Ideas for monetizing a nonprofit?

[Krass]

I think me and some friends stumbled on a goldmine. Started a nonprofit identifying some major grievances of the public, crafted the message, got the news portal articles done, organized our first talk, and it was full house - over 2000 people came with just $700 facebook ads budget.

But then it's a nonprofit. I want to be in business not doing this nonprofit stuff. How do I make money from this?

 

[JamaicanMoose]

Sounds like you organized a seminar. Lots of money in that if you have something you can upsell.

 

[CCarter]

This is all in the power of a community. First all those people do things other than go to nonprofit events all day.

#1. It's worth the networking portion cause if you sell website design or marketing services people are always looking for people they can talk to one-on-one and since they see you are organizing large events you have some experience and are likely to get clients.

#2. When the peasants have grievances it's usually more than one, so people willing to come out to one thing are likely to come out to other related topics. So gather their emails and phone numbers so you can organize with them and keep them updated. The newsletter allows you direct access to those 2000+ people without the barriers of FB in the future. Even if you get them all into a FB group, that's great, but again direct communication is key - emails and phone numbers (mobile so you can text). This is why I stress the power of the email list, it's crucial to an organization for anything.

#3. Send out surveys to get the general make up, age range, gender, what they do for a living, etc. That will allow you to better understand them and therefore figure out how you can make money down the road from them.

#4. Don't try to monetize too quickly, cause it can backfire. It's sort of like BuSo, in the beginning it's about adding value over and over and over, and then hitting them with an ASK. It's a "Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook" scenario (GaryVee book: Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World). Add value overtime will get people to trust you over time. Then you can go in for the kill when you figure out a monetization plan. If you go in too early it'll look like you are trying to just have sex before the first date.

#5. Sell T-shirts about the problem to make more people aware, or bumper stickers (this is if you want to stay completely on topic).

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If you have some more details about the crowd or event we can go into details a bit more, otherwise the advice will always be somewhat vague and broad in nature.

Something to keep in mind is this issue seems to be a serious problem for them, hence why they took the time to come to the meeting. Do not screw up the trust they have placed in you by spamming them with nonsense. Cultivate that trust so you can make millions off of them in the years to come versus a quick buck next week.

 

[Ryuzaki]

For the most basic starter income, you can pay yourselves a "reasonable" salary out of the donations, with the allowed amounts determined by your state and the IRS at large.

 

[Tiberian]

If you are a legitimate 501(c)(3) non-profit, I highly recommend looking into Google Ad Grants to expand your reach.
Check this page out: Google Ad Grant Myths
Specifically, this should be of interest:

MYTH: Google Ad Grants can only be used for non-commercial use.

REALITY: Commercial activity must not be the purpose of a Grantee’s website. However, Google Ad Grants ads can be used to drive traffic to products or services that have a fee if the website describes how the nonprofit uses the funds. Grantees can set values for conversions to be able to gauge the total value driven by Ad Grants ads for different conversion types such as ticket sales. This empowers Grantees to identify and focus on their highest value conversions.

One of my friends runs a non-profit and we are currently working on a way to help bring in some additional revenue to support the non-profit's expansion through some products and services.

You could likely do the same - run some ads looking for donations, selling seminars, clothing, and so on.

We've also been entered into a beta campaign regarding the form extension. You can get the name, email, phone number, and so on. You can create an email list based on that.

 

[Krass]

Thanks for the input guys. Here's some more info:

- age group is very specific. It's 45 and above up to 65
- these people are really not IT savvy. They can't even bother to fill out simple payment forms online. I'm implementing social login for events but not sure about website registrations.
- the audience is very engaged. they literally share every piece of content we put out. It's crazy I've never seen this level of brand advocacy

The problem now is budget. I need to get registrations up and I need to do it with small budget. The foundation council members are also old folks who don't trust technology. I feel like I'm sitting on a literal gold mine but not sure how to mine it.