Nonprofits To Expand In 2010 If They Communicate Clearly
March is upon us, although the madness for many of us thus far still comes from lingering snows and icepacks along sides of road – not our college hoops teams falling out of our office pool. With the turning of the month’s calendar, we find some reports about the previous year’s nonprofit community, as well as predictions as to what the rest of this year might look like for it. Spring means a chance to clean house, or at least update some features and fixtures, as well. It is never to early to start the processes (Indeed, what have you been doing these last two months to get the year off right?), so let’s consider some ways forward in 2010.
Retriever Development Counsel has just posted a report at The Foundation Center entitled “Nonprofit Fundraising Trends 2010.” The foundation asks for $19 to defray costs of the report, but (as they often kindly do) the executive summary is available for the general readership. Two points from that summary we would want to call attention to:
• Regardless of the size of the organization, the primary reasons for greater fundraising results were more communication, greater contact with donors, and more effort spent. Simply put, those who spent more got more. (emphasis in original).
Updating requires more than a new date and text.Websites need to keep up with standards as well as styles.
Communication and contact with donors seem straight forward, but with the rise in social media and the proliferation of online content (to complement or replace print?) there may be more confusion than communication and contact. Nonprofits have long been aware of the need for a web presence, but has yours kept up with changes in design tastes and technology standards? Often, a well-meaning organization with a good deal to say can drive away potential supporters as soon as they come in contact with an awkward or unbecoming website. Fonts that have fallen out of web style already send signals of an organization’s stagnation. Color combinations that might have seen acceptable a decade ago look terribly old fashioned now. And please realize that your audience responds to issues such as these long before they focus on the message or mission presented by your medium.
A way to create and assemble a PDF workflow within your nonprofit
Much of communication is, let us say, pre-rational. We respond psychologically to the colors, shapes, and letter forms before and as we read the important content within the images and texts. As for how nonprofits tended to distribute resources from last year and into 2010:
• Other key actions identified were: investing resources into fundraising (21%); board recruitment, development, and participation (18%); focussing on communications/ marketing/messaging (17%); and strategic planning (9%).
The apportioning of resources is telling, in that investing resources, expanding board participation, and focussing on communications all entail many of the same skills and technologies: clear writing/communication, engaging presentation of that communication, and cost-effective ways to do both. Electronic media certainly help meet these goals, once content is ready for presentation. But electronic media can go beyond websites and tweets. Professionally designed newsletters and annual reports can be disseminated as PDFs and web videos can be expertly prepared to reach donors and prospective donors (and friends they might forward video links to) for a reasonable price that concentrates on production, not the ongoing distribution of the material.
As we move out of winter and consider the forward movement of our businesses, consider all the ways your materials communicate to those who participate and to those you wish to add to your list of donors and participants. To help on that process, the Chronicle of Philanthropy will be hosting a live web discussion entitled “Turn First-Time Donors into Repeat Givers.” It is hosted by Kivi Miller, author of The Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for your Good Cause. The webcast is 12:pm to 1:pm (Eastern Time) tomorrow, Tuesday, 2 March. Our blog has referred to her and her work before, and we recommend everyone join in the discussion.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD