5 mission-driven marketing examples to inspire action from supporters

‍This post was guest written by Givebutter Expert Madeleine St. John, Founder and Principal of St. John Consulting. Within each section, Madeleine shares real-life mission-driven marketing posts she published for the Orion Center for Integrative Medicine, a legacy client of St. John Consulting.

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Learn how to integrate your mission into your overall marketing strategy and develop a mission-driven marketing strategy that feels authentic to your organization. 

Plus, explore different types of content posts you can publish to connect with like-minded supporters.

Why your organization needs mission-driven marketing

An engaged marketing strategy is essential to growing a community of fans and friends who will power your mission toward expansion. When done with intention, nonprofit marketing campaigns can function as an extension of your mission through content that serves both your benefactors and your beneficiaries.

After all, research shows that the vast majority (75%, to be exact) of supporters give to nonprofit organizations because they are passionate about its mission. In other words, most donors give to causes that are personal to them—making mission-driven marketing an effective communications approach.

What is mission-driven marketing, anyway?

In the simplest terms, mission-driven marketing is a communications strategy that uses your purpose as its core focus. The nonprofit sector and mission-driven businesses use mission-driven marketing as a way to transform their audience members into prospective donors.

With a mission-driven marketing strategy, your content calendar won’t be made up of a series of posts calling for donations. Instead, each post will tie back to why your organization exists in the first place. 

In that regard, you hope to find and connect with people who are passionate about your cause. Since these individuals have a deep-seated connection with your mission and values, it’s more likely they will transform into recurring donors over time.

5 types of mission-driven content to connect with your audience

Potential donors can’t connect with your core mission statement if they don’t even know what it is. Here are five types of mission-driven content you can deploy across your communication channels, with real-life marketing messages you can imitate.

1. Informational 📈

What, why, and how your organization does what it does is always a relevant message. In fact, it should be one of the 3-5 core messages you repeat throughout your marketing efforts. Do so by repackaging the information with fresh graphics, stories, or statistics. Then, make this information relevant to both of your main audiences: the people your organization serves and your organization’s current and prospective donors. 

You can do this by explaining the services you provide while educating supporters on the importance of your work. Use informational posts in your year-round communications to prime donors to give later on. 

💪 See it in action: In this Facebook post, the Orion Center for Integrative Medicine shared data-backed research on the financial distress impacting cancer patients. By explaining the core problem, potential donors understand why there is a need to donate to the organization.

2. Educational 📚

Demonstrate authority and offer upfront value to your audience by drawing on what you provide in your programs to create educational content.

Do you offer social-emotional development for students through arts education? Offer a creative exercise from one of your classrooms that your audience can do at home. 

Do you facilitate youth mentorship relationships? Create a “Mentorship Moment” series where you record volunteer mentors sharing a word of encouragement or inspiration. 

Do you provide vocational training to marginalized communities? Write a series of mini tutorials that draw on your programs—such as “Sewing 101” or “What You Need to Know about Welding.” 

💪 See it in action: In this social media post, the Orion Center for Integrative Medicine explains how mindfulness and stress management can help cope with cancer and other harmful stressors.

Educational content like this provides value to target participants while showing proof of concept to your donor audience. By repackaging your programs into bite-sized pieces suitable for the digital space, you provide people a sample of your efficacy—an essential experience for donors and program participants alike.

3. Actionable ✊

Remember: Making a monetary donation isn’t the only way to support your organization’s mission.

Persuading your audience to take action on something beyond a dollar donation (such as volunteering, sharing your fundraising campaign on their respective social channels, taking a survey, or even signing up for your email list) triggers or develops a behavioral pattern. These behavior patterns reinforce the idea that your nonprofit is an entity audience members are responsive to and engaged with. In addition, it makes them more likely to repeat a similar action in the future.

💪 See it in action: This social post encourages potential donors to take action by sharing the post to their respective channels. To encourage engagement, the organization invited followers to tag a loved one who had been impacted by cancer.

4. Testimonial 💬

Want to spark a deep connection with your target audience? Stakeholder quotes and stories are one of the best ways you can demonstrate your impact from a heart-centered space.

Testimonials help prospective supporters self-identify their candidacy for your program initiatives, while showing donors the efficacy of your impact on individual lives. Plus, testimonies provide a great lead-in for program promotions or appeals!

💪 See it in action: As an example, this social post mentioned Dr. McGregor, who shared Orion Center for Integrative Medicine’s signature program, Health SMART, with their new clients. The patient saw great results from the program, claiming, “I didn’t know I needed this, but I did!”

5. Resources and referrals 👯

One of the more novel ways to serve your audience is by offering resources and referrals to mission-relevant articles, services, and partnership organizations.

By showcasing resources outside of your organization, you demonstrate your organization’s connection to the nonprofit sector as a whole. In addition, you provide clarity on your mission and core values, helpful boundaries on the services and support your organization provides, a collaborative spirit, and the earnest desire to see your population of service supported—no matter how or where that happens. 

💪 See it in action: As an example, this social media post gives a shoutout to Collaborative Care Seattle, a group of like-minded practitioners who believe in the Orion Center for Integrative Medicine’s mission.

For beneficiaries or prospective program participants, this provides practical support toward the objective of your mission. For donors, this reinforces your authority, connectivity, and missional focus.

Leverage Givebutter to launch your mission-driven marketing strategy

Mission-driven marketing is a type of communications strategy that places your mission statement at the forefront. By tying each marketing post back to your mission and values, you’re able to create a deep-rooted connection with supporters who are passionate about your cause. To launch your marketing strategy, you’ll publish a combination of educational, testimonial, actionable, resource-based, and informational posts—all tying back to your mission.

To launch your mission-driven marketing strategy, you need the right tools. Fortunately, Givebutter is the all-in-one fundraising platform that comes with built-in CRM and marketing automation. With Givebutter, you can launch an email automation campaign, publish graphics with Canva, share posts on social media, create videos about your mission, and even launch an SMS campaign. Plus, you can keep tabs on supporters’ engagement with our built-in CRM platform, Track.

Ready to see how Givebutter can help launch your mission-driven marketing strategy? Sign up for your free Givebutter account today to get started.