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20 Ways QR Codes Will Change Nonprofit Marketing (Part 1: Understanding QR Codes)

Posted by on April 21st, 2011
Posted in Blog, Nonprofit Design, Nonprofit Fundraising, Social Media    Tags: , , , ,

QR Codes have finally taken solid root in the U.S. after years of success in Japan and Korea. If you’re a nonprofit marketer, you need to know what they are, how to use them, and how they’ll benefit your organization.

What is a QR Code?

A QR Code is a square shaped icon that, when photographed by your smartphone, can lead a user to a web destination, a phone number or a text message. QR codes are seen on signs, print advertisements, email signatures, clothing and hundreds of other places.

This is a QR Code:

Why Should You Care About QR Codes?

With QR codes, you make it easier for your donors, volunteers, program participants and other key audiences to take action. It’s very difficult to get your users to cross media — that is, to see an advertisement in print and then go to a computer and type in a URL in a web browser.

QR codes, on the other hand, take advantage of the fact that many people carry a phone with them at all times. With one simple step you acquire a new donor or share important information.

How Do You Read a QR Code?

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of QR Code readers out there. Here are a few:

How Do You Create a QR Code?

Creating  your own QR code is actually surprisingly easy. Kaywa (and others) offer free QR Code generators. Just go to the site, enter your URL or text, choose your size, and click generate. You can easily save the QR code image and then save it into another document.

Part 2: Putting QR Codes to Work

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Zach Hochstadt is a Mission Minded Founding Partner and runs Mission Minded’s Denver office, leading the company’s creative teams in the areas of message development, writing, graphic design, and web design and development.

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One response to “20 Ways QR Codes Will Change Nonprofit Marketing (Part 1: Understanding QR Codes)”

  1. QR codes are very popular and used by business to market their services or products. This is the first time I heard of the QR codes being used for non-profit and non-commercial use. The video did a nice job is showing the various events and history associated with Central Park.