Agribusiness  August 5, 2005

Social marketing boosts fund-raising by inspiring donors

Q: Our nonprofit organization needs to raise more money. We can’t afford to hire a consultant or add staff. What can we do?
A: “The best way for your organization to raise more money without adding staff or paying for high-priced consultants is to understand and use social marketing,” says Shane DeRolf, president of Campaign Coalition, a social marketing and advertising agency in Boulder. “By incorporating an integrated social marketing mentality and methodology into your organization’s fund-raising strategies, you will raise more money because you will develop the disciplines, skills and expertise required to inspire individual donors, foundations and corporations to give your organization money. When you understand that development and marketing are actually two sides of the same coin that must work as ‘one’ in your organization, you will be on your way to building a sustainable fund-raising strategy that delivers measurable results.”
Social marketing is the process in which the same principles used to sell products to consumers are employed to sell ideas, attitudes and behaviors to benefit society and its members. “As a discipline, ‘social marketing’ has been around since the 1970s when Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman first coined the term to describe this new approach to marketing. But despite its growing popularity, social marketing remains a relatively unknown aspect of marketing and advertising in America today,” says DeRolf.

Nothing new
Marketing for social change actually began in 1942 when the Advertising Council created the category of public-service advertising. From its earliest efforts such as “Loose Lips Sink Ships” to the “Crying Indian” in the mid-’60s to the more recent “I am an American,” PSAs have been used as part of social marketing campaigns to raise awareness, inspire action and save lives for more than 60 years.
“But social marketing involves more than writing clever copy or producing great
television. The goal of social marketing is to effect positive social change. And that’s rarely easy. Though a mind is a terrible thing to waste, it may be an even harder thing to change – yet that’s exactly what social marketing tries to do, day after day, campaign after campaign,” says DeRolf, who also serves as the company’s creative director.
Social marketing offers nonprofit organizations the most relevant philosophical marketing fit in the world. Every day you are busy selling ideas, attitudes and behaviors for a better world. And that is exactly what social marketing does.
This style of marketing doesn’t require tremendous resources. In some cases the less money you have, the more powerful social marketing can be for your organization.

Fundamental steps
According to Nedra Kline Weinreich, president of Weinreich Communications and author of “Hands-On Social Marketing,” there are five fundamental steps an organization should follow when using social marketing. They are:

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Step No. 1: Planning
? Research and gather information to help focus your service and message
? Analyze the collected data
? Determine the top target audiences: Focus on a few to get your message heard
? Strategy development: What is going to set your campaign apart from others?

Step No. 2: Message and Materials
Development
? Develop an effective and compelling message to communicate
? Identify appropriate channels to communicate your message
? Produce creative executions: The WOW that will get your project noticed.

Step No. 3: Pre-Testing
? Pre-test the principal message and campaign with a few select stakeholders
? Obtain and analyze the input
? Use the pre-test results to adjust your message.

Step No. 4: Implementation
? Develop an implementation plan with timelines, tasks, staffing levels, budgets, and how you are going to measure the success of the campaign.
? Generate publicity via press releases
? Monitor implementation and adjust the plan if needed.

Step No. 5: Evaluation and Feedback
? You must use feedback to improve your program. Learn from your mistakes.
“At its core, social marketing is about inspiring behavioral change,” says DeRolf. “If you can learn how to do that, and do it well, the lack of money will never be a problem in your organization again.”
You can do things organizationally to help you be more successful as well. You need to make your end customer and stakeholders rave about your organization. Make sure your clients have a great experience when working with you, and that both your employees and clients rave about your service. The happier you make your clients and stakeholders, the more automatic demand you will get, the more money will follow.

Windsor resident Russell Disberger is a founding member of Aspen Business Group, a Northern Colorado-based specialty consult-ing and venture capital firm. He can bereached by e-mail at russell@aspenbusiness-group.com, or at (970) 396-7009.

Q: Our nonprofit organization needs to raise more money. We can’t afford to hire a consultant or add staff. What can we do?
A: “The best way for your organization to raise more money without adding staff or paying for high-priced consultants is to understand and use social marketing,” says Shane DeRolf, president of Campaign Coalition, a social marketing and advertising agency in Boulder. “By incorporating an integrated social marketing mentality and methodology into your organization’s fund-raising strategies, you will raise more money because you will develop the disciplines, skills and expertise required to inspire individual donors, foundations and corporations…

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