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listen to lots of conversations and
collect a lot of information about
how people perceive your organization
and your issue. Social media is
a wonderful research tool and a wonderful
tool for connecting with others
who care about your issue or cause.
PND: You spent several years living
and working in developing countries,
including Cambodia and Madagascar.
How did those experiences help
shape your interest in nonprofits and
nonprofit marketing?
KA: Most of my time overseas was
spent as a journalist. My job was to
observe, translate, and communicate
what was going on in the countries
in which I lived and visited. It was
incredibly compelling work. By simply
shining a light on things that are
happening around the world, you
can do a lot to raise awareness and
do some good. But for me, it wasn’t
quite enough to be a witness. I saw
an incredible amount of human need,
and I really wanted to be involved in
helping to find solutions to the poverty,
the disease, and some of the
other problems I saw all around me.
I might add, is getting worse by the
minute — organizations have to
understand where their audiences
are coming from and piggy-back on
the things that are most likely to get
their attention.
Another common mistake nonprofits
make is failing to have a clear, specific
call to action — even something
as simple as displaying a “Donate
Now” button on their web sites or
providing an opportunity for visitors
to the site to sign a petition. We tend
to do a lot of awareness-building in
the nonprofit sector because we think
that if we share information about our
cause, people will automatically act on
it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that
way, which leaves a huge number of
campaigns struggling to get results.
Once an organization has gotten an
individual to take action, it is essential
that it follows up on that relationship.
One of the major reasons people stop
KA: I see them asking for
money more often and,
unfortunately, not always
in the right ways. Like
everyone else, I’m worried about my
401(k) and whether the stock market
is going to turn around a year from
now, so I’m really subjecting my own
giving to scrutiny. And because practically
every nonprofit on the planet
needs money right now, organizations
need to do a better job than ever
at connecting with their audience,
demonstrating their relevance, and
explaining how they’re different from
other nonprofits that are working on
their issue. They have to be crystal
clear about what they are accomplishing
and why it is important to their
audience. And they have to make it
clear that they are good stewards of
their donors’ money. That’s the kind
of pitch I want to see from nonprofits
in this kind of environment.
…to get someone to buy something,
you need to understand who they are…
PND: What is the biggest mistake
that nonprofits make in terms of
marketing?
KA: The most common mistake I see
is failing to approach outreach, communications,
and fundraising from the
perspective of your target audience.
I call the phenomenon “nonprofit
narcissism.” Organizations want to
talk about themselves — their needs,
all the great work they do, and so
on — but that’s not enough to get an
individual to take action. One of the
downsides of all these new technologies
is that people have lots and lots
of things competing for their attention.
To have any hope of breaking
through the message clutter — which,
giving is because of how they are
treated by the charity they have given
to. If they feel they weren’t thanked
properly, or they feel bombarded by
requests for additional donations, or
they never have a clear understanding
of what their money accomplished,
they will not continue to give.
The other really common mistake
that organizations make is to treat
marketing as an afterthought. Really
good marketing is integral to everything
an organization is and does and
is not something you can just tack
onto the end of a planning session.
PND: With the economy in recession,
how are nonprofits changing the ways
in which they market?
But nonprofit organizations
shouldn’t despair. Nonprofits are able
to offer a better return on investment
than almost anything else right now.
They provide us with wonderful art
and cultural offerings, they feed the
hungry, they make our environment
healthier. Most other things, in contrast,
have a negative return right now
— even T-bills. Nonprofits shouldn’t
forget that. And while a lot of nonprofits
have become risk-averse and
gone back to the bread-and-butter
ask, now is not the time to do that.
Organizations need to stand out from
the crowd right now. The organizations
that can do that are the ones
that will be around in five years.
— Lauren Kelley
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