Marketing Your Charity on a Budget

They say the best things in life are free and the lifeblood of many charitable organizations is the time that volunteers give up to support them. Likewise, the donations they receive are often given in return not for a product or service they are offering but because of the generosity of the person making the donation.

And yet as the credit crunch hits hard, charities and voluntary organizations are also struggling to raise awareness and funds in cost effective way. Here are some tips that charities could use to help them grow without spending a great deal of money on marketing.

The best way in which charities can market on a budget is by using public relations to get free exposure in the media. The great news for charities is that the general public love human interest stories and the media realize this. Therefore if your charity is looking to gain exposure for a particular cause then get the media involved. You can do this by sending the media a press release and following it up with a phone call or better still, inviting a local journalist to a particular event and giving them the opportunity to interview you and take some photos.

Another way in which charities can now gain exposure is through using internet marketing and social networking as a way to gain valuable exposure. With social networking websites like Facebook and my space now being used by more and more people, it has never been easier to promote a particular cause, event or charity to the masses.

The great thing about using the media and social networking as a way to promote a charity or any other business is that the only costs involved are those of time rather than any financial outlay. Public relations are very often also more effective than traditional forms of advertising as having a journalist or better still a member of the general public talking about your charity in a positive way acts as a third party endorsement of what you are promoting.

And when it comes to public relations, do not restrict your activities to the written or online media. If you have something newsworthy to say and better still can say it in an articulate way, television and radio stations will also be interested in your story. Be tenacious when dealing with the media, be passionate about what you have to say, be controversial if necessary and above all, be interesting and newsworthy as unless you meet the needs of the journalists and their readers, listeners and viewers then you will not be successful.

Journalists do not care that one of your volunteers has just got married, journalists do not care that you have just launched a new website and journalists do not care that you have just saved money on your charity insurance by using a charity insurance broker. Make your contact with the media interesting and get free exposure for your charity.