2024 Takeaway for Marketing and Communications in NFP Sector

The Not-for-Profit market has been undeniably challenging, this year’s trends reflect a sector in flux, responding to external pressures such as advances in technology, and the cost demands that comes along with recruiting top talent for organisations. There are several factors that have influenced the NFP marketing in 2024, below will highlight how these trends are reshaping the Not-For-Profit marketing space and what they mean for the future of recruitment in this vital sector.
 

Key takeaways in 2024:

Digital Transformation in Marketing Teams in Charities

More charities are investing in digital transformation, with charities increasing use of technology and AI software to enhance their reach, make operations more efficient, and amplify their impact. Digital roles have become more important to achieving organisational goals and has ultimately caused us to see a demand for digital marketing specialists. As more charities look to digitalise their marketing and fundraising teams, digital marketing experience is crucial in candidates as they reshape how charities connect with their audiences and deliver their services. Investing in
Digital transformation in organisations can be hugely beneficial:

• Efficiency and cost savings: Charities can reduce or eliminate the cost of purchasing and storing paper by switching to online processes.
• Improved collaboration: Digital tools can streamline workflows and enhance collaboration among team members.
• Enhanced outreach and engagement: Charities can broaden their reach for fundraising and donations online.
• Challenge: Strong digital marketing candidates are an investment of time and cost as charities may not see an immediate impact from their initial hire. It takes time to implement a digital strategy and build/ train a team of professionals to lead on the digital transformation of an organisation.

 

Increased demand of Marketing roles in Membership organisations

Membership organisations have experienced a demand for marketing candidates in 2024, with marketing and communications roles becoming increasingly vital to their structure and success. This shift reflects the growing recognition of the importance of outreach and engagement to retain and attract members in a competitive and rapidly changing environment. After meeting with several clients working in Memberships across London, the need for personalised marketing techniques is extremely important when retaining members and encouraging new members to join, this meant this year, memberships invested more in Marketing professionals. Typically, membership organisations can be traditional and perhaps outdated with their marketing techniques. Due to the increased use of marketing tools and social media only growing more popular, memberships may have been influenced to develop their marketing teams, therefore increasing the demand for Marketing roles in 2024.

• Challenge: Memberships tend to be slightly behind charities in terms of Marketing systems and techniques, this means there is a challenge to overcome when hiring new Marketing professionals, making it difficult to implement newer marketing techniques. There is also a budget constraint with hiring and expanding Marketing teams.

 

Prediction for 2025:

Moving into 2025, more small to medium size charities will look to begin or develop their digital transformation journey to keep up with the larger organisations who already have the resources to develop their digital transformation. It will mean these smaller organisations will need to invest time and cost into more resources to build their digital teams across 2025. Ultimately, this will continue the demand for Digital Marketing specialists into the new year and show an increase of Digital Marketing roles to effectively met the demand of digital transformation in the NFP sector.

 

Isabel Britten