7 Nonprofit Marketing tips from ‘Thirst’ by Charity:Water CEO Scott Harrison.
14 minute read
By Mackenzie Walters
Charity: water is a nonprofit darling of tech entrepreneurs, and after watching an interview with CEO Scott Harrison and Gary Vaynerchuk, I decided to dive into Harrison’s book, “Thirst: A Story of Redemption, Compassion, and a Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World.”
What I found was an inspiring personal story with tons of nonprofit marketing insight about how to grow a base of donors and share your cause’s story.
Whether you agree with Harrison’s approach (he’s set on disrupting the nonprofit space), his story of sharing Mercy Ship’s story as a volunteer and then charity: waters’ story as its founder and CEO is full of marketing and storytelling insights.
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You don’t have to live in New York City or be at the height of the social scene to do what he did to grow your nonprofit. Here are seven takeaways that you can apply to your nonprofit today.
1. He started raising money with an email list, something the nonprofit still leans on heavily.
As a nightclub promotor, Harrison developed a 15,000 person email list to sell the nightlife experience. Before sailing on a Mercy Ship as a volunteer, he converted that email list into a weekly newsletter dispatch from the field.
He wrote personally and passionately, and he told the first-person experience of what he witnessed and saw. Many unsubscribed — but many also forwarded the email on to others, and the email list grew.
Email newsletters may seem like 1990’s marketing tactics, but they are among the most cost effective and powerful forms of marketing for nonprofits. We’ve helped businesses and nonprofits grow their revenue by focusing on storytelling in their newsletters — not just updates, events, and asks — in order to engage the reader’s passion and heart.
Research shows that email is 40 times more effective than Facebook or Twitter. Yet as nonprofit marketers, we spend a lot of time on social media. If you don’t have an email list, or your not sure how to grow one, reach out. Everyone starts somewhere.
Recently, I signed up for charity: water’s newsletter and found a helpful, inspiring email marketing funnel that included clear calls to action at different price points and value through a downloadable guide to helping children learn how to get involved.
There were pictures, stories, clear messaging, and transparency — all things donors might need before they make their first donation.
2. He thought of himself as a journalist and told individual stories of transformation.
During his time on a Mercy Ship, Harrison was tasked with taking photographs to document the mission for the nonprofit’s archives. Mercy Ships wanted to share the story with donors and supporters in a real, visceral way. It’s one thing to hear about the good, it’s another to meet a person through photos and a narrative story about how their life was transformed for good.
Harrison took it a step further and wrote stories, which he published to his personal newsletter and blog. He wanted to tell the story, and by telling the story his readers were curious, then interested, then compassionately donated money for the cause.
The best nonprofit marketing is harnessing the power of your story. It brings volunteers and donors through a journey of understanding not just the work, but the impact and lives that are being changed thanks to their compassion and support.
3. He leaned into his personal and professional strengths to raise funds.
He knew how to throw a party, so Harrison convinced Mercy Ships to allow him to throw one to raise money and share African stories of healing and hope to New Yorkers by displaying his photographs in an exhibit.
Because Harrison leaned into his party-throwing strengths, he also leaned into the network he had already created as a club promoter. He brought his swagger and style and bent toward fun into the work he was doing now as a cause promoter.
When you’re a cash-strapped nonprofit or a small business, you simply can’t do everything. You have to lean into what you naturally do well, especially if you’re starting from scratch, and lean into the network you’ve already created to get started. However small.
It might not be party throwing. Or speaking. Or writing. But it’s something. I’ve seen fundraising events organized around paintings, running or bicycling rides, and more.
4. He invited potential nonprofit donors into the experience.
After starting charity: water, Harrison created an exhibit in New York City public parks that created an immersive experience. He knew it would be difficult to get New Yorkers to care about dirty water half a world away, especially when there are so many nonprofits in the city and the country that are helping solve local issues easier to see.
By creating an exhibit that invites potential donors or volunteers into the story, he helped the story be heard and created the ability for it to be received.
I used to coach storytellers to get up on stage and tell a live story as part of an event series, and I constantly talked about this concept. Half the challenge of telling a story isn’t just telling it – it’s crafting it into an experience so it can be received by the audience in a way that personally resonates.
5. He invested in storytelling — writing, photography, design, videography — aka nonprofit marketing.
First it was volunteers, than it was paid staff, than it was money he raised through the small group of donors that pay for charity: water’s operating expenses so money raised from the public can be exclusively earmarked for water projects.
I’ve talked with fundraisers who’ve worked in nonprofits with and without marketing, and their experience is proof that it’s easier to raise money when you invest in marketing aka storytelling aka communications. And yet, many nonprofits shy away from telling their story or investing in it as if it’s beneath them or a necessary evil.
Let me put it this way, how many nonprofits are eager to get a positive story in the press? As a journalist, I saw the power of writing a story about a nonprofit and heard the positive impact as donors or volunteers followed up with that particular organization.
In fact, after one particularly challenging newspaper series about disadvantaged youth, I had so many readers reach out that I organized a volunteer fair to introduce them to more than a dozen nonprofits working to solve the problem!
The main difference is the distribution channel — owned media (website, email, mailing lists, which you control) vs. rented (paid media, advertising, social media as the algorithm can change) vs. earned media (borrowed distribution through a journalist or partner)
Media coverage used to be a gold standard, and it’s great, but it’s not consistent and it’s also shrinking. There’s fewer journalists than ever before. Print readership is down. Digital readership is up but in many cases blocked by membership fees. Local TV is great but many families avoid the ads and stream.
Now imagine a different scenario: You own the story distribution channel. You share stories and acquire new readers slowly and steadily, bringing new potential donors and volunteers into the fold, in a way that’s consistent.
When you invest in storytelling – especially through your website, content marketing, and email marketing, all channels you own and can’t be changed by a big tech algorithm switch — you are taking control of the narrative that is being told about you. You are also taking control of your marketing and fundraising potential.
What’s interesting to me is when charity: water launched monthly giving, they didn’t offer a swag bag or merch. They offered exclusive content aka stories designed to draw you deeper into the story and help it become part of your story.
6. He committed to nonprofit transparency and markets that promise everywhere.
This one is controversial among nonprofit fundraisers, and I can see why. By opening two checking accounts — one for operating expenses, which Harrison fundraises separately, and one for public donations, which is earmarked for water projects — he’s able to promise that “100 percent” of public donations goes towards clean water.
Nonprofits have operating expenses, and nonprofits need to raise money and pay for those expenses. Salaries, software, rent, fundraising, marketing. I’m not denying that.
What’s interesting is the transparency and trust he’s cultivated. As a former education reporter, I saw this play out among parents who generally trusted their teacher to do the right thing, and mostly their school. But at the district level the trust was less, and the state level it was far less, and there’s a reason why any attempt at federal education has failed (Common Core was adopted by states). There’s no trust.
I’ve often counseling nonprofits to put their financial reports on their website. I’ve interviewed donors who say that the more they give, the more they want to see the financials and understand them. Yet many nonprofits are hesitant to even put basic numbers in their annual reports.
The truth is that public trust is declining in nonprofits, and the youngest generation has the least amount of trust.
“Baby Boomers have a far higher trust level of nonprofits than Gen Z adults, with Baby Boomers reaching an average net trust score of 60 and Gen Z adults scoring an average net trust of 33,” according to The Nonprofit Times.
I get it. As a nonprofit leader, you work hard and you know your organization is doing the right thing. Why can’t the public trust you?
It’s because of the bad actors in the field. Personally, I’ve given to multiple nonprofits and then read about their financial scandal in the newspaper. It wasn’t just disappointing or frustrated, it made me angry.
When my husband’s checkbook was stolen and a thief took $150 or so, I had a similar feeling. I was angry and I felt violated. It wasn’t a huge amount, but boy did it aggravate our family.
I realize that not every person is a thief, and not every charity is a scam, far from it! And that’s not what I’m saying.
I just think it helps to step back for a moment and empathize with donors who have given to other charities only to have a scandal emerge.
The best way to approach this is head on through transparency. Make it easy to find and understand. Explain why overhead is important what it goes for and how it advances the mission.
I’m not saying you don’t include operating expenses in a campaign to raise money for a certain program, for example, I’m just asking you to consider how you can make a promise to your donors that’s clear where the money is going.
Many grants have stipulations that money can be used for certain things, why not public campaigns that raise money for specific purposes as well?
7. He brought key nonprofit supporters and donors to the African bush.
Near the end of the book, Harrison talks briefly about inviting key donors to the field and seeing the new wells up close.
It’s one thing to hear the stories, to see the pictures and videos, to walk through an immersive exhibit. It’s another to talk to the people you’re helping, to hear their stories and see the challenges they face.
Similar to creating an immersive experience, when you bring key supporters or donors to the field, or create opportunities for donors to volunteer in the field, you’re more likely to cultivate passion and a desire to do more.
I see this in the mission field with churches that invite volunteers for a week on a mission trip. In a sense, that’s what Harrison did during his two years onboard a Mercy Ship, and he wanted his key supporters to have a similar, first-hand experience.
I once talked to a prominent business leader who gave substantially, including sitting on the board of a local nonprofit that granted gifts to sick children. He personally delivered some of those gifts and told me the story of a little girl who was dying. Her family lived in a trailer and didn’t have much. When he saw her receive her gift, and the look in her eyes, it was emotionally overwhelming.
He had reviewed the application on paper, talked to the staff who was coordinating the gift, but meeting the girl up close and personal? It’s a moment he’ll never forget.
If you can’t bring donors to the field, then bring the field to the donors. Invite someone who has experienced your services to speak at your event, bring the mobile health unit to the gala for a walk through, or invite field staff to sit at various tables or be interviewed about their experience from stage.
There’s one thing better than telling a story, and that’s allowing someone to experience the story themselves.