As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take its effects nationwide, businesses and organizations have made numerous changes to their business models, with nonprofits particularly making strides to continue helping their causes. Social distancing and quarantine have made fundraising and marketing strategies more difficult for nonprofits, halting incoming donations, volunteers, and opportunities to hold community events.
Here are three tips on how nonprofits can look to pivot during the pandemic.
If you are part of a nonprofit organization and looking for ways to help connect with existing members, grow your audience, and drive support to your cause amid coronavirus, here are three tips to help:
1. Spruce up your online presence
With most Americans working from home, it is no surprise that online traffic and society’s reliance on it has increased. Since quarantine and social distancing protocols started in late March, website traffic for sites such as Facebook and YouTube have increased up to almost 30%, becoming people’s main means of entertainment and socializing.
Because of this increase, it is highly important for nonprofits to increase and improve their online presence to best maintain their functionality and public visibility. If your organization’s social networking profiles have not been updated in a while, it is best to update and post with them regularly to help capture the large influx of people now spending most of their time online.
There are plenty of ways to go about strengthening your online presence, but more than anything, people are looking for entertaining activities to pass the time and social support in the middle of distancing from loved ones. Between uploading creative videos or advertising on YouTube and Instagram or interacting with your community on Facebook and Twitter, humanizing your brand through an active online presence is the most important way to help stay connected and maintain a functioning organization during this pandemic.
2. Pursue online streaming to engage with your audience
Many companies have turned to the use of streaming platforms such as Zoom, Facebook Streaming, LinkedIn Live, and YouTube Live to help them during quarantine. While live video streaming and chatting are not anything new, the medium has earned a new sense of importance, becoming a tool for society to maintain contact with each other and for businesses to spread information to their consumer audiences. Remember: much of the audience is in a virtual state. Plus, it is additional content for nonprofits to repurpose with your email marketing campaign or supporting your social media marketing efforts.
Through video streaming, schools have held video meetings to help teach lessons and continue academia. Creative acts such as bands and musicians have streamed online concerts with donation drives and exclusive merchandise to help make up for cancelled tours. Businesses and organizations have started up their own podcasts and held open webinars to help give out trade advice and spread other useful information.
To maintain functionality with a society that is currently encouraged to stay at home, it is highly important to use every tool at our disposal. Due to video streaming’s flexibility as a utility platform, nonprofit organizations can use them as an opportunity to meet with their supporters on a regular basis and even hold donation drives to help maintain incoming funds for their causes. Schedule weekly video meetings or podcasts to discuss progress with your organization or cause to help foster a community online.
3. Be creative within COVID-19 limitations
Brands have taken to appealing to emotion to sympathize and connect with people during these trying times. They have sought out creative ways to keep their audiences interested and connected and continued to make profits through other business means. Disney Parks for example have offered recipes for their fan favorite snacks such as Disneyland Churros and movie studios such as Universal have made certain 2020 movies available for online purchase due to their release date being cancelled from theater closures.
For nonprofit organizations, it is vital to seek creative means of marketing and funding to keep public visibility and donations up during the pandemic. Offering raffle tickets or merchandise such as facial masks with organization logos on them with all proceeds going towards funding the organization helps support donations, marketing, and keeps your supporters stay safe in the pandemic. Hosting online game nights or happy hour conferences through live streaming platforms can help maintain unity and community.
While the landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic is everchanging, staying creative within the boundaries of the pandemic limitations can be the make or break reason for your nonprofit organization’s success right now. People value support and empathy more than anything in these current hardships. Support your followers through creative means of being a community and they will continue to support you back.