5 Free Marketing Tools to Make Giving Season Easier for Nonprofits

As the giving season approaches, many nonprofits are scrambling to find the money and resources to encourage donations. These five free tools will make your marketing campaigns look impeccable. And they’ll save you money in the meantime.

Canva: Create Stunning Graphics

Canva is a free online-based platform with graphics tools designed to help small businesses and nonprofits create beautiful graphics. The program includes templates for newsletters, social media posts, animated graphics, e-Books, and more.

Canva features thousands of free stock images, backgrounds, font combinations, and editing tools. Your nonprofit can create an entire marketing campaign using the software, all without ever spending a dime. Plus, many of the templates are ready to customize so that you can create and upload your designs in just a few minutes.

Your entire team can collaborate with Canva, too. Simply share your design via e-mail and invite others to edit your creation. It’s all included in the free version.

Of course, if you want more in-depth design and editing tools, Canva offers monthly subscription plans from $9.95 to $30, depending on your needs. Canva is one of the most impressive free marketing tools available on the market today.

Zoom or Google Meet: Virtual Meetings

In the age of coronavirus, in-person meetings are a rarity, and with good reason. To keep your team safe and healthy, consider using a virtual meeting software like Zoom or Google Meet.

Both of these platforms offer free video and audio conferencing for groups, allowing your nonprofit team to collaborate from anywhere. You can also use video conferencing to host virtual fundraising events, connect with donors, and hold virtual town hall discussions about important issues.

While both Zoom and Google Meet offer a free version of their programs, there are some distinct differences between the two.

First, Zoom allows up to 100 users to join a meeting for 40 minutes at a time with the free version of their program. Users who want longer sessions will have to pay a monthly fee. Google Meet, on the other hand, offers 60 minutes of meeting time with their unpaid version.

Second, Google Meet touts a significantly more advanced and effective security system. Early on in the pandemic, Zoom reported users being hacked by outside sources. While Zoom has added security measures to combat this problem, it’s still behind the game.

However, Zoom does offer the capability to record and playback video meetings, something that Google Meet doesn’t have.

Both products offer teams an easy and safe way to collaborate from anywhere in the world, without having to purchase a costly membership.

Google Ads: Free Marketing Tools for Nonprofits

If you’ve ever written a blog post, uploaded content to your nonprofit’s website, or worked on a marketing campaign, you know the importance of search engine optimization. In essence, SEO is what tells search engines like Google what your website is about and whether or not it’s relevant and valuable to readers.

The trick to increasing your SEO ranking (that is, appearing at the top of Google’s search results) is to create content around specific keywords most commonly searched by users, and then use those keywords throughout your website to raise your rankings.

However, there is one more step that gets your nonprofit noticed: paid ads. Of course, if you’re looking for free marketing tools, paid Google advertising probably isn’t in your budget.

Good news: Google will give nonprofit organizations up to $10,000 in Google Ads money. The Google Ads Grant helps nonprofits further their cause, find new volunteers, and reach new donors, without dipping into their own funds. During the giving season, those ads could mean a drastic boost in end-of-year fundraising.

You can learn more about the Google Ads Grant here.

MailChimp: Free E-Mail Marketing

E-mail marketing campaigns can be extremely effective. But some e-mail programs can be too costly for nonprofit organizations.

MailChimp, one of the leading e-mail marketing programs, offers an excellent free option, which is perfect for small businesses and nonprofits. The free plan provides users with all the necessities to get you started. And the basic plan includes tools for up to 2,000 contacts. This option is perfect for e-mailing all your contacts and past donors, reminding them to dig deep and donate to your year-end fundraising drive.

If you have a more extensive contact list or need a more comprehensive e-mail marketing platform, MailChimp offers a 15% discount for verified nonprofit organizations.

Asana: Project Management

With so many nonprofits working remotely right now, it can be challenging to get everyone on the same page. As the busiest fundraising season approaches, seamless teamwork is more important than ever.

Asana is a project management program that allows your entire team to track tasks, share ideas, and collaborate on projects. Instead of flinging e-mails back and forth for hours on end, everyone on your team can work together on one dashboard, helping you get the job done faster.

The software offers a relatively comprehensive free program, with task tracking, calendars, and assignment capabilities for up to 15 team members. Of course, paid options provide even more tools, and monthly costs start at $10.99 per month.

These free marketing tools can help nonprofit organizations reach more donors, with less work, all while limiting administrative costs. Give them a try during your year-end fundraising.