Nonprofits Raise Money via Search

Many nonprofit organizations – especially smaller ones – haven’t given much thought to the ways in which they can use online search as a means to raise money for their organizations.
A small arts organization that I did some work with recently experienced a 5,000% percent increase in hits to their website by implementing some basic search engine optimization strategies.

This included asking their audience what key words they would use in a search and adding key words and target phrases to their home page and to the meta title tag and meta keywords. Now potential audience members and class participants can find their website so they are much more likely to get engaged with the organization as a donor, e-newsletter subscriber etc…

Search on words that describe your organization and see how well you come up in a search. Optimizing your natural search results should be your first step in using search to raise money.

Other ways to raise money through search include:

Use Sponsored Ads such as Google AdWords and/or Yahoo Sponsored Ads
Type some keywords and target phrases that describe your organization’s mission into a search engine and see which organizations come up in the sponsored ads on the side of the search results page. For example, if you type in “International Relief” organizations like MercyCorps and World Vision will appear.

These ads are purchased on a cost per click basis. You can establish a maximum budget which ensures you don’t wind up spending more than you’ve budgeted for keyword search advertising if you run into the good problem of having a lot of clicks. You can also choose to just have your sponsored ads appear in your state, region, or city.

Through the Google Grants program nonprofit organizations can apply for a grant covering three months or more of in kind online search advertising.

Encourage Use of Nonprofit Friendly Search Engines
Techsoup wrote Goodsearch.com or to download the Goodsearch toolbar and then your organization earns money every time a search is performed there.

Another service which wasn’t mentioned in the Techsoup article and, based on my research, I’d recommend over Goodsearch is Prodege.

Prodege works the same way that Goodsearch does but I think it has two advantages.

1.) The percent of funds that goes to the charity is higher with Prodege

2.) The toolbar can be fully customized for the organization so in addition to including the Prodege powered search box, it can include your organization’s logo and several links to your organization’s website such as your “upcoming events page” or “donate now” page. What an awesome branding opportunity! Having your organization’s logo right at the top of your donor’s browser – what a great way to keep the organization top of mind for your donor!

Learn more about Prodege here
http://www.prodege.org/about.html

or feel free to contact me and I’ll put you in touch with one of their reps who will gladly answer any questions you have and show you a sample customized toolbar.

Use all of these strategies to raise more money for your organization via search! Good luck! Please share your comments about what’s working for you. If you have a success story to share I’m sure my blog readers would love to hear it.

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