Do Your Donors and Supporters Know, Like and Trust You?

Sometimes the most practical marketing advice you receive is the simplest.

I've been spending the summer tackling a long list of marketing and business books I've been wanting to read: The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, Permission Marketing by Seth Godin, etc. 

While these books primarily target entrepreneurs and business owners, I have found that most of the advice contained within is equally relevant (and has profound implications for) those who manage, operate and market nonprofits. At the end of the day marketing is marketing, and no matter if you are running a fortune 500 company or a small nonprofit the core elements of marketing remain largely similar.

The most useful piece of marketing advice I received during the course of my reading came from John Jantsch's book Duct Tape Marketing. In his book Jantsch defines marketing broadly as "getting people who have a specific need or problem to know, like, trust, do business with, and refer you to others who have this same need or problem".

Let's forget about the specific need or problem for a moment and apply these five elements of marketing to the nonprofit model. Much like a political campaign, any "successful" nonprofit (which of course we can define in a variety of ways) will at the very least need to attract a base of supporters and financial contributions. Let's see how you measure up.

Try this quick audit to see how well your nonprofit is marketing itself:

Do your donors and supporters know you? Are you present in the community? If we asked someone on the street would they know who your organization is and what your organization does? Do you need to remind donors about who you are? Are you known locally or nationally?

Do your donors and supporters like you? Do they like the work you are engaged in and your strategic approach? Do they participate in your online communities and offline events? Do they supply you with positive feedback? Are donors happy and willing to engage in partnership with your organization?

Do your donors and supporters trust you? Do they trust you will perform at the highest standard of ethics and according to best practices or evidence-based strategies? Do they trust the money they donate will get used wisely and effectively?

Do your donors and supporters do business with you? Do they contribute support (financial, volunteer, etc.) on a consistent basis? Do you have a surplus of innovative partnerships and financial contributions?

Do your donors and supporters refer you? Do they tell their friends and colleagues about your organization? Do they share your campaigns on social networks? Do your supporters fundraise on your behalf?

Marketing your cause or organization does not have to be complicated. What strategies does your nonprofit find most effective for getting donors and supports to know, like and trust you?

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Social Media Policy Examples: War Child and Red Cross Societies

As the use of social media becomes more ubiquitous among nonprofit organizations, the need for nonprofit social media policies is also increasing. 

Two weeks ago I attended a presentation by War Child Canada outlining their strategy for a blogging challenge. At the presentation they also talked about the need for a social media policy - a set of guidelines that "governs the publication of and commentary on social media by all War Child Canada employees and staff".

A social media policy might be useful for a variety of reasons:

• To create a unified strategy across multiple social media networks
• For nonprofits who have offices in different physical locations
• To maintain privacy or security online
• To create a consistent brand and voice
• To adhere to a code of conduct, copyright or standard of ethics
• As an exercise to define social media procedures and opportunities

Though policies are often synonymous with complex and impersonal documents full of corporate jargon, they don't have to be. A policy can be a simple set of guidelines about how to act, respond, share and engage on the social web.

A basic social media policy may contain the following elements:

Introduction - explain the purpose and goals of the social media policy document and identify why it is a necessity for your nonprofit.  

Best Practices - identify how you expect your employees and constituents to act on your organization's behalf. Define acceptable and unacceptable conduct related to sharing, posting, commenting/discussion, promotion, language, images, advertising, etc. This section could also contain a code of conduct - a set of rules and expectations that you want your employees to live up to.

Copyright - outline how you expect images, videos, logos and other promotional material that you own the rights to should be used or references

Communities - compile a list of places that you "exist" online. Define the intent or goals of each community and any specific policies that relate to the social media networks.

Contact - where can employees go or who can they contact for more information.

Social Media Policy Examples

• International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - Social Media Guidelines
• War Child - Social Media Policy

Further reading:

• Rough Draft of a Socila Media Policy 
• Creating a Social Media Policy for your Nonprofit
• Where's your Org's Social Media Policy
• Social Media in the Nonprofit Workplace: Does your Organization Need a Social Media Policy?
• Tips for Writing your First Social Media Policy
• Social Media Policies Superlist

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Making Sense of Nonprofit Numbers

How do we make sense of numbers?

Several years ago when the economic crisis loomed the US Federal Reserve and Treasury Secretary urged Congress to approve a $700 billion bailout for struggling financial institutions.

I remember politicians and media going to great lengths to try and put this amount of money in context. What does $700 billion mean to me? How do I relate that to my standard of living? Every technique was used:

Shock - Its over twice the amount of all money given to all charitable organizations in the United States in any given year. 

Comparison - There are about 300 million men, women, and children currently living in the United States, so the bailout is equal to roughly $2,300 per person

Arbitrary (Useless) - How much is 700 billion grains of salt? Picture an average public school classroom filled up about 70% (between 2/3 and 3/4) of the way with salt!

But perhaps the best technique to explain figures as large as $700 billion is not to go big, but to go small.

Nonprofits communicate financial and statistical information all the time. But if those number are not put into proper context or relatable to a person without an intimate knowledge of your issue they may get lost.

Often when numbers are too large they become intangible, inherently meaningless and are no longer able to appeal to a potential supporter's emotions. For example, how do we put into context that “only a small minority of the 450 million people suffering from a mental or behavioural disorders are receiving treatment”? (World Health Organization).

Scaling down is is an important communications strategy and one of the best ways to start a conversation around statistical information them is to present the numbers simply.

Metaphors, infographics and visual presentation software like Gapminder are all great tools.

So go forth and simplify!

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Takeaways from Four Successful Nonprofit Twitter Campaigns

Charity: Water

Highlights:

• Following a trip to Liberia Scott Harrison, founder of charity: water, used his network as a New York club promoter to raise nearly 1,000,000 for clean water efforts on his birthday
• A clever marketing campaign helped increase the organization’s public awareness and charity: water used Twitter to promote their work
• In 2009 charity: water was selected as the recipient of the first Global Twestival which helped raise over $250,000 from Twitter users
• Regular videos and photos of the day complement their Twitter communications – while fun and personalized marketing has helped charity: water become one of the largest Twitter accounts with over 1.3 million followers

Takeaway:

• A vibrant, innovative leader combined with a multifaceted and integrated communications strategy can help your organization gain social support very quickly

Room to Read

Highlights:

• Room to Read enables and promotes education and literacy in nine developing countries
• With nearly half a million followers Room to Read built its Twitter strategy upon the following six pillars:

1. Sharing quality information about educational issues facing children worldwide.
2. Personalized Twitter accounts for executive members showing organizational transparency
3. Support partner organizations by retweeting and participating in trending topics and weekly events
4. Build a network of key players – follow them and engage in conversation
5. Follow new followers
6. Be highly active during major events

Takeaway:

• A transparent strategy focused on sharing information about your cause, while supporting others and participating in conversation can lead to increased attention and awareness

Global Citizen Year

Highlights:

• Global Citizen Year (GCY) is a dynamic new organization focused on training and supporting high school seniors on international apprenticeships with social enterprises in Asia, Africa and Latin America
• Through their blog GCY began sharing videos, photos, stories, lessons and insights from fellows in the field
• GCY expanded their communications to Twitter and began tweeting content from the blog posts. The tweets aimed to engage their community in their programs and attract new fellows
• Several key Twitter endorsements helped spread their cause, generate media attention and create new partnerships with the private sector
• GCY now has over 40,000 Twitter followers and an expanding network of fellows and partners sharing their work

Takeaway:

• A Twitter campaign supported by additional online communications mediums and focused on sharing stories rather than just gaining a following is a positive way to develop a foundation of support

Abolish Cancer

Highlights:

• In November of 2009 an independent change maker (Darah Bonham) started a organization consisting of a Twitter account and a blog with one purpose – to fight cancer.
• She arranged for sponsors to donate $1 for every follower she was able to gain on Twitter during a one day period.
• The campaign generated funds for the organization, enhanced PR opportunities for the campaign sponsors and increased public awareness for a worthy cause
• The campaign grew slowly over time, then tipped when it received support from a celbrity endorsement in Kim Kardashian
• The campaign now has over 50,000 Twitter followers and has raised thousands of dollars for cancer charities

Takeaway:

• A campaign that starts small and grows organically can be an effective way to provide value to a cause, its sponsors and external charities

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The Elements of Effective Public Relations

If one were to make a distinction between marketing and public relations, we could say that marketing is more concerned with product and pricing, while public relations is more concerned with the attitudes and promotion of an idea, organization or service. While there are no shortage of different definitions of public relations the tasks and elements of PR professionals remain largely consistent.

Public Relations Tasks

Writing and editing: Writing (and editing) are essential components of an organization's communications strategy for the purposes of public persuasion. The right content and tone are critical for getting an organization's message across. Composing media releases, newsletters, reports, speeches and web content are just a few examples.

Media and social media relations: Contacting news media, freelance writers or other outside sources to publish or broadcast public service announcements or 'soft' news stories is important for nonprofit success. So is the opportunity to respond to media requests for information, verification of stories and access to experts. Increasingly, PR professionals are also being asked to manage nonprofit social media networks and online content.

Research: Effective public relations or effective writing usually begins with research. Using the “RACE” model (research, action, communication and evaluation) may be a good starting point for any research strategy. For example, if an organization needs to influence an audience such as government, then it may want to research how government is most effectively communicated with on any given issue as a starting point. 

Management and administration: Partnership development, donor relations, defining and organization's needs and publics, setting goals and objectives, and developing communications strategies, are key elements of public relations management. 

Counseling: Advising managers and stakeholders on the social, political and regulatory environments affecting an organization, as well as working with key decision-makers to devise strategies for managing or responding to sensitive issues are core elements of good PR. 

Special events: Signature events provide key opportunities for public engagement and fundraising activities. Public relations is an essential element of helping plan, prepare and execute a special event.

Public Speaking: Public speaking can be the most important means for building advocacy in front of small or large groups. Effective public relations means knowing how to structure a speech and how to tailor it for specific audiences and venues. 

Production: Production refers to the capacity to produce anything that supports promotional materials, including design, photography, desktop publishing and multimedia. 

Training: Training involves preparing executives and others to deal with all aspects of public relations, including writing, communication skills and media training.

Contact: As a key contact person, a PR professional is prepared to act as the liaison with the media, community, and other internal and external publics. Meeting and entertaining as a host to guests and visitors is another typical function of this role.  

What other elements of public relations does your nonprofit engage in?

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5 Alternatives to the Press Release

The press release has long been a useful tool in the PR professional's arsenal. But with the ubiquity of online platforms allowing nonprofits to produce their own content and a wealth of social networking sites being used by journalist and media outlets, the press release has become an increasingly outdated medium for attracting media attention.

In the past the press release served multiple functions: it not only reduced the work of journalists who were already on tight deadlines by offering them a pre-written story they could easily publish, but it also also carefully presented the key message(s) and executive sound-bytes that an organization wanted media to pick up on. (One might be surprised to learn how many newspaper quotes appearing to come from politicians or CEOs are in fact carefully crafted statements produced by PR departments).

Today however, the press release is being quickly replaced by alternative media generating methods. In the dozens of press releases that I have produced for nonprofits and on behalf of charitable events, I can honestly say that few of them generated any sustained media attention, and none were picked up and published directly. This reality could of course be attributed to the quality of press release I have written, but I tend to believe that it is part of a larger media trend - namely that in an era when traditional news outlets are trying to keep up with i-witness journalists, many organizations have developed strategies to produce their own content, and media scrutiny has rarely (if ever) been higher, the cookie-cutter press release no longer has the capacity of effectively generating media interest.

So what are the alternatives?

1. Blogs - the most obvious way to circumvent media outlets (or indeed to become part of the media itself) is to become a producer of your own content. Why wait for newspapers or radio stations to pick up your press release? Create a simple platform through Wordpress for your nonprofit to start to sharing stories and news items. Consider also guest blogging for other niche blogs related to your issue.

2. PSAs - with so many media sources available public service announcements may not have the impact that they once had. They nonetheless remain an easy and affordable way to promote causes and events, especially at the local level. Coincide the submission of your PSA with awareness weeks, public events or holidays for greater publicity.

3. OpEds - opinion editorials are a commentary about a social issue or cause. Though it may take time to first develop a relationship with a newspaper editor before they are willing to print your piece, opinion editorials are more likely to generate media attention, not only because of their (sometimes) prominent placement in a newspaper, but also because readers often enjoy opinionated commentary over the canned format of press releases.

4. Social Media - like blogging social media networks have become integral elements of any media promotion strategy. While social media platforms are a useful way to share information with supporters or for developing social media releases, another way they can be used is to connect with media figures. Increasingly journalists, radio personalities and TV news hosts are using social media sites like Twitter and LinkedIn to find news stories as well as to build a personal brand. These mediums are therefore an effective way to build relationships with key media people and act as accessible ways to pitch media stories. However, remember to build social capital on the social web before you ask for something in return!

5. Magazines - in the age of 24-hour news cycles and the real-time information the magazine has been largely forgotten as a means of garnering media attention. Perhaps this is unsurprising given the investment it takes to build relationships with magazine editors and write lengthy articles. But niche magazines and newsletters remain an excellent place to generate support for your organization and its work.  You might be surprised to learn how receptive smaller magazines are to receiving new content on behalf of organizations, that is so long as it is not too self-promotional. Expand the scope and content of your press release into a feature length article for publication, but be sure to focus primarily on your cause rather than on the mission and values of your organization.

What media generation strategies have you used instead of the press release?

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