Nonprofit merchandise can help boost donations, build your brand, and educate people about valuable causes. Everyone from the American Cancer Society to the Heal the Bay organization uses e-commerce stores to advance their causes—and you can, too!
Keep reading to get some expert advice about adding an online store to your fundraising and brand awareness strategies for the greatest success.
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How Nonprofit Merchandise Benefits Your Organization
Nonprofits have been selling merchandise for years to raise more money, build brand awareness, and more. Before you get started building your e-commerce store, consider how nonprofit merchandise can benefit your organization specifically.
Nonprofit merchandise keeps your organization "top-of-mind"
While you attract new donors, a quality e-commerce store can be a great retention strategy. The right merchandise keeps your nonprofit in the back of people's minds even when they're not just thinking of charitable donations.
Let's go back to that hand-stitched bear stuffie from Preemptive Love's e-commerce store for an example. Imagine if your supporters thought of your nonprofit next time they're shopping for a child's birthday present or baby shower gift? Or their beautiful handmade candles, soaps, and other products make lovely gifts for any occasion.
Having these products in their store allows Preemptive Love to stay top-of-mind year-round and in various situations. It also allows their supporters to give meaningful gifts and spread the word about an organization they value. You can enjoy those benefits, too, with the right nonprofit merchandise that your supporters love!
Nonprofit merchandise diversifies contribution options
When people have more options to support a cause they value, they can choose the one that fits them best. Some people may prefer purchasing merchandise to support your cause. Adding this option to your fundraising "toolbox" diversifies contribution options.
This type of fundraising is unique because most people feel less like they're making a donation and more like shopping. This can reduce or eliminate barriers for some people, making it more appealing.
Additionally, most nonprofits rely on e-commerce stores to sell their goods. Buying products online means the anticipation builds while people wait for their order to arrive. When the package finally comes, they receive an extra blast of dopamine (a neurotransmitter that makes you feel excited). When you sell products online, your customers get a "shot" of dopamine when they make their purchase, knowing they're supporting a good cause. They enjoy a second dopamine boost when they receive their order in the mail!
Nonprofit merchandise promotes brand awareness
At the risk of being too obvious, offering branded merchandise for your nonprofit helps you build brand awareness. But there's much more to your brand than just your logo, colors, or picking the correct font. It's essential to put thought into ensuring you tell the right story with your online store.
Your products and brand represent your organization, what you believe in, and how you accomplish your goals. It's a mix of your mission, values, and vision. The products you choose for your e-commerce store should communicate those things, too, so your store is a continuation of your work, not a "side project."
For example, if your nonprofit works to protect the environment, it wouldn't be very "on brand" to offer products in your e-commerce store that are made with unsustainable or harmful materials.
Ensure you're promoting brand awareness and telling your story with your e-commerce store by sharing a summary of your mission on your store's homepage.
If you're selling specific products for individual campaigns or fundraising initiatives, be sure to provide campaign context on those product pages. Help people understand precisely what they're supporting with each product. Some nonprofits even design custom t-shirts or other products for each fundraising campaign or aspect of their story.
One clever strategy to ensure your products tell parts of your story that matter most to your supporters is to ask your donors to create t-shirt designs based on their understanding of your mission.
6 Important Elements of An Effective Nonprofit Shop
Now it's time to build an effective nonprofit shop for your organization. There are countless approaches and strategies to consider, so we narrowed it down to six essential elements you should consider while setting up your nonprofit shop.
1. Be clear about the purpose of your nonprofit store
Before launching your nonprofit's store, be very clear about what you want to accomplish with your merchandise. Do you want to generate revenue for your organization? Increase brand awareness? Whatever your purpose, it's critical to be very clear from the start so you can work toward that goal.
Good planning will also help you set realistic targets for your goals and identify secondary benefits you'd like to enjoy.
2. Identify your ideal shoppers and customers
Who do you want to purchase your nonprofit merchandise? Are they "retail" shoppers buying an item or two regardless of their connection to your nonprofit? Are they donors who already love and support your cause?
What other demographic features do you have in mind? Are you appealing to a younger or older audience? Where are they located?
All of these factors and characteristics will help you identify the right products to carry in your nonprofit store that will appeal to your ideal audience and lead to great sales.
3. Do the math and add your e-commerce store to your business plan
You read that correctly. Nonprofits should have a business plan. Now that you're adding an e-commerce store, be sure to add this to your business plan, so everyone understands where the store fits into your overall financial goals.
As you plan and strategize, be sure to do the math for all the products you offer to ensure you're actually raising money rather than breaking even--or worse, losing money on each order!
For example, if you sell branded t-shirts for $20 but you purchase the shirt for $10, on the surface, it would appear that you're raising $10 from each shirt. But you also need to factor in the hosting fees for the online store, packing materials, and shipping costs for each order. Plus, consider how much time your team will dedicate to filling each order (because time is money).
Add up all the costs that go into each product and filling the orders. It's critical to ensure you're actually making money with each order.
Some nonprofits cut out many logistics by using a third-party reseller to handle all the online sales and order fulfillment. That can reduce your overall profits but simplify the process and make e-commerce stores accessible to smaller nonprofits.
4. Use an excellent e-commerce store platform
Appeal to your shoppers and make your team happy with a great e-commerce store platform. No matter what you sell, from branded products to memberships, people must have a great shopping experience. It's also essential to help your team keep up with all the "back-end" details.
The Soapbox Engage Shop app instantly saves order details to your Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics accounts for seamless tracking, fulfillment, and follow-up. Your team will appreciate not having any extra paperwork responsibilities. You can easily keep up with shoppers and engage them in your next fundraising campaign! The Shop app even automatically matches orders with your existing contacts or creates a new contact.
Another great feature of the Shop app is that you can associate orders or products with specific fundraising campaigns for easy tracking and reporting if you're offering campaign-specific products.
Offer an unlimited number of products and even create different stores to go with each fundraising campaign. However you'd like to structure your store and sell your nonprofit merchandise, the Shop app works to fit your needs.
5. Add a donation feature to your online store
Add an option for people to make an additional donation with their purchase. Whether you add a Donate Now button or integrate the option into the checkout process, make it easy for supporters to give a little extra during their shopping experience. Some nonprofits even offer a "subscription" to their monthly giving program in their e-commerce store!
6. Grab your shoppers and ask them to stay connected to your nonprofit
Some of your shoppers might not be connected to your nonprofit yet. Offer a checkbox or option to subscribe to your e-newsletter, follow your social media accounts, or other connection options. This is an opportunity to begin cultivating a long-term relationship with them and even work toward inviting them to become a donor.
Of course, in all of these steps, a great shopping and donation experience is critical. Choosing the right platforms like the Soapbox Engage Shop and Donations apps makes the online experience smooth, easy, and fun. Plus, you can customize all your donation pages and online shop to ensure you're sharing all the right information with your audience.
Incorporating these guidelines and best practices into your nonprofit's online store might take a bit of extra preparation. Still, it can lead to greater success in the long run. Soapbox Engage's Shop app can help you sell your nonprofit merchandise by providing an easy-to-customize online storefront that's geared toward the needs and goals of a nonprofit.
Here are three more blogs to keep you pushing toward your fundraising goals.
- Nonprofit E-Commerce Platforms: 8 Things to Consider: The e-commerce industry is worth about $2.3 trillion and growing. Many nonprofits are adding e-commerce stores as a secondary source of income and a strategy to reach more people in their network. This blog will help you explore four types of e-commerce platforms and eight things you should consider when choosing an e-commerce platform for your nonprofit.
- How to Retain and Engage Donors After A Virtual Event: It's more cost-effective to focus on keeping your current donors than it is to constantly recruit new donors. That's why we took a deep dive into donor retention after virtual events. While there's still much to learn about virtual fundraising, there are some best practices and strategies you can incorporate to boost your donor retention after your next virtual fundraising event.
- Back to the Fundraising Basics: Asking for donations is the "bread and butter" of the development professional's job. But that doesn't mean you're immune to intimidation, self-doubt, and even a bit of uncertainty. Whether you're a professional fundraiser or a member of your local PTO, this blog has some tips, tricks, and best practices to help you either review the basics or get started fundraising toward your goals!
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