In 2024, Apple sold a hair over $200,000,000,000 worth of iPhones. But there's something that did even better. It generated nearly THREE TIMES as much revenue as the vaunted iPhone...in the United States alone.
What is it!?! How can you invest in it!?!
Good news/bad news. You can't invest in it, but you can be part of it.
It's stories. Surprised?
Nonprofits told amazing stories that compelled Americans to donate $557,000,000,000, putting the iPhone to shame. Stories about helping each other, saving the planet, and making the world a better place, sent as theories of change, inspiring calls to action, and year-end appeals, motivated way more spending than the iPhone.
Nonprofits are the greatest storytellers in the world. But the technology and tools they have for storytelling haven't kept up. That has to change -- there is too much on the line. That's why we're proud to share Chorus AI's Marketing Studio and our new website with you.
"Storytelling is our superpower,” says Yuval Noah Harari, philosopher (and accomplished storyteller in his own right). "People need stories in order to cooperate," he shared in an interview with Forbes. "All the big achievements of humankind, such as flying to the moon, were the result of cooperation between hundreds of thousands of people.”
That's what nonprofits and charities do. They build movements and mobilize people to take collective action. Nonprofits inspire us to donate our time, contribute our money, and apply our unique skills and talents, all to produce the cooperation that has yielded miraculous things like the Clean Air Act, community-supported arts and theater spaces, food banks, equality for LGBTQ+ folks, and so much more.
They do it through a lot of channels you're familiar with. Nonprofits send direct mail and email. They call and knock on your door. They have Instagram accounts and Facebook pages. These are the marketing channels through which nonprofits tell their stories.
The problem, and what's holding nonprofits back, is they're using tools built for a fundamentally different purpose.
Marketing technology for running large-scale email programs or coordinating social media campaigns or even just aligning message and branding across channels was built for sales. Sophisticated tools allow big companies to learn so much about each individual person, and then sell them goods and services with incredible levels of personalization.
And nonprofits building movements are forced to use this complex technology built for selling.
The result is a lot of wasted time and money. We calculate that nonprofits waste over $17,000,000,000 annually on their marketing. This money is lost in a variety of ways.
Some of it is lost because nonprofits have to use so many different tools to get the job done. Team members waste hours every week jumping between systems, getting data formatted properly to move around, exporting from here to import into there, and context-switching from one platform to the next.
Because we're using tools built for sales, we also lack fast and easy ways to extract the insights we need to optimize marketing assets and achieve the best results. We're drowning in data but starved for knowledge. Even if you're a massive organization with the budget to implement business intelligence software, it's a long timeline and a massive cost to get started.
Taken together, nonprofits are forced to put limited resources into tactical execution rather than strategic planning. And it's harder than it should be to scale personalized and optimized content. Needed funds are lost, and impact is lessened.
Chorus AI is proud to announce the launch of our Marketing Studio, and we've updated our website to tell you all about it. Marketing Studio is purpose-built for the unique way nonprofits engage supporters. We understand that you're not selling products – you're inspiring supporters to take action or make donations to support your mission.
Our platform helps you:
Analyze data across email, social, direct mail, and field operations in natural language – no technical skills required. You can generate reports or analyze performance instantly, and we help you identify insights tailored to your organization, audience, and goals.
Create high-performing content optimized by your own historical data, and scale content across platforms while maintaining your authentic voice
Stay connected to relevant narratives with news and social media monitoring.
And we seamlessly set up in weeks, not months – with no technical team required. The results? Our early partners are seeing remarkable outcomes. For one customer, we identified optimization levers that could add nearly $1.5 million in annual revenue at scale.
The nonprofit sector is under increasing pressure to do more with less as donor expectations rise. And as large-dollar philanthropy gets squeezed, you need to invest in marketing solutions that help you thrive.
Chorus AI Marketing Studio is that solution to help you transform how you engage supporters and raise more money for impact.
Interested? Book some time with us here to discuss your goals and how we can help.
Sam
Co-founder, Chorus AI