CHAPTER 11

Communications and Marketing for Small Nonprofits

Don Macdonald

Introduction

Communications and marketing are complex areas. There are marketing degree courses, while if you Google “communications for small nonprofits” you see 1.1 million links. This means there is an enormous amount of help available, but sorting out what can be useful is time-consuming, particularly if you have a press release to prepare. Digital communication opens up new channels and audiences, but an experienced communications manager says that digital is both a curse and blessing for small nonprofits; they have very tight budgets, smaller teams, and struggle to keep up with larger nonprofits.¹

Most nonprofit organizations are small, with no specialist marketing or communications staff. So either this work is carried out by generalist staff or provided by the private sector, which could even be on a pro bono basis. Organizing your marketing and communications properly for your nonprofit brings benefits, but must be carefully planned and evaluated.

What Are Communications and Marketing?

Communications involves identifying key audiences and communicating important messages to them. Peter Drucker wrote “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” (Drucker 1990). Ian Bruce stated “A practical definition of marketing which suits non-profits is: ‘meeting customer needs within the objectives of the organization’” (Bruce 2005).

Why Do Nonprofit Organizations Need Communications and Marketing?

For many nonprofits, marketing and communications is a low priority. But effectively communicating about your organization will advance your mission.² In fact many nonprofit managers automatically follow good practice in this area, for instance by projecting a positive profile of their organizations’ work, networking, being entrepreneurial and pursuing opportunities; Shaw (2004) suggests that for “social enterprises marketing was second nature even though they did not speak of marketing or use the language of marketing.”

Marketing and communications are increasing in importance for these reasons:

Clearly any marketing and communications plan must be appropriate to the size and mission of the nonprofit; a small local playgroup, with good community links needs a completely different approach to that of a regional organization working with young people at risk. In turn this is very different from the enormous reach of nationally recognized nonprofits, like Barnados (UK) or United Way (U.S.), while others like UNICEF have international recognition; any campaigning and education work of such organizations interact with their marketing and communications.

A Communications and Marketing Plan

Every plan should start from an analysis of the key factors affecting your nonprofit. Your organization’s objectives are critical in delineating the plan: if you manage a campaigning nonprofit, clearly you put great effort into developing and delivering a communications plan that encompasses lobbying, while, if you manage a social enterprise selling goods or services to the public, you place more emphasis on market research, marketing, and sales.

A SWOT Analysis is useful, specifically around marketing and communications to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, which should include your competitors, political, economic, social, and technological context, including social media. In terms of competitors you should analyze their media profile, size, scope and if possible their pricing. Remember that some commissioners prefer small local organizations to large ones muscling in. It is essential to take an honest and balanced view of where your organization stands in relation to the key opportunities and threats.

Marketing Plan

A marketing plan should analyze the operating environment, strengths and weaknesses, key audiences and outline marketing methods, covering the following points:

These questions may seem like common sense but it is essential for nonprofits to devise a marketing plan carefully.

Market Research

Markets change and evolve over time; examples are the way that sales of the Big Issue (the London newspaper sold by homeless people) have declined and now they are looking at online distribution and creating coffee and retail outlets, while Bike Works, a UK social enterprise, benefited from the increase in cycling popularity in the 21st century in London. So, good market research is critical.

Elinor Shaw suggests that with fewer economic assets, smaller entrepreneurial organizations use networks in which they operate to carry out relevant market research (Shaw 2004). Sometimes more formal research is required. This should cover:

Qualitative research is more affordable than quantitative research. Even a small phone survey of existing and potential customers provides useful feedback to underpin decisions about existing services and possible new markets.

Structuring Market Research

Ian Bruce (Bruce 2005) outlined how to structure your market research for different groups:

Existing customers

Potential customers

Communications and Public Relations

Communications covers a wide range of aspects. Managers need to be aware how critical communications can be and that this needs careful planning and management. This may sound daunting for a small nonprofit organization but many managers are natural communicators, particularly when they are committed to and knowledgeable about a specific cause, which adds strength to any communication.

Communications and public relations (PR) are significant subjects of their own, with their own institutes and degree courses, so these paragraphs only introduce the subject. PR is essential but will be very different if your nonprofit is trying to sell services to the public, or your organization is trying to influence public opinion, social policy, or government; I am not covering the latter aspect here in great detail as I assume if this is crucial, staff with expertise will be appointed. However, in both the U.S. and UK, if your nonprofit engages in political lobbying above certain expenditure levels, you must register with the appropriate government agency.

Communications Plan

You should devise a communications plan, designed to help you and your organization communicate effectively.³ In this you should set some specific and attainable targets to aim at (see SMART objectives in Project Management chapter), such as numbers of publicity mentions or increases in newsletter circulation, with timescales for achieving these.

Your plan should include an analysis of your stakeholders, clarifying why they might be interested in your organization (potential funders, beneficiaries), what positions they hold (government?), why your organization might be valuable to them, and any partnerships.

Key Messages and Target Groups

Key messages should be agreed, along with which target group(s) you want to reach and which media. These are related, so if you want to reach more young people you would probably use social media, whereas if you are trying to reach youth service policy makers, you would use professional press and different messages.

Deciding on and describing specific target groups is what the professionals describe as segmenting, which means you are able to move into more detailed planning.

Also you can focus your plan more by being as specific as possible. If directors in housing associations are an important target for your key messages, make a list of them and describe the channels you hope to use. In the digital age you have to fight hard for people’s attention so your content should be as powerful and punchy as you can make it.

Getting a Press Release Published

Many local papers are looking for news stories, particularly good news stories, as it saves their time and effort. However, it must be sent to them in the form of a well-written press release (preferably with a picture) briefly describing an activity or achievement of your organization (see model press release in the appendix). As well as the story and picture, you must provide background information about the organization, its work, and a contact phone number. However do bear in mind that the readership will of course be predominately local.

If you are trying to target opinion formers and professionals, a good approach is to conduct research or evaluation into your organization’s work, publish this in basic form, publicize this in an accompanying press release and through social media.

Social Media

Working with young people opens up enormous possibilities as they are so conversant with online communication and can be involved in designing and delivering peer-to-peer communication, as well as other new media.

Social media provides enormous potential, though different media should be used for different objectives and reach different audiences. A youth charity organizes its younger volunteers to develop material for social media, such as videos,⁴ while others utilize social media for crowdfunding.

Networking

Networking is a natural skill for gregarious extroverts, but introverts also network when you have an exciting project or worthy cause to pursue. Building networks is a key skill in marketing, for managers which we also cover in “Managing Yourself” and the “Fundraising” chapters.

Networking includes becoming (and staying) informed about policies and key organizations and staff, identifying and communicating with stakeholders and other key individuals such as funders, making general contacts, attending conferences, while informing contacts and a wider audience about your service or project.

Eleanor Shaw (Shaw 2004) pointed out that networking was essential to nonprofits in providing “founders with information and knowledge required to identify opportunities locally,” while “networks and networking were important for many of the same reasons...(namely)...acquiring market and customer information; identifying opportunities and providing introductions to possible funding sources and so on.”

Conclusion

Nonprofits should utilize their social impact to communicate their achievements and activities in a positive way through a range of media. They can also use this to market their services, but this must be matched by quality and price, although there may be scope for a small mark-up on price over commercial competitors.

References and Further Reading

Bruce, I. 2005. Charity Marketing: Meeting Need Through Customer Focus. London: ICSA Publishing.

Drucker, P. 1990. Managing the Non-Profit Organization Practices and Principles. New York: Harper Collins.

Shaw, E. 2004. “Marketing in the Social Enterprise Context: Is It Entrepreneurial?” Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal 7, no. 3, pp. 194–205.

APPENDIX

Specimen Local Press Release

Local Charity Pioneers Effective Methods to Combat Dementia

With an aging population, dementia is now our greatest medical challenge in the United Kingdom, but recent research shows that music and dance can be positive tools to combat its effects. These activities promote well-being and confidence, boost skills and knowledge, while giving pleasure to both participants and audiences. A project for North West London elders and those with dementia providing music and dance is being launched by the Ashford Place charity as part of a holistic approach. The charity needs to fundraise for the project, which is being supported by the best-selling author, Elizabeth Buchan https://givey.com/crickmusicanddance.

Note to Editors

With an aging population, dementia is now the leading cause of death in the United Kingdom according to the ONS.⁵ It is therefore our greatest medical challenge, but 13 times more is spent on researching cures for cancer than on dementia even though it is more costly to the nation according to a study by Oxford University.⁶ However other research shows that music actively promotes brain activity in dementia sufferers (Alzheimer’s Society⁷) while dance is the best exercise for both brain and body to prevent dementia (Massachusetts Medical Society⁸).

Ashford Place, set up in 1983, is a community charity in Cricklewood, providing a range of services for local people. http://ashfordplace.org.UK

For further information or photos please contact. Don Macdonald 0201 691 1234; [email protected]

The story was published with a photo after clarification by a journalist www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/cricklewood-choir-to-launch-a-newdance-project-1-4791569

¹ E-mail to author

² http://nonprofitanswerguide.org/marketing-communications/

³ http://knowhownonprofit.org/campaigns/communications/effective-communications-1/communications-plan

⁴ https://facebook.com/LondonFootballJourneys

⁵ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37972141

⁶ http://ox.ac.uk/news/2015-04-14-uk-dementia-and-stroke-research-remainsunderfunded

⁷ http://ageuk.org.uk/health-wellbeing/conditions-illnesses/dementia-andmusic/

⁸ http://nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa022252