Your Guide to a Self-Audit of Your Nonprofit Marketing Plan

Does your nonprofit’s marketing plan feel like it’s driving results or just keeping you busy?

It’s time to take a step back.

A nonprofit marketing plan self-audit can help you see what’s working, what’s not, and how you can improve.

It’s not about overhauling everything at once but about tweaking it to make sure your marketing efforts are aligned, effective, and moving you closer to your goals.

The truth is, marketing isn’t a one-and-done task.

It’s a cycle of execution, analysis, and refinement.

A self-audit will give you clarity on what’s going well, show you where you can improve, and ensure all your efforts are driving real results.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to auditing your nonprofit’s marketing plan.

You must have marketing goals that are tied to your fundraising plan.

How much money do you need to raise? How many new donors do you need?

How are your marketing activities going to help you get there? What do you need from your website, your social media, your email marketing, and your print collateral?

Create SMART goals for your marketing activities so you know where you are going and what you need to measure. Your SMART goals might look like these:

• Increase our donor list by 10%—from 950 to 1,045—by Dec. 31, 2025.
• Increase our Instagram followers by 10%—from 2,342 to 2,596—by Dec. 31, 2025.
• Recruit two new sponsors for our signature event by Aug. 30, 2025.

Write your goals down.

If your team is involved, ask for their feedback.

Goals should stretch you but also feel attainable.

If you’re just starting out and only have 25 donors, you may be able to quadruple your donors to 100. But if your donor list is already large and developed, an increase of 5 to 10% is probably more realistic.

To reach your goals, leverage the assets you already have. These might include:

• Your team: Your staff, Board, and volunteers are the people power you have to achieve your goals. You can’t do everything yourself. Invite people into the fold who have a passion for the work and help them identify the best role based on their skills, interests, and availability.

• Your story library: These are the stories that get people hooked on your mission. They are the tiny moments that demonstrate how meaningful your work is. They are the big moments you work so hard for. A graduate of your program walking across the stage and accepting her diploma. A family moving into a house. A volunteer giving food to your 1,000th recipient.

Stories are the fuel that propel your marketing forward. A story can be as simple as a text you received from a recipient of services. Or it can be a professionally written story that reads like a feature in a magazine and includes professional quality video and photos. And everything in between.

Capture your stories! Store them in your library, so you will have them when you are ready to deploy them as part of your marketing strategy. And make sure to get permission to share the story if it reveals the person’s identity.

• Your donor database: Your donor database houses every donor who ever gave you money. Whether you use Little Green Light or Bloomerang, and whether it was $5 or $5,000, their name, giving history, and contact information get you started getting to know them.It’s cheaper to get another gift from someone who already donated than to recruit a brand new donor! As your donor database grows, your income grows, and your programs grow. You change more lives. It’s just fundraising math!

What other assets do you have? Do you have a facility? A vehicle? A contract with your local school district? A lease from a church to house your food pantry for 10 years?

Take stock in the organizational assets you have so you can think about how to leverage each one as you work toward your marketing goals.

Your marketing systems are the tools and platforms you use to engage your donors, raise funds, and build awareness.

Reviewing these systems doesn’t have to feel overwhelming.

Break it down into these key areas:

• Your Website: Visit your website as a first-time visitor who doesn’t know anything about your organization. Is your message clear? Is it easy to donate or sign up for updates? Do your stories and photos grab your attention?Check your metrics, focusing on overall numbers and growth. Look at how many visitors your site gets and how much time they stay on the site. How many join your email list or make a donation? What changes could you make to grow these numbers?

• Social media: Go through all your social media channels as a prospective donor. How likely would you be to engage if it was your first time on the channel? Consult the metrics for every site and write down three things you can do to grow your metrics. Can you post more frequently? Mix in more videos? Come up with juicier content?

• Email marketing: Your email marketing probably accounts for a significant slice of your fundraising pie. Maybe you use Mailchimp, or maybe you are among the many nonprofits heading over to Mailerlite. Whatever tool you use should provide you with some metrics to evaluate your results each time you hit “send.”Review your recent emails. Are your email subject lines grabbing attention? Is your storytelling inspiring? Are you making it easy for supporters to donate in just a few clicks?Check your open rates and click-through rates, and make small tweaks to boost results, like stronger calls to action or shorter, more engaging content.

• Appeals and Print Materials: Read your most recent appeal as if you are a lapsed donor receiving it in the mail. How compelled are you to open it? To read beyond the first sentence? To donate?Experts have studied appeals and shared what works. It’s not a mystery. Follow best practices and you’ll get better results. Write down three things you can do with your next appeal to get a higher response rate and more donations.

• Other print collateral: Gather up your print collateral and take a long, hard look. Is the messaging crystal clear? Is it engaging? Would it make you want to learn more about the organization? Give yourself a grade for brand consistency. Do you consistently use your logo? Do you stick to brand colors and fonts?Write yourself a three-point memo outlining what you will do differently next time you create some print collateral. But don’t create new stuff just because you see room for improvement! Only create what you really need.

What Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can you track to measure your nonprofit marketing plan performance? Number of people reached through speaking engagements? Number of people reached through news stories?

Don’t spend time tracking a data point that isn’t informative. Focus on the KPIs that tell you whether you are making progress toward your goals.

Think about nonprofit marketing as an engagement funnel and track the metrics that help you get prospective supporters funneled down to the level of consistent donor and advocate.

When someone makes a donation, what actions do you take? You send them a thank you note or maybe a new donor welcome kit. How many of these donors make a second donation the following year?

You meet people at a community event, and they give you their email address. What do you do from there? Send them a welcome email? How many donate based on that email?

When someone volunteers at an event, what do you do? Send them a personalized thank you and ask them to consider a donation? How many give?

When you’re first learning how to raise money for a nonprofit, you are hit with so many metrics you need to track. Track the metrics that matter the most! You can add more down the road as your marketing operation gets more sophisticated.

Your nonprofit may not be big and established enough to have every marketing strategy in place and humming along, but you are still funneling. We are all funneling! We are all meeting new people and nurturing them in a journey toward becoming an advocate for our organization!

Managing all of this might feel like a lot, but a simple checklist can help you stay on track without feeling overwhelmed.

Here is a sample checklist:

Break tasks into bite-sized steps, spread them out, and set deadlines. This way, the process feels manageable, not daunting!

A self-audit isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress. Take the time to evaluate your nonprofit marketing plan efforts, and you’ll gain the clarity to make smarter, more focused decisions. You’ll build momentum, engage more donors, and raise more money to fuel your mission.

The work you’re doing matters, and the more intentional you are about marketing it, the more lives you’ll change.

Now, grab your checklist and take the first step toward a more strategic, effective nonprofit marketing plan!