"If this works, what will have changed in your organization, and how will we see it?" Any agency, freelancer or consultant you hire will ask you this early on. Many owners who volunteer their time for a nonprofit, or run a small business that supports one, answer with "more awareness." That answer is hard to check and impossible to bill against. This guide works backwards from that question, so your answer is a goal someone can count.
Why "awareness" fails the first call
Awareness is real, but it has no unit. An agency can show you reach or impressions and call the job done, and you would have no way to disagree. A useful goal names an action a person takes: a donation, a volunteer signup, an event registration, a newsletter subscription, a request for services. Those actions can be counted, and a count lets you compare a month that went well with one that did not.
Turn a mission into a countable goal
Start with the thing your organization needs most in the next season, then ask which visible action moves it. If money is short, the action is a gift. If programs are understaffed, it is a volunteer application. If the room is half empty, it is a ticket. Pick one primary action and at most one backup. Everything else, such as followers, page views and email opens, is a supporting signal and not a goal.
| If you need… | Goal to name | Where you count it |
|---|---|---|
| Funding | Completed online donations | Donation form or payment platform |
| People power | Submitted volunteer applications | Signup form and your own spreadsheet |
| Attendance | Event registrations | Ticketing page |
| A long-term audience | New email subscribers | Email platform |
| Clients served | Requests for help or inquiries | Phone log and contact form |
How much search interest sits behind this topic
People who look up this phrase are mostly planners, not buyers. Across the six related queries, combined interest is about 90 searches a month. The phrase itself peaked at 170 in September 2025 and dropped to 10 in July 2026. The pattern fits budget and planning season, when goals get set as a fiscal year or a campaign begins. Set your goals before a planning window opens, not in the middle of a busy stretch.
Check your counting before you spend
The agency question has a second half: how will we see it? If your donation page does not report completed gifts, or your volunteer form sends results to one person's inbox, every goal will be argued from guesses. Before you pay for clicks or posts, submit your own test donation, test signup and test inquiry, then confirm each one shows up somewhere you can read.
Size the goal to your hours and budget
Write the goal as a sentence with a starting point: "We get a handful of volunteer applications a month now, and we want to roughly double that by spring." Use your own real figures. Then list who answers each new person and how quickly. A goal that brings in people no one has time to follow up with is a cost, not a win. For channel ideas that fit a small team, see our guide on social media strategy for nonprofits, and for a donor-focused channel, our piece on nonprofit email marketing.
Questions to bring to any vendor
Ask what they will count and where, who owns the accounts, and what a failed month would look like. Ask for a small capped test before any long contract. Good answers are specific and mention your forms and your donation page. Vague answers about reach and engagement mean the goal is still undefined. A tracking review of your forms and donation page is a reasonable first purchase, and some agencies, including ours, offer one on its own.
Before you pick up the phone
This week, do three things. Write your one primary action and its starting count. Run your own test signup to see whether it is recorded. Note how many hours a month your team can give to follow-up. With those in hand, a conversation with any provider is short and honest, and you can decide whether to do the work yourself, hire a freelancer or bring in an agency.