Hard Numbers for Tough Times -- Nonprofit Marketing Calculators from Care2

The trickiest nonprofit marketing questions are always about ROI(return on investment). How do you measure shifts in awareness or changes in behavior? It's so much more challenging than gauging the ROI of consumer direct marketing (how many email offer Gs for Pampers are redeemed). Too often I see nonprofit marketers just give up, claiming to leadership and peers that what they do just can't be measured. Baloney!

Of course, more immediate actions are more measurable (the number of signatures generated for an online petition, the number and total of donations for a special fundraising campaign marketed only through greenhouses and nurseries), but sometimes these measurements are more indicative of progress (interested, not necessarily committed individuals), than results.

The folks at Care2 have thought long and hard in developing these marketing calculators to help nonprofits size the value of their marketing efforts. They don't provide the whole answer, but they are a huge help. Dive in today to measure:

• Measure the Value of an Online Supporter Here you can gauge the value of running a campaign to build your email list. Read the accompanying article for a useful discussion of valuing a donor's email vs. an advocate's email.
• Is It Worth It? An ROI Calculator for Social Network Campaigns. Finally, what you've been waiting for. With all the hype/discussion on social networks for nonprofits, and the wide range of opinions on its value, and how to measure that, this tool enables you to estimate cost and ROI "for the recruitment and fundraising efforts of your staff in social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace." Let me know what the calculator tells you.

Keep in mind that, particularly with new channels like social marketing, numbers don't tell the whole tale. Experimentation, to some degree, is vital for organizational learning, finding what does make sense and keeping staff members abreast of the ever-broadening marketing toolkit.

Learn more about defining and measuring your nonprofit marketing impact here:

• How to Defend Your Marketing Budget
• How to Design an Effective Marketing and Communications Budget
• Balancing Quality and Cost-Efficiency in Your Nonprofit Marketing Materials (Case Study)

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