Social Ch@nge

Your nonprofit has a fabulous website. You attract thousands of admirers each day. You update it with fresh content, you communicate with your donors. You rock.

You’ve also invested blood, sweat, tears and cash into the beast. So is it possible to make some money back from your website?

Having a decent website is a given for most nonprofits. It’s a key communication tool, with your stakeholders, the media, donors, the world. Given that, let’s assume that your website has some inherent value for your organisation. But can you actually create a revenue stream from your website?

Let’s think of a couple of examples:

1) We want to sell stuff through our website

Merch, baby. T-shirts with your logo, stuffed endangered animals, travel mugs. From ebay to spreadshirt, there are many online tools to make this happen. It’s far more cost-effective than running a physical storefront - but operationally it’s still going to cost you. You’ll need to have the actual merchandise, a place to keep the merchandise, someone to sort and pack orders, someone to answer questions about the orders, etc. If you’re ready for that, your website can be a terrific virtual store.

2) We want to sell advertising on our website.

Again, there are lots of ways to do this, from Google AdWords to blog advertising networks - as one network says, put the bling in blogging! As a non-profit organisation, though, you risk diluting your brand, and compromising the integrity of your message. Selling ads directly to companies can be time-intensive and costly - subcontracting out the advertising can result in ads that you just don’t want on your website. Be careful.

3) We want to sell sponsorships on our website

A great approach, but a note of caution. Sponsorships are a core strategy for many non-profits. However, think carefully about your potential sponsors: do they fit with your mission? And how will the sponsor benefit from being linked to you?

Sponsorship can be a very attractive incentive for a corporate donor. It shifts your pitch from a philanthropic ask to a marketing agreement. If nothing else, it can open up another pot of funding: the CEO of a company might love your nonprofit, but she’ll have a limit on how much discretionary funding she can channel towards you. But if she leans on the Marketing Dept. to look at a sponsorship agreement with you, another channel for funding becomes available.

Too often, nonprofits think of their website as simply a communications tool. It’s more than a pretty face - put that baby to work! In the next few weeks, we’ll steal a page from the world of internet marketing and learn how to make this work in the non-profit world.