Follow Gladiator Consulting on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Storytelling is a powerful tool. It not only connects our donors with the individuals we are serving. It also allows those we serve to see themselves reflected in the stories of others. It gives real-life examples that can live alongside quantitative data. Long story-short, storytelling connects our work in meaningful, transformational ways to our community members. It is a powerful tool that, when used with an equity and justice lens, can honor the stories and experiences of those you serve and invite others into your movement or organization. 

However, when equity and justice are not considered and applied, when the focus of storytelling is simply to raise more funds or “awareness,” (which is often coded language for raising more money), we can harm those we purport to serve. This practice further conditions donors to the idea that they should respond primarily to feelings of sympathy and saviorism.

My experience with this balance around ethical – and equitable – storytelling is not just from a fundraiser and consultant, but also from a person with my own lived experience. 

In my first nonprofit role as a Development Manager, I worked closely with our Marketing Manager on our quarterly newsletter. We would comb through information about the families the organization served, hoping to find the perfect content to hook our readers and drive donations. We were rewarded when our collaborative efforts paid off – measured by dollars received, press opportunities secured, and increased online engagement. One spring, we highlighted the story of a local mom whose faith community was on our mailing list. Upon seeing her story, the church reached out to understand what more they could do to support her and our work. Though she agreed to an interview and knew we were highlighting her journey in our newsletter, she expressed embarrassment and shame when it seemed like her experience was simply being used to raise money. Indeed, we had crafted a narrative that didn’t highlight her strength, generosity or resilience, and in doing so, we caused harm. 

About five years into my nonprofit career, I found myself on the other side of the table. Shortly after the birth of my son, I suffered and survived a rare postpartum complication called a Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD). A quick google search conducted by my aunt revealed very little information about my condition other than memorial posts and mortality narratives in medical journals. At the age of 28, I had become a new mom and a medical miracle. It came as no surprise when I was invited to share my story at a health organization’s gala less than a year later. 

I was excited to share my experience and raise awareness with the hope that other women might not have to experience what I did. And honestly, I thought I was excited to use what happened to me for “good.” That evening, the organization showed a video (that I had viewed in advance) of my husband telling the story of how we met, my pregnancy and my complication. Standing backstage, I could hear the audible sobs of the audience who believed I had died when the video concluded. My husband and infant son took the stage and “surprised” the audience by introducing me. I did my best to deliver my remarks in a compelling way and overall the evening was a financial success. However, I was hit with the reality that the organization had manipulated a room full of donors and used my story and my trauma in a way that was not true to my experience. Following that night, I knew then that I would never allow my pain to be used in that way again: perhaps to the detriment of causes who could have told my story with more care. 

In my time as a consultant, I have sat with dozens of organizations’ fund development and marketing departments as they pitch ideas and stories that could compel paddles to raise or online donations to flow. Storytelling is powerful and important, but when we consider other people’s stories, I ask that you consider the following things:

Practices for Ethical/Kind/Responsible Storytelling

Someone granting you the opportunity to share their story is a gift to your organization. It should be treated as such and handled with care. In doing so, it is important to remember the following things:

• Obtain their permission and consent to share their story. Make sure they understand how it will be used and what you anticipate happening from its use. Also, ensure their privacy, especially when it comes to minors, abuse victims or health information.
• Allow them to tell their story the way they want it to be told. You can advise on length or format, but this is not the time for you to serve as tone police or shape the narrative into something it is not. 
• Avoid stereotypes and perpetuation of white saviorism. Too often in our work, in an attempt to capture the attention of distracted donors, we try to create narratives that drive a greater sense of empathy and might spur donors to act. Those narratives are not reflective of the whole person whose story you should feel honored to be telling and thus, can create harm. 

“Poverty Porn” Doesn’t Raise More Money

In non-profit fundraising and communication, “poverty porn” is any type of media or storytelling that exploits a person’s condition (whether it be financial, health, et cetera) to generate the necessary sympathy for gaining supporters to a given cause. After 15 years raising tens of millions of dollars for non-profit organizations all over the country, I can say with complete certainty that engaging in this behavior is harmful to the subjects, and it will not solve your fundraising challenges. 

While from time to time, it might create a surge of revenue (but even that is rarer than you think), it does not create long-term committed donors and it will not allow you to more effectively serve the population on which your mission focuses. Furthermore, this work will require you to be more and more dramatic to garner the same amount of attention from your donors. 

If we instead focus on telling true stories, intentionally connecting donors with the work, and naming the systems and practices that have created harm for those we serve, we can better create long-term relationships with our donors that sustain our work. 

Although the harm created by poverty porn might be unintentional, the impact is real. It is time to deconstruct the “we serve them” narrative and instead consider how we can bring supporters and those we serve together to fix the broken systems that perpetuate harm to our most marginalized communities. 

Compensate Your Lived Experience Expert 

When we ask someone to share their story, we are asking them to relive their trauma – publicly – for the benefit of the organization. While many, if not most, people you serve are eager to support your organization and cause, it is imperative that we recognize the sacrifice they are making. I could not more highly recommend that you include stipends for your storytellers in your marketing budget. 

As nonprofits continue their important work across our communities, we must do our best to share the stories of our clients, neighbors and stakeholders with the care and dignity we would give to our dearest loved ones. If we are willing to commit to ethical and equitable storytelling, we open new doors for those eager to be in relationship with and expand our impact.

In 2015, Rachel founded Gladiator Consulting, a boutique consultancy with a holistic approach to nonprofit organizational development. Through Gladiator, Rachel has combined her knowledge of Organizational Culture & Fund Development with her deep personal commitment to centering community, seeking justice and creating belonging for those who have been disenfranchised or targeted by institutions, systems and policy.

To learn more about Rachel’s commitment and work, read her full bio.

The post Does Your Organization’s Storytelling Perpetuate Harm? appeared first on Nonprofit Marketing Guide (NPMG).

They tend to be very popular goals with executives and board members, because they are exciting (“Everyone will know what we do and think we are leading the way!”) but also because, frankly, they are vague. They don’t require the same instantaneous conversation about numbers in the same way that participation goals (how many people did the thing) or fundraising goals (how many dollars came in) do, for example.

Because there are many ways to define and measure raising awareness and thought leadership, these two goals sometimes get dismissed by critics as superfluous and egotistical.

I get where the criticism is coming from. However, I do believe they are absolutely legitimate goals when they are used as a stepping stone to a more concrete goal. I do think you need to know what comes after you’ve raised awareness or after you have become a thought leader.  Knowing what comes next allows you to craft awareness-raising and thought leadership campaigns that get you where you want to be.

So what might come next?

Why are you raising awareness? So people will change their hearts and minds in some way? So they will change their behavior? So they will advocate, or volunteer, or donate?

Same thing with thought leadership, which often deals with peers and peer organizations. People are paying attention to what you are saying or writing. Now what? Do you want them to advocate for policy changes? Change the way they work on issues you work on too?

If you can pin down those answers, you can turn raising awareness and thought leadership into legitimate nonprofit marketing goals.

Learn more about goals, strategies, objectives, and tactics during our Planning Master Class.

The post Are Awareness and Thought Leadership Legit Nonprofit Marketing Goals? appeared first on Nonprofit Marketing Guide (NPMG).

Ready for Day 2 of our Week of Freebies? Today we give you:

20 Ways to Raise Awareness on a Budget 

Edited March 1, 2021: We have an even better FREE resource for you on raising awareness. A whole video course: How to Raise Awareness

You want to raise and spread awareness for your cause, but how?

Raising awareness is important for just about every nonprofit, but in practice “raising awareness” can mean hundreds of different things.

Getting specific about what you and others mean by “raising awareness” for your cause is your first step.

For some people, raising awareness is about public visibility. They are thinking about advertising, signage, and public relations or media strategies.

For others, raising awareness is about being seen in the right place by the right people. They might be thinking of having a booth at a certain festival or giving a presentation in front of a particular business group, for example.

Don’t guess at what others in your nonprofit are thinking of when say “raise awareness” — ask them! Find out what they are seeing in their mind’s eye.

You need to understand what others envision in order to put together a realistic plan.

You also don’t want them to measure your success or failure assuming you are implementing an awareness program that’s completely different than what you had in mind.

Want more ideas on how to do your best work as a nonprofit communicator?  The Annual All-Access Pass gives you the tools you need to not only do your job, but thrive in it. The Pass is now on sale for only $599. That’s a savings of $200 off the regular price and comes out to less than $12 a week. Sale ends January 3rd, 2020.

For proven ways on how to raise awareness, enroll in How to Raise Awareness.

The post Week of Freebies, Day 2: How to Raise Awareness for Your Cause appeared first on Nonprofit Marketing Guide (NPMG).

Here is a quick recap:

• Sign a Pledge
• Watch Video and Share
• Take the Quiz
• Ask an Expert a Question
• Download a Guide
• Honor a Memory

Today, I am back – along with our favorite fake organization – The Center for Wayward Squirrels – to show you six more ways to make a community engagement ask.

6 MORE Ways You Can Ask Your Community to Engage

1. Share Your Story

Ask your supporters to share their own experiences and stories.

Dealing with an outbreak of Cracked Acorn Syndrome can be terrifying. Share your experience, and help others. What happened at your house?

2. Upload a Photo

Ask supporters to take a picture of themselves doing something (e.g. holding up a sign, or volunteering) or wearing something (e.g. a certain color), or of a situation they come across, related to your cause.

Our “Bird Seed Thieving No More” prevention campaign is underway! Upload pictures of seed thieves in your area, so we can decide where to focus our outreach efforts.

3. Say Thank You

Give your supporters the opportunity to thank someone who has been special in their own lives, with a theme related to your cause.

Who has helped you live at peace with your squirrel neighbors? Give them a special shout-out of thanks by writing a message here.

4. Send a Word of Encouragement

Ask your supporters to send a word of encouragement to someone who needs it – usually a group of people that your organization works with or serves in some way.

Nearly 300 squirrels and 300 dogs are starting the prestigious Squirrel – Canine Exchange Institute. It’s a challenging program! Can you send a word of encouragement today?

5. Take a Challenge

Ask your supporters to do something specific that is usually somewhat difficult, or requires some kind of follow-through on their part.

Show you care, and that you understand the struggles that acorn hoarders are facing. Clear out one closet, drawer, or bookshelf in your house, and take a before and after picture!

6. RSVP

Ask your supporters to sign up to attend an event of some kind.

You are invited to a special networking event to meet with other families who have combated Cracked Acorn Syndrome in their own yards. RSVP to attend and we will reserve a special copy of our new how-to guide just for you to pick up at the event.

Next week we’ll talk about fundraising asks you can use.

The post 6 MORE Proven Community Engagement Asks appeared first on Nonprofit Marketing Guide (NPMG).

You are asking people to do things that help build rapport with them over time, allow them to give in other non-monetary ways, and since these actions often take place via social media, to connect with other like-minded supporters.

Today I am sharing sample “asks” or “appeals” that will work for community engagement.

To provide some sample language – and to have a little fun – we are using our favorite fake organization: The Center for Wayward Squirrels.

6 Ways You Can Ask Your Community to Engage

1. Sign a Pledge

Ask people to agree to do something, to not do something, or to say that they agree or disagree with some kind of statement or values.

See something; say something! Sign the pledge:  “I will not tolerate wayward squirrels in my yard. I promise to contact the Center for Wayward Squirrels to request help.”

2. Watch Video and Share

Ask supporters to watch your video, then share with their own social media network.

Watch this video and learn the three tell-tale signs of Cracked Acorn Syndrome. Then share it with your friends and family!

3. Take the Quiz

These can be fun or serious. Facebook in particular is full of various quiz results (What kind of vegetable are you? What state should you live in?)

Are the squirrels in your yard going wayward? Take the quiz and find out!

4. Ask an Expert a Question

Use the expertise or celebrity in your organization. Ask your supporters to submit questions for that person, and then set up a way for the person to answer the submitted questions.

Concerned about how wayward squirrel behavior is affecting your cat, dog, or child? Ask our expert your questions on our Facebook page, then call into our free teleconference next week.

5. Download a Guide

Compile helpful tips or how-tos into a guide that supporters can download and use in their own lives.

Trying to manage wayward squirrels on your own? Download our new guide with easy to follow steps on how to discourage wayward behavior in your yard.

6. Honor a Memory

Give your supporters the opportunity to remember and honor a loved one, or a fond memory from their own past.

Let’s celebrate the 80% of squirrels who are well-behaved! Share your fondest memory of interacting with squirrels in your yard.

The post 6 Proven Community Engagement Asks appeared first on Nonprofit Marketing Guide (NPMG).

Today let’s talk about the types of objectives you should have in your communications plan.

Objectives are the SMART steps you take to achieve a strategy, and at Nonprofit Marketing Guide, we prefer to define SMART as Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Resourced, and Time-Bound. If you focus on Measurable and Time-bound, you are usually in good shape with Specific. Achievable and Resourced are there to remind you not to make up stuff that you don’t have the capacity to implement.

That said, SMART is not really enough guidance on what a nonprofit communications team should consider an objective.

So I’ve come up with yet another list for you.

As a refresher, common goals — the broad outcomes you seek via communications — include engaging your community to keep people inspired and active in your work, raising awareness of issues to educate people on your cause, advocating on your issues, brand building/reputation management, and fundraising from individuals.

Common strategies — the marketing approaches to achieve your goals — include permission-based marketing, content marketing, event marketing, general advertising, and search marketing.

Here are a dozen ways to think about objectives:

• Newly joining, subscribing, or following (e.g., increase newsletter subscriptions by 20% this year)
• Expressions of loyalty, including retention or renewal (e.g., maintain a 75% donor retention rate this year)
• Participation levels, such as registrations, donations and RSVPs (e.g., sell out 90% of the workshops this year)
• Financial gains or savings (e.g., increase the percentage of race revenue raised via peer-to-peer fundraising by 20%)
• Increased levels of influence or share of conversation (e.g., get invited to speak at 5 events this year)
• Increased demand or desire for something (e.g., increase appointment requests by 30% next quarter)
• Change in knowledge or understanding (e.g., 75% of beginners move to the intermediate level in 6 months)
• Change in tone, sentiment, attitude or preferences (e.g., the majority of social media comments on our profiles are positive or neutral this year)
• Increased preparedness or empowerment to act (e.g., 70% of petition signers continue to open educational emails six months later)
• Change in behavior (e.g., 50% fewer students use inappropriate language this semester)
• Increased satisfaction (e.g., raise the Net Promoter Score for the program to +60)
• Expressions of trust (e.g., three new organizations agree to partner with us on the new project)

As you can see, these are generic categories that you’d need to customize for your nonprofit.

In many cases, in addition to adding the Measurable and Time-bound elements, you also need to add some reference to the who — your participants, supporters, or influencers — and sometimes the what you are communicating about — your messaging or call to action.

The tactics you use (the channels or tools) can also influence how you phrase your objectives, although I caution you against only using objectives that are directly tied to a specific tool or communications channel. Ideally, you are using multiple tools or channels to achieve an objective.

Let me know what you think about this list of marketing and communications objectives in the comments. Does it help you think differently about your objectives?

Want more? Join me for Communications Planning that Works: Getting Your Goals, Strategies, Objectives, and Tactics Right in 2019, a brand-new two-part webinar series in January.

The post Objectives for Your Nonprofit Communications Plan appeared first on Nonprofit Marketing Guide (NPMG).

And every day you manage tactical communications channels like email, social media, print marketing, PR and more.

But what’s in the middle? What connects that tactical work to the larger goals? The answer is Communications or Marketing Strategies.  

Unfortunately, if you spend much time searching for nonprofit communications strategies what you most often find is content about goals or tactics.

So, I put some time in sorting through and narrowing down the 12 communications strategies that I most often see effective nonprofits using. A combination of tactics can be used to implement these strategies and these strategies can be combined to achieve your goals.

Here they are:

PERMISSION-BASED MARKETING is sharing content with specific people who have signed up, subscribed, or otherwise agreed in advance to join your mailing lists and lists of social followers. Nearly all nonprofits use this strategy in some way by building opt-in mailing lists. Of course, some do it much better than others!   

UNSOLICITED DIRECT RESPONSE MARKETING is using mail, email, phone calls, and other communications tactics to communicate directly with people who have not previously opted-in to communications with you.  It usually includes direct calls to action sent to purchased/rented lists of names. We most often see this strategy in play as direct mail acquisition fundraising. 

GENERAL ADVERTISING is the placement of content into online, print, and broadcast channels meant to reach a targeted or general audience, rather than specific individuals. It can include everything from free flyers posted on bulletin boards to paid advertising in print and remarketing ads on social media. This is another popular strategy for nonprofits, especially via social media advertising. 

CONTENT MARKETING is attracting people to your work and retaining their interest in it by creating and distributing content they find especially valuable and relevant.  It is also sometimes called Inbound Marketing. Just because you are doing Permission-Based Marketing doesn’t mean you are doing Content Marketing! I wrote a whole (award-winning!) book about the differences. 

EVENT or EXPERIENCE MARKETING is using frequent events or participatory experiences to promote your programs and services, encouraging in-person interaction between your organization, supporters, and/or program participants. Sometimes it is hard to tell if nonprofits are marketing programmatic events or if the events themselves are the marketing, but generally speaking, if you are using events or other experiences to encourage people to take some other kind of action (not just attending the event), then you are probably doing Event Marketing.  

SEARCH MARKETING is gaining traffic and visibility from search engines through both search engine optimization of content and paid search listings. Rather than just throwing content up on your blog or website, are you paying attention to what topics bring traffic to your site and writing to encourage the right kind of traffic? Are you managing a Google Ad Grant? If yes, you are doing Search Marketing. 

WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING is encouraging verbal or written recommendations or testimonials to be shared from one person to another. It relies heavily on casual, unplanned social interactions between people. Sure, some of this happens on its own. But are you actively encouraging people to talk about you with their friends and family by giving them interesting things to share? Are you asking people to post about you on review sites? That’s encouraging Word of Mouth Marketing.  

INFLUENCER or AMBASSADOR MARKETING is creating relationships with people with special influence or access to a broader group of people you wish to reach. Influencers can include celebrities, bloggers, market leaders and anyone else who acts as a gatekeeper who decides whether to pass on your information to their communities.  This strategy is especially important for nonprofits who are several steps removed from the people they are trying to affect in some way. A good example is an education think tank that wants to change how children learn in the classroom. They need to influence the people who make the decisions about teaching. 

PARTNER or ALLIANCE MARKETING is cooperating with other organizations to jointly promote your cause generally or your specific products or services. It can include referral marketing, affiliate marketing, co-branding, and cause marketing. Examples of Partner Marketing include several nonprofits collaborating on a one-stop-shop service center for clients, private sector businesses referring customers to nonprofits or collecting donations at the cash register, and museums in a geographic area buying advertising together.  

PEER-to-PEER MARKETING is organizing and training volunteers to educate or advocate on your behalf. You work with individuals, but also support the community of peer educators or activists as a whole.  Peer-to-Peer marketing is more organized and actively managed than Word of Mouth Marketing and involves many more people than Influencer Marketing. Peer-to-peer fundraising gets a lot of coverage in our sector, but fundraising isn’t always the goal. Get Out the Vote operations by political campaigns are a good example of peer-to-peer marketing.    

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING is creating strong, long-term, loyal relationships with specific individuals and focusing on the quality of those relationships, rather than on individual transactions with those individuals. While the individuals will take a variety of actions in support of your nonprofit over the course of the relationship, their overall engagement with your cause is paramount. Major donor fundraising programs are often built on relationship marketing strategies.   

LOCATION-BASED MARKETING is using mobile phone location data to provide messaging to people when they are physically near specific locations or when they use apps to check-in at specific locations.  Includes Geomarketing and Proximity Marketing. We most often see this now with nonprofits that run public facilities like zoos and museums, but I bet we’ll see a lot of innovation with this strategy in the years to come. 

Which Strategies Go with Which Goals?

How Do You Change the Way You Use a Tactic Depending on the Strategy?

Now, you might be wondering exactly how nonprofits are pairing these strategies with different goals and what kinds of nonprofits are using these strategies. You might also wonder how your use of communications tactics like email or social media might change depending on the strategy selected from this list.

We’ll be blogging a lot more about that in the next month or two.

We’ll also have some great data to share with you in January when we release the 2019 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report.

I’m also teaching a new two-part webinar series on January 8 & 10 called Communications Planning That Works: Getting Your Goals, Strategies, Objectives, and Tactics Right in 2019. 

The post Twelve Communications Strategies for Nonprofits appeared first on Nonprofit Marketing Guide (NPMG).

Part of the challenge with answering the “what should we measure” and “what numbers should I pay attention to” questions for nonprofits is that it depends.

It depends first and foremost on your goals. But it also depends on other factors, such as how easy those measures are to get and how meaningful they really are.

To help you sort out your options and narrow down the hundreds of possible statistics to just a handful that are most important, I recommend that you ask yourself and your team these questions.

Question #1: What are our communications goals?

Nonprofit communications teams work on some subset of these 12 goals:

Community Engagement and Education Goals

• Engaging our community to keep people inspired by and active in our work
• Raising awareness of our issues to educate people on our cause
• Advocating on our issues to change hearts and minds

Brand and Leadership Goals

• Brand building and reputation management for the organization
• Positioning our staff as thought leaders or experts
• Communicating internally with our staff or board

Program Recruitment Goals

• Recruiting and engaging participants to use our programs or services
• Building our membership by recruiting and serving members of our organization
• Recruiting and engaging volunteers to help deliver our programs and services

Fundraising Goals

• Supporting fundraising from individuals making small to medium gifts
• Supporting major donor fundraising
• Supporting event fundraising (galas, walks, etc.)

What are your top three? Start with just three for your measurement conversation. If you can pick just one, even better. You’ll need to take the next questions goal by goal.

Question #2: For each goal, what does the desired result actually look like at our organization?

Get specific, because words like “awareness” and “engagement” can look like very different things to different people.

For example, “brand awareness” could mean “we want people to know they can turn to us for help with that problem” or “we want the media to call us every time they do a story on this issue.” Those are two very different versions of “awareness” that you would measure in different ways.

“Community engagement” could mean “we want to give people hope that there’s a solution to this challenge” or “we want to rally public support for these policy changes.”

You really have to get specific about what the desired results are in the context of your organization’s work.

Question #3:  Given our communications strategies to reach that desired result, what metrics could indicate that we making progress toward that goal?

Let’s take “we want people to know they can turn to us for help.” Let’s say the communications strategies you use run from blogging to PR to paid advertising and more. That means your possible metrics could include:

• Your search engine optimization results on specific terms
• How much earned media you get
• How much traffic your paid ads generate
• How much traction your influencer campaigns produce
• And many others you could add to this list

You should have a list of potential metrics related to your goal/desired result/communications strategies now. But how do you select from all of those choices? That brings us to the next question, which is the hardest . . .

Question #4:  What’s the most strategic or effective or highest priority?

OK, this is a tough one, because the question you ask here actually depends on which goal you are talking about. But the idea is to ask another question that helps you separate the most strategic metrics out from the long list of possible options.

For awareness questions, I would ask: What comes after awareness? If you are building awareness with hopes to fundraise from those people, your metrics should include some form of list building so you can directly ask for donations. If you are building awareness with the intent to educate people more deeply about your issue, you may be more interested in getting people to spend more time exploring your website or registering for workshops.

For engagement questions, I would ask: What do we want most people to do to demonstrate their full engagement? Answers might include “talking to others” or “showing up at events.” Those answers help you pinpoint which metrics matter most.

In some cases, you’ll need to ask which target audience is most important and select the metrics that are the best indicators that you are connecting with those specific kinds of people.

Figure out your strategic question and the answer will help you winnow down your list.

Question #5:  Of the remaining possible metrics, which is both easiest to track and easiest to make progress on?

If it’s not easy to track the number, you won’t.

If you can’t make progress on the number — no matter what you do, it won’t budge — then it’s not worth tracking either.

Your final list of metrics should be relatively easy to track, easy to make progress on, easy to attribute that progress to your communications efforts, clearly connected to your organizational goals and desired results, and short! Especially for boards, I recommend no more than 3-5 key performance indicators.

So next time you ask, “Should I track this metric and report it to my board?” try to ask yourself these questions first to find the answer!

The post What Should You Measure? Ask These 5 Questions First appeared first on Nonprofit Marketing Guide (NPMG).

Gary Wohlfeill

You should use every event and campaign as a learning experience. Today’s post gives you some ideas what to do after it’s all over. ~Kristina

Guest Post by Gary Wohlfeill

Your event or campaign is officially over and it was incredible. You hit your donation goals, spread awareness about your mission, recruited new fundraisers, and so much more. Guess the work is done and it’s time to relax, right?

While you can definitely take a breath, there’s still much more to do in order to finish strong. The actions you take post-event can help turn a great event into an amazing event. They not only can help you close up your campaign, but also get a leg up on your next one.

So, let’s talk about three things you can do after your event is over to really take it to the next level…

Don’t underestimate the power of a thank-you 

When you show your appreciation and thank someone for their support, attendance, and hard work, that thank you has the power to create increased loyalty and a continuation of support. However, when you thank someone, there’s also a real opportunity to go #BeyondTheDonation by also encouraging social fundraising.

Social fundraising is the act of getting people (supporters, donors, evangelists, fundraisers, etc.) to post about the actions that they take related to your cause.

Just because your event is over, it doesn’t that mean that your need for donations or awareness is also over. So, when you’re thanking a donor, supporter, fundraiser, or evangelist, include words of encouragement to ask supporters to share their experience and message their personal networks through social media. Give them a link to share that goes to a donation page or a cause awareness page, and also, make sure they know that sharing has real value that is important to your mission and your cause. 

All that data

So much data and insight was gathered during your campaign and there’s no better time than now to really dig in and make it work for you.

Using a fundraising platform that allows you to own and house all of your data is one place to start. If you aren’t already on a platform that does this for you, it’s a good idea to do some research to find one that does. Your life will be so much easier, and, you’ll be able to take real advantage of your fundraising efforts and help curate successful future outreach strategies.

Additionally, you’ll want to make sure you’re collecting and storing both donor and participant information. Donors and participants should be spoken to differently so making sure to distinguish between the two groups helps to create a robust and functional database setting you up to raise more money and awareness for your cause.

You can have an incredible impact on the growth of your organization by understanding the behaviors of your supporters, in all their various forms, as well as gaining knowledge about your tactics and their successes.

Segmenting can come in many forms such as demographics or action. With demographics, you can segment by age, geographic location, or another variable. When you segment by action, you’re breaking down your data from donors, fundraisers, volunteers, etc. And you can talk to each one of these segments in a way that truly resonates with that group. For example, a loyal volunteer who works at every one of your events should be spoken to differently, with a focus on appreciation and a call out to share their experience with their personal networks (the beauty of social fundraising). Whereas someone who donated one time to your campaign should be nurtured and educated on your organization and its mission in order to continue to gain their trust and support.

By treating your supporters in a way that speaks more directly to the actions they’ve taken with your organization, you’re taking a holistic approach that will have a great impact on your cause, its goals, and its mission. 

Take the time to reflect while it’s still fresh

Regrouping after an event is a powerful and easy way to capture all the successes (and the minor misses) that happened while the event is still fresh in your mind. Not only will it make next year easier, but we really can forget what worked, what didn’t, and this is a great time to help make your next event even more successful.

So after your event is over, it’s a good idea to ask the following questions:

• What day/timeframe did you really start planning your event? Could you have started earlier? Would extra planning time made everything less stressful?
• What was your most unexpected win from your event? Next year, what could you do to amplify it?
• What was your biggest failure that wasn’t expected? How can you learn from that miss so that it doesn’t happen again?
• Did you capture data from all your marketing efforts? Now’s the time to do a quick ROI analysis by marketing initiative do give you great direction when you start planning for next year.
• Would you benefit from a quick survey to participants to give you even more insight and feedback on what people liked, disliked, and are excited for next year?

Taking the time to make each thank you work for you, collecting all of your data, and reflecting on what worked and didn’t work at your event are easy and valuable actions you can take following your event in order to gain insight and a leg up on next year.

Gary Wohlfeill is the director of Brand & Marketing at CrowdRise. He works with partners to develop highly engaging fundraising campaigns and leads the marketing team in developing the CrowdRise brand. Gary has been named as having the “third best haircut of people under 6 feet tall at CrowdRise” and hopes one day to slip to fourth.

The post What to Do Now That Your Fundraising Campaign Is Over appeared first on Nonprofit Marketing Guide (NPMG).

Nevertheless, raising brand awareness is a top goal for many nonprofit communications departments, according to our research.  The argument for the goal goes like this: If someone isn’t aware you exist, then how can they use your services, get educated on issues, advocate for your cause, volunteer to help, or donate financial support? Awareness that you exist comes first (at least in theory — often times a compelling call to action or opportunity actually comes before organizational awareness).

It’s much easier to establish a realistic awareness raising goal and to measure your progress if you pick from that long list of what traditionally comes after awareness. For example, what kinds of awareness-raising activities lead to more volunteers? That’s likely a different set of communications tactics that the awareness-raising activities that lead to more users of your services.  You can set SMART goals for these (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-Oriented, and Time-Bound).

But what if your organizational leaders won’t get that specific with you, and insist on you working on “awareness” more broadly?

For organizations willing to invest big dollars in public surveying, you can get some answers. Big Duck is trying to make this expensive research more affordable for nonprofits with their collaborative Brandraising Benchmark. But that still costs $2,200.

So what’s a communications director with broad awareness goals but without a budget to do?

I suggest you focus first on the size of your permission-based lists. If someone is on your mailing list or follows you on social media, they are aware of you, as long as they put themselves on those lists.  Of course, just building a list for the sake of those numbers isn’t enough. You do need to couple list growth with engagement metrics so that you are building a high-quality list of the right kinds of people. But list size is one legitimate way to measure awareness.

Next, look at traffic metrics that bring people to those various opt-in/following opportunities. For example, is your website traffic growing?  Are people regularly sharing your content on social media?

Finally, consider a way to measure mentions or how “top of mind” your organization is.  This is much easier to do with a paid analytics tool that tracks online conversations and your share in them. But even without these tools, you can use anecdotal examples to help show how you are raising awareness. Do you see others recommending your organization online? Did someone prominent mention you? Do you get a lot of referrals from other sources? Are you getting media calls or coverage?

We’ll talk more about strategic and affordable ways to measure your communications effectiveness during our two webinars next week.

The post How Nonprofit Communicators Can Measure Awareness appeared first on Nonprofit Marketing Guide (NPMG).