Restructuring Rebuild the Block's Marketing Plan: Key to Success

Rebuild the Block’s recent founding paired with their niché target segment as a nonprofit organization specifically dedicated to funding black-owned businesses hurt financially by COVID-19 and recent lootings in results of equality riots, has presented many challenges.  My team is specifically dedicated to assisting the nonprofit organization tackle their marketing efforts, in addition to giving a structured plan to advertise what they do, as well as gain more donors. Rebuild the Block was founded in June 2020 by two women who saw the opportunity to help their fellow marginalized communities that were struggling. Although their team has grown to a full-blown executive officer board, their marketing is not advancing at the level at which their organization is growing. The two most drastic weaknesses of their marketing strategy is the lack of explanatory information that is readily available to the public as to what Rebuild the Block actually does, in addition to their undirected target market for obtaining funding. 

Given the recent support to drive equality within the black community from much of the country, Rebuild the Block has a strong platform to gain support through the most effective outreach of today’s generation: social media.  Through their website, Rebuild the Block gives the opportunity for the public to understand their mission statement, how to apply for their grants, some information on the team, and a few statistics of their successes.  Although this information is extremely helpful, their mission statement as well as the interworking mechanisms of how the grants work is not clear to the average person. When first viewing the website, it can be unclear exactly how the grants assist the black-owned businesses, as well as how to get involved.  Through their Instagram, their most active platform, the team keeps their followers up to date on their most current news; this includes updates on the most recent grant recipients as well as current equality issue spotlights.  However, Instagram does not make it clear as to the niché purpose of their organization, in addition to overly-advertising other social issues that do not necessarily pertain directly to their mission: in simpler words, it's too broad.  In regards to Rebuild the Block’s lack of marketing directed towards funding, this issue is extremely crucial to the longevity and impact of the organization’s philanthropic efforts. Other than a single link found on their website, there is no marketing dedicated to gain funding for their grants. As with all donation-based nonprofits, the ability to donate must be clear in reasoning, as well as have some sort of quantitative backing to see what sort of impact each donation makes.  In addition, there is not a direct target market of whom Rebuild the Block would like to receive donations from, considering that large donors would significantly advance their ability to make more grants, it would make sense for their marketing strategy to be focused towards influential corporations or officials, rather than individuals within their own communities.

Following the final consultation,  my team is expecting to see a more structured, directed marketing plan that informs the average person of their mission to gain better understanding of their impact, as well as a new focus on the positive outcomes of partnering with big corporations in regards to receiving donations.  In the short-term, by restructuring their website and Instagram, we believe that Rebuild the Block will gain more attention from people within the age group of 16 to 28 years old. By doing so, they will gain more followers on Instagram and more supporters from different communities, nationwide.  We also can expect to see more smaller donations flowing in, as people within the directed age group are likely to donate to a cause that they understand.  In the long-term, by gaining more supporters and more exposure through social media restructuring, we believe that the possibility to be noticed by large corporations and donors is inevitable. By gaining these larger donations, the grant program can expand to meet the desire of being nationwide that Rebuild the Block is thus striving to achieve. Although there is work to be done to advance Rebuild the Block’s exposure, I do believe that with a few simple tweaks, their marketing strategy will allow them to grow to an established, nonprofit organization.