Building Brand Awareness on a Budget: Marketing Tactics for Small Nonprofits

Are you looking to use digital marketing as a microphone for your mission-driven nonprofit organization?

You’ve come to the right place.

Fortunately, there is a wide array of marketing channels that allow the opportunity to build brand awareness.

To the nonprofit leader skeptical of digital marketing, consider this an opportunity to be a light in a dark place. We understand the value you place on stewarding your donated financial resources well. How better to test out if digital marketing really can help grow your organization’s brand awareness than with free marketing resources?

Free Marketing Resources for Small Nonprofits

Get Social

Creating social media accounts for your nonprofit is the low-hanging fruit answer to how to build brand awareness—making it an important part of bringing light to your nonprofit’s mission.

Here’s a cheat sheet of where to find your target audience online:

• Facebook: Use this platform to generate donations from aspirational young professionals. Over 24% of Facebook users are between 25–34 years old. Meta’s fundraising options are designed specifically for nonprofits!
• Instagram: Use this channel to engage younger generations via social advocacy campaigns. More than 15% of Instagram users are 18–25 years old. Save time by planning ahead using Meta’s free scheduling tool.
• LinkedIn: Use this channel to reach influential decision-makers. A Hootsuite report shared that, “LinkedIn users have twice the buying power of the average online audience.”
• Pinterest: Pinterest’s mission is to “bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love”—aligning this channel with your nonprofit’s altruism.
• X (Formerly known as Twitter): Invest your time in this channel if reaching the 25–34-year-old audience is mission-critical. However, many nonprofits are reinvesting their efforts in Meta after recent changes to the platform.

To engage your audience, remember: sharing is caring. That is—encouraging your followers to reshare your posts. This naturally associates an individual’s credibility with your organization.

When you make a key connection with an influential business leader, send a request for a collaborative post, multiplying your brand awareness and applying similar effects of mutual credibility.

Need ideas for improving your nonprofit’s social media marketing? Check out our ideas.

Build an Email List

According to TruConversion, email marketing campaigns can yield a return of $40 for every $1 spent.

Email has long been the hallmark of nonprofit fundraising. Mailchimp is the #1 email marketing and automation platform and our agency go-to at PHOS. If you are getting started with email marketing and have a list under 500 contacts, your plan is free.

It’s easier to retain a donor than attract a new one. Consider starting a monthly newsletter to share updates with your supporters, showing the impact their donations are making.

Or build your email list with gated content. This is when organizations upload long-form content to their site and “gate” it with an email field. Make sure to tag these contacts in your email builder as the subject of the long-form content, so you can segment your audience to ensure they receive content specific to what they came to your organization for in the first place.

Leverage Free Graphic Design Resources

Graphic design plays a crucial role in both social media and email marketing. If hiring a professional designer isn’t an option for your nonprofit, take advantage of free design resources available specifically for organizations like yours.

One of the best tools to explore is Canva Pro, which is free to nonprofits. To qualify, your organization must:

• Be recognized as a charitable or nonprofit entity by your country’s local regulatory body.
• Operate on a not-for-profit basis.
• Serve the public good.

Once verified, you’ll have access to more than 250,000 customizable templates and a library of 75 million high-quality stock images and videos. Not sure where to begin? Here are some ideas:

• Email headers: Create banners to make your emails more engaging. Keep in mind that over 70% of emails are opened on mobile devices, and 72% of users delete emails that don’t display correctly—necessitating the use of horizontal and vertical banners.
• Reels: Design engaging 9:16 vertical videos. Short-form video has taken over social media in the past five years.
• Social media posts: Try 1:1 square posts and 4:3 sized graphics to fit a variety of placements.

Another excellent free resource for nonprofits is Adobe Express, which also offers intuitive tools for creating professional-quality content.

Remember, social media is about people connecting with people, so don’t stress about creating perfectly polished designs.

Blog It Out

Do you collaborate with local businesses to offer special deals? For example, maybe you’re a foster care NGO and a local hairdresser provides 20% off to foster families. By featuring these partnerships on your website and encouraging them to link back to you, you’re engaging in a valuable SEO strategy.

Another effective approach is writing blog articles that share the stories of individuals who have benefited from your nonprofit’s work. As you naturally incorporate relevant keywords and topics, you’ll attract people searching for similar information online, helping to build your site’s credibility and boost visibility in search results.

Leverage AI

This means using it ethically, of course. Our team at PHOS Creative consulted with Michael Sacasas, Executive Director of the Christian Study Center of Gainesville to create a Values-Driven Generative AI Policy. We recommend creating policies that guard your organization’s values to ensure AI is working with your mission, not against it.

“In matters of style, move with the current. In matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
Benjamin Franklin

Here are some tools you can use to multiply your message via social media:

• AI Closed Captions Tool (such as OpusClip): This tool automatically reframes and adds captions to video content, optimizing it for its most likely viral start and endpoints.
• AI Voiceover Tool (such as ElevenLabs): This tool turns written text into voiceovers.

Get Found Online with a Google Ad Grant

Google will actually give you money to bring more awareness to your cause through Google Ad Grants.

“Google gives away up to $10,000 per month in ad budget to each nonprofit that qualifies for its Google Ad Grant program. These search ads can be used to attract donors searching for outlets that affect positive change for the causes they’re passionate about.”

For your Google Ad Grant account to pick up steam, you’ll need to maintain a click-through rate (CTR) of at least 5%.

To maximize your organization’s share of the available $10,000, read more in our article “The Benefits of Hiring a Marketing Agency for Your Nonprofit Organization.”

Invest in the Next Generation

There’s a lot of talk about email being the marketing channel with the highest ROI. But where is the conversation about intern ROI? (This is mostly a joke.)

Honestly, Gen Z has some serious social media skills.

At PHOS, we’re passionate about finding outlets for people to put their skills to use for a bigger purpose. A videography or marketing student at your local college could be the seasonal team member you need to help earn your brand the awareness you need.

You’ll make a lifelong, passionate supporter of them (speaking as a former nonprofit intern myself), and they’ll create resources to give your brand the awareness boost it needs!

Invest in a Team of Experts

At PHOS, our mission is “To cultivate true flourishing in people and organizations while reflecting the love of Jesus to the world.” If your mission fits within this goal, we’d love to partner with you.

“No margin, no mission.”
Irene Kraus

Specifically, if preparing for Giving Tuesday sounds intimidating, reach out! PHOS Creative offers marketing consulting specifically designed to help nonprofits on a budget forward their mission.