How to Help NGOs and Get International Visibility
One of the most effective ways to gain international visibility and get local back links is by helping NGOs. And why is this effective? Because NGOs need the help and will accept support in exchange for links. Furthermore, local media, such as portals and newspapers, may want to publish a story about your social action.
So how can you make it happen?
It is not difficult: just follow our step by step guide.
1 # – How to help
Helping those in need is a matter of social positioning. You probably have something to offer that NGOs will enjoy (and boy, will they). Better yet: people who benefit from the work of NGOs will indirectly benefit from your help.
Here are some examples of how to help:
- It is always an option to make a donation and ask if there is a possibility to put a reference on the NGO’s website. Although, in addition to this classical form of aid, there are many other ways to support NGOs, as they are organizations that always need help in a variety of areas.
- If you have an E-Marketing company, for example, you can offer basic link building work in your country or optimizations on their website.
- If you have an Advertising company, you can help by posting a story in a local media or on your most followed social network, or by publishing a piece about the NGO in partner journals (the same goes for Guest Bloggers).
- If you are a social media expert, you can campaign for the NGO, increasing its visibility inside your network.
And there are many other examples of how to help those who need help…
- If you are a social media expert, you can campaign for the NGO, increasing its visibility inside your network.
2 # Finding local NGOs
There are many ways to find NGOs out there. But it can be a very frustrating job. Anyway, I summed up some of the tactics I used to find the NGOs that worked very well for me.
2.1# Looking for NGOs through lists and directories:
In almost all countries there are sites and platforms with NGO lists. For example:
In Brazil:
In Peru:
In Mexico:
In China:
And so on.
Image: NGO directory in China: chinadevelopmentbrief.cn/directory/
Before contacting the NGO, you should analyze if its link is worth building. You can use Ahrefs (free for testing) to see the link value. For example, the NGO Parceiros Voluntarios, in Brazil, ranks very well (Domain Rating – DR – 51):
- Important Tip: Before looking for NGOs, create a page on your site with details about your social action.
2.1.1 # How to contact NGOs?
The best way is by email.
Here you find a template that has always worked for me:
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Dear colleagues,
I am [your name] and I’m in charge of social matters in [your company].
We value social work, especially by NGOs that struggle for the betterment of society.
We would also like to help a little bit.
That’s why we’ve just launched a totally free [name of aid program] for NGOs.
Send me an email and we’ll help you the best we can.
If you want to know more, you can enter this link: [link with details about your social action].
(rest assured: it’s not spam!).
Kind regards,
[your name]
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2.2 # Looking for NGOs through NGO support organizations
When you exhaust the list of NGOs, you can seek out local NGO support organizations. In general, organizations that support NGOs have a large database and a giant mailing. They can then send an email to their associates about your social action.
Examples of associations:
In Brazil:
Association of support for NGOs in Brazil captadores.org.br
In North America and Africa
NGO Support Association in the US and Africa: www.wango.org/contact.aspx
In addition, you can ask them to post a report about your social action on their social media and on website. Many times, you do not even have to ask. They have a newsletter and they publish about your social action with pleasure, because they like and need to spread social actions.
The key is to show them that you have a social action to support NGOs.
2.2.1 # How to contact associations?
Below is a model that I use and that has been very successful:
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Hi [name of contact person],
My name is [your name] and I work for the company [name of your company].
We are carrying out a social action in support of NGOs, helping them [the nature of your help].
We are now in need of visibility among [your country’s] NGOs.
For this reason, we are seeking help to draw attention to ourselves, so that the NGOs get in touch with us.
Could you help us achieve this goal?
Cheers,
[your name]
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3 # – How to acquire backlinks in any country through social aid
When you are looking to gain authority for your site in a specific country, assisting a NGO can be a very good and effective way to achieve your goal. Firstly, because we are human beings and helping is a great way for us to feel good, right? Then, because NGOs will ALWAYS place your link on their site if you help them.
Here are some examples:
Partners of akvo: akvo.org/about-us/partners/
And
Partners of cems: www.cems.org/sustainability/strategy/social-partners
The hint here is to ask them from the get-go if the NGO would be willing to put your link on their website.
4 # – Conquering the local media
If there is one thing I have discovered over time is that it does not matter which media: newspapers, magazines, portals or blogs; everyone likes to talk about social aid. It’s a subject that interests a lot of people.
As we all know, these social media are of enormous importance for marketing our companies, websites, for our SEO and link building etc.
So, because you are doing something worth talking about, that is, your social aid, then what you have to do becomes simpler: seek the local media and talk about your help to the NGOs of the country of your choosing.
4.1 # How to find the local media?
Make a list of large, small, and medium-sized newspapers. Also include blogs and portals. Then, try contacting the newsroom or blogger.
Below, I have a good, successful model for sending your e-mail:
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Hello colleagues [name of the means of communication],
We are here in [your company name] with a social action, [short description of social action], which is free for NGOs.
I would humbly ask if you can help us spread the word about this action.
We know that [name of action] is something that helps the NGOs of [country], but most of them do not have the money to pay for this kind of work.
That’s why we’re trying to contribute a bit with what we can.
We made a page about it on our website:
[page about the subject on your website]
It would be a great pleasure to be in touch with you and to talk more about it.
Cheers,
[your name]
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5 # – Case Study
How Magma Translation helps NGOs, generates quality backlinks and gains visibility? As we are a translation company, translating is what we do best. We know the importance of website translation for NGOs. So it seemed a good idea to offer a free translation service for NGOs.
And it worked great!
First, we look for a list of NGOs in Brazil using this directory:
And we started sending the emails.
It did not take long before we began to get answers.
For example, we performed a translation for the NGO Adus and asked if they could list us as their partner:
And they inserted our link on their website.
A few days later, the tool Ahrefs indicated that we got the link – a dofollow and very good link:
After some time sending e-mails to the NGOs in the lists, we received the support of an NGO aid organization. They triggered our social action in their mailing, reaching out to 400,000 NGOs in Brazil. In addition, they also published a piece about our action on their website:
And also on their facebook:
With this, the demand of NGOs for our social action has increased a lot!
Finally, we sought Brazilian newspapers and portals.
In no time, we had an article published in one of the biggest Brazilian portals, Catraca Livre. That portal has a great worldly Alexa Rank of 10,420 (326º in Brazil!!).
Also, it has a very good DA.
6 # Now it’s your turn
I hope you have enjoyed this really beautiful marketing strategy.
What did you think of this guide? Do you have any questions?
Get in touch, so we can talk!
About the author:
Turian da Silva Bielschowsky is one founder and managing director of Magma Translation, a leading translation, website localization, and Internet marketing provider. He is also a person with social consciousness that supports NGOs, such as Rede Postinho and many others around the globe.