The word “marketing” can be taboo in the nonprofit world. Especially when you attach it to the word “budget”. Nonprofit thought-leaders such as Dan Palota have challenged this view and the sacristy of low overhead over the past few years.

Fear of donor backlash still paralyzes some nonprofits though. An example they point to is the aftermath of the infamous Invisible Children Kony 2012 video. However, while a high-marketing spend needs to be done very carefully and is only for certain nonprofits, it does not mean nonprofits should shun spending money on marketing completely.

As noted above, a big reason for not putting more money into marketing is this perpetual fear of keeping the overhead low enough to attract donors. Marketing also tends to get lumped together as a one line-item with resources communications and fundraising. So some nonprofits are spending money on marketing but not classifying it as such.

In addition, because it’s less easy to measure the success of a nonprofit, it can be more difficult to know where to use your limited resources. Spending money on marketing to maybe move the needle later just doesn’t feel right when you have programs that need resources right now. Or you need to be keeping the lights on.

If you are debating whether or not to spend money on Facebook Ads or keeping the lights on, choose the lights. If you’re just launching, you need to be putting time and likely financial resources into marketing. After that, marketing can help nonprofits thrive but should not be a means of surviving.

Time is our most valuable resource. Don’t worry so much about every penny when you’re wasting hours on Google Analytics. Budget the time you should spend on marketing as carefully as you budget money.

Oftentimes, organic marketing is just not enough. Online platforms are becoming more pay to play. This does not mean you should not exhaust your organic marketing efforts. You, of course, need to invest time into putting together good quality content for your nonprofit as well.

But at a certain point, you are spending so much time trying to put together and push content that you take away from more valuable uses of your time. Pushing a blog article for $5 on Facebook can reach hundreds of people with more or less the click of a button.

Finally, nonprofit marketing efforts are much easier to measure oftentimes than is your program working better one way or another way. You can start with a small budget and see if the returns are worth it. If you put in 200 dollars on Facebook does it provide more emails, event attendees, swag purchasers or donors than 200 dollars on Youtube? How much time is it saving you versus trying to reach as many people organically? These are usually fairly easy questions to answer.

This article is more for tracking social media metrics but it might help you think through the important metrics of your first paid marketing campaign.

Again, it does not come from your “keep the lights on” fund. There’s money to survive and money to thrive.

While it may be more difficult to secure grants for marketing efforts, you can try to get started with grants. It will probably be difficult to get money for marketing from online asks. People that are not as committed to the cause usually want to see their money go directly to the programs. You’ll probably have better luck though with some of your more committed donors such as board members. You can note that it’s time to expand your reach and/or find new sources of funding. And that spending money on marketing is worth at least a test.

We offer services around the Google Ads Grant, so are a bit biased. But seriously, it’s $120,000 a year in marketing money. For free. It’s shocking more nonprofits do not take advantage of this. If you’re interested in spending money on marketing, first think through the Google Ads Grant.