Expert Strategies for How to Increase Membership in Nonprofit Organizations
If you're the founder of a nonprofit or an executive director or a CEO or you consultant looking to help nonprofits, you probably know that recruiting new members is so important to the success of the program. So often it’s easy for nonprofits to focus simply on fundraising or volunteer efforts, but what they sometimes overlook is the more challenging piece of increasing enrollments in their programs. For nonprofit leaders, the real challenge lies in figuring out how to expand their programs and attract new members. And let's face it - asking for donations is no easy feat. But imagine how much easier it would be if you had tangible proof of your success, rather than simply hoping for the best. After all, predictably increasing your enrollments is the key to long-term sustainability. If you're feeling the pressure to grow your nonprofit, you're certainly not alone. In this article, I’ll be sharing with you exactly how to do that based on my experience, helping increase membership in nonprofit organizations so they can scale in a way that is predictable and also allows them to have an amazing impact on their community.
As a growth consultant for some of the country’s top brands, I’ve come to love serving mission driven organizations because they have this incredible lasting impact. The challenge is if nobody knows about these programs or nobody's participating in them, the results will stay stagnant and the program won't grow. So today we're tackling this issue head on. We're discussing how to increase program enrollment for any nonprofit organization. And if you're a for-profit, this is gonna help you just as much.
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Three Strategies to Increase Membership in Nonprofit Organizations
A lot of nonprofits face this really huge challenge of not knowing how to promote their nonprofit in order to reach more members of their public and their community so that they can have the biggest impact possible. There are some actionable ways that you can lead and implement those changes in order to boost program participation, create an effective marketing campaign for potential attendees and ensure that everybody and anybody knows about your mission.
Understand the Customer Journey
No matter what type of organization you might be creating an offer for, I always recommend starting with an understanding of the customer journey. This is even true when you are seeking ways to increase membership in nonprofit organizations because, after all, they are the customers of the program! What I find, though, is that many non-profits, and also for-profits really, miss that piece on how to market more strategically.
So often I see buttons on a website that might encourage a call to action like “enroll now.” implying the customer is at the end of the decision making process. Believe it or not, sometimes our customers arrive without an understanding of what problems they’re facing or in what order they need to be solved. As a result, they may not see the program as offering the key solution. Often, the general public doesn't have a deep understanding of all the ways in which you can help them. It’s possible they might arrive at your website because they are curious, but they're not ready to enroll.
Even if it’s a free program or a program that costs very little, there are still a lot of barriers in their mind before they move forward with applying and enrolling as a new member. Non-profit applications tend to be quite long, particularly if you're participating in any type of research study, which tends to be true of a lot of the non-profits I work with. And they end up not doing anything, not taking any action.
Create a Lead List for Your Program
Another thing I’ve noticed in working with nonprofit organizations is that they tend to have large email lists that send out for fundraising and donor requests or even one requesting volunteers. What they are often missing is a lead list for their program. And that is a huge missing piece. So when they go to grow the program and they go to do the things that they promised when they took all of the money, they are a little bit stuck . They don't know what it is that they need to do next in order to predictably increase those enrollments.
If this is you or something that you struggle with, I encourage you to stop making assumptions about what your audience already knows and start reaching out in more meaningful ways in a way that generates engagement and conversation. Nonprofits often assume their target audience is well-versed in their options and solutions, but there are infinite options out there and people can't possibly know them all. That's why it's crucial to market early and often to spark engagement and conversation. Begin by creating opportunities to market to your customer earlier in the decision making process rather than waiting until an audience member is aware enough to start taking action.
Craft a campaign directly related to an audience's problems earlier on in their awareness stage and support them in the beginning of that awareness process. This can begin to equip your prospective clients with knowledge that helps them discover what services might be available and how they could find it valuable.
One particular strategy that works so well in the for-profit space and that I find very useful is what I would call gated content. This is an effective strategy for nonprofits to reach potential participants in a way more personable but professional way. Plus, this form of content offers value beyond what you're asking without pushing for the sale.
Many nonprofits are just not taking advantage of the benefits that for-profits utilize to draw in people earlier on in the decision making process because most people are going to be hesitant about enrolling in something new, right? So implementing gated content can offer a lot of reassurance that the enrollment will not only be beneficial to them, but worth their time and effort and participation even for free or inexpensive programs, and even if it's much needed.
As an example, one of the nonprofit organizations I work with is Corner to Corner which helps minority aspiring entrepreneurs start and scale their own businesses. Rather than creating a call to action of “enroll right now,” we instead created gated content for their program. We offered a free training on Three Simple Steps to Turn Your Business Dreams into a Money-Making Reality and invited potential clients help them overcome maybe some of the internal objections that they might have around being able to see themselves as a business owner, they can then decide whether or not Corner to Corner's cornerstone program called the Academy would be a great fit.
It's certainly tempting to think that free or inexpensive nonprofit programs are a no-brainer, but the truth is it's not always the case. They want to make sure any program that they're part of aligns with their values and that the outcomes will have a meaningful impact on their lives.
This becomes a key understanding if you're a non-profit leader or you're consulting non to non-profits to make sure to remember that low price alone won't necessarily increase enrollments in your nonprofit organization. An exchange of value doesn't necessarily have to involve money; time and effort are also invaluable resources to any individual. So there's other factors like what will other people think of me if I join a program like this? Or what if this is a scam? What if I'm being taken advantage of?
As you are considering your customer’s journey and creating your lead list, a respect for people's commitment should be at the forefront of any exchange for information or to ask them to be part of your program. This needs to happen whether or not there is an economic transaction involved. When you take the time to do this earlier on you will increase the mutual respect and appreciation among all members of your programs and you'll have higher engagement rate and show up rates. In my own experience, I’ve found it results in better performance and greater returns for everyone involved, which again, just helps nonprofits be able to fundraise better.
Track Important Data
Maybe you feel like when you're a nonprofit leader, the outcomes are kind of questionable. Leaders often coin this as ‘fluffy marketing,’ which leaves budgets and goals in limbo when it comes to increasing ROI and being able to prove the effectiveness of your program.
Believe it or not, a shocking amount of nonprofits really overlook the power of data tracking. I find this time and time again, it's often assumed that it's expensive or complex, and that's not necessarily true. As somebody who's been involved in nonprofit consulting specifically to increase enrollments, I can attest that the immense impact that data tracking can have on an organization is game-changing to their ability to grow.
This small step shouldn't be overlooked because it's so simple, especially because of the low investment and high potential return when used. You can begin with a simple tool like a shared Google spreadsheet that everyone's putting data into and analyzing together. Once you understand what’s working and what isn’t, nonprofits can be empowered to make more informed decisions and assist in long-term ROI marketing.
Effectively, data tracking facilitates many invaluable insights into whether or not a nonprofit can have a good return on investment if a fundraising effort is fruitful. It also identifies some really meaningful opportunities for improvement without data tracking.
Rethinking Membership Strategy for Nonprofit
Creating effective enrollment experiences for your nonprofit is probably simpler than you think. When you consider the customer journey and utilizing a lead list with gated content, you might find new ways on how to reach out to potential participants that you hadn’t considered before. And, while it may be tempting to assume that free services or inexpensive services or programs are a no-brainer, it's important to remember that resources are needed in order to be able to catch people earlier on before they just say, no, that's not the program for me. Last but not least, data tracking provides really valuable insights and how you can make enhancements and identify gaps or opportunities for improvement.
If you’re a nonprofit leader and find yourself amazed at how much easier fundraising might be if you are actually growing enrollment, I hope you’ve found some helpful ideas on how to increase membership in your nonprofit organization. If you're consulting to a nonprofit, I hope you have some inspiration to support the enrollment side of the organization in addition to the fundraising side.
To learn more about the results we achieved for Corner to Corner and how we determined and implemented our strategy, you can download our free case study here.
