How digital marketing can galvanise nonprofit supporters

Abstract

There are many examples of causes that have reverberated around the world thanks to social and digital media. Sceptics have dubbed this ‘hashtag activism’ or ‘slacktivism’, but there is no doubt that these movements generate awareness — and sometimes real action. Of course, the flipside of these success stories is that most nonprofit (and corporate) marketers have been asked how to make something go viral so often that they probably cringe at the very mention of the word. Nevertheless, as this paper will discuss, there are many lessons to learn from these movements, and strategic principles that can be applied to nonprofit and cause marketing campaigns.