The Nonprofit Communications Engine: A Leader's Guide to Managing Mission-driven Marketing and Communications

By Sarah Durham

Nonprofits power much of what’s good in society today. They support, preserve, advocate, and defend, while helping us understand and navigate complex issues and landscapes. It’s hard work, and it relies on building relationships between board members who govern, clients and members who enjoy or rely on services, and supporters who ta

• Language: English
• Publisher: Big Duck Studio
• Release date: Jan 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781733355315

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

"The world is before you

and you need not take it

or leave it as it was

when you came in."

~ James Baldwin

Gemma joined the staff of a nonprofit with a mission that inspired her after many years working for companies she didn’t truly believe in. She started in a mid-level programs position and worked her way up to become the program’s manager and then director. After a few years, she moved into a new C-suite role where she had oversight for all of the organization’s programs, reported to the executive director, and regularly presented at board meetings. Gemma was at the core of the organization’s mission and trusted by its leadership, so it wasn’t surprising when she was offered the job after the executive director left.

Although she knew the organization well, Gemma spent the first few months as CEO deepening her understanding of areas within the organization where her experience was limited.

The development director gave Gemma a dashboard of the fundraising metrics her team used, shared details of the team’s strengths and opportunities, and gave her books to read on fundraising best practices. She invited her to department meetings, brought her to lunch with donors, and recommended a few industry conferences where Gemma could learn more about fundraising.

The operations director and finance team gave Gemma a similar overview. She reviewed budget-versus-actual reports, past audits, and HR dashboards. Once again, Gemma was given a stack of reference books and a list of trade associations she could join or conferences she might attend to learn best practices.

But when Gemma sat down with the communications director, the conversation was different. There were no dashboards and few metrics. Instead, she reviewed recently produced materials and an editorial calendar.

The communications director talked about the challenges of getting the newsletter out on time, sourcing articles and other content from the staff, and budgeting to expand their digital advertising and search engine marketing program. He used terms like SEO, SEM, conversions, form completions, segmenting, impressions, likes, and shares—terms Gemma was only marginally familiar with.

Gemma wasn’t at all certain how the details fit together and supported the organization’s larger goals. Who were they trying to reach? What were they hoping all of this would achieve? Were the communications they produced intended to reach and engage donors, clients, activists, or policymakers? Were they issue- or program-specific or more general? How did the people they needed to reach and work with perceive the organization?

To manage communications in this nonprofit effectively, Gemma realized she needed a clearer overview that would help her assess what was working and what was not without getting lost in all the details. But how to do that, especially with all the other things competing for Gemma’s time and attention?

Like Gemma, most executive directors emerge from fundraising or programs—not from a communications background. They have worked on fundraising campaigns that raise money, advocacy campaigns that change hearts and minds around a particular issue, and recruiting clients for programs. But most executive directors lack experience weaving together all these areas so their nonprofit’s communications feel cohesive and represent their organization’s voice effectively, without fragmentation or disconnects. Other leaders simply don’t prioritize communications.

But what would it be like if they did? What would it be like if more CEOs set a goal of blowing the roof off their communications, as Vince Warren, CEO of the Center for Constitutional Rights, opted to do in 2018? Would these nonprofits no longer be hidden gems? Would their reputations precede them? Would they more swiftly and effectively change hearts and minds and achieve results?

This book is intended to help executive directors, CEOs, board members, and other nonprofit leaders optimize nonprofit communications by providing them with a simple framework that transcends specific tools and tactics. It offers a bigger-picture perspective that can be applied to organizations of varied sizes, ages, and levels of capacity—not just those that are older or more established.

The following pages won’t cover how many emails a nonprofit should send, how to craft an eye-catching newsletter, how to get the most out of a PR team, or other tasks of day-to-day communications management. Those will all change, particularly as new technologies emerge. Instead, we will focus on what comes before all the tactics—overarching communications goals—and the capacity a nonprofit needs in order to achieve and maintain those goals regardless of how big, small, new, or well-established it is.

The first chapter, Getting clearer about communications, includes a high-level summary of this framework, an outline of the barriers that most nonprofits face, and a tool to assess your organization’s communications capacity. It will help you clarify what success looks like for your organization’s communications and identify some of the obstacles. The chapters that follow unpack each of the six core components essential to building a strong communications engine.

CHAPTER 1:

GETTING CLEARER ABOUT EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS

DEFINING SUCCESSFUL COMMUNICATIONS

Whether your organization is working to cure cancer, shelter or feed people, create safer streets, advocate for equality, or create change in another way, you’ve got a mission. A nonprofit’s mission is the fundamental reason it exists and defines the work it will do to create positive change. Nonprofit missions move the needle on issues, change behaviors, change minds, and inspire action.

In healthy nonprofits, the mission is visible, alive, and flourishing. Even when people can’t recite the mission statement verbatim, they understand the essence of the work, who it will help, and why it’s beneficial.

Most nonprofit departments have clear mandates and fit together like puzzle pieces. Programs staff bring the mission of a nonprofit to life through programs and services. Development advances the mission by raising money. Operations supports the rest of the organization’s work with infrastructure. Each has a specific audience (or audiences) that they must reach and engage.

But if you ask 10 different people to articulate the purpose of their communications or marketing team, you will get 10 different answers. Most of those answers will be murky or focused solely on tactics and channels (They’re the people who keep our website up to date or They’re the folks who make our brochures). That’s because communications teams have varied and unique responsibilities in different organizations. Communications is more like the shellac on the puzzle or its cardboard backing: intrinsic to the overall stability, reliability, and appearance of the whole organization, but not a neatly defined, separate puzzle piece on its own.

At the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (www.latinainstitute.org), communications largely supports advocacy and movement-building goals. Its small communications team works with bilingual media and community activists to elevate voices and advance the solutions that best serve their communities.

At the Healthy Materials Lab (www.healthymaterialslab.org), communications is focused on educating architects and interior designers about the impact of toxic building materials. The comms team works in service of advancing core programs.

At the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (www.themmrf.org), communications supports fundraising by creating useful tools to engage donors with their mission and groundbreaking science.

All these communications teams are working to advance the mission of their organization and shape how their issues are perceived, using whatever resources are available given their nonprofit’s unique size, structure, and needs—and they all do it a bit differently.

What would it be like if your organization did a phenomenal job of communicating? Would your nonprofit be a household name with a deep base of regular supporters who donate, volunteer, and take other actions easily? Or would you be a force for good that inspires loyal support from a deeply engaged but selective base?

While many executive directors struggle to articulate what great communications means for their organization, they recognize its absence or failure. Communications is an engine that helps power other essential functions of the organization: If it’s not working well, then programs, development, advocacy, and other mission-critical functions are likely to suffer.

Our sector needs a clearer, more widely shared definition for how communications supports nonprofit missions. This definition should reflect how varied and interconnected with other departments communications can be.

Nonprofit communications is the practice of creating and sustaining mindshare and engagement that advances the mission.

A practice requires repeated effort; it’s something we must do over and over again. In practices like meditation, exercise, playing an instrument, yoga, and others, the work is never actually complete. Stop exercising and you lose the benefits of exercise. Stop eating or sleeping well and you feel lousy. Nonprofits must constantly practice communicating effectively, both internally and externally, or they increase the risk that a lack of connection will make it hard to reach, engage, and collaborate with the audiences who are essential to advancing their mission. The practice of establishing connections—or, more specifically, mindshare and engagement—is ongoing, no matter how old, large, or successful a nonprofit becomes.

Mindshare and engagement (which we’ll explore more deeply in the following chapter) are strategies to build connections and relationships with an organization, issue, or movement. Fundraisers and senior leadership likely have relationships with major donors. Programs staff have relationships with key partners and peer organizations. All of them rely on effective communications to keep the people they have relationships with engaged.

When a nonprofit communicates successfully, external audiences (individuals, other organizations, foundations, etc.) become aware of and engaged with its mission. They take action to advance the organization or the issues it serves—hopefully more than once. Staff and board recruitment also benefit from effective external communications because candidates with experience in the field may be more likely to know of the organization. Relationships between staff and the people they work with grow deeper and stronger through the organization’s marketing and communications efforts. In short, an effective communications engine powers the mission.

What would great communications achieve?

A decade or so ago, my business was at a critical inflection point. I was managing a series of personal and professional changes, navigating a recession, and making many decisions with long-term implications. The day before I left for a much-needed vacation on Cape Cod, a mentor tasked me with an exercise to help me get some perspective. Take a walk alone on the beach, they suggested, with the sole purpose of imagining the future. Don’t bring paper, pens, or spreadsheets—just your imagination. Step into the future and have a good look around. What will it be like? What will you be doing? Who will be there with you?

Days later, I found myself alone on Cahoon Hollow Beach, walking north. I imagined the

Reviews for The Nonprofit Communications Engine

[Muhanji Gilly · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Clearly a thought-through piece of work that inspires me to carry out communications in a very professional way.