Many nonprofit leaders and boards feel under siege. The federal funding cuts are flowing downstream to the state level. At the same time, institutional funders are becoming more cautious in their giving, while major donors look at the headlines and wonder whether they should also be concerned about missions that may be political liabilities.
In the meantime, in a deeply polarized political climate where people have dug into opposing positions, it’s easy to see why nonprofits are stressed, distracted and increasingly afraid. They don’t want to be targets in the digital space or in any way that could potentially adversely impact their funding. But there’s more that’s happening in digital marketing that impacts nonprofits.
The marketing playbook has fundamentally broken down. With Google’s AI overviews increasingly surfacing content from Reddit and YouTube, it’s changing the rules for SEO and traditional vanity metrics as we know them. Every website is suffering from substantial organic search traffic declines, meaning the channels that used to deliver traffic no longer do.
The Optimistic View for Marketing
The answer to remaining visible on social media and ensuring funding is not to retreat into silence or wade into meaningless disagreements. It means:
There’s reason to be concerned, but there’s also reason to be hopeful. For one, all of these challenges provide a chance for nonprofit leaders and marketers to focus on where and with whom they should focus — their communities. The optimistic approach to marketing is one where everyone has a chance to get back to basics.
- Growing community.
- Ensuring message discipline.
- Remaining consistent regardless of what happens in the news or otherwise.
There will be bumps, but it’s important to keep moving forward.
1. Growing Community: The Case for Events, Email and SMS
If there’s one lesson that most of us have learned over the past couple of years, it’s that any channel or marketing approach can disappear. For those who relied on SEO rankings and keyword usage, the game was completely disrupted. However, no matter what happens, you have an opportunity to develop and engage a broad community meaningfully.
No matter what is happening in the digital space or in the country, we know that neighbors help their neighbors. If your organization creates new events, such as barbecues or community partnerships, you will deepen relationships in your community. And once you develop person-to-person relationships, you can leverage your email database to keep people informed via email and SMS.
Email open rates remain strong for organizations compared to social media metrics, and SMS has very high engagement. During turbulent times, events, emails and SMS are opportunities to ensure your message reaches your supporters. It is therefore essential to treat these approaches as priorities and not afterthoughts.
2. Message Discipline in a Community Where You Control the Room
Again, the most important way any nonprofit, including yours, can remain visible is to build community through consistent messaging. That means determining how you’ll focus on community and where. There are a variety of ways, such as Google AI Overviews and generative AI search, that fundamentally reshape how your audience gets information.
You can create a community on a dedicated online community platform, rather than relying only on public social networks. The benefit is that it’s a controlled environment — fully your ecosystem — where you set the rules and shape the messaging. You can also use your social media, emails and other channels to encourage people to join your private community.
You can also focus on a broader community to mitigate attrition. In that case, invest in search and AI experts to reorient your marketing strategy. At present, that may mean expanding your YouTube profile and reminding supporters to share your nonprofit’s mission on Reddit. Whatever you do, stay true to your mission and be consistent in how you tell your story.
3. The Steady Voice in a Chaotic Time
The most important shift in all of the chaos isn’t tactical, but cultural. In other words, your entire team, board and volunteers have to stay on message. Therefore, it is vital to ensure your organization has a clear and simple brand voice, set of talking points and guidelines for a unified message.
What a steady voice means is ensuring a filter. For example, before anything is shared publicly, is it on brand and on message? Does it serve the mission? If something unsteadies the organization, does it make sense to respond or let it be? What worked a year or two ago may not work today, so review your brand guidelines for voice consistency.
When you stay consistent and disciplined, even in the face of controversy, your organization will do better because your community knows and understands where you stand and why. When you show consistency and discipline, a single post or controversy won’t redefine your work in the community. In fact, your community will stay with you.
The Answer Isn’t Going Silent
The nonprofit sector is experiencing a very difficult period. There’s less funding for many organizational missions, more scrutiny and traditional marketing channels that are no longer serving their purpose. The answer isn’t to retreat or go dark. It means shifting to community, message discipline and overall brand consistency.
At the end of the day, no matter your mission, if you’re part of the fabric of your community, your community will stand with you as a neighbor should anything come up. But that means your organization needs to keep showing up consistently in the community, in spaces where your supporters will see you and experience your presence.
The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of NonProfit PRO.
