media takes effort and pushing your year-end campaign through your social media handles takes planning. This planning, however, doesn’t have to take up too much time. Carefully pick the image or videos you want to use, have a link or a Call-To-Action button that leads to your donation page, and include an “ask” message. Create a calendar and see to it that you post about your campaign at least four times per week. 


8. Focus On The Inner Circle

Your inner circle within the organization would mean your board members and staff. Board members have a huge role in the functioning of a nonprofit—when the board takes action, everyone else follows. Ask and encourage your board members and office staff to give. It is very impressive when the staff is donating no matter how big or small; it shows oneness. You can also request the circle to spread the word to their friends and family.


9. Create A Thank You Page

In addition to auto-generated thank you messages for your donors who give online, create a dynamic thank you page to show how grateful you are. Once your supporters have made their donations, they should be taken to an inspiring thank you page that makes them feel good about having donated. An immediate email thank you should not be missed as well. 


10. Optimize On Testimonials

Show a video or an image of someone or a group that has received help from your organization, made possible due to donations from your donors. Do this everywhere—emails, website, social media, landing pages, thank you emails, etc. Visuals speak louder than words and what better way to communicate your message than this! 


Conclusion

As the year nears its end, it is good teamwork that will bring you closer to your year-end fundraising goals. Last minute or not, good communication within the team is important - discuss your ideas, ideate together, and bring the best to reality. Good luck!


Patrick Coleman, GiveCentral

Patrick J. Coleman is the President of GiveCentral and Coleman Group Consulting. As a CEO to two enterprises, he is on a mission to help reduce costs and increase fundraising for all charities through ways such as mobile giving. With a diverse educational background and over 25 years of experience in operations leadership and strategic planning, he has developed a proprietary methodology that focuses on the art and science of negotiation to deliver measurable, implementable, and sustainable results. Mr. Coleman has served as Board President for Elk Grove United Way of Suburban Chicago, and as a board member of both Talkline/Kidsline and Public Action to Deliver Shelter (PADS).

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When the good folks at GiveCentral asked if they could share 10 tips for last-minute year-end fundraising, I easily and eagerly said yes. Whether you’ve been planning for December since this summer or are are only realizing that the New Year is a

Kristi Porter, founder of Signify

I’m Kristi Porter, and I help cause-focused organizations understand and execute effective marketing campaigns so they can move from stressed to strategic. Your resources may be limited, but your potential isn’t. Whether you’re a nonprofit, social enterprise, or small business who wants to give back, I’ll show you how to have a bigger impact.

Six Podcasts to Help Your Nonprofit or Social Enterprise Thrive

Are you looking for a change of pace in content? Whether you’re more of an auditory learner or just would like to listen instead of read for a bit, I’ve got you covered! I’m certainly a writer at my core, but I’ve also had the pleasure of being a guest on some really great podcasts hosted by some amazing creators and leaders over the years.

These episodes are full of inspiring conversations, expert advice, and are just fun to listen toif I do say so myself. And now you have them all in one place! Podcasts are great to listen to on walks, long drives, while cranking out some work, or just in any spare time you can find. 

Listen in on six of my favorite conversations below to help your nonprofit or social enterprise thrive.

Tell Your Story With Content Marketing

GoodMakers is a weekly podcast from goodgigs founder Dale Wilkinson. It features  personal growth techniques, career and productivity tips, social enterprises, corporate social responsibility, and freelancing for good. 

In my episode, I talk about why content marketing is critical when building a social impact brand and how it benefits your mission. I also cover what you need to do first before you start creating content, how often you should be developing content, and share ideas on how to distribute and promote your content. 

This is a must-listen if you’re trying to figure out how to leverage your nonprofit or social enterprise’s unique story—because it deserves to be shared!

>>> Listen to the episode here

How to Leverage Your Influence to Make a Difference

Business with Purpose with Molly Stillman of StillBeingMolly.com interviews some of the world’s most generous entrepreneurs and inspires listeners to make an impact by supporting businesses with purpose.

I had an incredible conversation with Molly on her podcast about some really heavy-hitting but oh so important topics. We discuss issues like human trafficking, racism, religion, and faith, but we also talk about how the biggest inspirations can come from the little things in life. 

If you often find yourself wondering how to make a difference in the world, where to start, and what to do, this one's for you! 

>>> Tune in to the episode here. 

Improve Your Brand Identity 

Business Radio X is a dedicated group of people who help solopreneurs, professional organizations, and brands build communities around the people who matter the most to them. Atlanta Cares Radio spotlights the city’s best businesses and the people who lead them.

I was joined by two other guests and business leaders for this fantastic conversation. and I talk about how I started Signify and share the tips that helped me in the beginning, gush about my favorite organizations, and give my best advice for how to improve your brand identity and drive your mission to succeed. 

The episode also features Philip Coven, who specializes in in-town Atlanta commercial real estate, and my friend, Kitti Murray, founder of Refuge Coffee Co., a nonprofit that gives refugees opportunity and true refuge through coffee and community service.

>>> Give it a listen here

10 Steps to Upgrading Your Website

The Small Nonprofit Podcast by The Good Partnership gives you down-to-earth, practical, and actionable expert guidance on how to run a small nonprofit. And Cindy and her team are not only knowledgeable, but pretty fabulous! (She also has a new book out!)

This episode is a super important one because we talk all about websites: the common mistakes, how to fix them, and what you can do to drive more traffic (and therefore more support for your cause) to your nonprofit or social enterprise. 

Tune in to hear us debunk common website myths and offer practical tips you can implement to build your ideal website.

>>> Hear all about it here

Cause Marketing: Making a Big Impact as a Small Business

Start Marketing is a podcast hosted by marketing expert Katlynn Pyatt. Each week, Katlynn and her guests break down a popular marketing strategy and teach you how to put it into action with authentic and accessible advice. 

In my conversation with Katlynn, we talked in depth about how to utilize cause marketing to grow your business. We also discussed how to have a big social impact even as a small business, how to evaluate social marketing opportunities, and how to talk about the causes you support without sounding self-serving. There’s some great content in this one! 

>>> Learn while you listen and download it here

Copywriting and Marketing for Cause-Focused Organizations

The Hero Show, hosted by Richard Matthews, takes a peak behind the masks of modern day superheroes and helps tell their stories.

Philanthropy is a good marketing strategy, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg of this episode. We honed in on copywriting and how it’s an integral part of the relationship between entrepreneur and customer. For those of you who struggle with writing, this episode will provide you with some helpful tips. 

We also touch on recognizing and fixing your money issues, streamlining and simplifying workflow, defining your audience, and navigating the big world of cause-focused organizations as a small one. 

>>> This is a podcast you don’t want to miss. Listen to it here.

I loved my time on all of these shows and highly recommend subscribing to any (or all!) of these podcasts. I really enjoyed sharing my story, my best advice, and talking more about the topics I’m passionate about so that more nonprofits and social enterprises can succeed.

I’m confident that if you listen to any (or all) of these episodes you’ll take away something helpful for your nonprofit or social enterprise. Now, go tune in and get inspired! 



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I’m Kristi Porter, and I help cause-focused organizations understand and execute effective marketing campaigns so they can move from stressed to strategic. Your resources may be limited, but your potential isn’t. Whether you’re a nonprofit, social enterprise, or small business who wants to give back, I’ll show you how to have a bigger impact.

How to Increase Your Impact Through Product Packaging

Whether you’re a brick-and-mortar or an online store, as a cause-focused organization, you already know that your products change lives. But have you thought about how your packaging can take it a step further?

Yes, you want to minimize costs to help as many people as possible, but what if premium product packaging could actually provide you with a greater return on investment, more loyal customers, and spread your mission even further?

Want proof? Read on for my Q and A with Bob Dalton, founder of Sackcloth & Ashes, to learn how to increase your impact through product packaging.

As a big fan of this social enterprise, I was delighted to have a few minutes of Bob’s time, and he has some valuable lessons for you.

Why Great Packaging Matters for Your Mission

Q: When did you decide that the product packaging would become an important part of relaying your mission to customers? Why was the unboxing experience important to you?

A: In 2018, we launched Blanket the United States, our campaign to donate one million blankets to homeless shelters by our 10-year anniversary on June 1, 2024. To compliment this campaign, we felt that we needed customized packaging for the blankets that not only shared information about our campaign, but also allowed people to patriciate on a deeper level.

On the inside bottom of our boxes it says, “Take it a step further: Place the following items in this box and donate to your local homeless shelter.” Then there is a list of items, inviting people to fill the box and donate it. This was our way of repurposing packaging and allowing people to further make an impact.

How to Source and Develop the Perfect Packaging

Q: The current version of the box is very sturdy, has a map of the shelters you partner with, and tells people what to donate to their local shelter if they want to continue the mission. Did it go through several revisions and stages?

A: Sourcing the boxes was quite a process. We got about 15 different samples from manufacturers around the world. One of our first orders was around 5,000 boxes, so we had to be extremely strategic in who we chose in order to eliminate as much risk as possible. We needed the boxes to feel and look premium. 

Make Your Product Stand Out—Even With a Small Budget

Q: What advice would you give to brands who have yet to launch or are in their early stages who also want their product packaging to be unique and convey their mission, but have small budgets and are still bootstrapping?

A: It’s worth upping your prices $2-$5 to ensure you have premium packaging. Think of all the most elite product companies: Apple, Nike, etc. When you get a product, the first experience with your product matters.

Packaging is not something you use to sell to customers, but to create returning customers. Our company has over a 20% repeat customer rate—packaging is part of that. 

Customize Your Packaging for Partners

Q: You have quite a few corporate partners, and you also customize the boxes for each partnership. Was this a “surprise and delight” factor or a selling point?

A: Companies love their logos on stuff. Since we don’t allow other companies’ logos on our product, the box the blankets come in became the vehicle to allow us to do custom branding without jeopardizing or cheapening our brand.

Seeing the Impact

Q: How have customers responded to the boxes?

A: I receive photos and messages all the time from people saying that they filled their boxes up and took them to a shelter. I love seeing people take it a step further and become contributors. Many people want to make a difference but don’t know where to start—our boxes are that start.


Unboxing the Product

Thank you, Bob, for your thoughts and incredible, purpose-driven product!

When I received my very own Sackcloth & Ashes’ blanket, I was absolutely wowed by the packaging! It was definitely a “surprise and delight” factor for me, and made me instantly love the product even before I held it in my hands.

The box does a terrific job of explaining the company’s mission, how customers are already a part of it, and other steps customers can take. The simple act of opening the product made me feel like I was making a real difference. Curious to see it for yourself? Take a peek at my beautiful blanket and watch me unbox it here:

If you want to hear more about Bob and the Sackcloth & Ashes story, be sure to also listen or watch his interview on the Logistics with Purpose podcast series, presented by Vector Global Logistics and Supply Chain Now. You’ll be inspired—I certainly was!

How does this make you rethink your product packaging?


Bob Dalton is the founder and CEO of Sackcloth & Ashes, a mission-driven company that gives a blanket to a homeless shelter for each one purchased. In June 2018, he launched Blanket the United States—a campaign with the goal of donating one million blankets to homeless shelters by 2024. He now works to bring awareness and resources to grassroots organizations and speaks at events on the topics of entrepreneurship and social sustainability.

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As a cause-focused organization, you already know that your products change lives. But have you thought about how your packaging can take it a step further? Read on for my Q and A with Bob Dalton, founder of Sackcloth & Ashes, to learn how to in…

Kristi+Porter,+founder+of+Signify+(1).png

I’m Kristi Porter, and I help cause-focused organizations understand and execute effective marketing campaigns so they can move from stressed to strategic. Your resources may be limited, but your potential isn’t. Whether you’re a nonprofit, social enterprise, or small business who wants to give back, I’ll show you how to have a bigger impact.

4 Methods for Understanding What Your Customers and Donors Really Think

Consumers and donors today have the world at their fingertips. They’re able to conduct their own research on organizations and products, and are faced with a wide variety of options to choose from. If you want to stand out from the crowd—and attract your ideal donors and customersyou need to have a deep understanding of your audience, their behavior, and why they make the decisions they do

Basically, you need to have a good grasp of why they would choose to support you rather than another nonprofit or social enterprise.

But how?
Two words! Market research. 

You may have heard this term thrown around before, but what is it really? Market research is a way of gathering information to better understand your target audience and what they want. Using a few proven techniques, you can gain valuable insight into your audience and get direct feedback from them about their interest in your organization.

No more guessing or assuming!

When done intentionally, market research can help you gain more support for your cause, reach a bigger audience, improve the experience of your current customers or donors, and build a stronger overall marketing strategy for your nonprofit or social impact company. 

So, let’s get into the nitty gritty of how to understand what your customers and donors really think so you can reach more people for your cause! 

When To Use Market Research

You know you could probably benefit from learning more about what your donors and customers want. Who couldn’t? But where do you start? When is the right time for it? 

Maybe you’re thinking about launching a new product or service and you’re not sure how much support it would actually receive. Or, maybe you want to pivot and take your organization in a new direction, like if you’re a nonprofit wanting to start selling products or build a social enterprise. Knowing more about your audience will help you create services and products that people actually want.

Market research is also beneficial when you already have a product or service that’s not performing as well as you’d like, or your sales or donations have decreased lately. That’s a perfect time to reevaluate or troubleshoot your strategy.

Expanding your client or donor base is important, too! But you need to know as much as you can about them in order to successfully grow.

Market research is also just a great way to check in with your audience regularly. People change, and so do their priorities. This can help ensure that you’re still providing what they’re looking for. 

To illustrate some of the ideas above, let’s take my annual holiday giveaway as an example. I host this giveaway every year in order to hear directly from my clients and email subscribers about who they are, what they need, how they found me, and much more. It also allows me to collect information that helps me refine my current products and services (and website copy!) as well as gives me ideas for future products and services. And who doesn’t love free things? A win for both of us!

To sum it up: Market research is essential housekeeping for your organization, and should especially be implemented in any of these cases. It will help you stay relevant, in-touch, and even anticipate your audience’s needs.

Tips for Getting Started with Market Research

So you’re ready to better understand your audience, awesome! Here are a few tips that will help you define your goal and set you up for success.

  • Determine the objective of your research: 

    What is your goal? What are you trying to achieve with this research? 

    Do you want to expand your audience, increase sales, get more donations, something else? Determining this objective will help you figure out what method of research will work best for you and what data you hope to collect.

  • Define your target market: 

    The point of this research is to learn all you can about the people in your market, but you need to know who you’re talking to first

    Think about who you want to reach. Who is your message, product, or service for? Be as specific as possible when thinking about who you want to attract to your nonprofit or social enterprise.

  • Look at the competition: 

    It’s equally as important to know who you’re up against! Look into other organizations like yours from the eyes of a donor or customer. What do you like? What do you not like? What are they doing well and what needs improvement? How do you compare? 

    This is a great way to hone in on your own unique position and create an even better experience for your customers or donors.


How To Better Understand Your Customers and Donors

With market research, you’re hearing straight from the source rather than relying on your own personal thoughts and biases, which is crucial. 

Here are four ways to conduct market research to gain valuable insights into your current audience or target market.

  1. Interviews

    Interviews allow for one-on-one, face-to-face (virtually works, too) discussions with members of your target audience. This is a great method for digging deep and also allows for a natural flow of conversation. You can follow different threads of the conversation to gain more insight, and it’s good for reading non-verbal cues, too! This is great for really connecting with your audience and building a rapport, but be sure to ask targeted, direct questions that evoke thoughtful responses.

    Additionally, be sure to take really good notes, or when possible, record the interview so you can hear their exact words again later.

  2. Online surveys

    Surveys are a quick, inexpensive, easy way to hear from people, and the most commonly used method. These can be delivered as an online questionnaire or via email. They don’t require the scheduling and time of an interview, but you also may not get as in-depth responses or be able to ask clarifying questions. You can, however, collect a lot of data very quickly with surveys, and it is generally pretty straightforward and easy to analyze. This is the easiest way for people to participate as well.

  3. Focus groups

    Focus groups bring together a carefully curated group of people who fit the target market. A professional moderator leads a discussion and asks questions about the product, service, or organization and gains insight into how the group feels. However, focus groups can be expensive and also lead to errors in research. Dominance bias (when one participant influences the rest of the group) and moderator style bias (when different moderators’ styles influence the group in different ways) are two effects that can skew your data results.

  4. Customer observation

    A less expensive alternative to focus groups, this allows you (or someone from your organization) to observe a member of your target audience interacting with your product, whether it be navigating your website or testing something more concrete. While you won’t be able to get into their head like with the other methods, observing people in their natural setting without the influence of others can allow you to get a sense of where they hit roadblocks, what they like, and how they use your product or service.

Before we move on, let’s talk about incentives for participating in your market research. Offering an incentive is a great way to increase participation. This could be a small discount, giveaway, or free access to a resource. People love to receive something in return for their time, and you’ll likely receive more feedback!  

Oftentimes, this does depend on the amount of work required to participate, the number of responses you want, and your relationship to the person. For example, a focus group or interview is more time consuming than filling out an online survey. And if your audience isn’t highly engaged, they may need an enticement in exchange for their time. It can, of course, just also be used as a nice gesture.

How to Choose the Best Format for Your Market Research

There are clearly pros and cons to each method of research, and you have to determine which one works best for you and for your needs at this time. This is largely dependent on who your target audience is and what your objective is. That’s why they’re so important to define!

If you’re a nonprofit wanting to drive more people to your cause and gain more donors, an online survey may suffice. That way, you can gauge what people think about your communications, the feelings your messaging evokes, and what programs people are most interested in. 

If you’re a social enterprise and you want to introduce a new product, an interview might be best. Having a conversation with someone may allow you to get deeper insight into how they feel about the product and if they would really spend their money on it. An online survey could allow you to see if someone is interested or not, but it may be harder to discern intention versus action, and it doesn’t give you the level of detail a face-to-face interview does.

A conversation I had recently is a great example of choosing your format. I was speaking with a nonprofit leader and she wanted to create a new revenue stream by introducing a subscription box of premium bath and body products. This was a completely new venture for them, so I suggested that she conduct some market research to find out if her audience would be interested in making the purchase.

This was going to be a LOT of additional work for them, so she needed to gather information on whether it would even be of interest to their current donor base, since that was who they would initially start selling to.

Additionally, I suggested that she conduct focus groups or one-on-one interviews rather than an online survey because her audience may think that it’s a great idea but may not be willing to make a premium purchase ($100+) in reality. They needed to have actual conversations with people to work through potential issues like these ahead of time.

Ultimately, you want to choose the method your audience will best respond to and that will get you to the answers you need.

Asking the Right Market Research Questions

The other challenge in determining how to conduct thorough market research is figuring out which questions to ask participants. Whether via an online questionnaire or an in-person interview/focus group, you need to ask questions that are not only open-ended (more than a yes or no), but will help you achieve your goals.

There are some base questions you should be asking, but you also need to assess what questions best fit the purpose of your research. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Gather background information:

  • What are the demographics of your audience? 

    • Age, gender, race/ethnicity, location, employment, etc

  • What are the psychographics?

    • Their ethics, values, personalities, attitudes, lifestyles, and interests

    • You can find some of this out with questions like, “What are your hobbies?”, “What causes do you regularly support?”, “What five adjectives describe you best?”

Learn about how they view your organization: 

  • How did they find you?

  • How would they describe your organization and what you do?

  • Why do they think your work matters?

  • What do they think you should offer in the future? 

    • You can also give them a few options and let them choose what they like best!

  • What do they think the benefits of your organization are?

  • Where did they find the most useful or valuable information?

Gain more insight into what they want:

  • What challenges were they facing when they realized they needed this product/service?

  • What made them interested in organizations like yours?

  • How did they know something in this organization could help them?

  • What made them want to get involved with your mission or use your products?

  • How familiar are they with other options on the market?

  • Where do they go to find more information/different options?

Asses the roadblocks:

  • What issues are they facing with your product or service?

  • What problems do they currently see?

  • What problems do they think could arise?

  • What did they dislike about your product/service/organization? 

  • What would they find more helpful in the future/what areas do they think need improvement?

Evaluate the cost:

  • If you’re offering a product, how much are they willing to spend on it?

  • If you’re a nonprofit, how much are they willing to donate?

Note: Money questions may be tricky. My sales coach always says, “People buy with emotion and justify with logic.” So, just be prepared that you may not get the answers you want with these questions . . . or people’s actions may be very different from their intentions. It’s not bad to ask; just use it as a guide rather than gospel.

Notice that these are mostly open-ended questions. Asking open-ended questions helps you get deeper insights. You could also mix in numeric scale questions and vary the question structure. For example, the question could ask the user to rate their answer on a scale of 1-5, one being “Strongly Disagree” and five being “Strongly Agree.”

There are many examples of great questions here, but be careful in asking too many! You don’t want to overwhelm people or take more of their time than needed. Choose strategic questions from a few different categories that will best benefit the goal of your research.

Wrapping It All Up

Once you conduct your research and gather all your data, you’ll be left with a vast amount of helpful, insightful information to analyze and keep on hand. This process will likely uncover new patterns and trends you might not have fully noticed before. Not to mention give you a deeper understanding of your audience and how they respond to your mission.

After all is said and done, you can take your newfound knowledge and create an action plan to implement what you’ve learned. By conducting market research, you can not only better understand your current audience, but find new customers and donors that deeply resonate with your mission.

Moving forward, your services, products, and marketing will be more aligned with your ideal audience, making all your efforts more successful. In fact, your customers and donors may even think you’ve read their mind!



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I’m Kristi Porter, and I help cause-focused organizations understand and execute effective marketing campaigns so they can move from stressed to strategic. Your resources may be limited, but your potential isn’t. Whether you’re a nonprofit, social enterprise, or small business who wants to give back, I’ll show you how to have a bigger impact.


This post was co-written by Kristi Porter and Megan Westbrook.