THREE-HOUR WORKSHOP

Presented by Kivi Leroux Miller

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

1:00 – 4:00 pm ET (10:00 am – 1:00 pm PT)

Get both the concepts and the tools you need to lead meaningful and effective communications planning.

Registration for this workshop is $249.

Recording NOT Available. Please do not register if you can’t attend live.

This workshop is FREE with an All-Access Pass. Pass Holders, please RSVP in this Community Space.

Nonprofits have lots of programmatic, fundraising, and marketing goals that are really just wishes – because there’s no solid strategic communications plan in place to make them a reality.

You can change. We’ll show you how during our next Master Class.

During this Master Class workshop, we’ll focus on:

  • Naming the most popular goals, strategies, objectives and tactics for nonprofit communicators, along with some less popular but super effective ones you might try.

  • Understanding how to combine all of these elements into an inspiring yet realistic strategy.

  • Customizing the strategy template that we’ll give you to make it work for your own nonprofit.

We’ll pay extra attention to two elements in particular: the specific strategies (like content marketing) and measurable objectives (like participation rates) that you should be using.  Why? Because these are the most important parts of your plan that should drive everyday communications decision making. Yet, in most nonprofit plans, marketing strategies and measurable objectives are completely missing or too vague to be of any use!

You’ll work through all of this by playing with our Nonprofit Communications Strategic Planning Card Deck. You’ll shuffle through the most common nonprofit marketing goals, strategies, objectives and tactics and create the winning hand for your nonprofit as you mix and match the cards.

Who Should Participate in the Master Class?

If any of these situations sound familiar, this Master Class is for you . . .

  • Your strategic plan has big lofty goals and super-specific tactics, but no real guidance in between on strategies or objectives that would help you make good decisions day to day. Or better yet, your strategic plan just says, “create a communications plan.”
  • You think you are doing all the right things, but you aren’t entirely sure why you are doing them or to what end.
  • Your communications team is just doing, doing, doing all the time, pounding out the content without any concrete goals, strategies, or objectives in place.
  • You know you are overworked, but you can’t clearly articulate why it is that you need a bigger team or budget.
  • You personally have a communications plan, but no one else at your nonprofit seems to understand why it matters.

You will leave the Communications Planning Master Class with both the concepts and the tools you need to lead meaningful and effective communications planning at your nonprofit.

BONUS!

During the Master Class, we’ll share the Which Planning Documents Do You Really Need? What Decisions Go Where? chart that helps you understand the difference between the various planning documents we recommend so you can decide which ones you need to create:

  • Strategic Communications Plan aka Marketing Strategy (the bulk of the Master Class is on this document)
  • Quick and Dirty Marketing Plan
  • Big Picture Communications Timeline
  • Annual Work Plan
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Creative Briefs

The Master Class Experience

While you learn a lot during our traditional webinars, you are then left to yourself to make sure you can put what you have learned into practice. You also don’t really interact with the presenter or other participants.

A Master Class changes all of that.

During our Master Classes, you not only get the training content, but you also get to interactively experience the planning process while working in a small breakout group. Breakouts groups are monitored to ensure you fully understand the assignments and to answer any questions as you work — something we can’t do in a traditional webinar.

You’ll get to work through some common nonprofit planning challenges within the safe confines of the Master Class. That way you can confidently apply what you learn to your own organization much more quickly with fewer missteps!

But, But THREE HOURS?!?!

Yes, three hours is a long time on Zoom, but our Master Classes are so engaging, the time flies by!

We will have two 10-minute breaks near the top of each hour, and you will be in your small groups for approximately 40 minutes (two 20-minute breakout sessions).

The rest of the time is divided between lecture and full-group discussion, polls, and other interactive work to keep you interested and engaged. We’ll let you know exactly how long the lecture portions will be and encourage you to move a bit or stretch if you can during those portions of the program.

What Others Have Said about Our Master Classes

“My favorite things were the break-out sessions and being forced to write! I liked working on real-world examples and then seeing the results and hearing others results, too. I found the Master Class even more helpful than your regular lecture-style training.” Whitney Smith, The North Carolina Arboretum

“I thought it was helpful real time ‘workshopping’ with others. You two are pros!” – Brooke Gilder, Greater Good Grant Consulting

“Good mix of theory and immediate hands-on practice.” – Estelle Jobson, The European Association for the Study of the Liver

“My favorite part was the opportunity to try out different styles of writing and hear the examples created by other groups. It didn’t feel like 3 hours.” – A.S.

“I found this Master Class more – WAY – more helpful than regular webinars. It kept me engaged and was more challenging and fun. I loved being able to put what we learned into action and connect with others in the workshop. Great, great job. Thank you so much!” – Katie

“The breakout rooms and a chance to dig in and do the work was my favorite part. We were a little shy to start with but warmed up quickly.” – O.B.

“I thought it was put together quite well. I appreciated the focus given to specific writing styles. I don’t think like that in my work. I do use the different styles but not so intentionally. “ – Beth Gibbins, Catholic Charities, Diocese of Des Moines

More Frequently Asked Questions

What technology is used for this Master Class?

In addition to using Zoom, we will also use Mural, a collaborative whiteboard tool. We will send participants a Mural tutorial and a fun introductory assignment the day before the Master Class, so that you can get comfortable with the tool.

With a free nonprofit Mural account of your own, you’ll get access to a Mural template with an interactive set of the Nonprofit Communications Strategic Planning Cards you can use to create your own plan.

Do I Need to Purchase the Card Deck?

No. You can purchase your own card deck anytime from either Amazon or us directly, if you want the tactile experience of playing with the cards. However, purchasing is not required. Both a do-it-yourself PDF print-and-cut version and the Mural template are included with your Master Class registration.

Is this Master Class recorded?

Unfortunately we do NOT record workshops since there is so much time spent in small groups. Do not register if you know you cannot attend live.

If something comes up we can send you all of the resources we shared as well as answer any questions you might have about creating your own communications plan.

The Planning Terms We Use

Debate and confusion on planning definitions abound. Here’s the language we’ll be using in this training:

Goals are the broad primary marketing outcomes that support your organization’s larger mission-oriented goals. Examples of goals include raising issue awareness, fundraising from individuals, and managing your brand and reputation so that your nonprofit can achieve its mission. We’ll look at the 12 marketing goals that nonprofits most often pursue.

Strategies are the marketing approaches you take to achieve your goals. Examples of strategies include content marketing strategies, event marketing strategies, and relationship marketing strategies. We’ll discuss a dozen common nonprofit marketing strategies and share our data on which strategies nonprofits are most likely to use given their goals.

Objectives are the SMART steps you take to achieve a strategy, and we define SMART as Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Resourced, and Time-Bound. Examples include building a mailing list by 10%, doubling website form conversion rates, and increasing social media engagement by 20%. We’ll give you a great set of objectives to choose from so that you can customize them specifically for your nonprofit.

Tactics are the tools you use to pursue the objectives associated with your strategy. Tactics include both communications channels like email, PR and social media, as well as specific types of content like storytelling or infographics. Again, we’ll give you a great list to start your conversations.

Meet Kivi Leroux Miller

Kivi Leroux Miller is the founder and CEO of Nonprofit Marketing Guide, where she helps nonprofit communications professionals learn their jobs, love their work, and lead their teams through a variety of training and coaching programs. She has personally mentored hundreds of nonprofit communications directors and communications teams as a certified executive coach.

She is a popular and trusted keynote, workshop, and webinar presenter. Kivi is also the award-winning author of three books on nonprofit marketing and communications that are often used in college and certificate programs.

  • CALM not BUSY: How to Manage Your Nonprofit’s Communications for Great Results (2018, published by Bold & Bright Media)
  • Content Marketing for Nonprofits: A Communications Map for Engaging Your Community, Becoming a Favorite Cause, and Raising More Money (2013, Winner of the Terry McAdam Book Award, published by Wiley & Sons)
  • The Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for Your Good Cause, Second Edition (First published in 2010 and re-released in 2021 by Wiley & Sons).

Because she can’t get enough of nonprofits and entrepreneurship for good, Kivi serves as the president of the Lexington Farmers Market Association (Lexington, NC) and co-founded a baking business with her teenage daughter called Rabble & Rise Baking Co.

After attending college in the San Francisco Bay Area and a few years working in Washington, DC, Kivi moved to rural North Carolina where she has lived for the last twenty years with her husband, two teenage daughters, and seven rescue cats, including a tripawd. She enjoys year-round gardening, baking, vegetarian cooking, hiking, and kayaking.