Why do NGOs and associations rely on Marketing Automation?

To ensure effective collection and distribution of donations, NGOs and associations face various challenges. On one hand, they need to support chosen causes by donors efficiently and professionally. On the other hand, these organizations must optimize the management of donations and donors while limiting investment in support functions. This is where the implementation of marketing automation software becomes crucial.

Enhancing Personalization of Content Sent to Donors

Prominent NGOs and associations simultaneously handle multiple causes, targeting diverse audiences across different continents. On one hand, donors may be sensitive to a limited number of causes that have a personal impact on their daily lives. On the other hand, they may wish to donate solely to a specific type of cause (e.g., humanitarian, environmental, human rights, or animal welfare). It is crucial to deliver precise messages to donors in order to avoid communication overload and prevent long-term loss of donor support. Marketing automation operates at two levels:

• Listening to donors’ preferences by offering them a preference center accessible through a link in all communications. Whenever a person wishes to modify the type of communication they receive, their request is immediately acknowledged and often implemented within 24 hours.
• Implementing scoring and tracking tools to evaluate the impact of different communications on donor behavior. This strategy often limits the number of emails sent to contacts within a given period, thereby improving long-term engagement.

Enabling Targeted Donation Tracking

Marketing automation tools provide NGOs and associations with the ability to categorize donations generated by their marketing efforts and allocate them to specific causes in their CRM. This allows for detailed tracking of the donations made. For example, it becomes easy to communicate additional information about the campaign to all donors via email, including:

• The total amount of donations collected, accompanied by a message of gratitude.
• The various actions undertaken for that cause, with detailed progress updates.
• A request for additional donations if needed.
• A report on the successes achieved through the donations.

Through marketing automation, these communications can be automated and personalized, enabling NGOs and associations to optimize their relationship with donors and effectively keep them informed.

Reacting Quickly in Emergency Situations

Certain causes do not tolerate procrastination. When it comes to collecting donations to respond to earthquakes, floods, or fires, every minute counts. If NGOs and associations already have a marketing automation system in place, they can activate all their campaigns with a few clicks. Pre-configuration allows for creating and testing a campaign in less than 2 hours, assuming the texts and images are ready for use. Otherwise, this process can easily take more than 4 hours, particularly due to the need to create emails or web pages in multiple languages.
The initial investment, both in terms of budget and human resources, is significant. However, in the long run, NGOs and associations quickly realize that marketing automation alleviates pressure on their teams and enhances their ability to manage a greater number of campaigns within tight deadlines.

Managing and Activating Volunteer Networks with a Few Clicks

NGOs and associations always rely on a strong network of volunteers. These volunteers perform tasks, both simple and high-value, to ensure the smooth functioning of the organization and serve the cause close to their hearts. Volunteer management is crucial yet complex. It is necessary to establish a clear, efficient, and high-quality organization for individuals who contribute their time without financial compensation. To ensure this quality, marketing automation software proves to be a true solution, providing valuable assistance in the following situations:

• Event organization and associated follow-up.
• Collection and management of leads by volunteers (e.g., through a tablet form).
• Dissemination of specific information to volunteers.

Enhancing Transparency through Well-Structured Institutional Communication

In Switzerland, numerous families, associations, and businesses are searching for causes to support. For instance, a private company organizing a charitable football event wishes to donate the funds collected. Generally, the selection criteria are straightforward:

• Is this NGO/association reputable?
• Which causes are supported by this organization?
• What results have been achieved?
• Is my donation directly invested in the cause I support? Is this organization the most reliable channel for it?

Major NGOs and associations in Switzerland implement onboarding programs, aiming to communicate transparently during the first 6 to 8 weeks following the initial donation through a series of emails:

• Who are we?
• Which causes do we support?
• What are our most notable actions?
• How are we organized? How do we finance our activities?
• How can you become a volunteer?

The objective is to build a relationship of trust with donors, encouraging them to make further donations in the future.

And Most Importantly… Improving the Relationship between Marketing Costs and Donation Levels

When you make a donation, you hope that the majority of the amount will directly benefit the cause. However, NGOs and associations need to establish a high-quality administrative and logistical structure. They require talent and material resources to ensure the effective management and proper distribution of donations. It is a constant challenge for these organizations: how to improve their operational capacity while limiting costs associated with support functions.
In the case of marketing teams, this is where marketing automation comes into play. Implementing tools like Marketing Cloud or HubSpot not only improves communication with donors but also increases the productivity of marketing teams by automating low-value tasks. This allows the existing teams to focus on their core expertise, namely creating targeted campaigns to generate new donations for a cause.

Thus, marketing automation offers NGOs and associations the opportunity to optimize their resources, increase operational efficiency, and maximize the impact of their actions while ensuring donations are used efficiently and transparently.