How to Leverage Your Nonprofit Events to Gain Brand Recognition
Running a nonprofit organization is usually a multidimensional effort. While your primary focus is obviously going to be centered on your mission statement, there are other components of your nonprofit—such as your brand image—that will require your attention as well.
One of the best opportunities for promoting the recognition of your brand is through the planning of various events. Whether you are planning a fundraiser, major volunteering opportunity, or anything, these events give your nonprofit a chance to gain long-term support from the people involved. In order to make sure that these events are successful, you will want to begin planning well in advance.
Begin Promoting Events on Social Media EARLY
If you hope to have a successful event, you will want to begin preparing for it as far in advance as you feasibly can. In general, you should assume that people will ignore the event unless they are consistently reminded about it and have enough motivation to actually go.
Social media is an excellent outlet for reminding people about events and also gaining long-term interest in your organization.
In order for your followers to be excited about a future event, you will need to be excited yourself. Social media is a great outlet for promoting events because you can post articles mentioning what you are doing, pictures from previous events, and also include tangible data that helps legitimize your organization’s efforts. In doing these things, you will be able to show that your organization is actually active—something that all people want to see evidence of—and your overall brand image can dramatically improve.
Find Local Business Partners that are Willing to Help
Nonprofit organizations and local businesses often find themselves in a unique situation where they can mutually benefit from each other’s efforts. While partnering with a nonprofit can help a for-profit business improve its image, the nonprofit organization has the potential to increase its reach and move closer to achieving its mission.
Finding a #local partner in your community can help benefit both parties involved. Who are some of your organization’s #partners?
Establishing a positive relationship with a local business partner will benefit your brand image in multiple different ways. Not only will you be able to potentially increase your donations and number of volunteers. But you will also demonstrate to others that your organization is an integral part of the community, it has the community’s support, and that your event is something that is worthy of being talked about. Many of these mutually beneficial relationships can last for years to come.
Give Event Goers a Tangible Keepsake
The people who are most likely to volunteer, donate, and otherwise participate in things related to your organization will naturally be the ones who already have an established history. If someone has demonstrated a willingness to go to your events, you should try to find ways to remind them that they’ll want to be at events in the future.
Giving event goers a tangible way to remember an event will make them more likely to volunteer in the future.
Buying things such as t-shirts, keychains, frisbees, and bumper stickers in bulk is likely much more affordable than you might initially imagine. Distributing these things to the people who have attended your events will give them gentle reminders that your organization is still around and also help inform their friends about who you are. The more often that your brand can be expressed throughout the community (whether this is via a t-shirt or anything else), the better your public perception will be.
Reach Out to Local Media Outlets
In order to balance out all of the negative news stories you are likely to hear about in a given broadcast, many local media outlets are constantly looking for positive stories related to their community. As a nonprofit organization that is planning an event, you may very well have exactly the kind of story these outlets are looking for.
By calling local news channels, radio stations, magazines, newspapers, and other publications, you may be able to acquire widespread exposure at no cost to your organization. Getting access to these outlets will not only increase the number of volunteers and donations that your organizations receive, but it will also help reinforce the image of your organization as a key component of the community.
By consistently making efforts to expand your reach and reinforce the fact that your organization is making the community a better place, improving your overall brand image is something that is certainly well within reach. If your organization has any sort of event coming up in the next few weeks, you can use this event to not only benefit those who are involved but also gain an increased level of recognition from the general public.