Nonprofit Pulse Report

Copyright © 2012 Constant Contact Inc. 1

Constant Contact Nonprofit PulseThe Health and Wellness of Nonprofits

Based on Research Conducted in Spring 2012


In This Report

What’s Keeping Small Nonprofits Up at Night?

Nonprofit Marketing Activities

The Health of Nonprofits

About This Report


1. What’s Keeping Nonprofits Up At Night?


64% 59% 57%

34%22% 20% 20% 18% 15%

When you think about how to run your organization most effectively, which of the following “keeps you up at night”?

Attracting new supporters, engaging existing supporters and getting funding are the top marketing concerns for nonprofits surveyed


Getting funding How to attract new supporters

How to con-nect and better

engage with existing sup-

porters

Having a more integrated

communication strategy

How to identify and select the best marketing

tools

How to make my marketing dollars go fur-

ther

How to stay on top of the lat-est in online marketing

trends

How to get re-ferrals from current sup-

porters

How to measure the

impact of my market-

ing cam-paigns

57%

41%37%

22%

15%12% 11%

7% 5%

Of the items that keep you up at night, which do you rank #1?

Getting funding is the #1 concern for nonprofits


2. Nonprofit Marketing Activities


Email marketing

Website In-person interactions

Events Social me-dia market-

ing

Phone calls Direct mail Public rela-tions

Traditional advertising (print, ra-dio, TV,

etc.)

Online surveys and polls

Online advertis-ing (paid search,

etc.)

Other, please specify

86%80%

73% 70%

58%

36%32% 30%

23%

12%5% 3%

Which marketing activities do you find to be effective for your organization today?

Email marketing, websites, in-person interactions, events and social media are effective for the majority of nonprofits

58% of nonprofits find social media marketing effective.


Of those finding social media effective, Facebook is far and away the most effective network

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Google+ YouTube

88%

5% 3% 1% 1%

If social media is effective for your organization, which network do you find the most effective?


0%10%20%30%40%50%60%

50%

27%20% 18% 13% 12% 10% 7% 7% 3% 0%

Of the items you find to be effective, which do you rank as the #1 most effective?

In-person interactions are the most effective marketing activity


Social me-dia market-

ing

Email marketing

Website Public rela-tions

Online surveys and polls

Online advertis-ing (paid search,

etc.)

Events Phone calls Direct mail In-person interactions

Traditional advertising (print, ra-dio, tv)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

57%

36% 35%

21% 19% 19% 19%14% 11% 11% 9%

Marketing activities do you need help with?

Social media marketing is the topic nonprofits want help with most

55% of nonprofits ranked social media as the #1 marketing activity they need help with signaling they see it’s potential to attract new supporters and better

engage existing supporters.


Nonprofits believe nearly three quarters of their supporters are likely to recommend their organization to a friend or colleague

The likelihood of supporter referrals is a dynamic that could be greatly

amplified with the use of social media marketing.

73%

What percentage of your supporters are likely to rec-ommend your organization to a friend or a colleague?


Nonprofits spend 36% of their time and 18% of their budget on marketing

18%

Budget spent on marketing ac-tivities

Total hours Marketing hours

43.5

15.8

Hours nonprofits work per week


3. The Health of Nonprofits


The majority of nonprofits surveyed are stable or growing compared to 2011

Membership/funding increased Membership/funding remained flat Membership/funding decreased

49%

39%

12%

How has your organization done so far this year?


Many nonprofits are expecting significant growth this year, few are expecting a major decrease

67% of nonprofits expect 2012 membership/funding to increase over their 2011 revenues with 31% expecting an increase of more than 10%.

Increase more than 10% Increase less than 10% Remain flat Decrease less than 10% Decrease more than 10%0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

31%

36%

24%

4% 3%

Membership/Funding expectations this year compared to last


While funding is rising, cash flow is affecting growth for over 40% of nonprofits

Struggle with cash flow is evident with both rising costs and service offerings 46% of nonprofits are experiencing increased operating costs 51% have increased the number of services they offer

0%

20%

40%

60%

55%

29%14%

Is your cash flow sufficient to run your organization effectively?


Over one third of nonprofits need to hire additional staff but can’t

So far this year 67% of nonprofits have kept their number of employees the same, 14% have decreased their number of employees.

Yes No, I’m doing fine as is No, I need to but can’t Unsure

10%

39%35%

16%

Will you be hiring additional full-time equivalent (FTE) employees in the next 6 months?


About this study

This is the first wave of an ongoing study about the state of nonprofits and the ways they connect with and grow their audience.

We surveyed over 1000 participants in the Constant Contact Small Biz Council – a research panel of US small businesses and nonprofits recruited from the Constant Contact customer base – between April 24 and May 8, 2012.

This report includes responses from 307 nonprofit participants.

Media ContactErika DornausConstant Contact(781) [email protected]

25%

20%20%

13%

18%3%

Annual budget size for nonprofits included in this study

Under $100,000 $100,000 – $250,000

$250,001 – $500,000 $500,001 – $1 million

$1,00010001 – $5 mil-lion

$5,000,001 - $10 mil-lion

More than $10 million

Business

Nonprofit Pulse Report