There are a lot of reasons why you may feel it’s time for a change in your nonprofit’s communication strategies. The addition of several different services may have muddied the public’s understanding of your organization’s purpose. Perhaps your nonprofit isn’t hitting its target goals, or you’re seeing missed opportunities passing you by. Regardless of the reason, course correcting your organization’s communications isn’t impossible, but it does require a plan.
We’re continuing our exploration of the five Messaging Milestones we’ve identified that every nonprofit, regardless of size or age, must navigate to be successful. In this episode, we’re focusing on Course Correcting your communications.
Just as a strategic business plan provides critical direction, your strategic communications plan is an equally important blueprint for achieving the fundraising and marketing goals you’ve set for your organization. In fact, without a strategic communications plan, your business plan doesn’t have a chance of being as successful as you hope.
Please meet Dr. Lisa Watson, Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Executive Director of the College of the Mainland Foundation who wanted to reach new heights for what her department could achieve.
Lisa Watson: We provide scholarships. We provide emergency aid. The foundation is also responsible for supplying equipment and technology. It’s really important for us. And our students to have some kind of education that will provide a better life for them and their families. And so that’s what the COM Foundation does.
Kelli Newman: So, what caused you to recognize the need for a plan to course correct the communication efforts of the COM Foundation.
Lisa Watson: I have always known in order for us to be really successful in the foundation, the only way we could do it is for more people to know what it is that the college is doing in this community and how we support our students. So, I have always known how important communication is. I just didn’t necessarily know how to do it. For me, having the opportunity to work with Newman and Newman has been such a great opportunity. You gave me a plan. You gave me a blueprint. We’ve been very successful because of that.
Kelli Newman: How did it help you better achieve your goals?
Lisa Watson: It made a big difference in our fundraising. A few years ago, we were at $250,000 in scholarship awards. Last year, we gave out 1.6 million dollars. I think highlighting the good work and the great students we have has enabled us to increase the amount of funds that we raise. Which in turn allow has allowed us to provide more for the community so that this community becomes more vibrant, it becomes more robust. Those strategies of communication strategies allowed us to do that.
Kelli Newman: How about as an asset to your board? They certainly want to support the organization that they are associated with, but sometimes they don’t know what to say or their knowledge is limited to that slice of work that they’re doing. So, how valuable is messaging and the subsequent strategic communications plan that comes along with that? How important was that in engaging your board?
Lisa Watson: They come in 4 times a year. They have a very nice lunch and they get to hear all these great things that the college is doing. It has always been my expectation for my board to be so much more than that. And you know, when you change that dynamic and makes people really nervous especially when they know what my role is to raise money. And so having a blueprint or a plan, it does a couple of things. First it says, “Maybe this is not as hard as I thought.” And second, “I don’t want to mess something up.” They’re afraid they’re going to mess something up. Having talking points. Having a story and knowing that story. Being able to tell it consistently, time over time, and for all of them to be telling that story is really critical. And I think it’s given our board a lot more confidence.
Kelli Newman: So, if you were to speak to somebody else in another organization who may not have a strategic communications plan or maybe hesitant to engage in that process. Maybe they even think, “We got to have all the bugs worked out of our department before we do something like that.” What advice would you give them?
Lisa Watson: When we first started having this conversation, I was very glad that I happened to be doing some professional development. And all the things that I had been trying to say for 2 years to my own marketing department to my own on campus constituents, you said everything. I’m like, “That’s it. That’s what I’ve been trying to do.” So not only did you come up with talking points for me but you also articulated things that I knew had to happen and just didn’t know how to say it. If I were someone who we’re trying to figure out how do I elevate my foundation or my group, it’s very helpful to have someone at that 30,000-ft view with expertise. It forces you, in a very positive way, to just do it. And once you do it, then you’re like, “I’m so glad I did this.”
My thanks to Dr. Watson for sharing her experience. The proactive advantage a communications plan has given her team not only preserves valuable resources that can get burned when you’re in a constant cycle of reacting, it has provided measurable results for defining their success.
I’m Kelli Newman and this has been a Minute with Messaging™. To learn how your organization can benefit from Newman & Newman’s marketing communication strategies, I invite you to contact me through our website NEWMAnandNEWMANinc.com.
