NonProfits and Search Engine Marketing: Myths and Realities

By Nan Dawkins

RedBoots Consulting

I realized that I had little to teach and much to learn from nonprofit organizations on a beautiful fall day in New Orleans. It was still early in the Internet game (at that point none of us knew that all that dot com stock we were buying would end up as wall paper in the downstairs bathroom) and I was in New Orleans to speak at a Direct Marketing Association convention on the topic of "Nonprofits and the Internet."

I arrived at the auditorium calm, collected, and ready to impart great nuggets of wisdom. At the time, I was employed as an Internet Strategist at a firm that specialized in the world's largest nonprofit brands (Red Cross, Christian Children's Fund, World Wildlife Fund, CARE, Heifer Project, etc.). We thought we wrote the book on how nonprofits could use the internet to further their mission and grow their organizations.

The attendees in the room that day were mostly small and medium sized nonprofits, so I started my presentation with an informal poll to assess the sophistication of the audience: "How many of you offer donation processing on your Web site?" The majority of hands in the audience went up. "How many of you track repeat Web donations?" A majority of hands went up again. "How many of you compare the conversion rates on your Web sites to telemarketing and direct mail?" This time, about half of the hands went up. I tried to make the questions harder, but those hands kept going up. In the end, I did the only rationale thing: I abandoned my PowerPoint and begged them to tell me everything they knew. I walked away feeling a little guilty, armed with a pack of new ideas from these scrappy nonprofits with limited marketing resources (or so I thought).

Both large and small nonprofits are often dismissed or overlooked as a source of marketing innovation. This is unfortunate because the independent sector attracts some of the most creative and inventive marketing professionals I have ever encountered.

Why is there a lack of respect? Often, it is a simple matter of ignorance. The word "nonprofit" conjures up images of a handful of people in the school gymnasium counting the proceeds of a bake sale. While important, the bake sale crowd in the school gymnasium is hardly characteristic of the size, scope, or sophistication of the independent sector. It is a $700 billion industry that employs 10% of the American workforce.

Unfortunately, this mental picture of the bake sale crowd can lead to misguided advice and prescriptions about what the robust and diverse independent sector really needs. For example, a recent article on the SEMPO web site (Georgina Tweedie, Church of Scientology) claimed that nonprofit organizations are typically run by volunteers and have little or no budget for marketing. This mischaracterization of the sector as a whole was followed by several arguable claims about nonprofits' willingness and ability to engage successfully in search engine marketing.

Although it would be impossible to provide a complete primer on the independent sector in the space of this editorial, I'll attempt to set the record straight by dispelling some common myths about nonprofits and search engine marketing:

Myth 1: Nonprofits are ignorant of search engines in general and search engine optimization in particular.

Reality: Well over half of the 400 nonprofit organizations included in the Chronicle of Philanthropy's 2003 Annual Survey enjoy top three rankings on a variety of mission-critical keywords, and many are purchasing paid listings as well. These organizations - some of which raised millions of dollars online in 2003 - understand that search engines are a cost-effective means of driving traffic. And since typically a site's traffic and its online donations are strongly correlated, driving more traffic is the first step in securing more donations. Ignoring search engines simply is not an option for nonprofits that are serious about raising money online.

Moreover, search engine optimization techniques are accessible to anyone with the time and the tenacity to learn and experiment. Nonprofits are no less capable than their .com counterparts of learning the ropes through trial and error. In fact, SEO makes even more sense as a marketing tool for small nonprofits with more manpower than cash to invest in their marketing efforts.

When my company, RedBoots Consulting, first opened in early 2001, 100% of our clients were nonprofit organizations. Since then, our client base has expanded to include other channels, however nonprofits still account for about two-thirds of our business.

Why do we focus on nonprofits? First, nonprofits have a long and successful history of using direct marketing techniques, so they understand the search engine "play." Second, in my experience, nonprofit organizations generally demand better and faster ROI than their .com counterparts, who are often willing to invest more in techniques that take longer to yield a return. This bottom line focus on high return, cost-effective tactics makes search engines a natural choice for nonprofit organizations.

Myth 2: Nonprofits can't buy paid search engine listings because they are not allowed to spend money on marketing.

Reality: First, nonprofits are not regulated in terms of how much money they spend on operating budgets in general, or on marketing in particular. According to Independent Sector, a membership organization for nonprofits, some of the most effective and well-respected nonprofits spend well over 30% of their budget on overhead. In fact, many nonprofits set their marketing budgets based on the ROI from the previous fiscal year. This means that the previous year's level of success drives the marketing budget for the next year.

In reality, larger nonprofits are forced to invest in marketing because it works. Marketing drives memberships and donations which ,in turn, drive expanded programs and services. Perhaps this is why over half of the nonprofits in The American Fundraising Professionals annual "Giving" study (2004) reported increasing their online marketing budgets substantially every year since 2001.

Even in times of fiscal stress, nonprofits invest in marketing. A 2004 study of nonprofits by the Johns Hopkins Listening Post project found that 84% of nonprofits under fiscal stress in 2002 and 2003 increased their marketing budgets while decreasing other operating costs. The majority of the nonprofits that increased their marketing budget listed marketing as one of the most effective tactics used to cope with tough financial times.

Myth 3: Nonprofits are at a disadvantage in the "pay to play" search engine space because they must bid against .coms for keywords.

Reality: One of the great benefits of SEM for nonprofits is that many of the keywords that are relevant to their mission (e.g.., child poverty, greenhouse gas emissions, famine, Florida hurricanes, AIDS in Africa) are not keywords highly demanded by commercial companies. In fact, bid prices are so low on some of these keywords that many small nonprofits can run highly effective in-house search engine marketing campaigns for as little as $200 per month.

Are nonprofits sometimes forced to compete with .coms in the "pay to play" space? Of course. They also have to compete on many other levels, including competing for a share of the dollars in their supporters' wallets. Health-related charities in particular often find that pharmaceutical and medical supply companies are eager to purchase keywords like "diabetes". However, organic search results tend to favor .org sites in many such cases. This is a distinct advantage for nonprofit organizations since a good organic ranking can cost a lot less and be more effective at driving traffic than paid listings over the long term.

Myth 4: Nonprofits can not be highly visible on search engines if they do not have the budget for professional optimization and/or paid search engine marketing.

Reality: The great beauty of search engines is that even the little guy can secure a ranking. As noted above, basic search engine optimization does not require a graduate degree. Time, tenacity, and a willingness to experiment can yield decent organic search rankings, even for smaller nonprofits.\

Paid listings are also available for free. Similar to Public Service Announcements provided by television, radio, and print media, the Google Grants program provides free Adwords advertising to qualified 501C3 nonprofits (see http://www.google.com/grants/.) Yahoo has a similar program for Site Match.

In summary, I would like to offer a plug for the sector (of which I am admittedly protective): nonprofits are not stupid. The nonprofit marketers are no less capable of sorting through the myriad of choices in the search engine marketing game than their .com counterparts. To suggest otherwise is unfair to the creative and hard-working marketing professionals who have built highly effective nonprofit organizations such as The Heifer Project, Doctors Without Borders, and Girl Scouts of America.

Further, nonprofits do not need an organization to represent their "interests" to search engines, as suggested in Georgina Tweedie's editorial. They need - just like their .com counterparts - cost-effective, high ROI marketing vehicles that help them further their organizational mission and goals. Search engines go much farther toward meeting that need than many conventional media options.

Nan Dawkins draws on over 20 years of experience with nonprofits of all sizes, including some of the world's leading nonprofit brands. She is co-founder of RedBoots Consulting, an online marketing firm that helps nonprofit organizations drive new, qualified traffic to their sites, promote issues and causes, increase online donations, improve member/donor retention, and integrate online and conventional media campaigns. See www.redbootsconsulting.com for more information.