Nonprofits losing millions from poor communications

New book helps nonprofits get their message to the people who need to hear it.

Starting a new job as a nonprofit Marketing and Communications Director, Ben Delaney looked hard for insight into the specific issues of nonprofit communications. He couldn't find the help he needed in the few dusty, ivory tower textbooks that addressed the issue. So, when he left that job a few years later, he decided to help others in similar situations by writing a book based on his experiences. That engaging book, Ben Delaney's Nonprofit Marketing Handbook, was just released on Amazon in print and Kindle editions.

Despite the proliferation of social media, smart phones, and the internet, many nonprofit organizations are still not great communicators. Often, their communications efforts are relegated to interns and lower level staff who lack experience and specific knowledge of marketing tools and techniques. These organizations are losing millions of dollars in potential donations because the people who care about their programs never hear about them. Delaney's book will help nonprofits upgrade their communications for high impact and strong donor support.

Written for small to medium sized organizations, Ben Delaney's Nonprofit Marketing Handbook is the hands-on guide to marketing and communications that he couldn't find when he started doing nonprofit marketing eight years ago. Novices and experienced marketers alike will find a wealth of actionable information here.

Realizing that many nonprofits lack the resources for effective marketing, Delaney wrote his book as a do-it-yourself handbook that addresses all of the key aspects of marketing and communications for nonprofits. He covers all the issues that nonprofit marketers need to address, starting by explaining the importance of System Marketing™, his method of ensuring that everyone in an organization is telling the same stories in the same words to provide unified communications.

Filled with helpful tips and real-life examples, Ben Delaney's Nonprofit Marketing Handbook includes detailed descriptions of various marketing tools, describing what each is good for, how to measure their impact,  and their comparative costs. One chapter explains how to use different networking and presentation opportunities for maximum impact. He addresses branding, social media, public relations, advertising, search engine marketing, event management, advanced networking, research, working with nonprofit boards, and more, in 22 crisp chapters.

Delaney leads the reader through building accountability into marketing efforts and building websites with stickiness. He unravels the tangles of search engine marketing and optimization. His chapter on testing makes even this often daunting concept easily understood. He concludes the book with a resource guide and glossary.

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Ben Delaney's Nonprofit Marketing Handbook on Amazon.

Written in a conversational tone, and based on more than thirty years of award-winning marketing and management experience, Ben Delaney's Nonprofit Marketing Handbook is a valuable tool that should be on every nonprofit development and communications specialist's iPad or bookshelf. It is available on Amazon as a Kindle ebook or in paperback. Find more information on Amazon.com or at www.BenDelaney.com.

About advertising

© 2014 Ben Delaney 

Advertising. We're all surrounded by it, inundated by aural and visual noise that pollutes our environment and covers every surface around us. But advertising serves a purpose, and the best advertising sticks in our minds for years. Good advertising reaches the right audience with the right story at the right time. Good advertising creates good impressions and memories. There's no reason that you shouldn't use advertising to help get your message out. The only question is how to advertise so that your advertising is effective, both in terms of reaching the people you want to talk to with the message you want them to hear, and doing that while spending the least amount of money.

As with any other marketing, you first have to understand your audience. If you are a nonprofit organization you should know your audience fairly well. You should have lots of records on your donors, as well as people who have expressed an interest in your organization. You should also have good records on your clients, who often can become donors and supporters. You have a clear mission and vision, and a fine message crafted.

As in any other marketing effort, you first want to define your goals. What are you trying to accomplish with this advertising? Who do you need to reach? What do you want them to do? How much money do you have to spend? How long do you have to accomplish what you need to do?

As part of your System Marketing™ plan, advertising needs to fit in with all the other marketing that you're doing. Everything needs to form a coherent whole. Your staff needs to be ready to handle inquiries and be prepared to respond to people who are interested in your product. Depending on the product you're promoting, whether it be your big annual benefit, a donor outreach effort, or new product from your social enterprise, the entire advertising campaign, including preparation for response, needs to be thought out in advance, and with data collection and measuring points built-in.

One of thing to remember about advertising is that one ad rarely is as effective as you hope it will be. People respond to repetition. They need to see your ad over and over again. So before your event you should run the same ad, or very similar ads, in as many places, as many times as you can afford. Weekly newspapers and online outlets provide regular updates which enable you to have many impressions in the window of time available. More impressions are good. Just be sure you're reaching the people you want to get your message.

Let's consider a hypothetical case, an advertising campaign to support Kitty Rescue League's Fat Cat Bash. The goal of this at this event is to bring a hundred seventy-five donors to a fancy dinner. The advertising budget is $2,000. That might not seem like a lot money but will see how to spend it to get the most effective return.

Identifying our target demographic is fairly easy. We know we want cat lovers in our local area. We know that older cat lovers have greater disposable income, and possibly more free evenings. However, we don't want to ignore the significant millennium generation; a lot of them like cats too.

We start by start by surveying local media: radio, TV, newspapers, and magazines. For each of these we want to ask publishers to provide demographic as well as distribution information. For example, where I live, the San Francisco Chronicle is the largest newspaper, reaching close to half a million people every day. Its distribution range is roughly a 200 mile diameter from its publishing base in San Francisco. If I needed to reach a lot of people who didn't need to be in any particular nearby area, the Chronicle is a great way to do it. However the Kitty Rescue League is in a small suburb of San Francisco. Ninety percent of their donors live within twenty-five miles of the office. So buying advertising in the Chronicle would not be cost-effective, because much of the advertising would be wasted on people who live too far away. Looking further, the marketing intern at Kitty Rescue League discovers that a local weekly newspaper covers the target geographic area well and has a broad demographic appeal. This newspaper fits the criteria very well, and happily costs far less than the Chronicle.

Other local advertising opportunities might include church newsletters, local animal shelters' newsletters, and newsletters at local senior centers. All of these are relatively inexpensive. Because this is a one-time event your campaign will only stretch over a month or two, which also reduces cost. What is important is reaching the target demographic, and reaching a lot of people a number of times, within your budget.

For radio and TV, be sure to consider public service announcements (PSA's). The can be provided by email, or, if you have the ability to produce it, a complete video announcement. Be sure to contact the stations directly to learn how they handle PSA's. PSA's are free, but you have no control over when, or even if, they are shown.

However, print and TV are far from your only advertising option. Social media is an essential part of your advertising mix, especially for fast-breaking information. Social media is also very inexpensive – essentially free – so you can use it a lot with minimal impact on your budget. Remember, though, that the criteria for social media must be evaluated in the same way as those for print: reach and audience are key items to look at. Social media casts a broad net, but since it's free, it doesn't matter that much of the reach is wasted. Remember, too, that social media is ephemeral and dynamic, so you must update it frequently, and you must keep your updates interesting or you risk losing your audience.

Here's a checklist of things to remember when you plan your advertising:

1. Demographics of your target audience, including gender, age, income, physical location, previous giving history, and the source of this name.
2. Specific program interests, which means that certain donors prefer to give for certain programs.
3. Media preferences. for example, if most of your donors are under 30, mobile media might be the way to reach them best. However if your donors are older and perhaps not as computer literate, you may reach them best on traditional media; television, radio, newspapers, and magazines.
4. Budget. You don't want to spend more than you can afford.
5. An offer. What's your call to action? You need to get people to do something; in this case, buy tickets for the Fat Cat Bash.
6. Set goals. How many tickets do you need to sell to pay for this advertising? That's your minimum goal.

Finally, be sure your budget includes a good graphic designer for your print and online efforts. Your audience is sophisticated and will ignore or deride bad design. The money you spend for good design will help your organization look professional and help your advertising cut through the noise. And ultimately, that's your bottom line.

What to Measure, Why and When

Research, Assessment, and Evaluation

by Ben Delaney, © 2013

How many meetings have you attended in which the term “data-driven” was tossed about, its utter essentiality stressed?

And how many times did you have the feeling that no one had a clue what “data-driven” really means?

As one who has made a living doing market research, I learned to like data. Now I just love data. One of my greatest thrills at work in the last year was finally discovering a seasonal cycle in the sales of our social enterprise store. This information helped us plan a sale at the right time that doubled the store receipts that month. That's an example of data-driven decision making.

I can;t provide you with a course on statistics. Even if I were qualified to do so, we don't have the space for that level of detail. What I do hope to provide is a framework for thinking about data and evaluation that will make your work a bit easier.

Data doesn't just measure results

I think it is very important to use data to shape programs, both in initial planning and through a reiterative, ongoing analysis. Changes are driven by the findings, and often, the answer to one question raises other questions. 

Data-driven programs work this way:

• Program planning is based on research, with measurement points built in, plus
• Ongoing, reiterative analysis of the collected data used to refine the program and deepen understanding, then
• Programs are changed as new knowledge emerges from the data.

That is what a true data-driven organization does.

It takes rigor and discipline to work this way, but the resulting improvements in programs designed like this are worth the effort. That's why all major retailers use a similar model, as pioneered by Wal-Mart.

Planning for data

The very first thing to consider when planning assessment is what you want to know, and why. Having a clear picture of how the information you collect will positively impact your organization makes the process easier and enables good decisions as you design your research or evaluation protocol.

Key in determining what you want to know is evaluating your questions in regard to their impact on your program and the ability to collect meaningful data.

For example, a hypothetical child nutrition program, which we'll call Kids.org, is planning a new child nutrition program. Their questions include: What is the dietary value of the average child’s meals? Does smoking in the home affect a child's appetite? What foods are both nutritious and appealing to kids? If these are significant issues, what Kids.org programs will impact them positively?

There are five concerns that must be addressed when creating the Kids.org assessment plan. Let's address each of the five key aspects of their, or your, assessment plan.

1:   What do we want to know, and why?

Assuming that good nutrition promotes good health and better learning, Kids.org wants to know the following about the kids it serves:

• What is the dietary value of the average child's meals? Are they getting enough of what they need? Are any key nutrients missing from their diet?
• Does smoking in the home affect a child's appetite? If so, is there a correlation with illness or learning/behavioral issues?
• What foods are both nutritious, inexpensive, and appealing to kids? What can we afford to provide that the kids will like and is good for them?

2:   What information will tell us what we need to know?

• What do the kids eat for some period of time. A detailed diary may be required.
• A census of smokers in the children's homes.
• A list of affordable, nutritious foods, taste tested with the kids.

3:   Has anyone already answered this question?

• There are probably studies available to provide dietary information that is good enough. It will be hard to have enough diaries completed to gather significant data.
• Kids.org probably will have to find the smokers' houses, though a questionnaire or personal contact with the parents.
• Nutritional information for the foods Kids.org can afford can probably be easily obtained. Taste testing can take place by evaluating orders for food, or servings eaten, and by asking questions.

4:   How do we collect the data we need?

• Research in online sources, including government, universities, journals, and general web searches.
• Online, written, phone, or personal surveys.
• Measuring and tracking food ordered over time. Frequently interacting with clients to ask what they think of the food, your organization, how you do business, and more.

5:   How will we analyze the data to inform our future actions?

• Someone on staff knows enough to collect and analyze the data. Offices that use programs like SalesForce and QuickBooks can output reports into Excel for analysis. Many CRM/accounting systems offer advanced and customizable reporting to provide much of the data you need.
• A local college or business school can provide interns who understand how to manipulate data to find the information you need. It's important to have these interns carefully document their methods and cross train staff to take over when the intern leaves.
• Reporting experts can be hired on contract to periodically provide the information you need from your data.

Once you have the information you sought, you can modify your programs to be even more effective. Kids.org finds that there are tons of reports on average child diets in various locations, including a city near them that has very similar demographics. A quick check with a few of their clients indicated that their clients were eating pretty much what the study reports. The results of the study showed that kids ate too much sugar and salt, and not enough fruits and veggies. Kids.org starts an education campaign while also finding particular foods that provide needed nutrients.

Finding that smoking in the house caused bad effects on the kids, Kids.org started providing information for parents to explain the importance of a smoke-free environment for their kids. They continue to measure smoking vs. achievement to determine the impact of the smoke-free program, and modify it until it has the desired impact.

Kids.org also changed their food offerings and started requesting different foods from their donors. They discover that small variations in sourcing can make significant improvements in child nutrition.

Added benefits

Not only does Kids.org have a better understanding of its clients, it also has better impact data, and is able to make some changes based on what was found in the data. They can collect data continuously, and evaluate it at any time to assess their work. They can also provide greater insights and impact, which will please their funders. 

All of this applies equally well to marketing. You can, and should, design all of your marketing campaigns with measuring points built in. You can count clicks, calls, and customers. With opportunities like Google's AdWords, Twitter hashtags, specialized landing pages and other tools, you can evaluate the success of online campaigns. Online marketing can change by the minute as new data arrive. Print ads, direct response, press releases, even the Yellow Pages (yes, still good for some businesses), can be measured and adjusted. Obviously, donations provide their own inherent measurement systems, but even in fund raising you can measure other variables that enable you to better craft your message and delivery to improve giving.

The bottom line is the bottom line. No matter how you measure your success, be it families helped, revenue from a social venture, kilowatts saved, jobs created, or new money raised, you can determine significant measuring points. By taking frequent readings, and acting on the data you collect, you can make any organization work better and have greater impact.