Posted by Zach Hochstadt on April 21st, 2011
Posted in Blog, Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Design, Nonprofit Fundraising, Nonprofit Messaging, Social Media Tags: nonprofit, nonprofit marketing, QR, QR Codes
Continued from Part 1: Understanding QR Codes
Now that you know what QR Codes are and how they work, it’s time to put them to work on behalf of your nonprofit organization.
Take Action!
1. Use QR codes to drive people to your mailing list.
2. Add QR codes to your campaign materials to sell tickets to events and performances
3. Link your QR code to your donation page. Make it easy to give a gift right on the spot.
4. Use QR codes to gather new Facebook “likes”
5. Turn your city into a living museum. Below: See how Agency Magma helped transform New York’s Central Park into a hands-on exhibit.
Reinvent Your Printed Materials
6. Add a QR code to your business card.
7. Reduce the environmental footprint of your conference by swapping QR codes instead of business cards.
8. Add a QR code to your building signage and turn passerbys into volunteers.
9. Add a QR code to the bottom of your appeal letter. Save on postage and get an immediate donation.
10. Print stickers with a QR code on them and turn your laptop at the coffee bar into a public education campaign.
11. Selling products to support your cause? Attach a tag with a QR code
12. Add a QR code with a link to a video to your printed annual report and watch your most important major donor solicitation tool become interactive.
13. Add a QR code to your volunteer team’s T-shirts and help outsiders understand the importance of their work.
Be Original
14. Get design-y. Mashable shows you how you can design your QR code to make it more visually appealing so that you can reinforce your organization’s visual identity.
15. Add your logo to your QR code, and let people know who you are.
Get Out and About
16. The Detroit Red Wings know that fans are a captive bunch. Be like the Red Wings and engage sports fans with a targeted appeal.
17. Add QR codes to your site tour and let donors hear the voices of those you serve — even when they’re not there.
18. Put a QR code on a table tent at your annual fundraising dinner and help diners learn more about you.
19. Create a scavenger hunt using QR codes that leads your volunteers through a training program.
20. Print your organization’s message along with a QR code on bar coasters at turn bar patrons into advocates for your cause.
Where are you using QR codes? Have a success story? We want to hear it.
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.
See all posts by Zach Hochstadt
Great posts, Zach. I’ve got to say I’m still a little skeptical that QR codes have reached critical mass, but I certainly have been seeing them a lot more often recently. I had no idea that you could incorporate design-y elements into them, a la your mashable link above.
And given that bit.ly now generates a QR Code automatically when you shorten a link, seems like there’s less and less reason not to incorporate them into our work.