Are nonprofits using QR codes as part of their marketing and outreach? They certainly are according to several nonprofits we heard from last week in response to our post “Five Ways Nonprofits Can Use QR Codes” I love hearing about nonprofits who are experimenting with new outreach tactics and tools. And since we are a community of sharers I wanted to highlight five organizations that are using QR codes. Perhaps some of their ideas will resonate with you enough to test similar ideas for one of your upcoming marketing campaigns.
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) uses QR codes in their brochures at their offline fundraising events. “The QR code links to our lead advocacy volunteer telling her story and briefly describing the benefits of joining our advocacy team,” said Mike Kondratick at JDRF. “The brochure was on limited circulation for our spring walk events, but will be rolled-out more aggressively for our fall walks starting next month. So, we're looking forward to measuring our walk-related sign-ups.”
JDF also uses QR codes on meeting request forms for legislators. “We've started attaching a QR code to the request that links to a video from a local volunteer who makes a personal ask for the meeting. We think this has huge potential. We just starting using it en masse for our Promise Campaign and our meeting hit rates are progressing at a faster-than-normal rate so far,” said Kondratick.
National Aquarium in Baltimore
The National Aquarium in Baltimore uses QR codes directly posted on their exhibits throughout the Aquarium. They often include short, catchy questions like "Wonder how dolphins spend their day?" or "Why save the sand dunes?" said Donna Arriaga, an online communications strategist. The QR codes takes people to a video that provides additional educational information about the animals.
Arriaga also said that nonprofits can get very creative with their use of QR codes at events. “I can picture an organization displaying original artwork from a client and/or a series of large-print photo essays. QR codes could link to a video that shares a personal story about how the organization helped to positively impact his/her life.”
The Big Wild
The Big Wild did something a little unusual with QR codes to help generate earned media. They 
printed a huge QR code on a poster with smaller text below that said “Do something small to save something big.” They posted it in seven Canadian cities, hoping to grab smartphone owners attention and entice them to scan the image and access one of their mobile friendly petitions.
“In truth, it was less about the codes themselves, and more about earning mainstream media attention for The Big Wild. In that regard, it was quite successful, as we were able to tell a conservation + technology story," said Darren Barefoot of Capulet.
NeighborWorks America
NeighborWorks America recently held a training event in Atlanta where over 2000 people attended. To market their online training calendar, they setup a display board with a QR code that linked to the training calendar so people could view their upcoming training events from their mobile phones. They also created a bit.ly link for the promotion so the organization could see how many people clicked on it.
“This is our first experiment with QR codes, so we'll see how it goes,” said Tom Austin of NeighborWorks America.
PolicyLink
PolicyLink will be using QR codes in their upcoming summit in Detroit. I’m pretty excited to see if we can realize our vision to utilize QR codes in three ways, said Ari Gluck of PolicyLink. “We will use QR codes on name tags to share contact info if its person to person scanning, and to track session attendance and deliver extra session content if a name tag is scanned entering a session. We will also be using a social software platform with the capability built in.”
Gluck says “its a pretty big unknown how well or widely it will be used” but he’s excited to see the results.
More Resoucres:
Five Ways Nonprofits Can Use QR Codes - Frogloop
Need a mobile strategy? Start with your email
Can QR Codes Help Save the World? - The Next Web
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