Marketing in non-profit organizations

Nowadays non-profit organizations have a significant position within the market and economy in general. Nonprofit organizations can be created in order to achieve so- cial, charitable, cultural, educational, scientific and management purposes, in order to protect the health of citizens, develop physical culture and sports, satisfy spiritual and other non-material needs of citizens. It is hard to imagine our life without them. But it is very important for their existence to improve the effectiveness of their work by providing rational marketing policy.

There are a lot of different definitions of term «mar-keting». According to P. Kotler marketing is a kind of human activity aimed at satisfying the needs by the exchange [3]. Marketing is also defined as a market concept of management and production activity of the company, aimed at the studying of the market, specific requests of consumers' expectations. Usually marketing is used in commercial organizations for making profit. But there is another type of marketing. It is non-profit Marketing. It is an activity undertaken to maintain or adjust the position for the target audience to the organization and its professional activity. Public organizations, in this case, "sell" their beliefs, feelings, faith, ideals, and ways to solve social problems. Nonprofit marketing helps to create favorable public opinion. Based on this opinion non-profit organizations can get more spirited support of their activities from the sponsors. To perform the formation of public opinion it’s necessary to know the needs, tastes, preferences, and work with psychological condition.

The sector of non-commercial activities exists in any country. Regardless of the state system, the political system, economic organization in every country there are institutions of state power and administration, law enforcement agencies, religious concession, public organizations, etc. Depending on the institutions of civil society and the market economy there is a competition in the non-profit sector, causing the problem of sale results of the activity of various non-profit entities.

Unlike commercial companies, non-profit organizations do not seek to make a profit and have non-financial goals and objectives. The effectiveness is determined by social benefit of non-profit organizations.

It should be noted that there is no common opinion about the concept of non-profit marketing among experts. Some researchers consider the non-profit marketing as an integral and important management instrument for nonprofit organizations, while others doubt the accuracy of using the term "non-commercial marketing," especially considering marketing tool for profit. We take the view that marketing is one of the management concepts aimed at achieving the goals of the organization more effectively than its competitors to satisfy the needs of the consumer. The targets of the organization can have both commercial and non-commercial nature [4].

So, commercial marketing is aimed at making profit (or other business results - for example, increasing sales). The use of marketing techniques to achieve noncommercial purposes is considered as non-profit marketing. Achieving non-commercial purposes, in this case is called social effect, as opposed to economic effect (profit) in the area of entrepreneurship [1]. A non-profit organization may have two groups of goals: non-profit goals for the realization of the organization's mission and commercial goals which are necessary for functioning of the organization and management of its business operations.

Nonprofit organizations generally have two categories of customers. It is the consumers and those who finance the activities of such organizations. They are called government or donors [2].

Non-profit organizations may not receive the income from the everyday activities but rely on periodic fundraising efforts. In addition, a successful marketing campaign can even lead to financial losses if the goods or services are provided below cost. It is a necessary condition that budgets are large enough to service the expected number of customers, so that no one faces failure or abandonment.

In addition to the theoretical part of my work I would like to tell you about marketing in the activity of the Youth Russian Public Organization "Russian Student Squads". It is the largest youth organization in the country that provides temporary labor employment for more than 240 thousand young people from 72 regions of the country, as well as deals with civil and patriotic education, developing creative and sports potential of the youth [5].

The main purpose of marketing in the student squad is not the sale of any goods or services but full satisfaction of its members’ needs. It is important to notice that a member of a squad is called a «fighter». Another purpose of marketing in this non-profit organization is to attract new fighters, promising the highest customer value and preserve the old fighters, constantly satisfying their needs. The right marketing strategy leads to a balanced squad with a predominance of people whose needs you can satisfy the best.

In conclusion, I’d like to say that the role of marketing in non-profit organizations is enormous because it is one of the most important reasons why such organizations exist. Non-profit marketing is carried out by organizations and individuals who act for the public interest, in favor of any idea and do not seek financial gains. It can be analyzed by comparing with commercial marketing, by considering the classification system and its role for the national economy. Marketing approaches are particularly important for non-profit organizations. Nevertheless, we can’t imagine our lives without non-profit organization, because they can offer different solutions of social problems and they can really solve them, that’s why their contribution to society is invaluable.