Steps to kickstart your non-profit engagement strategy

For any non-profit there is great importance on the engagement strategy which is used. This engagement may look like trying to get volunteer participation, seeking donations or even looking for partnerships.

Get the engagement strategy wrong and the non-profit is going to face some tough challenges ahead.  There is a great deal to learn about your audience however and it can often be overwhelming to take on an engagement strategy, or even to understand where you should start. Below we are going to take a look at some if the steps which you need to be looking at that will kickstart your new engagement strategy.

Determine who your target audience are

Of course you can only seek to find your audience when you know exactly who you are looking for, so this will be the first step. When it comes to understanding who your target audience is, it is essential that you really focus on specific details and highlight a profile which you need. These are some examples as to what you should be looking for.

• Where do they live
• Gender
• Religious Leanings
• Passions
• Hobbies
• Political views
• Education level
• Income
• Marital Status

All of these data points will be valuable in your search for you target audience. To collect the data you can take information from SMS surveys, calls to action on your website and social media surveys too.

Winning hearts and minds

Once you have a target audience in mind it is time to outreach, and this should be done in the form of storytelling, to evoke emotion. As a non-profit it is essential that you are able to showcase the good work that is being done, in order to win over the emotions of those you are looking to engage. It is also essential that make it clear why you need their help in order to continue this good work. Reaching out in this way is not just about spending emails and updated social media, it is also about your website being packed with success stories and live information about your activities.

Double down on social media

Social media is one of the best places to engage people and seek support. Not only is this an enormous audience that you are able to tap into, you can quickly update the status of your activities for all to see. Social media gives you the chance to accurately target the people who match the criteria of your target audience. This is about working smarter and not harder with regards to your outreach. You may have to play around with different types of content to get the perfect tone.

Learning from metrics

A non-profit should always be looking at ways in which it can improve its engagement strategy and that is why following the metrics is so essential. There are many software suites like MoveData which offer integration that you can use to manage all of your information. Understanding what works best, where it works and at what time the content outreach is working are all keys to better understanding what your audience is looking for.

Know your audience reach out, review, change and reach out again.