To Sell Themselves to Donors, Nonprofits Are Turning to the Pros<br />During Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, for example, it created a “shark vs. colon” meme, with the caption “Sharks attack<br />fewer than 16 people per year, while more than 130,000 are estimated to be diagnosed with colon cancer in 2017.”<br />The Colon Cancer Alliance is one of a surging number of nonprofits that are turning to marketing experts for help.<br />Mr. Siegel overhauled the group’s message on its website<br />and social media to include stories from people with lupus, and he added the tagline “Help Us Solve the Cruel Mystery.” The group also sent a “Cruel Mystery” bus, equipped with interactive videos and information on the disease, on a national tour.<br />Today, the site clearly emphasizes that the alliance’s goal is to knock colon cancer out of the top three cancer killers,<br />and lays out its three-pronged strategy to accomplish this: Invest $10 million in research by 2021, double the number of patients and families it reaches with support services and save 100,000 lives through increased screening by 2021.<br />Not long ago, the website for the nonprofit Colon Cancer Alliance offered a treasure trove of information<br />about colorectal screening, colon cancer research and other topics related to the deadly disease.<br />Another nonprofit, JDRF International (formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation), which funds research on Type 1 diabetes, hired a marketing expert, Alisa Norris, last October to update its image<br />and coordinate its message across the digital landscape.<br />But a number of groups, even those that are well known, are having a tough time competing — or even staying relevant — in the rough-and-tumble<br />digital age, when potential donors are overwhelmed with requests for money on social media, crowdfunding sites and other digital platforms.
