Author: era92 Creative

Email content that actually converts readers is hard to create sometimes. Many nonprofits face challenges with putting word out there about their work, creating compelling content, asking for donations without looking desperate, and making sure donors read every last one of their emails.

Of course, there are other solutions like aiming to stand out on social media, leveraging story-telling platforms like Instagram, creating compelling donation videos among others. However, a solid nonprofit email strategy can 10 times help amplify your message and reach new and existing audiences with ease.

In this article, I’m going to give you the top nonprofit email marketing strategies and answer your pain points: How can I make my emails stand out? What kind of content should I include? How can they help increase donations?

1. Start with your website 

I say this because a lot of the emails you’ll be sending out will somehow lead your audience to your website. You will want them to land on your donation page or blog or programs page at some point so make sure that your website is well designed and optimized for user experience. 

Another thing you can do is incorporate an opt-in email section on your blog or home page where people who visit the website to connect with your brand can subscribe to your newsletter. 

The call to action you use at this point is very important in generating leads for your newsletter. Say something that explains what your newsletter is about to entice people.

2. Don’t Ask for Too Much Too Soon

When you get a new subscriber, think of them like you’re going on a first date. You’re only starting to get to know them so you can’t straight away get to “let’s move in together”. That means- don’t ask for donations quite yet.  

Instead, take some time to show them why your mission is important, and build a relationship. Start with a warm welcome email message and follow up with stories of impact, necessary updates, and links to social media channels and your blog. Share the names and faces behind your brand to grow open rates and gain trust. 

Remember this in everything you do. People only subscribe to email lists because they’re connected to something: a cause, a mission, or a collaboration. 

3. Segment your emails 

Now you know how to treat new people in your audience. What about donors? How do we approach them? 

Segment your emails to focus on specific niches of your audience. Personalize the “From” and “Reply-To:” fields with a person’s name rather than the organisation name. They will be more willing to open the email.

Once you acquire donors, break them up into smaller lists by donation amount and programs they donate to so you can send the right messages to the right people. Many email marketing services, like MailChimp do a great job in keeping your donors informed. If you don’t have the time and expertise on how to write and design your content in Mailchimp, reach out today so we can help you connect more deeply with your donors. 

4. Keep it Coordinated

Email doesn’t exist in a vacuum. 

Your potential donors or members will get skeptical if they don’t see that same content in their inbox appear on social media for example fundraising campaigns. 

So, for higher chances of success, get all your digital platforms to work together. Not everyone will respond to an email or a facebook post but distributing that same content across platforms helps you cover all your bases. 

Someone who forgets to visit your blog via the email will be reminded to visit it when they are on their Facebook page. 

That’s how advertising works – the more people see it, the more they get curious to learn more. 

5. Optimize for mobile users 

Platforms like MailChimp and even Gmail itself already have you covered on how it appears on a smartphone but there are a few things you can do on your end to ensure emails are mobile-optimized:

• Make your subject lines short and catchy, so that all characters are seen and grab your reader’s attention.
• Your content should be concise and easy to read. Make sure the most valuable content and calls to action are up top. 
• Use short and punchy sentences and leave breathing room between paragraphs. 
• Images should be minimal but striking and not too heavy to load. 
• Use buttons instead of links. It’s easier to click from a button than a link on small screens.

6. Types of emails that stand out 

The Welcome Email: This email helps you put your best foot forward. While crafting it, set a positive tone and provide expectations for what subscribers can look forward to in the future. Story-telling Emails: I can’t stress this enough. Every nonprofit must employ story-telling aspect in everything they do because it’s central to drawing donors and supporters to the brand.

Success Story: Instead of telling, show. Record or write on one of your beneficiaries who overcame a great adversity as a way to show impact. Show their journey and bring people into your world. 

‘Thank You’ and Update Emails: These are a great tool to help improve donor retention.

Some ideas you can use in your update emails include: 

• Major milestones for your nonprofit, like raising a certain amount of money or community outreach programs 
• Celebrating your organization’s anniversary
• New programs, campaigns, or initiatives your nonprofit is rolling out.

Matching Donation Email: Although you can’t match all the time, a matching donation email invites donors to participate and give more and is also a great way to acquire new first-time donors

Statistics Email: Personally, we are not a big fan of these because they are better suited for things like annual or quarterly reports but you can find creative ways to use them to grab your readers’ attention. For example, you can use them as subject lines or even use them to explain the number of people reached during a campaign you launched, how many were helped etc. 

I think we can both agree that your email strategy has got to be as diverse as possible in order to encourage readers to convert into donors and donors to make recurring donations. The best ideas come from the simplest of things. You don’t have to think too hard on what your readers would be interested in- the answer is already in your mission. 

Pioneering solutions to end youth unemployment is at the core of what we do. We are on the ground. We’ve seen and studied why the youth are knee-deep into unemployment. Brilliance is equally distributed but opportunity is not.

One of the biggest problems facing the world today is youth unemployment yet a few organizations have come out to address this problem. Many are not committed to realizing the brilliance of young people especially those from the slums. Based on our founding story, we now know that brilliance is equally distributed but opportunity is not.

That’s why we have committed ourselves to play a part in empowering and up-skilling youth in underserved communities, in preparation for jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities, to become the next generation of digital talent in Uganda.

If you’d like to watch our founding story, watch the video below.

Where do we find these youth?

We feel a responsibility to uplift the communities within which we operate. Through partnerships with organisations like 92hands, we reach out and impact vulnerable people living in these communities. It is through these outreach programs in the slums around Uganda that we identify youth experiencing poverty and interest them in the Elevate Program. 

Many come from struggling backgrounds. It’s not a matter of simply making up their minds and committing to the program. They face resistance from step parents & caretakers, bad peer groups, finances, living standards, drug abuse, homelessness and other social issues. We pick out those in dire need, especially the girls and rehabilitate them into safer spaces in order to facilitate a smoother learning experience.

What next? 

Once young people are discovered, they are taken through our filtration program were we find out more of their aspirations and dreams, just to make sure they are placed in courses that match their passions.

Thereafter, they begin their courses for a 6-month apprenticeship under our program called ELEVATE. The program is modeled as a hands-on skills training program that challenges students to create and think big solutions that can transform people’s lives.

Our program is two-pronged. We have Leadership and Business Development entities. Under the leadership entity, we run programs like 2moro Alive where they are equipped with life skills. We partner with organizations like Rotary Club Metropolitan and Acacia Sunset and other mentors to take them through aspects like making life plans, vision boards, life resolutions, and alike. 

The other program we run is called era92Ds – an intensive 2 days program where we help them develop business plans and pitches.

After the program, young people transform into world-class designers and film-makers. We employ them to develop quality digital products for brands around the world. 

How we make progress against our mission

We train and employ youth in ARTS, DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY by merging their passion for Web Design/Development, Graphics Design & Film/Photography with a professional 6 months training facilitated by a research & study center, computers with required software and internet access. We achieve all this using these four pillars;   

1. Improving Opportunity
   Increase access to technology skill development, entrepreneurship, and promote inclusion across Africa. 
2. Increasing employability 
   Equip young adults with the technology skills they need to access dignified employment, thrive, and keep pace in the 21st Century
3. Transforming Education 
   Revolutionize the way young people learn and address the root issues contributing to the increasing youth unemployment across Africa.
4. Investing in Innovation 
   Invest in catalytic solutions that accelerate our mission to give every young adult, everywhere the opportunity to create their own future.

What our alumni says.

These digital skills are a stepping stone in providing sustainable livelihoods to these young people. 

Graduation, Retention and Career Advancement 

By the end of the 6 months, they are well equipped and ready to take on the world. Graduation day is celebrated with our partners, tutors along with the students in a grand gesture. After that, we retain a selected few and use our network to connect them to potential employers. These experiential learning opportunities lead them into steady employment opportunities or even contract-based projects. 

Our Impact

500+ Given skills and lifted out of poverty

17% of our graduates are employed full time to develop digital products for brands around the globe, 80% have been placed in organizations for work and others have gone on to start their small businesses, becoming freelancers.

Watch Precious Agizo display her Graphics Design skills. She’s one of our most agile students who recently won a T-Shirt design competition by Impact Nations.

What makes this possible?

We Build Brands to Build Lives.  It is that simple.

We partner with businesses worldwide to amplify their message, brand & increase revenues. This work helps us develop the
skills and employ young adults in the slums of Uganda. 

The profits are also reinvested in catalytic solutions that accelerate our mission to give every young adult the opportunity to create their own future.

• Will you be our next partner?

As you build your brand in the market, you create a much bigger impact because the profits from the work you give help us train and employ young poeple. We believe that through more collaborations with companies/organizations, youth can have skills that help them innovate digital solutions that can fuel Africa’s social and economic transformation.  Start a Project with us

• Refer us to a friend

The larger our network, the higher our chances to connect with more businesses that will help us train and employ more young people.

Your Nonprofit’s Instagram account is a visual storytelling goldmine. Instagram is not just a place where people post nice photos. It is a crucial platform for organisations and companies to market themselves through sharing their work, their culture and impact stories. 

Still hesitant on why you should bother with Instagram? Take a look at these statistics. Numbers don’t lie. The social platform has;

• 1 billion active users, with 800 million monthly users and 500 million daily users
• Around 3.5 billion likes daily
• Over 60 percent of users log in each day, second only to Facebook for the most engaged daily users 
• 21.2 percent of peer-to-peer fundraising dollars raised come directly from an Instagram post. 

Source: classy.org 

Let’s get into the nitty gritties shall we? I’ll take you through step by step on how to get it right on Instagram like the modern nonprofit you are.

1. Create a business profile account 

If you don’t already or you have a personal account for your organisation, switch to “business profile” under settings. Click on the circle icon for Settings, go to Privacy and Security and switch profiles. 

The benefits of this type of account is that you have access to a donate button that can help you fundraise for causes. You also have access to insights like impressions, engagement, and reach on all of your posts and stories. This informs you on what content your audience likes the most, if you’re attracting weekly page visits, the click through rate (CTR) on your website and so much more. 

2. Fundraise through Instagram 

Instagram allows eligible nonprofits to raise money for charity through the Donation Sticker in Instagram Stories and Donate Button on Instagram Business Account. 100% of the money raised using this sticker goes to the nonprofit. For a nonprofit to be eligible to receive donations through the donation sticker they must — have a Business Account, Sign up for Charitable Giving Tools, link their Instagram and Facebook Accounts. To link, tap Menu>Settings>Accounts>Linked Accounts>Facebook.

3. The Bio 

After switching to a business profile, work on creating a short captivating bio. 

• In just about 10 words, tell your audience your vision or mission. 
• Include your wishlist in a link in the bio menu by using a platform like Link Tree. Help them discover all your important content from social media accounts, website links, youtube, donation page, and so on. 
• Use your official logo as your profile photo so that people recognize you right away.

4. Drive interest 

We’ve finished setting up our profile nicely. So, what’s next? 

Document your day-to-day work and highlight the meaningful results of those efforts. For example, when I visit Charity Water, I get an understanding that they provide clean water with one quick glance through their photos. People don’t like what they don’t understand so it’s your job to make them understand. 

Post impact stories and curated content from your beneficiaries, partners and advocates. Features like IGTV allow you post lengthy videos of up to 1 hour. Take advantage of this feature to post your documentaries and series of impact stories. 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CB85OzJpvPQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

5. Garner support through creative asks: 

1. Sell charitable products through an Instagram Shop 
2. Viral Marketing- involve your supporters in helping you spread word about a campaign in a creative, fun and influential manner. They must feel bothered enough to participate. From Black Lives Matter (BLM) #blackouttuesday posts to the Ice Bucket challenge and many others, virals are the best way to create genuine engagement and bring a lot of awareness and support to your cause. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qwlmJMYNEc

6. Followers & who you follow 

Follow organisations and people who are interested in your work. A donor is not someone who is rich and has money to spend but rather someone who is genuinely interested in your nonprofit’s work. Know who your potential donor is and follow them. 

Follow your friends and their friends because these will be the first people willing to share your posts and help you reach a wider audience. That’s what social media is about- creating a large social network. 

Use common nonprofit hashtags when you post to get followers and engagement. Instagram’s algorithm uses hashtags to gather similar posts under one common hashtag that people can follow. For example, when you like more than 3 photos with the hashtag #nonprofitdesign, a notification pops up and asks if you want to follow the hashtag and see more posts like that. 

7. Photography

Your Instagram is nothing without good photos. I’ll go ahead and share some practical tips on shooting that powerful photo. 

• Tip 1: Get a good camera phone, an iPhone 6plus at the bare minimum 
• Tip 2: Find the perfect light. DO NOT take photos with too much light in the background. Get behind the source of the light so that it reflects on your subject and not your camera. 
• Tip 3: If you are inside, try and photograph close to natural light sources like windows, skylights or open doors.
• Tip 4: To bring out powerful emotions, take note of the tone of light you’re using. For example, natural sunset light brings out a soft and sad emotion while a bright sunny light brings out a brilliant, happy emotion. 
  Heifer International uses brilliant cloudy skies to put focus on their beneficiaries. 
• Tip 5: It’s a 3 square grid but it looks much better when the middle photo appears a little bit unique from the two besides it. 
• Tip 6: Use white space to let your page breathe and not become overly heavy with the same photos. That white balance gives your layout such a great aesthetic and keeps your stalkers scrolling.

• Tip 7: Photo editing
  Photos can appear a lot brighter and better with some photo editing skills. Play around with the contrast, brightness, saturation, and filters that don’t kill someone’s features but instead enhance them. 
• Tip 8: Rule of Thirds 
  This is one of the best ways to balance photos. The subject appears in one third of the frame. Look at this photo by Charity Water 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCwaMgDpvl5/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

8. Brand it 

There’s many ways to do it. There’s a carousel style normally used to educate your audience on a certain topic. 

If you wish to brand your posts, you can resort to free and easy to use design platforms like Canva and Crello. 

9. Influencers 

Welcome to the land of influencers if you didn’t know this about Instagram. It’s the trend to use authorities that people listen to in order to get your word out there. Even in the nonprofit world, there are influencers for different causes. You just have to know them and engage them. 

Pro tip: Influencers are most profitable when you’re pushing a campaign because you shoot two birds at once. They push your cause and also create brand awareness for your nonprofit. 

10. Captions and other social accounts

Use captions to redirect followers or browsers to your Instagram bio and then your home or other specific landing page and leverage your other social media accounts to get people to your Instagram profile. 

Your brand is defined by a customer’s overall perception of your business. That first thing that comes to their mind when they think of your brand should be a positive aspect. For you to ensure that, you need to define who you are very clearly and easily for your audience. 

Beginnings are tough. You don’t have a big budget for a design agency neither do you want to look amateur as you launch your brand. In this article, I’m going to share a simple and straightforward process you can do yourself to build your brand identity so you can launch a business that looks together, solid and presentable. 

This is what we’ll be talking about in detail

1. The importance of knowing who you are before you begin designing
2. Where to gather inspiration for your visual identity
3. How to select colors and fonts for your brand identity
4. How to design your brand’s logo 
5. Putting together your brand board

1. Who are you?

Your identity does not start with colours and design. It starts with who you are which then leads to design. I’ve noticed that many start up businesses do not focus on this part because they assume people won’t care as long as they get their iPhone or thermo flask or whatever product it is they’re selling. 

Every other business should emulate what nonprofits and businesses in competitive banking and telecom industries do. Their brands are so well-defined. 

Ask yourself; Why do you exist? What differentiates you? What unique problem do you solve? Why should people care?  These ideas form a strong foundation for your brand’s tagline, voice, messaging, stories, visuals and more. 

2. Creating your visual identity

Here’s a couple of platforms you can go to and draw inspiration for what colours you can use. 
Pintrest , Dribbble, Behance. These platforms are used by great designers around the world to draw fresh ideas on creating branding guidelines for clients. 

They offer a wide range of super creative mood boards that you can scroll through all day and be spoilt for choice. They are that good! 

3. Picking colours and fonts

Keep your mission and vision of your business in mind as you pick colours because different colours communicate a different message. For example youthful colours are bright and communicate a brand full of life like MTN’s yellow or Africell’s orange. Calmer colours like royal blue communicate a brand that’s down to earth like dfcu’s blue. 

Pick at most 3 core colours that you can play around with preferably two strong colours and a highlighter one. 

Fonts: 

There are five basic classifications of typefaces: serif, sans serif, script, monospaced, and display.

As a general rule, serif and sans serif typefaces are used for either body copy or headlines (including titles, logos, etc.), while script and display typefaces are only used for headlines but creativity knows no bounds. All that can be switched up or combined to give your brand a dynamic feel which is always important in helping your audience identify you easily.

4. Creating your logo 

There are a number of platforms that can help you give a general idea or picture of how your logo would look like. One of them is Design Hill. It’s comprehensive and tries to understand your company/organisation beyond just the name in order to give you a clear picture. 

If your taste is too specific, then you can opt for a professional graphics designer to help you create a unique logo that can stand out in the market.

5. Putting together your brand board 

Having gone through all the steps above, you might as well consider your visual brand identity complete. So, your brand board is basically a vision board that has all your inspirations for your brand in one place. From colours you picked, to inspirational images that stood out for you, to different fonts. 

All this cannot be done in one day because the best inspiration comes in doses. I bet you’ll develop it over time and remember that it’s okay to change your mind several times as long as the mission and vision of your company stay constant. 

An example of a brand board looks like this:

 If you don’t trust your taste in design, start your brand identity design  project  with us today and start off on the right path. It’s a long road to go alone, but we’ll give you a lift. 

Nonprofit’s ability to draw donor attention depends largely on their capability to effectively market the organization in a manner that will appease donors. How you position yourself in the market matters. How do you stand out from the other nonprofit doing the same thing as you? 

Luckily, we’ve got some tips on how to best market your nonprofit to donors and increase your donations. Most of them seem obvious but are easily ignored by many yet they are key to achieving your mission. 

1. Identify potential donors 

This is the first step in getting donors on board. You cannot market your organisation to just anyone. The ABCs to follow are; 

Access: Do you know the potential donor? (Note: that rich strangers are generally not prospects.)

Belief: Does this person care about your cause?

Capacity: Do they have money to give?

Determine your donor’s beliefs and capacity for giving. Determine if the prospective donor believes in your organization’s causes and projects or if the prospective donor has some interest in your nonprofit’s platform. A strong reference to your potential donor goes a long way in approaching with confidence and not bring discomfort to him or her. 

2. Invest in good design. 

You want donors to invest in your dream? Invest in yourself first. 

Say you run a retail clothes shop. Customers won’t walk in if it’s disorganised, if the clothes are not put up on hangers or mannequins. Same applies to your donors. They won’t walk into your world when you have an unappealing aesthetic on your social media pages and website. Remember that 90% of people are lured to read by good design. The photos, the font, the layout- it all matters because it’s what they see first. 

Great design helps your brand stand out and attract more donors and stakeholders. If you lack inhouse talent to help take powerful photos, videos or graphics, hire talent to help as it will go a long way in helping you achieve your goals. C’mon, give your donors a run for their money! 

3. Leverage story-telling 

To attract donors, you need to use good storytelling to evoke people’s emotions. 

A well-crafted story can help people relate to your work, core values, and the people you serve. The more relatable you are, the more likely you’re to get donors to invest in your brand and take up your mission as their own. 

Charity Water is king in effectively using cause marketing to push their campaigns. They use a lot of story-telling through compelling videos to show evidence of what they’re doing and how necessary it is to their beneficiaries. They run a series of their work in every country they go to which is a smart way to consistently keep their audience updated and have reason to donate.

4. Get familiar with fundraising psychology

Great marketers in the commercial world are masters at psychology. Nonprofits should also understand the psychology of giving. Let me outline for you some cognitive biases that will help you market better. 

• Effective Frequency. The more you see or hear something, the more likely you believe it. This is why repetitive messaging is so important in fundraising. By the time you’re tired of pushing the same message, your audience is just starting to take notice of it. 
• Fear of missing out. Our strong need to keep up with other people. A clear deadline — a fast-approaching moment when they won’t be able to make the difference — is critical to fundraising.
• Herd mentality. We have a strong tendency to do what we see other people doing. You must, therefore, show your audience that other people support the cause. 
• Framing. The context of information influences how we interpret it. How you present information to your audience is how they’ll interpret it. That is why you must be careful to not present a campaign in a manner that gives so many different interpretations. 
• Influencer bias. We believe an authority figure more easily than anyone else. Another reason to use celebrity endorsements in your campaigns.  
• Loss aversion. We usually consider it more important not to lose something than to gain something. This is why fundraising that focuses on fixing or rescuing something is so much more effective than “keep our kids in school” type of fundraising. 
• Hyperbolic discounting bias. We usually prefer immediate payoffs over long-term payoffs. Make it clear that the donor’s gift will start making a difference immediately.

5. Get creative with your fundraising campaigns 

Spice things up by thinking outside of the ‘nonprofit narrative’ and get smarter. I’m not asking you to make people laugh. I’m asking you to create a magnet, something unusual that you would never expect of a nonprofit to do. I keep going back to this video by Save The Children that was created 6 years ago but is still very relevant today. They could have chosen the normal boring storyline, “these kids are war victims, please donate”. They instead chose to show the effects first hand instead of telling. Super creative and engaging! 

Again, social media is a go-to for creating awareness and engagement for your campaign. You can do so by creating a fundraising tab on Facebook and partnering with an organisation for the same cause if possible. Read more on our tips on nailing it on social media at a low budget. 

6. Authenticity and transparency 

“Blah blah blah” is not something you want your reader to say when they visit your website. It should feel authentic and real. Like there’s a human brand persona to the brand, like it is someone you’d like to listen to. 

Many donors bounce if first of all, they aren’t given impact reports. Secondly, if it isn’t communicated clearly who exactly you’re helping and why. 

What’s your go-to line to ask people to donate? Ours is, “Every Purchase Empowers the Youth” 

Look at the first thing you see when you visit Charity Water website. Don’t you feel compelled to be a part of their ambitious dream?

7. Book speaking engagements

One way to get your nonprofit known at a personal level is through social events. If you want to build donor relationships, seek out events that relate with your mission and ask for speaking opportunities. Do meet & greets with potential advocates and donors and avoid talking about yourself only. Make them feel involved and pitch in a way that they too can benefit from working with you. 

8. Develop an email strategy

Here’s a pro email marketing tip. Email outreach is one of the best ways to attract donors and encourage giving. You must have a set strategy and plan for your emails so that they help you fundraise. Segment your emails to focus on specific niches of your audience. Personalize the “From” and “Reply-To:” fields with a person’s name rather than the organisation name. 

Once you acquire donors, break them up into smaller lists by donation amount and programs they donate to so you can send the right messages to the right people. Many email marketing services, like MailChimp do a great job in keeping your donors informed. If you don’t have the time and expertise on how to write and design your content in Mailchimp, reach out today so we can help you connect more deeply with your donors. 

Regardless of whether your organization addresses women or HIV?AIDS, these are strategies you can use to attract donors and get the ball rolling! Tell good stories, invest in good design, attend events to network, be open-minded, and stay open-hearted. You’re not forgotten, you just have to go a little harder for the world to see you.

The most popular nonprofits on social media that you admire so much got where they are today because they know how to make people stop and listen. 

We all start small but those who keep getting better than you are applying some strategies you’re not. Today, we’re diving into 9 effective strategies that can help your startup nonprofit shine on social media at zero cost.

1. Educate your audience

Don’t just talk about yourself. We already know what you do from your website. The better thing to do would be to educate your audience on why it’s important for you to solve the problem you’re solving and the outcomes of solving that problem. A great example is World Bicycle Relief. Take a look at how they framed their caption. They are not just talking about giving bicycles but the importance and impact created.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_AjmMHFHtT/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

2. Powerful storytelling through quality photos and videos

Improved technology has made it easier for you to shine on social media. You do not need to break a leg investing in the latest Nikon or Canon DSLR Camera to take a good photo or video. We advise that you get an iPhone because they have really good cameras. If you don’t have the budget for that yet, get a good smartphone with a minimum of 16 MegaPixels on the rear camera. 

Here are some tips on how to nail social media worthy photos.

• Single person focus e.g. portrait of a child that brings out the emotion
• Photos with context e.g. a child being fed, a woman on a sewing machine to help donors understand the backstory
• Images of project locations to help donors see what their money is used for.
• Positive, smiling faces to show the good you’re doing
• Images of special campaigns e.g. supplies to vulnerable communities, to show quick response to crises. 
• Group images/ 10 second clips that show people in action e.g children playing with clean water, caretaker playing with happy babies etc

Take a look at this video by UNICEF for #MandelaDay. It’s not just the Executive Director speaking but powerful motion videos of children are used in between her speech to give context and flavour to what she’s saying. 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCyMqKNj8Q7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

3. Cultivate influencers out of your volunteers and staff

No money for big wig influencers? No worries. Infact, it saves you inconsistent communication about your brand. Your staff and volunteers know your organisation in and out better than influencers. Ask them to share content on their individual social media platforms to increase traction and chances of being noticed.  

4. Know your audience platform 

Where is your audience? Facebook, Twitter, Youtube? Know where they are and understand who they listen to. 

UNICEF is a great example that knows how to use people that their audience will listen to. They use a 15 year old actress to advocate for children’s rights which is a good move because she fits the image of the brand. 

If you run an organisation that helps teen moms, pick a teen mom as a brand ambassador to advocate for help. They are more likely going to listen to her than the PRO of the organisation. 

5. Curate content from your audience

I’ve realised that many nonprofits do not use the people around them to curate content. They say they want to keep their donors and partners up to date with news about the organisation but don’t know where to start. 

Start with your beneficiaries, community partners. It could be the LC1 Chairman, the engineers that drill clean water, the teachers or caretakers, the driver who helps staff get around. The list is endless. Make human stories out of them. Show, don’t tell. You want it to feel real. 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_8PIWFg9p-/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Go watch this video by Charity Water on Instagram to get a clearer idea of how to frame stories from the people you work with.

6. Post messages of hope: 

Don’t sit around waiting for activities to get content. If you’re experiencing dry days which you will, even daily newspapers encounter it, create a simple poster in Canva with a message of hope to keep your organisation alive online. Messages like “To any pregnant teen out there seeking safe medical help, we have your back.”

7. Find out what works for different social platforms 

Twitter: 

If you didn’t pass summary writing in school, you might run away from Twitter’s 280 character limit on a tweet. Alternatively, if you have a lot to say, you can opt for a thread but it must be interesting enough to follow. 

Twitter is a conversational platform that many nonprofits leverage to talk about their mission using UN International Days  like #WorldYouthDay. It’s the best way to cut through the noise and get your nonprofit noticed. 

Instagram: 

Make use of IG Story Feature to avoid overloading your account with content. It’s the trend right now and lots of people are into it. They are useful for consistent story-telling about a special day’s event. Don’t forget to pin it to your profile so it’s the first thing people see when they visit your account. 

Blog:

People won’t head to your website unless you advertise it on social media. Find different ways to distribute that same content across platforms. 

Facebook: 

Avoid long posts because of limited attention span. Use short captions with links and videos to increase engagements with posts and in turn increase ranking in people’s feed. 

https://www.facebook.com/unicef includes a Call To Action. 

YouTube:

Great for storytelling. It’s always better when you launch a series of a particular project and document it from start to finish, then break it down in say,10 parts. 

The importance of doing series on YouTube is that it keeps your channel organised and easy to navigate for your subscribers. 

8. Have a monthly content calendar 

You shouldn’t wake up on random days and pick what content to post. It kills your consistency and quality. Create a content calendar with an overall strategy in mind showing which days to post and what exactly you’ll be posting so that way, you prepare well and make your audience get used to a pattern. 

9. Partner with organisations 

Collaborate with organisations that have a huge following and with whom you share similar missions. They can help you reach thousands of people you could never have otherwise reached. You can either partner with them on a joint fundraising campaign to create a buzz for you too or within programs that the both of you can benefit from. 

Want personalised strategy on creating content that stands out? We help brands stand out in the digital space by helping them craft messages that relate with their audience.  Learn more about it here

You’ve set up your nonprofit with an online donation page on the website. Now it’s time to pick a payment processor. Where do we go from there? Well, there’s so many options to pick from when choosing an online payment service that best suits your nonprofit. It can be overwhelming as you do your research online but we are here to lessen your confusion in the easiest way possible by breaking down these 3 biggest payment processors used by thousands of organisations around the world.  

First things first. 

What is an online payment processor?

An online payment service or processor, as it relates to nonprofits, is a company that deals with credit or debit card transactions between donors and nonprofits. The background process involves handling donors’ financial information whenever they make an online donation transaction like submitting a donation or supporting an art contest by buying art pieces. 

1. Stripe

Overview

Stripe offers simple integration with WordPress by linking to your website via the API key associated with your account. Some knowledge about WordPress and how to install plugins and add-ons is all you need to get this one going. 

Why we love it

• Short customer online journey

Stripe allows you to create a donation form directly on your site without having to open third-party forms and pages in a new tab. It’s always important to avoid lengthening the payment process as it easily turns off the person looking to donate. Take a look at how quick it is to fill out this Shine International donation form.

• User experience

A good example of a company that has managed to offer an excellent user experience (UX) is Instagram. It disabled links on its application to encourage users to stay longer on it and not be directed away from it. The same applies to you when you choose Stripe. Your web visitors will stay longer on the website and will discover more about your organisation than what they originally came looking for which is obviously a good thing.

• Accepts over 135 currencies. Talk about offering the utmost flexibility! 

What we don’t like 

Stripe’s transaction fees are in the higher range for most payment processors. 

Pricing

Stripe charges a flat rate of 2.9% + 30 C per successful credit and debit card transaction. 

International Transactions: Additional 1%

Currency Conversion Fee: Additional 1%

 2. PayPal 

Overview

PayPal still remains one of the commonest and easiest ways to accept payments online but it depends on the budget and volume. So, which is better?

PayPal Standard Vs PayPal Payments Pro. 

The standard account is free and allows you to put the typical PayPal button on your site linking to a form hosted on PayPal’s server. When you click on the “checkout through PayPal” button, it opens a new tab and redirects the user to a form generated by PayPal.

The pro version has a monthly fee and different transaction fees that vary depending on the transaction details. The advantage with the pro account is that it allows for a good user experience where your user stays on your site without having to login their details on the PayPal site. 

Why we love it

It’s pretty affordable for small nonprofits that don’t have big budgets yet to pay for elite fundraising and payment processing tools. If you’re not yet at that level, it’s okay to work with what you have. One of our clients, Remnant Generation is relatively new in the digital market but effectively uses PayPal.

You receive money into your account within one day of payments.

What we don’t like

As explained in the overview, the user has to get off your website and be redirected to the Paypal account if you’re using the free account that is. It therefore doesn’t offer the best user experience.

Pricing

2.9% + 30 C per successful transaction

3.5% per International Transaction

4.4% + fixed fee Monthly Fee: $30  

Service	Stripe	PayPal Standard
Fee per Transaction*	2.9% + 30¢	2.9% + 30¢
Nonprofit Discount*	2.2% + 30¢	2.2% + 30¢
Setup Costs or Monthly Fees	No	No
Contract Required	No	No
Micropayments (<$10)	Same Flat Rate	5% + .05¢
Recurring Billing	Yes	No
Chargeback Fee	$15	$20
Refunds	No Fees Returned	No Fees Returned
Customer Support	Email, Help Center, 24/7 Phone & Chat	Email, Help Center, Phone & Chat
Ease of Use	Easy	Easy
Ease of Setup	Moderate	Easy
PCI Compliance	Yes	Yes
Countries Available	32+	200+
Access to Funds Times	2 Days (Average)	Immediate
Data Portability	Yes	No
Online Invoicing	Free for your first $1M in sales	Free
In-Person Card Readers	Paid	Free & Paid
Payments Handled 100% on Your Site	Yes	No
*US-based only. Fees vary by country.

3. iATS Payments 

Overview

iATS Payments is known to be the leading provider for payment solutions with over 14,000 non profit organisations in their clientele database. It has partnerships with dozens of nonprofit fundraising software providers, making integrations with different platforms no problem for nonprofits who work with a number of different solutions.It accepts various forms of payment methods which include mobile payments, all major credit cards, CDN payments and ACH payments. 

Why we love it

• iATS has high levels of security in their system. Payments online are super convenient but it brings with it worry and uncertainty as you could be duped but iATS maintains the highest level of PCI-compliance (with plenty of fraud prevention methods in place). If your organisation solely depends on donors, this would be a great option for you to try. 
• Donors can also set up a recurring donation and have great responsiveness and useful support to their clients. 

What we don’t like

iATS limits the types of currencies it allows to transact. Infact, it only permits CAD, USD, GBP, EUR which is disadvantageous to many people. 

If your donors currency is in Ugandan shillings, you’re bound to lose out on donations so we wouldn’t advise going with this payment process.

Pricing 

iATS’ credit card processing rates range from 2.49% to 3.2%, depending on the card type. ACH processing costs a flat fee of $0.26 per transaction. No extra charges on set-up fees.  

And there you go!Feel less confused? Now all you have to do is choose. Ideally, you should always choose a payment processor that integrates with your web forms, including your branding, like our simple fill out form by Stripe but if you can’t choose, you can add another payment method to the site to give your donors options. 

Alternatively, leave a feedback form on the donation page to hear from your well-wishers on their experience using the payment options you offered them. It can go a long way in helping your organisation make the best decisions. 

Securing donations from organisation advocates or well-wishers can get tricky to maintain for the long haul. Every now and then, you’re going to have to run a fundraising campaign or ask for donations for different causes. But before we get into it, pick some lessons from Charity Water on why video is important in story-telling.

So, how do you consistently create compelling videos that inspire people into donating to your cause?   

1. Have a compelling cause

Often times, people will give you an ear when you have something to say. Do you have a good reason as to why you’re advocating for that cause that even when other people hear of it, they cannot argue against it? Your cause has to irresistibly evoke interest and attention for every single time you call for donations.

People give because they know you’re doing some good work on ground and that you create great impact in the communities or the lives of people you’re transforming. So, make it known to them with evidence of your mission in action in order for them to give.

2. Evoke emotions. 

Did you know that money is emotional? Think about it. All the decisions on how to use your money are based first on how you feel before the logic kicks in. I bet you’ve read many articles on this topic advising you to use an emotional story-telling angle and they’re right. It helps me see you as a fellow human being and understand your struggle.  

At the same time, don’t guilt-trip them. They know that world hunger, youth unemployment, poverty exist. They only lack a reason to care and your role as an organisation is to invoke that reason. You can do so by sharing personal details, fears, and hopes of your beneficiaries that make it clear to viewers that the problem is impacting real people.

 
3. Choose a Relatable Character

Your main character isn’t necessarily an individual but can be community members who act as the “face behind your organization.”  Your character has to be able to connect to your audience. It, therefore, goes without saying that you ought to understand your audience first taking into consideration their demographics (level of education, income, interests, character, etc) For example, Save the Children uses kids as ambassadors in this video to solicit donations to their Child Refugee Crisis Appeal.

In this video of the US4Women campaign, they make a good choice of a relatable character to ask for donations to invest in sewing machines for the women in Katanga.

4. Sense of urgency

Any good copy should draw in people immediately and keep them hooked. Including a sense of urgency in your copy inspires action and this is usually embedded in the lead sentence.  

Let’s take a scenario of a non-profit appealing to the public for donations to invest in vulnerable women’s small businesses. Which of these leads is more compelling?

A. It’s devastating when you have brilliant ideas but no one will invest in them. These women under our care are suffering the same.   

OR 

B. After so many years of harassment, these women escaped domestic violence, came to us to rebuild into business moguls but now, we see that they could fall back into old patterns if they don’t find investors sooner than later.  

Option B gives me a clear image of what’s happening and explains the immediate adverse effects that could happen should they not receive that help they seek.   

5. Educate

You want to generate a video that’s both emotional but educational. The formula to rely on is the 5Ws + H. As you craft your copy, these are some of the questions to ask yourself and help your viewers answer them. For example, what in detail is the problem? Who is facing the problem? Why are they facing that problem? Where are they located? When did the issue arise? How can people help? Facts help you build trust and authority.  

Sometimes, it’s better if you let the community members tell their stories. That way, your viewers match the face with the issue you’re addressing. When you present with human evidence, it’s more believable than words from a C.E.O or Founder alone ever could. 

See how this video of 92hands crossed all the Ts. under this point. 

6. Include a strong Call To Action (CTA)

Give your audience a clear directive with a call-to-action. Your Call to Action will depend on your organization’s goal, but should always be action-oriented. When you ask your audience to donate to your cause, be clear on how much and where they can send the money. Make your call to action strong by making your audience feel capable of making small changes but with huge impact for example, “$10 can feed a child for a month,” “$20 can help educate one more young person.”

Points to note:

• Cross-check to ensure that your donor databases and the donation page work cohesively. If you don’t do this, you risk losing donor funds and probably never getting any in the future.  
• Always give Impact Reports to show your donors what their money was used for so that they have a reason to give another time.

 Try out these tips and let us know how they pan out! Have a great week ahead!

There’s like hundreds of brands of water in the world but you know what happens when you google how many brands there are? Google brings you a couple of links on “Top 10 bottled water brands in the world” or “Top selling popular water brands.” Yes, there are many organizations doing what you’re doing but what are you doing to stand out from them to make top lists? 

Here are a few mistakes to avoid when trying to maximize your organization’s presence online. 

1. Information overload.

This is the root of all chaos. It is easy to appear scattered to your audience if you don’t tread carefully. There’s a lot of information on increasing visibility in the market and at the end of it all, every digital platform mentioned seems like it is important to have. You’re allowed to do as much research as possible but remember to pick out only that which works for you, which brings me to my next point. How do you know what works?

 
2. Don’t be a social media junkie 

There’s a thin line between expanding your presence and simply hoarding apps. It gets tough maintaining and growing different types of audiences because every platform is different. Always keep this in mind. What is our target audience and which social media platforms are the most active? Is your organization about fighting for equality and human rights for women? Then why aren’t you active on Twitter and participating in discussions? That’s a platform you will most likely gain more stakeholders and donors who are in line with your vision. 

3. Your website is not a dumpsite

Most nonprofits starting out know how important it is to have a website and kudos to you who always make it top priority as you roll out. But many forget to make it interactive and organic. They stop at dumping information about the organization i.e. “About Us” “Meet the Team” yet there could be more. Update your website with work you do on ground, create space for your visitors to interact with you, allow them to explore how they can donate, connect you, or give you work. Take a look at some of these interactive websites we’ve designed for Tubeewo, Imani Schools, 92hands, and Kafeero Foundation to give you a full picture.

4. Wordy websites are a no-go

Remember that video is king in the digital world.  It is great with story-telling which is key for any nonprofit. Have words that are only necessary and use video to drive your vision and goals. User’s concentration is not that high so with video, you increase your chances of them learning more about your organization than what they originally came looking for. See how 92 hands communicated their COVID19 Response as opposed to slapping a long article about it.

5. Cheap design is costly

It is important for nonprofits to invest in good web and graphics design right off the bat to set you on a good path. The way you brand yourselves matters a lot because it’s among the qualities that attract your donors, stakeholders, and well-wishers.
It’s crucial that you have an appealing design in the digital space otherwise, you risk losing engagement with your brand.

With these few insights, we have no doubt that your organization will stand out, and in a few years when you google how many nonprofits are in your field, you’ll see yourself in a top 10 list. 

Like many around the world, we too have had to adjust and continue to operate during the lockdown. Surely, we cannot call ourselves a digital agency and fail to live up to that. Besides, COVID19 has proven that in order to survive, one must go digital. Hear from our team on lessons they’ve picked on this global pandemic and how they are managing to keep work moving despite being away from our physical office. 

EMMANUEL TRINITY NSAABANYE

Role at era92: Chief Job Creator

Challenges: My challenge has mainly been to adjust and find more work that is internet-based to keep my team engaged and productive. So, I’ve had to identify companies emerging during this pandemic to outsource us for work and in return help them build their brands. Most of these companies are also trying to adjust to the effects of COVID by taking their business online, i.e. sell their products through an e-commerce tool on the website, help them create a catalog, etc.  

What the future looks like:

1. Due to how COVID has disrupted industries, we are going to have to increase our efforts now more than ever to equip the youth that we train under our Elevate Program with skills like Flexibility, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual & Augmented Reality, Creativity & Critical Thinking. If they can learn these skills, they can survive the wrath of unemployment in the post covid world.  For example, night clubs and public events such as weddings, birthdays and festivals will be the last things they open up but if we can apply Virtual & Augmented Reality, we can help organisers bring an experience to people through social media. 
2. I think that more virtual meetings will be held post COVID vis-a-vis physical meetings. By now, people have realised how much time is saved when you hold an online meeting than drive through traffic for 2 hours to hold a 30 minute meeting. 
3. The other effect is that we’ll have a significantly declined number of tech laggards. Many companies that were reluctant to get online before the pandemic hit have now adjusted to working online

Final thoughts: To everyone out there, the best thing you can do is to commit to a lifetime of learning and unlearning and to up and coming entrepreneurs, this is the best time to start a business because there are many loopholes you can exploit. 

BRENDA JEZIEL NASSALI
Role at era92: Website Developer  

Tools: I am using Asana and Slack for continuous workflow and Google Hangouts for keeping in touch with the team. I also use WordPress and Joomla for building websites alongside Photoshop.  

Challenges: I think that some of the clients are used to reaching out to them in person, so they find it difficult to adjust to how we are doing things now, understandably so.  

What the future holds: “Creativity is the highest form of intelligence and it is intelligence not easily replicated by a machine. In 15-20 years when almost all other industries will be highly automated the creative industries will be even higher valued​. I predict a creative renaissance as more people find gainful employment in this broader and in-demand creative space.” Amanda Curtis, 

MUSTAPHA KASULE 
Role at era92: Creative Director 

Tools: The lockdown hasn’t affected me that much. My work is still as flawless as before. I use Gmail, Hangouts, Slack, Asana, and Zoom. I’m also doing a lot of file transfers from sites like wetransfer and Google Drive among others. 

Challenges: The internet speed is slow sometimes so it affects my timesheets. 

What the future holds: The digital world is evolving really fast and it’s slowly phasing out printing which means more people will lose jobs if they don’t adjust early enough. 

JASPER NSUBUGA 
Role at era92: Graphics Designer 

How the lockdown has been: Being under quarantine and not being able to work normally has significantly brought a negative impact on everyone. Personally, it has been a time for self re-brand and discovery learned a few lessons not forgetting the ridiculous spending in a season of not earning well.

Tools: During this lockdown, I’ve surely depended on quite a number of social apps like WhatsApp, Gmail, We Transfer, Slack, Trello, and last but not least Asana.

Challenges: the inability to access fast and cheap internet which as we all know helps us in our everyday work. Being that this is quite new, some clients were not well comfortable with the social apps and other online working platforms, this greatly slowed down the work

What the future looks like: Personally, I think and believe everything will be back to normal though can’t be sure when but it will happen.

How are you and your team handling working remotely? Let us know in the comments below.