I believe both nonprofits as well as for profits often confuse sales, marketing and engagement. Or even more challenging weight engagement last. The fact is, without engagement of donors, clients or customers your sales and marketing have far less impact. Social media absorbs so much of our time these days. One of the great draws of social media is it makes us feel engaged in both our own life and with others. It is easy, immediately gratifying and of little to no expense, monetarily to us. So that is your competition. Sectors, let’s take the food industry, see market share shrinking, even though we’ve never seen more choices on the shelves. Why? Because the donor, client or consumer doesn’t care if you’ve created tens of options. In fact it can be feel oppressive to decide when we are already overwhelmed with a lengthy to do list. It reminds us you are thinking of everybody, and we want to feel special. What we want is immediate gratification and to feel as if you are speaking to us as individuals. The day of mass marketing’s return on investment is coming to a close. If you can’t engage your target audience, making them feel as if you are talking only to them, or providing them with a special benefit, cost and/or return on their investment, quite frankly you are sunk.
Financing Isn’t The First Step, It’s The Last
I was in a meeting with a foundation a couple of weeks ago and the conversation turned to bringing in more assets for nonprofits. That is nothing new, I do work with a lot of nonprofits raising money. Our discussion transitioned into the propensity of nonprofits chasing dollars rather than raising dollars. An all too common problem, also not new, but always unfortunate. Chasing dollars prioritizes the money over the program and outcomes. This is obviously a recipe for disaster. Perhaps once or twice it can be pulled off, but it is not a sustainable dynamic. Additionally it brands the nonprofit doing it as one that is not serious about planning, mission and/or programming. So why do nonprofits do it? Sometimes it is poor planning. Sometimes it is a loss of funding in other areas. There are a myriad of other excuses used as well. The bottom line is the reason doesn’t matter. What does matter is once it is done, and the nonprofit’s reputation is damaged, the vicious cycle will grow into a larger void as donors slowly back away. So, whether you are the director, a board member or volunteer, before uttering the words “write a grant” make sure there is already a long-term strategy for programming and funding in place the grant fits with. Do yourself a favor and make sure your plans are solid, funders will.
Priorities & Planning
So often I talk with nonprofits about building their financial resources and so often they do not have a plan to do so. Strategic planning and an annual plan often exist, but for some reason no fund development plan does. This always intrigues me, as how do you know how much to raise, when and how to plan programming, if you don’t have a fund development plan to go with your annual and/or strategic plan. It is akin to contracting a house to be built prior to knowing how you’ll pay for it. Nonprofits are often overstretched with more on their plates than time in the day. So it is understandable that often the fund development plan never comes to fruition. The reality however, is you free up time and resources by investing the upfront time in fund development planning. You also increase your possibilities of greater donations. I promise you, planning an annual event takes more time and effort than planning a fund development document, and the fund development piece has more of a long-term impact when it comes to inflow of resources.
People Per Nonprofit
First of all, I love Guidestar. I feel they provide an invaluable service within the nonprofit sector. The picture below is one I found on their Pinterest board. Capacity is a primary issue in the nonprofit world. Do you know your capacity within your field of service, immediate and larger geography? How can you successfully plan if you aren’t aware of your capacity to grow or perhaps need to partner? Do you think of service per person capacity?
Nonprofit Donors
Would you give a store money if they couldn’t tell you what use/product/service you’d get in return and the related value? Well the same thought process applies to donors and funders. Don’t ask for money unless you can also provide a strategy and clear value.