316.23 billion dollars This is the amount of money that was donated to charitable causes in the United States in 2012. The number of non-profit organizations grew by 27% profit from 1995 to 2005, and this number continues to increase today. 170,000 is the estimated number of non-profit and charitable organizations in Canada, the second largest in the world. With these huge numbers, it is important to know how to market an organization nonprofit effectively stand out among the hundreds of thousands and raise money to support your cause. Today I will share with you some basic steps on how to choose who to approach, which marketing tools to use and how to measure your success. The first step in marketing a nonprofit is defining your target market. Knowing who to target your efforts and who is most likely to donate to your nonprofit will help you avoid wasting time and money in other market segments. “Everyone” is not an audience, you need to target your efforts towards groups of people who have a common need that you believe your organization can meet. Defining your target market can be the most difficult step in the process, but if you break it down into factors like gender, age, area, income, etc. and then ask the questions “what do these people need?” and “why should they care about us?” it can be easier to identify a target market. It's normal to have more than one group of people to reach out to, but once you start trying to reach out almost all of your efforts will become less effective as you spread them out too much. Researching organizations similar to yours to see their target markets and what kind of marketing strategies they are using is a great way for an early stage nonprofit… middle of paper… you are passionate, then you already have completed half the battle. More than 100,000 nonprofits will fail within the next two years, but those that don't and those that keep trying have the opportunity to change the world for the better. org/nonprofits.cfm?id=56 http://sobel-cpa.com/sites/default/files/whitepaper%20Marketing.pdf http://www.forbes.com/top-charities/ http://marketing. about.com/cs/nonprofitmrktg/a/8stepnonprofit.htm https://www.boundless.com/marketing/marketing-strategies-planning/nonprofit-marketing/unique-issues-in-nonprofit-marketing-strategies/ http:/ / /www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlUS6KE67Vs http://newyorkblog.foundationcenter.org/2011/02/from-the-expert-defining-your-target-market.htmlhttp://www.communicateandhowe.com / 2013/09/24/nonprofit-communications-strategy-chi-audience/