To market your nonprofit consulting business, get clear on your message, pick one main platform to reach new people, build an email list to stay in touch with them, and give people a reason to join it. You don't need a big budget or a huge following. You need a system you can keep up. Here's how I market my own business and how to build yours.
If you're just starting and need clients now, begin with how to get clients for your new nonprofit consulting business. It covers reaching out to people you know and building referral partnerships. This post is about the next step: helping people who don't know you yet find you and trust you.
Start with a clear message
Before you post anything, make sure you can say who you help and what result you help them get, in one sentence. If people can't tell what you do, your marketing won't stick. For help, read the best nonprofit consulting niches and how to pick yours.
How I market my business
My system has three parts:
LinkedIn is where I reach most new people.
My newsletter keeps me in touch with them.
My blog brings in people searching Google and AI tools for answers.
I also use Instagram.
Use LinkedIn as your main marketing platform
Executive directors, development directors, fundraisers, and board members use LinkedIn, so it's a good place for nonprofit consultants to be seen.
Start with your profile. Your headline should say what you do and who you help. Your About section should explain your work, who it's for, and how to work with you.
Then post regularly. Two to three times a week is enough if you keep it up. Share practical advice, lessons from your work, and common mistakes you see nonprofits make, along with how to fix them. Comment on other nonprofit leaders' posts too. Conversations build relationships faster than posting alone.
Build an email list
Social media decides who sees your posts. Your email list doesn't. When someone joins your list, you can reach them directly until they're ready to hire you.
To get people to join, offer something useful for free that's tied to the work you do, like a CRM migration checklist or a donor journey guide. I use my State of Nonprofit Consulting report and consulting path quiz the same way. Then email them on a regular schedule.
Look for co-marketing opportunities
Co-marketing means teaming up with an organization that already reaches the nonprofits you want to work with. You bring the expertise, and they bring the audience.
I once taught a webinar on end-of-year fundraising tactics for a nonprofit technology company. I provided the content, and they promoted it to their audience of nonprofits. About 400 people signed up, and I stayed in touch with them through my email list afterward.
Podcast interviews work the same way. You share what you know with someone else's audience, and the people who connect with it come find you.
Use a blog to show up in Google and AI searches
A blog helps people find you when they search Google or ask AI tools like ChatGPT for answers. You don't need a lot of posts. A few strong posts that answer questions your clients already ask will keep working for you for years. For example:
How to keep more of your donors
How to build a fundraising plan
How to create a strategic plan that doesn't sit on a shelf
You can also reuse each post. Turn its main points into a few LinkedIn posts and an email to your list, so one piece of writing feeds all three.
Pick one marketing strategy and commit for 90 days
Many consultants who struggle with marketing try everything at once, burn out, and stop. Choose one main platform, like LinkedIn or a blog, plus an email list, and stick with it for 90 days. Each month, look at where your new clients and sales calls came from, and put more time into what's working.
About the author
Catalina "Cat" Parker is the founder of Relatable Nonprofit. She has a master's in nonprofit management from Columbia, her business has generated nearly $1 million in revenue, and 100+ nonprofit professionals have joined her Mentorship program. Read her story.
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