UK Charities
There are around 200,000 charities registered in the UK, many of these are based in London and they are spread over all walks of life (children, animals, marine, air force, birds, livestock, water, food, homeless, religion etc.).
There are so many charities in the UK that the government has a specialist department set up to manage advise and tax each charity (The Charity Commission).
There are a growing number of charities in the UK, partly to do with good works and good morals, partly to do with the tax benefits that come with being registered as a charitable organisation. Remploy is a great example of a charity that works in the business sector. Remploy was set up just after the war to provide employment opportunities for the soldiers returning from Europe; it has not diversified across a broad range of industry sectors and is still a government sponsored program to help provide employment to people that have social and physical restrictions to getting work in the private sector.
Do Charities Need To Market Themselves
Marketing is all about creating awareness, about letting people know a specific message and encouraging them to buy into it.
Charities all have a unique message about their cause, what it is they are standing for, why they stand for it and why they are seeking support from the UK public and business world.
Marketing costs money, marketing is not free and can be very expensive; this is something that many charities do struggle with, as donations from people and companies get spent on marketing campaigns (paying for TV advertising, websites, radio campaigns, and marketing companies themselves benefit from fees).
Many UK people feel that their donations do not go to the cause, that for every £1 donated, a high proportion goes to a marketing company, some to the paid staff of the charity and a small % to the cause. Reports are that as much as 70% of every £1 does not reach the cause for many charities especially larger charities such as Oxfam (that have high running costs and infrastructure).
However, charities do need to market, for two reasons:
- To Stand Out - With 200,000 charities, they need to compete for donations
- To Raise Awareness - To let people know about their cause and encourage charitable giving
The problem is that all marketing needs to be paid for, planned, monitored and developed - which all costs money.
Who Are the Main Charities
All charities are different, depending on the size and resources available different charities use different marketing tools to reach the UK public.
Popular UK charities would be:
- Children In Need - Who get good TV exposure around the BBC and Pudsy The Bear
- Oxfam - Who have shops in almost every town in England and support global poverty
- WWF - Supporting animal interests
- RSPCA - Supporting animal interests
- NSPCC - Supporting cruelty to children
These are the main charities that get the most media exposure based around their marketing, most of which is TV or visual advertising based.
Lesser known charities would be:
- Naomi House - A small children's hospice based in Hampshire
- Tearfund - A Christian charity supporting world wide poverty
- Mercy Ships - A Christian response to crisis around the world in war zones
Many UK Christian churches are also registered charities and do provide support both in the local community and wider world.
Choosing A Marketing Company For A Charity
For charities, the obvious choice is choosing a marketing agency that has experience in working with charities. There are a number of marketing companies (or all kinds) that do work with charities and NPO's (Non Profit Making Organisations) and are able to offer focused support and help for charitable organisations.
It is always advised to meet and chat through ideas in detail (rather than on the phone or via e-mail) as communication is so much better face to face giving the chance to objectives, targets and strategy to be discussed.
There are a wide variety of marketing channels that charities can use in order to create awareness for their various causes:
Advertising For Charities
Advertising is quite controversial for charities, as advertising is generally very expensive; as the money for advertising comes from donors, this means that much of donations go to the commercial world rather than the charitable cause. This being said, advertising is essential in order for charities to gain media exposure for their cause. There are numerous agencies offering advertising for charities (sometimes at a discount) having worked with charities and NPO's in the past. Popular forms of advertising would be TV, radio and visual adverts, but advertising for charities is quite a broad area of marketing channels.
Websites For Charities
All charities need websites, large or small all need websites in today's world and there are website designers around that have experience in creating websites for charities. A website serves as an information resource into the charities cause, their objectives, values and goals and also serves as a pivot to encourage donations.
PR For Charities
Public relations is not used by all charities, but certainly by the larger ones (the ones in the public eye) to manage their brand, their image, create awareness and encourage donations to the cause. There are many PR companies around the UK that have specialist experience in doing PR for charities or have worked with charities as part of a broader mix of clients.
SEO For Charities
Being found on the internet is quite important for charities, but not a major issue. Charity websites tend to get good ranks from search engines naturally due to them being charities (in fact, for private companies to get links from charities is an SEO technique); however saying that, SEO is needed. There are many SEO companies that do SEO for charities and can provide
PPC For Charities
Paid advertising is very popular with charities, as most cannot afford expensive advertising such as traditional advertising or TV advertising. PPC is popular among charities as it can be highly targeted. There are many PPC companies that do PPC for charities and can offer support services to help with management and data collection.
Social Media For Charities
Social media is quite new as far as marketing is concerned and many charities are still getting to grips with using it in the best possible way. Many marketing companies are offering support for charities on the social media side of things (to gain Facebook likes, Twitter followers etc.) and broaden the sphere of influence that a charity has on social media platforms.
Compare Marketing Prices For Charity Marketing Support
Most marketing companies will offer a slightly reduced price for the marketing that they offer to charities, however it is still wise to shop around and get quotes.
The main factor for most charities is getting value for money, bang for buck and a return on investment. Marketing is a fickle area that often does not show clear results, so for charities there is a lot riding on getting returns for donor's money.
For free advice and quotes from marketing companies that have experience in doing marketing for charities, just fill in the firm above.