There are so many invaluable charities doing amazing work but needing help either with finding volunteers, funding, publicity, and overall visibility. With tight budgets, traditional marketing is becoming more and more difficult. However, creating a presence online can cost nothing more than time, and if you have the right online tools and education it makes things a whole lot easier.

This past April, StepForth’s CEO, Ross Dunn, traveled across BC with Sociability’s Terri Davies and Accent Inn’s John Espley to present to charities and non-profits about improving their visibility online; this is Ross’s second year as a featured speaker on this charity road tour. This event, called “Charity in Changing Times,” was sponsored by Accent Inns “InnAid” initiative designed to educate charities on marketing themselves through social platforms.

This event covered:

• Tips to improve your website
• How to set up a Facebook and Twitter account
• Social media etiquette and strategies
• Tools for tracking and monitoring your online activity
• Successful case studies of charities implementing social media campaigns

Read more about StepForth's initiatives for charities.

I always wanted to work with charities and non-government organizations; I find their sincere dedication to causes they’re passionate about an inspiration. Last year I had the opportunity to pursue this interest and flew to Hanoi, Vietnam to work for an NGO (Non-Government Organization) called “Center for Development of Community and Children.” This experience made me realize locating funding and raising awareness is hair pullingly tedious, exhausting, and beyond frustrating. To get any funding from governments or private sponsors was painstakingly time consuming and rather impersonal. Of the several projects I was working on, my primary donation hunting efforts were for building a school in the rural area of Dien Bien, North Western Vietnam.  All of the funding applications I spent hours filling out consisted of budgets and past organization reputation.  Understandably, these are important but I never felt like the reality of the project was communicated to the reader which was how badly these tykes wanted to learn how to read and get a basic education.

When I started working in online marketing, I realized quickly, these barriers I’d faced didn’t need to exist.  An online presence is so powerful for charities. It makes them visible, allows them to engage with their donors, and acquire donations faster than if they were to wait for government assistance.  Below, I’ve put together 5 tips I’ve found to be most significant when a charity is trying to build a presence online. Continue Reading Tips for Charities