Roughly 61 percent of nonprofit marketers are using some form of content marketing, with social media, other than blogs, being the top method in which that content is delivered to advocates and potential donors. And, nonprofit marketers are using an average of 12 content marketing tactics this year versus 11 last year.

Those are a few of the findings of a survey of 1,118 nonprofit marketers for Nonprofit Content Marketing: 2015 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America, put together by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and Blackbaud and sponsored by FusionSpark Media.

Here are some of the results:

• Less than one-quarter (23 percent) have a documented content marketing strategy; those who do are more effective in all areas of content marketing;
• 15% responded that they are successful at tracking ROI;
• The tactic used most is social media content (other than blogs).Nonprofit marketers are using an average of five social media platforms this year vs. four last year. Instagram had the biggest increase in usage (from 17 percent last year to 38 percent this year;
• Nonprofit marketers gave higher effectiveness ratings this year than last year to nearly every social media platform they use; and,
• The initiatives cited most often by nonprofit marketers are working on are becoming better storytellers (66%), creating visual content (63%), and creating more engaging/higher-quality content (62%).