Many researchers focusing on nonprofit organizations pay significant attention to the marketing department because of the need for such organizations to survive in the competitive environment. This competition has affected the performance of these organizations since it reduces the amount of funding from the government and other donors. Nonprofit organization marketing has become widespread recently, and its practice is common in many organizations. The main objective of adopting marketing in nonprofit organizations is to tackle the increasing competition among organizations that offer similar services to the society.
The rise in the levels of globalization has exposed the local nonprofit organizations to the international competition since the global nonprofit organizations have established local markets around the world. Many nonprofits organizations have commercialized their services and expanded their market reach globally; thus, increasing the levels of competition. The tremendous increase in competition explains the widespread marketing among the nonprofit organizations as, well as the commitment of managers and researchers on the marketing activities of such organizations (Nonprofit 2). Due to the increasing relevance of marketing among the nonprofit organizations, the understanding of the nonprofit marketing has become necessary for the management of these organizations.
The concept of nonprofit marketing developed from the basic definitions provided by the American Marketing Association. The most recent definition describes marketing as the activity developed by an organization for creating customer satisfaction through communicating and delivering the required products and services (Nonprofit 4). The earlier definitions of marketing did not incorporate the marketing for nonprofit organizations but rather focused on pure marketing operations. The new developments in marketing have created the relevance of marketing in nonprofit organizations such as public schools, transport sectors, healthcare providers, and religious organizations whose motives are not profit driven.
The marketing of nonprofit organization does not only focus on the normal exchange of goods and services but also the distribution of ideas among individuals and organizations. It is relevant, especially for intangible goods offered to the public, which have continued to grow in the society. Such marketing is concerned with value creation for the services offered by the nonprofit organizations, which is more practical in these organizations as compared to the exchange concept. The nonprofit organizations marketing is very sensitive about the societal and public policy issues because they offer services that are meant to improve the living standards of the people (Nonprofit 5).
Marketing in nonprofit organizations is continuously expanding amid the increase in the level of competition experienced in the sector. Nonprofit organizations have shifted their attention from the normal marketing operations of exchanging goods and services to the focus on creating maximum customer satisfaction. This has been achieved through adopting marketing techniques that put more emphasis on value creation for customers through meeting their wants and needs as soon as they arise. Just like the commercial marketing, the motive of the nonprofit organizations marketing is to serve the needs of the people in the society by providing quality goods and services according to the specific needs of the society. Therefore, nonprofit organizations marketing is described as a philosophy that involves internal and external activities of the organization with the objective of attaining the overall mission of the organization (Nonprofit 6).
The external activities in nonprofit marketing include market research, product, price, place and promotion of the services within the society. On the other hand, the internal activities involve the leading philosophy which motivates people to strive for cross-border acceptance of the products and services offered by the organizations. The external and internal activities are performed hand in hand to improve the relationship between the clients and the organizations; thus, attaining the organization's main objectives. The provision of services by the nonprofit organizations involves different categories of the people who form the publics. The donors play a major role in providing the funds for financing these activities while the volunteers are responsible for the implementing the designed activities to ensure they fulfill the requirements of the society (Nonprofit 8). Besides, the consultants play an intermediary role of providing consultancy services while the clients are the consuming publics which is the main target for these organizations.
Despite the existence of numerous stakeholders in the operations of nonprofit organizations, some specific stakeholders are targeted by the marketers for their immense contribution towards the success of these organizations. The marketing of nonprofit organizations focuses on the beneficiaries of the services offered and the resource donors who provide the resources used to provide such services. The techniques designed focus on bringing more donors on board to increase the amount of resources that are used to perform the tasks of these nonprofit organizations. The nonprofit organizations solemnly depend on donor resources from individual well-wishers, governments, other organizations which are committed to improving the lives of people in the society (Nonprofit 10). On the other hand, the services are directed towards the beneficiaries who are the members of the public. The marketing activities focus on these two main target groups to ensure that more donors and beneficiaries are united by the organizations to improve their lives.
Social marketing has been a perfect representation of the nonprofit organizations marketing because it addresses the social issues of the people that the organizations seek to address. It focuses on the nonprofit organizations and governments whose main aims are to deal adequately with the social concerns, such as poor health, equality in education, eradication of poverty (Nonprofit 11). The social marketing principles and techniques are designed to help such organizations to offer the best services to the public. Social marketing has played a major role in ensuring that the nonprofit organizations can reach their target groups for the organizations to achieve their long-term objectives. Its outcomes have provided credible solutions to the nonprofit organizations in their endeavor to win more donor resources and reach more beneficiaries.
The marketing processes for nonprofit organizations are quite different from those of the profitable organizations. Therefore, the application of the basic marketing techniques of advertising, promotion, and public relations may not be enough. There is a need for more research because this marketing context is more complex than normal marketing processes. The operative marketing techniques for nonprofit organizations target on direct and indirect clients who form the larger part of the marketing process (Nonprofit 13). Marketing researchers have shown a lot of commitment towards developing strategic marketing plans, which are based on societal orientation as opposed to market orientation. The concept of creating customer value has been the most popular strategic plan for many nonprofit organizations because their main motive is to create value for the customer services provided.
Many nonprofit organizations have paid more attention to the cause-related marketing as a way of mobilizing more resources due to the current competition in the sector. Cause-related marketing involves advertising techniques that promise customers that some money will be donated to a charitable organization for every product they purchase in retail shops. Such techniques are beneficial not only to the nonprofit organizations involved but also the profit oriented companies whose products are used for such marketing. This collaboration produces a positive impact on the sponsoring company since the image of the brand grows and profits for the company increase as a result of high sales levels (Nonprofit 16). Therefore, the cause-related marketing for nonprofit organizations has played a major role in helping the nonprofit organizations acquire resources for financing its operations.
The lack of adequate funding from the governments has provoked many nonprofit organizations to devise alternative ways of sourcing funds for supporting their operations. Fundraising has been identified as one of the common ways of raising resources for these organizations from donors. Therefore, they have adopted specific marketing strategies that address the donor behaviors and other target groups as a way of expanding their market bases. Lobbying activities have also been embraced by the nonprofit organizations as a way of persuading donors and other target groups to contribute resources towards financing the activities of the organizations. Through lobbying, the organizations can influence public policy; hence, attaining their missions (Nonprofit 21). The nonprofit organizations have used these numerous marketing techniques to promote accountability and transparency in the management of the resources.
In conclusion, the nonprofit organizations marketing has helped them to survive in the competitive sector by devising different ways of acquiring resources. These organizations have adopted different marketing strategies, such as social marketing and cause-related marketing. The marketing strategies have been focusing on both direct and indirect target groups, which play major roles in the operations of the organizations. The most common target groups are the resources donors, the beneficiaries, the consultants in the sector and the volunteers who are responsible for day to day operations of the organizations. The nonprofit organization marketing has introduces resource mobilization strategies, such as fundraising and lobbying, which have resulted in high levels of accountability and transparency within the organizations.
Work Cited
Nonprofit. Lecture Notes. Ppt
