Marketing for non-profit organisations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marketing for non-profit organisations - Essay Example Both profit and non profit organisations are intimately concerned with both resource attraction and resource allocation but the manner in which either organisation type defines these activities/processes differs. Within the context of FPO’s marketing strategies and communication programmes target specified market segments in order to incite product/service purchase decisions. The implication here is that resources are obtained though product sales/services. This is not the case with NPOs where resources are generated through donations which are not necessarily contingent upon the delivery of a good/service. Marketing for the purpose of resource attraction, therefore, assumes a status of singular importance insofar as the success of the selected strategies and marketing mix is akin to the passage of a life or death sentence upon an organisation. If it is able to attract resources, it will survive, live, if it is unsuccessful, it will die. The above noted difference regarding resource attraction within the context of NPOs versus FPOs, extends to variances in the way in which each organisational type engages in resource allocation practices. FPOs engage in resource allocation management practices for the explicit purpose of organisational expansion and the maximisation of profits, while NPOs do so for the purpose of ensuring effective response to the humanitarian cause they are targeting. For example, GE, the leader in practically all the industries it is involved in, allocates resources to all of research and development, marketing and expansion for the purpose of maximising profits. In direct comparison, Oxfam, the UK’s leading NPO, allocates resources to marketing and organisational expansion, primarily the establishment of offices in other countries but its primary resource allocation activity involves the distribution of attracted resources among the humanitarian projects