Questions

I have a side project that I've organized. It aims to help nonprofits to reach and engage their supporters and donors online. It is absolutely free for them. However, so far I couldn't find an optimal way to reach out to them. Any suggestions?

I've spent my whole career in nonprofit management, and I cannot tell you how many offers just like yours came my way over the years. You are dealing with an overworked, underpaid, and highly distracted audience... and they are also very skeptical of anything free that promises great outcomes. We've all been burned too many times by pouring time and energy into tools that we saw as solutions ... only to realize that such tools are only effective if we have great relationships in place.

And so many of your target market's decision makers have developed a default "no" to anything like this. And the only way to get past that is to get to know them.

I currently have a fundraising consulting practice, focused on grantwriting for nonprofits. Almost every single one of my clients came as a result of a relationship that I had in place. I've closed almost no cold calls... and the ones I did were organizations that were advertising to hire a grant writer, so I knew they were in a position to hire me.

My best advice is therefore to focus on building genuine relationships with nonprofits thru which you can learn of their struggle. And then, you can pose your tool as a solution.

That ... and potentially contact the orgs that are advertising to hire staff whose duties mirror what you could provide (outreach, fundraising, etc). Position your service as an alternative to making that hire, or at least something they should consider integrating along with the new hire.

Good luck!


Answered 7 years ago

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