To Sell Themselves to Donors, Nonprofits Are Turning to the Pros
During Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, for example, it created a “shark vs. colon” meme, with the caption “Sharks attack
fewer than 16 people per year, while more than 130,000 are estimated to be diagnosed with colon cancer in 2017.”
The Colon Cancer Alliance is one of a surging number of nonprofits that are turning to marketing experts for help.
Mr. Siegel overhauled the group’s message on its website
and social media to include stories from people with lupus, and he added the tagline “Help Us Solve the Cruel Mystery.” The group also sent a “Cruel Mystery” bus, equipped with interactive videos and information on the disease, on a national tour.
Today, the site clearly emphasizes that the alliance’s goal is to knock colon cancer out of the top three cancer killers,
and lays out its three-pronged strategy to accomplish this: Invest $10 million in research by 2021, double the number of patients and families it reaches with support services and save 100,000 lives through increased screening by 2021.
Not long ago, the website for the nonprofit Colon Cancer Alliance offered a treasure trove of information
about colorectal screening, colon cancer research and other topics related to the deadly disease.
Another nonprofit, JDRF International (formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation), which funds research on Type 1 diabetes, hired a marketing expert, Alisa Norris, last October to update its image
and coordinate its message across the digital landscape.
But a number of groups, even those that are well known, are having a tough time competing — or even staying relevant — in the rough-and-tumble
digital age, when potential donors are overwhelmed with requests for money on social media, crowdfunding sites and other digital platforms.
