QR Codes are a common marketing tool and you would’ve seen them being used in print media campaigns. But marketing is not their only use case, they are also used for use cases such as:
1. Event organization: From helping guests RSVP easily to reach the venue in-time, a QR Code does it all
2. To ensure safety: Not sure how? Well, QR Codes at construction sites help workers handle the equipment right way. And they even help inform doctors about the patient’s medical history in case of accidents
3. Classroom teaching: To make their lectures more engaging, teachers now use QR Codes in classrooms. It could be to show a video, organize a scavenger hunt, or to give class notes
Similarly, QR Codes can help NGOs make their processes better.
Here are four ways NGOs can use QR Codes for both promotional and operational use cases:
1. To raise funds
To help the ones in need, you need monetary donations. And accepting payments is one of the most common use cases of QR Codes. It makes the entire process smooth and quick.
For example—say you are attending an event to raise funds. What will you do here? Provide details such as your digital wallet’s number to get donations, right?
But here’s the thing—to make donations here, people will have to tediously type all the details to make payment. And it is a fact that the simpler the process, the better is the conversion rate.
So to maximize donations, you can use a QR Code. It is one of the easiest ways to receive donations smoothly. How?
People do not need to type your details. All they need to do is—open the concerned app, scan the QR Code, and enter the amount to make payment. That simple. And NGOs are using QR Codes to do this already.
Globe Telecom, a telecom service in Phillippines put up ‘purpose tress’ at its headquarters. These trees encouraged employees and guests to make donations to their chosen NGOs.
People could simply use the app—GCash—to scan the QR Code and donate.
Yoly Crisanto, Cheif Sustainability Officer, Globe, said:
“In an era of mobile technology, potential donors want to be able to act immediately. Using GCash not only makes giving more convenient but also democratizes it.”
Similarly, an NGO called Akshara Foundation in Mumbai (India) used QR Codes to accept monetary donations. They put up videos and posters at metro stations. They contained a QR Code which, when scanned, helped people make donations.
Related : Best QR Code Generator
You know how important it is for any nonprofit to communicate its visions, goals, and initiatives. It then helps you get like-minded people to join-in as donors, members, volunteers, or interns.
And a QR Code can help you share this information easily.
How? In multiple ways. For example:
a. By taking people to your website
If you have a website that tells what you do, make sure you get people to visit it. To do it, you can add your website link to print promotions and your business cards.
But people will have to open their phone’s browser to type the entire link and finally visit the website. While some of them might do it, others probably won’t. Why? Because it’s a long process and needs them to put effort.
So make it easier for them to take action. Use a Website URL QR Code that takes them to your website with a single scan. As easy as clicking a picture!
Even if you don’t have a website, you can still take them to a customized landing page with a Rich Text QR Code.
Salvation Army—a charitable organization—started a QR Code campaign. These QR Codes redirected people to a website with information on social issues and current affairs.
b. By sharing multimedia content
Not everyone today prefers text-based content. A good chunk of people now prefer multimedia-based content such as images, videos, and infographics. You can create a QR Code that helps you share the content of your choice.
To help students learn better, NGOs in India are working with Nandan Nilekani—a politician. They’ll add QR Codes to textbooks. These QR Codes will take students to a video lesson about the concept being taught.
The National Wildlife Federation—America’s largest non-profit organization, used QR Codes. These QR Codes redirected to videos that informed the user on how certain animals (such as dinosaurs) looked.
3. To run survey campaigns
Non-profits often run surveys for various purposes. It could be to gauge the audience’s interest before an event and their satisfaction after it. Or to understand the donors and volunteers—are they content with the goals and practices?
But if you run surveys, you already know how tedious it is to get people to respond to them. They have to type the link to the survey form, open it, and finally fill it.
We earlier showed you how to structure your survey campaigns for better conversion rates. And how a QR Code can help you achieve the same.
By making your promotional material actionable, a QR Code helps people respond easily.
Hence, many NGOs are using QR Codes to make their survey campaigns a success.
For example—Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety runs a campaign called People’s Survey. It aims to make roads safer by bringing up road safety issues and calling for governments to act immediately.
It provides people QR Codes to share the survey with their friends, family, neighbors, or colleagues.
4. To enhance your networking strategy
Building a network of relevant audience is important for any organization. And there are two ways to do it—
a. Become visible on social media
For any non-profit organization, it is important to be discoverable. That is one way how you can get people to join as donors, volunteers, etc. And even spread awareness about your campaigns and initiatives.
And social media is one of the best ways to do it. Why?
Because out of 4.38 Billion internet users, 3.48 Billion are on social media. That means 79.45% of internet users are active on social media.
And it is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach out to a large chunk of the relevant target audiences.
And the first thing that you need here is—followers. In one of our articles, we’ve created an exhaustive list of best practices to increase your social media following.
One way to do it is—by redirecting people to your social media accounts. If you do print media promotions, you can use a QR Code to do the job. We call it—a Social Media QR Code.
You can add it to flyers, brochures, goodies, etc. As end-users scan it, they’ll be redirected to a landing page with buttons to follow you on various social media sites.
That means they don’t need to type your profile handle or link. They just have to scan the QR Code and follow you.
b. Get people to contact you
When you meet people at an event, you give them your business card. And you want them to save you as a contact and get in touch whenever there’s a relevant opportunity.
And a QR Code helps you get people to add you as a contact in two easy steps. Scan and Save. That’s all they have to do. And again—by simplifying the process, your chances of getting them to save your contact increase.
These are four ways NGOs can use QR Codes to make their processes better.
From accepting donations to sharing your goals and vision, QR Codes are already helping NGOs enhance their promotions and operations efficiently.
Thinking of using QR Codes in your non-profit organization? Get started with a 14-day free trial and track your campaigns:
[cta1 caption=”Create a QR Code for your processes now” content=”Sign-up for a 14-day free trial.” buttontext=”Create QR Code now” destination=”https://scanova.io/design-qr-code-generator.html?utm_source=yt_sd_qr-codes-ngos_cta&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=content#/chooseqr/” image=”https://scanova.io/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/qrcode-35-1.png”]