6 Nonprofit Marketing Trends that All Marketers Should Know About [HubSpot Data]

Marketing your nonprofit can be challenging.

Thankfully, learning from others that have already engaged with nonprofit marketing, leveraged trends, and found success can be helpful when it comes to developing your own strategy.

In this post, discover expert insight and tips from HubSpot’s Nonprofit Marketing Trends Report for 2022 that will help you build the brand awareness you’re looking for.

Nonprofit Trends to Watch in 2023

1. Collect donations on social media platforms with native donation features.

TikTok has grown in popularity for nonprofits in reaching audiences and collecting donations. In fact, almost 75,000 donations were made within the app in support of various organizations and causes in 2021.

Its donation feature is a native TikTok tool, so it’s valuable for nonprofits looking to use it as you can reach your target audiences on the platforms they already use rather than directing them down a donation path off the app. The image below displays the donation CTA on the Malala Fund’s TikTok profile.

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Other platforms like Instagram and Facebook have charitable donation tools, and Twitter recently launched a profile tipping option that nonprofits can leverage to connect donations on a profile.

2. Championing user-generated content.

User-generated content is content created by your audiences that relates to your business. So, for example, someone posting a picture on Twitter where they’re wearing athletic wear from a company.

According to HubSpot’s recent report, user-generated content is valuable for nonprofits and is a must-have for 2022. When leveraging this trend, a best practice is to share user-generated content from the groups you support. Doing this is beneficial because sharing a direct story from those impacted by what you do demonstrates the results of your efforts and can inspire those you reach out to to contribute because they’ll know you’re actively making a difference.

3. Personalized and segmented campaigns to generate donations.

Segmentation is essential for all businesses because consumers expect to see content related to their interests. When it comes to nonprofit marketing, this can dictate the strategies you use to fundraise for your business.

HubSpot’s Nonprofit Marketing Trends report calls attention to the following statistics when it comes to reaching your audiences:

• 1 in 4 donors between 18-29 prefer social media communications from nonprofits.
• Younger donors prefer recurring donations — almost half of 18-29-year-old donors and more than one-third of 30-44-year-old donors give monthly.
• Gen Z and Gen X prefer to donate via Facebook, social media, texting, and mobile apps.
• Boomers and Gen Xers want to hear from nonprofits quarterly or yearly rather than monthly or weekly.

Putting the statistics above into practice can look like sending text message donation campaigns to Gen X audiences and creating a social media donation challenge on TikTok to reach your audiences between 18-29. You can also segment CTAs on your website based on user age and past donation behaviors or send different email newsletters depending on recipients’ interaction with your business.

4. Partnering with other businesses.

HubSpot’s report says that, in 2021, nonprofits partnered with tech companies, local restaurants, influencers, and other nonprofits to leverage the power of community to build brand awareness and support for the causes they champion.

A key takeaway for nonprofits is to develop partnerships with businesses relevant to the causes you support. For example, Bed-Stuy Strong is a mutual aid network of neighborhood residents that support other residents. It hosted a free winter market for community members and partnered with Brooklyn Packers and Tamales of Hope to distribute food to those who attended.

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It’s important to note that your partnerships don’t need to be with other nonprofit organizations, though. If you can develop a relationship with a relevant local business that can further your cause, you can still generate awareness and spread your message.

6. Experimenting with NFTs.

Non-Fungible Tokens are one-of-a-kind digital pieces of content that cannot be replicated and belong exclusively to the person that has purchased them.

It’s an emerging channel for nonprofits, but if you’re looking to get in on it, you can partner with artists who can create NFTs relevant to your business and host virtual auction events where you can sell them to people and use profits to support your cause.

NFT4GOOD was a collection of 88 influential Asian-American and Pacific Islanders NFT cards. Each NFT purchase gave the buyer exclusive ownership rights to one of the cards, and all of the proceeds were given to the NFT4Good Community Fund to support Asian American organizations. The NFTs generated $80,000.

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Over To You

When creating your strategy, consider the strategies and trends on this list that other nonprofits are already leveraging. If you choose to use them, you’ll find yourself engaging in conversations with your target audiences, driving donations, and creating an impact for the communities you support.