Is Marketing Important For a Charity? If not, What is?

Is marketing important for a charity? When I was in class I learned that many organizations (particularly nonprofit organizations), marketing department is a prey for annual budget cuts - so no, it's not important...? Many do not have an in-house marketer at all. The mindset is like, anyone can do it or we cannot afford it; and everyone in the organization sort of contribute in a marketing campaign... How many messages would a public receive then?

Out sourcing sounds very tempting, but again, that would incurs big amount of dollar and it won't look good for our annual report. What next? What are the options? How can get public trust and create positive reputation without spending that much? Let's go on social media.

The Art Of Marketing, 2014

Social media in my opinion, are awesome tools... "tools". I said this to everyone, if you don't know how to utilize a tool, someone is going to get hurts. I talked to my old friend who is currently working on a social media campaign. After I listened to her, there is a pattern of social mediagaphoning. "Social mediagaphoning" (Adj.) - yes, I made it up - is the action of shouting information on the social world regardless of the listeners. Well, we got the information out but... who is listening? Is this what we want? How loud should we shout until someone notice?

My point today is, marketing is an investment. An investment contain risks, and risks can be minimized. Everyone can get into stock market, but how many make fortune out of it? Same thing. You required knowledge, experience, and guts to invest in marketing. Perhaps, risks were always the reason why small charities choose to avoid (similar to someone with small budget trying to buy a stock).

But! this is not our last hope. We can turn this around. I had this idea for 3 years now; unfortunately, my situation did not allow me to move on with the idea. I think it is time to share it to everyone; in case someone can start or share with me the viability of the idea. I will share this idea in my next post because I think you have enough today. Let's close the page and we will continue later.

"Shaping the Future of Business"

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