With the arrival of ChatGPT later in 2022, the metaverse bubble burst, resulting in financial losses for companies that had invested heavily in it.

The marketing landscape continues to change and evolve rapidly due to technological advances, evolving consumer behaviours and shifts within the marketing industry.

Many non-profit organisations find it increasingly challenging to have their message heard by the wider community and potential donors and funders. The impact of technology, which once enabled organisations to amplify the good news stories and the change they brought to clients, seems to be decreasing as people scroll past the good news stories.

2024 presented challenges for not-for-profit organisations communicating their message. These challenges centred around the organisation’s ability to keep up with technological trends, societal shifts and audience behaviour. It is essential to review the challenges of 2024 and then consider how organisations can improve how they communicate with the broader community in 2025 to ensure their message has the potential to be heard.

The impact of technology in 2024

There were several trends in technology in 2024 that impacted non-profit organisations.

New Technologies

In 2024, the influence and use of AI and automation has become more mainstream for many individuals and for-profit organisations. However, many non-profit organisations, particularly small to medium-sized organisations, have struggled implementing AI due to a lack of resources, time pressure, and uncertainty about balancing AI use with maintaining confidentiality and privacy.

Rapidly changing technologies require financial and time investment to set up and check systems. The majority of non-profit organisations lack the financial resources needed and are time-poor. This means that many non-profit organisations are using older technology that limits what can be achieved regarding marketing and messaging.

Social Media Challenges

These challenges include:

●      Algorithm Biases. Social media platforms prioritise engaging viral content, often sidelining non-profit messages that focus on serious or more complex issues.

●      Pay-to-Play Environment. Organic reach has continued to be challenging on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. The alternative to organic reach is paid advertising. However, many non-profit organisations are reluctant to pay for advertising, particularly when facing budget uncertainty.

●      Platform Fragmentation. With established platforms like X losing relevance and the emergence of new platforms like Threads and BeReal, non-profit organisations must continually adapt to these new platforms and how they can be used to reach the broader community.

Digital overload and declining attention spans

Throughout 2024, people have been continually inundated with messages from various sources. It is estimated that in 2024 a person has processed around 100,000 words per day made up of social media, emails, news, ads, streaming services, and work-related information.

The result is information fatigue, difficulty focusing on meaningful content and a preference for bite-sized, easily digestible content, preferably under 30 seconds. This makes it challenging for many non-profit organisations to convey meaningful messages quickly.

Societal Shifts

Societal shifts have included

Cost of living pressures.

For many people, rising cost-of-living pressures in 2024 reduced disposable income, leading to donor fatigue and lower levels of engagement by community members.

This, in turn, impacts donations.

Misinformation and scepticism

With the rise of social media, there seems to have been an increase in false and misinformation. When the misinformation concerns social issues, it can undermine the credibility of legitimate not-for-profit organisations and dilute public understanding or support for their work.

False and misleading information can increase scepticism within the community, which can be a barrier to the message of non-profit organisations.

Audience Behaviour

Changes to audience behaviour include generational shifts and balancing the messaging requirements of different generations. For example, Gen Zs need authentic, values-driven communication that is quick and impactful. Traditional methods, such as lengthy reports that may reach Baby Boomers, are not ineffective with Gen Zs.

Tailoring messages that resonate across generations is an ongoing challenge for many non-profit organisations.

The other aspect of the audience’s behaviour is fatigue, and there are two aspects to this.

Ask Fatigue

As mentioned under society shifts, many people feel donor fatigue with increased cost-of-living and constant fundraising appeals from multiple organisations. However, another form of fatigue also impacts non-profit organisations.

Crisis Fatigue

With the ongoing prevalence of crises, such as climate emergencies, the ongoing impact of COVID and the increase of regional conflicts, many within the community feel desensitised or overwhelmed. There is also a sense that problems are too complex. These feelings reduce people’s willingness to be engaged and assist in an ongoing capacity.

Given these challenges, what steps can non-profit organisations take in 2025 to give themselves the best possible opportunity to have their message heard?

It is estimated that in 2024 a person has processed around 100,000 words per day made up of social media, emails, news, ads, streaming services, and work-related information, resulting in information fatigue.

Optimising communication in 2025

Not-for-profit organisations can take several steps to ensure they optimise their communications in 2025 despite the challenges and changes that emerged in 2024.

Embrace and leverage technology.

Many not-for-profit organisations avoid technology and staying updated with emerging platforms or trends, such as short-form videos, and using AI to create interactive experiences for people to watch. The result is that their message is not being heard or is being ignored because of the impact of other messages.

Part of this avoidance is due to financial and time constraints; however, a large part of the issue is the leaders’ mindset. Leaders and Management boards often do not understand the value and importance of embracing and using technology effectively. When leaders do get enthusiastic about the possibility of using technology effectively, the enthusiasm is often short-lived. Hence, it never becomes a consistent priority that achieves positive results over the long term.

When leaders begin to understand the potential impact technology can achieve in getting the organisation’s message out, we begin to see the following shifts within an organisation.

1.      There is a budget allocation for social media and technology use.

2.      There is a requirement for the CEO to report to the Board on the effectiveness of the budget allocation in getting the organisation’s message out into the community.

3.      SEO and content marketing are prioritised and optimised for voice and AI-powered search tools to improve discoverability.

4.      Technological innovation is encouraged, such as using AI-powered chatbots for instant communication and FAQs on websites and social media platforms.

The priority is the personal.

The days when sending out generic information was acceptable have long gone. One of the changes that has occurred in marketing is that audiences expect that if an organisation is going to market to them, it will have done enough research and collected enough data to understand its audience’s preferences, behaviour, and demographics so that there is a more targeted outreach.

This expectation extends to not-for-profit organisations. If NFPs market to potential donors, current donors, and/or community members, they must have enough data to understand their targets’ preferences, behaviour, and demographics.

In other words, the messaging and marketing must be personalised to the people they are targeting.

For example, if the organisation is going to target Gen Zs and Millennials, it will need to develop a completely different message from the one it would use for Baby Boomers. To effectively target Gen Zs and Millennials, an organisation needs to demonstrate the impact of their work on social justice, sustainability, or other causes relevant to young people in these generations.

Another area where personalisation is crucial is accessibility and inclusion. Content must be accessible to people with disabilities, such as screen-reader-friendly video captions. Translation tools are also essential when communicating effectively with diverse communities.

The importance of impact

What is the impact of what the organisation does? Can the impact be measured?  Can the impact be measured in dollar figures?

Many organisations, particularly small to medium-sized not-for-profit organisations, struggle to clarify their service’s impact and how to measure it effectively. Becoming clear about the impact the organisation is having and communicating it effectively with compelling stories that demonstrate the impact in practical ways is a powerful way to build trust within the broader community.

The essential factor is trust.

Improving communication in 2025 is about building trust.

Trust is built over time in personal relationships. The more you get to know a person, the more time you spend with them, the greater the possibility of trust developing.

Trust is also built when the other person relates to you in a personal way. When someone relates to you in general, non-specific ways, it is harder to build trust, just as it is challenging to build trust when the other person has a negative impact on us.

The same principles apply to getting your message heard in 2025.

●      You need to use and leverage technology consistently. The importance of SEO cannot be stressed enough, particularly SEO optimised for AI power search tools. SEO allows your message to be found, and trust develops when the messaging is consistent. Many not-for-profits post on an ad hoc basis. The lack of consistency negatively impacts the organisation.

●      The importance of the personal. The challenge with messaging using social media and technology is that we must clearly demonstrate in our posts that we understand our audience. If people don’t feel understood, they will keep scrolling, and our message will be lost.

●      Share your impact in a personal way. Impact has two aspects. On the one hand, we must clearly articulate the organisation’s impact on the community. The second aspect of impact is the consistency with which we repeat the message. The clearer we can get the message, and the more frequently we repeat that message, the more impact we will have.

As we improve our communication tactics, more people will trust our message and what the organisation is achieving.

By thinking creatively and developing a consistent, coherent communication strategy, not-for-profit organisations can continue to make meaningful connections to their communities and audiences in 2025.

Quantum computing uses the principles of quantum mechanics to process information and applies it to the computing industry.

Is it possible we are moving towards a future where AI replaces the web and the internet?

Greenwashing gives the false impression that the brand is ethical in ensuring its environmentally sustainable practices.