Why Nonprofits Should Invest More in Advertising - Dan Pallotta - Harvard Business Review

Why Nonprofits Should Invest More in Advertising - Dan Pallotta - Harvard Business Review: otal annual U.S. marketing expenditures for all purposes are estimated to be about $730 billion. A rough estimate of annual nonprofit sector marketing spending puts it at $7.6 billion. Take away nonprofit universities, museums, and other quasi-businesses, and a liberal estimate of annual health and human service nonprofit marketing spending is $1.9 billion — one dollar for charity, $384 for something else. In 2005 Save the Children (one of the larger charity advertisers) spent about $6.4 million on advertising. The Walt Disney Company — or Entertain the Children — spent about $2.4 billion — 359 times more — about the equivalent of the difference in height between the Sears Tower and a 4 year-old child. It's a testament to the dearth of advertising in the sector that the I.R.S. Form 990 doesn't even have a specific line item for reporting it.