10 Inspiring Charity Marketing Strategies & Ideas

Marketing has an increasingly important role to play in the third sector. Charities and nonprofits need to compete with well-resourced commercial companies encroaching on their traditional social impact territory.  With many marketing strategies beginning to feel outdated, social impact organisations are looking for fresh ideas to boost awareness, raise funds and recruit volunteers; all while keeping costs down.

We recently spoke about one way of doing this: the pro bono fee model, making reference to the award-winning work delivered by adam&eveDDB for Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). But this is only one strategy, so to explore a few alternatives, we spoke with someone with plenty of experience in this space.

How Less Concrete More Jungle implements creative strategy in third sector organisations

IIndependent PR and digital agency Kindred was set up 25 years ago with the aim of taking on projects that have a clear, positive benefit to either people or the planet. Since then, it has worked to tackle issues like loneliness and food waste and built up a client base that includes charities, government departments and brands..

Less Concrete More Jungle is Kindred’s new in-house studio, set up to bring people and brands closer to nature. It’s led by creative director Zac Schwarz who joined the company in February 2023, bringing with him expertise from director positions previously held at The Academy, Mischief and GOLIN. Zac co-founded the nonprofit creative collective Glimpse, which has created many notable campaigns for non-profit organisations.

Whilst at Glimpse, Zac ruffled feathers with inspired creative work such as the Citizens Advertising Takeover Service (C.A.T.S) — a crowd-funded campaign that aimed to replace every single advert in a London tube station with pictures of cats, encouraging people to think differently about the world around them. Think of this as an antidote to the explosion of consumerist messaging that bombards us every day. The campaign ran for two weeks in Clapham Common tube station to widespread industry acclaim and lit the path that Zac has followed ever since.

We were curious to find out more about the studio’s creative approach when working with third-sector organisations and to get Zac’s unique insight on how charities can learn from commercial brands when it comes to engaging their audience and designing retail experiences. 

Here are 10 key takeaways from our enlightening conversation:

1. Prioritise positive messaging over feelings of guilt to raise awareness

“I spent most of my career helping people buy stuff they don’t really need, but I realised that I learned a lot in the commercial and brand world that I could add and offer to non-governmental organisations and charity campaigns. The commercial world communicates in positive messaging, like ‘Buy this product and it will make you happy’, whereas traditionally, the charity world tells you ‘everything is terrible, and you need to feel guilty about it’. 

“If you’re vying for people’s attention, you need to excite them, give them hope and give them something to opt into as well as something to rally against. You want people to engage with you because they want to, not because they feel they ought to. That’s the guiding light strategy I have with any kind of charity client or non profit organisation.”

2. Having a key decision maker makes creating digital marketing strategies more efficient

“A brand’s main goal is to generate sales while charities often have more stakeholders, including an advocacy and policy team, their current and future supporter base, a fundraising team, volunteer comms, and an education team. Everyone has a point of view and different drivers for what they want. 

“This means there isn’t necessarily one key decision maker, which can cause a bit of inertia. Identifying and assigning key decision makers in the process ensures that everyone feels involved and that decisions can be made quickly and effectively.”  

3. Agencies and third sector organisations should create briefs together

“Being very clear at the beginning about what the brief is and then interrogating it and understanding what success looks like is so important. I find that because TSOs have all these different departments with different drivers and goals, creating a brief together and making sure you get buy-in from all the various stakeholders is essential. If you think there’s time and resources to do it, meeting with all the key decision makers and bringing them along on the journey is the best way.” 

4. You need a passion for the creative as well as the cause to effectively communicate

“Most people that join TSOs share their values and want to make a difference, but the ideas and creative elements sometimes aren’t as important. Those involved should have a love of the creative idea and go beyond understanding how it all works to appreciate the wider point about why creativity and ideas are so important. I try to bring a bit of the fun of the agency world when working with TSOs.”

5. Commit to working with like-minded agencies on your charity marketing strategies

“There are quite a lot of clients that we turn down because they might be promoting a lifestyle that we don’t agree with and doesn’t align with our values. We have a new business system where the senior team discusses each client on its merit, using the UN sustainability goals as ultimate guide and our shining light.

“It’s increasingly important that an agency shares the values of its clients. It doesn’t sit right with me when you see ad or PR agencies promoting fast food on the one hand, and then working with a charity campaigning against deforestation. I think charities and purpose-based brands will want every element of their ecosystem to share those values. If agencies can offer pro bono because of profit made from a client that’s causing issues, it’s counterintuitive.”

6. You need to be invested in the work

“Generally, pro bono ends up being quite difficult for an agency. While it’s the most important thing ever for the charity, it might not be for the agency as it has other paid work. The flip side is that when an agency does pro bono work, stakeholders on the charities side may not be as engaged with it because it’s not costing them any money. 

“When people pay, they tend to value the work more. It’s very nuanced and I’m not suggesting that pro bono stops but both the agency and the charity must understand exactly what is needed.”

7. Consistency is the key to effectively communicating to donors with the goal of retention

“Finding an idea that works and building on it is key to gaining and retaining supporters. So many of the charities I work with will do a great campaign and then the following year do something completely different, whereas purpose-led brands often stick with what the public likes about them, double down on it and get better at it. 

“Charities could really benefit from identifying what’s important to them and their audience as well as where they can add value to become part of and support that cultural ecosystem.”

8. Design an enjoyable and familiar retail experience to increase awareness and communicate your organisation’s mission

“Glimpse was set up to challenge some of the preconceptions around consumerism. Black Friday has calmed down now but there was one year when people were attacking each other in Asda to get a TV. Now, people just think it’s disdainful but still enjoy shopping for others and gifting, so we looked to turn Black Friday on its head and create an experience where you can buy for people who are in need.

 “We knew people at Help Refugees – now called Choose Love – and spoke to them about raising funds through a store where people buy for refugees. We then looked at brands like Apple, where the whole retail experience and brand world feels futuristic and you have people walking around showing you the products, and created an Apple-inspired retail experience that helps refugees.”

9. Collaborate with other like-minded charities and brands to find opportunities for non profit organisations

“More and more estate owners are keen to fill empty spaces on the high street with interesting stuff, so I think the key is making charity shops interesting places to hang out in because they can often feel a bit flat compared to a brand retail experience. Again, we want people to go to charity shops because they want to, not because they feel they ought to. 

“It would be great if more charities collaborated with other like-minded charities and brands. Why not put a community café inside an Oxfam and bring charity ambassadors and influencers together with community-based work? 

“I’d also love to see charities doing more partnerships with digital brands and social media platforms, where their audiences are spending a lot of time. The first thing that charities should consider when working with brands is how they share the same values and how they could do interesting work together. Fundraising should come into it as a secondary factor.”

10. Embrace quality over quantity when it comes to supporters

“The big challenge with all charities is that they have a hardcore supporter base that they never want to relinquish, which can cause creative and strategic issues and stop them moving in a different direction. 

“TSOs need to remember that not everyone needs to love every bit of content, especially in the digital world, but the people that like it need to really love it to get them engaged.”

To sum up

Effective collaboration between agencies and TSOs depends on several key principles: choosing to work with agencies that share common values, streamlining decision-making where possible, and ensuring that both sides are invested in the work. While non-profit organisations and brands might have different end goals, they can benefit from similar strategies, like opting for positive messaging to engage audiences and exploring more innovative high-street shop models. Ultimately, when it comes to their supporters, TSOs should concentrate on engaging deeply with individuals who resonate with their content.