Chelsea Beech, Founder of the Beech Agency, joins Darren to discuss the strategic marketing challenges and growth opportunities facing Not-for-Profits and charities today.
While cost-of-living pressures are frequently blamed for declining donations, Chelsea explains why most charities don’t have an effort problem – they have a clarity problem. They explore how NFPs can define their “Zone of Unique Value” to stand out in a noisy, click-bait-driven digital landscape, navigate rising competition, and manage an aging supporter base.
The conversation also delves into the dangers of internal team silos, determining who the true hero of the narrative is (the charity, the beneficiaries, or the donors), and the four core questions every NFP marketing message must answer.
A resilient, purpose-driven brand needs to be Clear, Compelling, Consistent, and Confident. For charity leaders, fundraisers, and marketers looking to break through the noise, align their teams, and build enduring donor engagement, this is an essential conversation to eavesdrop on.
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It’s a bit like dating, I guess, isn’t it? It’s like you want to be confident, but don’t be desperate.
Transcription (Edited):
Darren Woolley:
Hi, I’m Darren Woolley, founder and CEO of TrinityP3 Marketing Management Consultancy. Welcome to Managing Marketing, a weekly podcast where we discuss the issues and opportunities facing marketing, media, and advertising with industry thought leaders and practitioners.
In today’s noisy, clickbait-driven world, capturing attention and building genuine engagement is an uphill battle, especially for not-for-profits and charities. While cost-of-living pressures are frequently blamed for declining donations, the core issue for many NFPs isn’t a lack of effort, but a lack of clarity.
Faced with rising competition, an ageing supporter base, and internal team silos that erode brand strength, charities can no longer rely on traditional playbooks. To attract, maintain, and deepen donor relationships, not-for-profits must define their unique value, rethink who the true hero of their story is, and build a brand that is clear, compelling, consistent, and confident.
To explore how not-for-profits can transform their marketing strategy to drive real impact, please welcome to the Managing Marketing Podcast, founder of the Beech Agency, Chelsea Beech. Welcome, Chelsea. Now, donations are often reported as falling, but overall, there is still growth in Australian giving, isn’t there?
Chelsea Beech:
Thank you so much for having me.
Overall giving has gone up slightly, depending on how you split the data. Big foundations skew the numbers, but we aren’t seeing an actual decline in the total value of donations from the everyday Australian at the moment. However, giving is diversifying. People are spreading their support, and competition has shifted. In the NFP space, people don’t like talking about competition because we want everyone to win and do great work. But as organisations, we still need to raise funds to keep our doors open. The sheer number of charities has increased competition, while peer-to-peer platforms like GoFundMe have drastically changed how people give. People are still giving, just not in the traditional ways.
Digital Noise and Donor Fatigue
Darren Woolley:
There are so many not-for-profits asking for support. On a weekly basis, people receive phone calls, emails, and encounter street fundraisers asking for subscription-style donations. When household budgets are under pressure, it must be getting harder for charities to compete.
Chelsea Beech:
Absolutely. Digital channels and platforms over the last 10 to 20 years haven’t made it easier. Platforms make it harder to reach people organically, and everyone is blasting the same channels to reach the same audience. Fundraising is becoming more expensive, and the likelihood of capturing attention is decreasing because people are overwhelmed by messaging—especially around key periods like the end of the financial year. The needs represented by charities are real, but donors simply reach a point where they realise they cannot support everyone.
Proliferation of Charities & Government Funding Shifts
Darren Woolley:
Donors naturally start selecting and narrowing their choices. In the NFP category, you have large, established brands with substantial infrastructure, but also a long tail of smaller charities working towards similar causes, effectively splitting the market’s voice.
Chelsea Beech:
The barriers to starting a charity are lower today. People travel overseas or spot a specific need and decide to launch their own charity rather than support an existing one. While getting tax-deductible status takes work, starting out isn’t difficult. Having so many small charities duplicate administrative costs and eliminates economies of scale. When multiple organisations broadcast nearly identical messages, it makes it very hard for a donor to decide who to support.
Darren Woolley:
We also see trends overseas, like in the US, where wealthy individuals set up private charitable trusts. How does that impact the sector?
Chelsea Beech:
In sectors like international aid and global health, major philanthropic entities like the Gates Foundation fill massive gaps left by government aid cuts. Australia, the UK, and the US have stagnated or cut foreign aid budgets. While foreign aid remains low in real terms, international organisations rely heavily on major foundations to step in where government funding no longer exists.
Overcoming the Clarity Problem and Internal Silos
Darren Woolley:
NFP teams are deeply passionate, but often severely under-resourced. How do you translate that passion into commercial success and correct where they might be going wrong?
Chelsea Beech:
People work in NFPs because they care deeply about the cause—not for corporate salaries. But passion can lead to internal silos where teams lose sight of the bigger picture. Another issue is that because marketing teams write and review content daily, they assume the audience is bored of it and change their campaign messaging too quickly. I’ve seen organisations running 12 distinct creative campaigns a year. That creates immense internal work without improving effectiveness.
To channel passion effectively, organisations need a clear strategic framework—what I call defining their “Zone of Unique Value”. This clarifies your market positioning, your target audiences, and your core brand promise. It ensures your fundraising, marketing, and partnerships teams are all aligned and singing from the same song sheet.
Darren Woolley:
That sounds like proper business and marketing planning. Because an organisation is a ‘not-for-profit’, some people mistakenly believe they shouldn’t operate like a business or talk about profit.
Chelsea Beech:
Exactly. Not-for-profit simply means profits aren’t distributed to external shareholders; any surplus goes back into the mission. Every organisation must articulate its value proposition clearly so supporters understand why it exists and what it delivers.
Experiential Fundraising and Active Participation
Darren Woolley:
We have seen a surge in participation and experiential fundraising—events like Movember, the Bloody Long Walk, or the 7 Bridges Walk. These events encourage active involvement, turning participants into media channels on social media.
Chelsea Beech:
Experiential campaigns have become very popular. When a campaign like Movember succeeds, other charities try to replicate it, which can sometimes dilute the concept. However, supporters today don’t just want to be treated as a transaction or an arms-length donor; they want to be a companion in the work. Participatory events give people a tangible way to advocate, share their journey, and feel personally connected to the outcome.
Darren Woolley:
For an event like that to succeed, it must stem directly from the brand’s core value proposition and feel authentic.
Chelsea Beech:
Yes, it must be relevant and authentic. Movember works because it gives men a fun, socially acceptable reason to grow a moustache while highlighting men’s health. It taps into audience understanding rather than forcing people to do something unnatural. When 1,000 supporters post photos and link back to your cause, that user-generated reach far outperforms standard organic brand posts.
Defining Competitive White Space & Target Audiences
Darren Woolley:
In crowded categories like cancer research, how do you help a charity identify its competitive position against broader discretionary spending and peer-to-peer options?
Chelsea Beech:
I start by asking: “If your organisation shut its doors today, what gap would be left behind? What would people miss most?” That question immediately uncovers your unique value or reveals where strategic work is needed.
From there, we map out value propositions visually to identify open “white space” in the market. We also look closely at target demographics. Many charities with an older supporter base (70+) say they want to target “younger” donors. But “younger” could mean 50-year-olds, not necessarily 20-year-olds. Defining that audience specifically changes the entire communication strategy.
Who is the True Hero of the Story?
Darren Woolley:
Storytelling frameworks often position the donor as the hero. How do you handle narrative positioning in NFP marketing, particularly when avoiding “white saviour” tropes in international aid?
Chelsea Beech:
In international development, messaging has rightly shifted away from positioning Western donors as “white saviours”. But fundraisers still struggle with narrative positioning.
My approach moves away from having a single “hero”. Instead, we present an ecosystem where everyone plays a role. Communities in developing nations don’t need outsiders to save them; they need barriers removed—such as access to education or medicine—so they can thrive independently. The Australian donor acts as a partner who helps remove those barriers. It is a collective effort to solve global challenges rather than heroing the donor over the beneficiary.
Darren Woolley:
That also protects against donor fatigue when massive global problems cannot be solved overnight by an individual.
Chelsea Beech:
Exactly. When donors ask, “How can my $50 make a difference to a billion people in poverty?”, framing giving as a collective effort demonstrates real impact.
Engaging Younger Supporters Through Authentic Impact
Darren Woolley:
Research shows younger cohorts like Gen Z want to contribute, but they expect transparency and a sense of connection rather than a simple financial transaction.
Chelsea Beech:
Gen Z expects authenticity and directness. Having grown up with social media, they value unpolished, behind-the-scenes insights over distant corporate messaging. They want to feel connected to the people they support.
Charities often fail at impact reporting. They ask for money during an appeal, but fail to close the loop on what was accomplished. Sharing specific outcomes—combining human storytelling with clear metrics—builds long-term trust and donor loyalty.
Breaking Down Silos and B2B Engagement
Darren Woolley:
Internal team silos seem to be a major obstacle to maintaining brand strength.
Chelsea Beech:
Silos are one of the biggest killers of brand strength. When fundraising, comms, advocacy, and corporate partnership teams operate in isolation with separate targets, the donor receives disjointed messages. A single supporter might receive a direct mail piece, see a social post, and manage corporate giving—yet experience three conflicting brand voices.
Darren Woolley:
This applies to B2B corporate partnerships as well, doesn’t it?
Chelsea Beech:
Absolutely. Corporate partnerships require the same unified brand message. While corporate campaigns may include secondary messaging around social responsibility objectives, the core emotional message must remain consistent. To win corporate support, you need an internal champion whose heart is engaged. Wallets follow hearts.
The 4 Cs of Purpose-Driven Branding & Podcast Wrap-up
Darren Woolley:
You outline the “4 Cs” of purpose-driven branding as core pillars. The first one is ‘Clear’—is that about clarity of purpose?
Chelsea Beech:
Yes, clear in purpose, clear about your market positioning, and clear on the value you bring. Many organisations know their purpose and have a well-written mission statement, but when it comes to articulating that to a broader audience, they overcomplicate the messaging and lose people.
Darren Woolley:
You’ve lost me! What about ‘Compelling’?
Chelsea Beech:
Compelling is about articulating a powerful, inspiring reason for people to get involved in a cause that may not directly benefit them.
Darren Woolley:
‘Consistent’ is my favourite, because I call it discipline—being consistent even when you’re bored.
Chelsea Beech:
Exactly—don’t change your message simply because you are internally bored of it. Maintaining brand discipline across all internal teams and channels ensures everyone is building the brand together rather than competing internally for attention.
Darren Woolley:
And finally, ‘Confident’—which I like to call swagger.
Chelsea Beech:
It’s about confidence. When you are clear, compelling, and consistent, it builds internal confidence and instils confidence in your audience. NFPs often backpedal or sound hesitant, which makes donors second-guess their decision. You don’t need to be arrogant, but you do need to confidently state the need, your solution, how people can join in, and the difference everyone can make together.
Darren Woolley:
Clear, Compelling, Consistent, and Confident. Well, look, Chelsea, thank you very much for having this conversation around not-for-profit marketing. It’s been terrific.
I’ve got a question for you before we finish, and that is: do you have a charity or not-for-profit that you personally support?
