Tag: nonprofit

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Engagement

“Share of Mind, Share of Heart” Book News

Nonprofit professionals, leaders and volunteers interested in Share of Mind, Share of Heart: Marketing Tools of Engagement for Nonprofits now have the option to purchase it in both print and electronic versions. In response to numerous requests, my latest book is available for purchase and download at Energize Inc.’s Bookstore. I’m honored that Energize, Inc., a valuable resource for ALL things related to volunteerism, has chosen to offer my book.

For those readers who prefer print, Share of Mind, Share of Heart: Marketing Tools of Engagement for Nonprofits is conveniently available online through WME Books, and Amazon.

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Engagement Marketing

What They’re Saying About “Share of Mind, Share of Heart”

I’m thrilled with the positive response to my new book, Share of Mind, Share of Heart: Marketing Tools of Engagement for Nonprofits.

I’m honored to share these more detailed book reviews by Ivana Taylor, Small Business Trends, and Wayne Hurlbert, Blog Business World.

Here are several recent reviews that I’m also honored to share.

“With a great passion for (and deep expertise in) nonprofit marketing, Sybil Stershic has written an immensely practical, valuable book. “Share of Mind, Share of Heart” clearly explicates both marketing fundamentals and more sophisticated concepts for nonprofit marketing professionals in plain, easy-to-understand language, with concrete examples.

“Unlike many academic texts on nonprofit marketing, this book is peppered with questions designed to get you thinking tangibly and immediately about how the concepts discussed can be applied directly to the day-to-day business of your organization. I found her insights into internal marketing tools of engagement to be particularly apt and important. Too often in leanly staffed, undercapitalized nonprofits where staff is pressed for time, we overlook this crucial area. Morale and profits suffer as a result, with organizations sometimes seeming disconnected and disengaged from their customers, volunteers, and (in some cases) overall mission.

“‘Share of Mind, Share of Heart’ is a book that should be on the shelf of every nonprofit marketer, both novices and veterans.” – Andrew Edmonson, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Houston Ballet

“Like the author, I have served on a variety of non-profit boards and counseled them about marketing. I’ve found that the whole idea of marketing is intimidating to many non-profits. They often believe marketing is too complicated for them and requires a commitment of resources (both human and monetary) beyond their capability. This insightful book dispels these fears as myths. Marketing is presented here as it truly ought to be: a simple, people-based idea about creating and communicating value. Each chapter provides an understandable exercise that will cause the reader to pause and reflect upon how to bring the marketing concept to life in any non-profit.”     – Frank Haas, Dean of Hospitality, Business and Legal Education, Kapiolani Community College

“Every now and then, you find a book that contains more than a powerful message—it houses a poignant experience. Share of Mind, Share of Heart is an experiential wisdom-sharing tome written for organizations that benefit us all. Full of practical how to’s and laced in the language and philosophy of non-profits, it will open eyes, enhance skills, and enrich outreach.” – Chip R. Bell, noted author and consultant, The Chip Bell Group

Special thanks to Andrew, Frank, Chip, Ivana, and Wayne for taking the time to review and share their thoughts on my book!

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Engagement Marketing

What is Volunteer Engagement?

Ask most people to explain volunteer engagement and they’ll tell you they know it when they see it, yet find it difficult to articulate. They can describe it in general terms as a process that includes recruiting and matching volunteer interests with a nonprofit’s needs, then recognizing and respecting those volunteers.

Beyond the generalities, it’s easier for people to describe what volunteer engagement is not. For example, volunteer engagement means:

  • not taking advantage of volunteers’ time and talent.
  • not keeping volunteers out of the communication loop regarding what’s happening (e.g., major changes in operations or direction).
  • not ignoring volunteers’ input and ideas.
  • not creating extra work just to keep volunteers busy.
  • not giving lip-service to volunteer value.

One can turn these negative descriptors into positive ones to get closer to explaining volunteer engagement, but it’s not enough. Fortunately, there’s a more comprehensive definition.

Volunteer engagement is …

According to the late Jill Friedman Fixler of the JFFixler Group, now VQ Volunteer Strategies, volunteer engagement is “a strategy that builds organizational capacity through staff and volunteer collaboration and the development of high-impact, meaningful opportunities that create greater influence and outcome for the organization.”

What I like about Fixler’s definition is that it recognizes:

  • as a “strategy,” volunteer engagement is intentional
  • its purpose is to help advance a nonprofit’s mission by building “organizational capacity”
  • it is based on mutual endeavor via “staff and volunteer collaboration”
  • it benefits the nonprofit by creating “greater influence and outcome.”

A great way to articulate what volunteer engagement is and does.

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Engagement

Nonprofit Engagement Dilemma: A Caring, Yet Complacent Board

A  friend of mine works as a marketing director for a nonprofit with a stagnant board of directors. The by-laws stipulate board membership be drawn from the regional service-based organization that founded the nonprofit more than fifty years ago. As a result, the governance structure has evolved into an insular board with life-time terms. The good news is board members take pride in their involvement with the nonprofit based on its mission, and they have a strong passion for the founding organization. The board is also fortunate in that the nonprofit is well run by a dedicated professional staff.

The bad news is staff members have to work around a board that has become complacent. As long as the nonprofit is thriving, the board is comfortable with its oversight. Board leadership is not interested in how it can improve its governance and support. So the executive team leads the organization by focusing on the mission as it tolerates a board that has “a golden operation in their hands and do not understand what to do with it.”

As mentioned earlier, this nonprofit is doing well except for the executive team’s frustration. Passion for and commitment to the mission sustains these staff members … for now.

Effective board member engagement is more than just showing up at board meetings and talking up the nonprofit. It also involves a commitment to improving its governance and collaborative relationship with staff. As well run as my friend’s nonprofit is, it could be so much more with a fully engaged and mutually respectful staff-board partnership.

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Engagement Marketing Training & Development

Internal Marketing Tools of Engagement For Marketers (Part 2)

Last week I shared examples of how Marketing can start to build better relationships within the firm. In addition to this general outreach, it’s important to get employee buy-in and cooperation for each marketing program you implement. Here are several tools of engagement you can use.

Before launching any marketing initiative or program …

  • Share the rationale and goals behind this initiative with employees – clearly explain what you’re trying to do and why.
  • Communicate how Marketing’s efforts in relation to the program help support the firm’s overall mission and strategic plan – reinforce the message “we’re all in this together” instead of contributing to the perception that Marketing creates extra work for people.
  • Get employee input, and be sensitive and responsive to how their work will be affected by this program.
  • Provide the necessary training (and any incentives, if appropriate) so staff can effectively support the initiative.

Once the initiative is up-and-running …

You can’t just let it run its course and forget about it. As part of your monitoring efforts:

  • Stay in touch with what employees need to keep the program’s momentum going.
  • Share interim results and any fine-tuning that needs to be done and why.
  • Recognize and reinforce employees’ support of the initiative.

And when the program is over …

  • Share final results and “lessons learned” – for example, what worked & why (to replicate success in the future ) and what didn’t work & why (what to avoid and what to improve the next time)
  • Acknowledge employees’ individual and collective efforts in supporting marketing and organizational goals
  • Solicit employee feedback on how to improve future initiatives.

Employees who deliver on the brand promise can make or break Marketing. That’s why we need to consider employees “upfront” when planning and implementing any marketing initiative – so they’ll work with us, not against us.

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Engagement Marketing Training & Development

Internal Marketing Tools of Engagement For Marketers (Part 1)

My recent post on How Marketers Sabotage Themselves raised the issue that marketers need to engage all employees who deliver on the brand, including those outside the Marketing Department.

To get employee buy-in, we need to break out of our silos and strengthen marketing’s relationship with employees; i.e., we need to do a better job of marketing “Marketing” within the firm. Here are a few ways we can accomplish this.

  • Participate in new employee orientation to explain how every employee has an important role in delivering the brand promise. If someone from Marketing is unable to attend, educate whoever is in charge of orientation to share this message.
  • Host a real or virtual “Open House” so non-marketing co-workers can get acquainted with Marketing and its resources. Invite key people from other departments to your staff meetings to learn what Marketing is doing and vice-versa.
  • Share general marketing information info to let others know what’s happening in the marketplace, such as consumer/customer trends, competitive analysis, customer satisfaction results, etc.
  • Find ways to effectively recognize employees who positively deliver on the brand promise; e.g., “Brand Champions” or “Marketing Heroes.”

I’ll have more on this topic in my next post, so stay tuned …

Categories
Engagement Marketing

Why Nonprofits Need Engagement-Part 2

Upon learning about my new book, Share of Mind, Share of Heart: Marketing Tools of Engagement for Nonprofits, my friend was puzzled. “I don’t get it,” he said, “especially when nonprofits are so mission-driven. Aren’t the people who work there more engaged than those who work in the for-profit sector?”

My friend’s presumption about nonprofit engagement is a common one. Regardless of whether an organization is profit-driven or mission-driven, the quality of workplace engagement depends on the organizational culture and how its people are treated. Nonprofits can’t claim any advantage based on employees’ and volunteers’ passion for the mission.

As nonprofit employee and consultant Jinna Halperin wrote in Voices from the Field: Nonprofit Workplace Culture – Why it Matters so Much to Us:

“All nonprofits are dysfunctional in some way or another and figuring out where to hang your hat requires one to assess whether the level and type of dysfunction is personally tolerable …

“I am no longer driven only by the mission of the organization. Having so many issues about which I feel passionate and on which I have worked, I have come to believe that employment happiness at nonprofits is more about how one is treated and whether one’s contribution is respected …”

An inspiring mission may attract talent employees and volunteers to an organization, but it takes much more to get them to stay. People need to feel they matter as much as their work.

Note: To get a look inside my new book on nonprofit engagement, stay tuned for next week’s post.

 

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Engagement Marketing

Why Nonprofits Need Engagement-Part 1

My love of nonprofits started in my teens when I volunteered to work at a summer camp for intellectually disabled children. Since then, I’ve served a variety of nonprofit organizations in a range of roles that include frontline volunteer, committee member, advisory member, board member, board chair, and in a professional capacity as a marketing & organizational advisor.

Here’s what I’ve learned based on my personal and professional experience:

1. Mission matters – it provides organizational focus and intention. It also brings together the people who share a passion for the mission and want to do something about it.

2. The people behind the mission also matter – the employees and volunteers who carry out the mission through their dedication and commitment.

3. People’s passion for the mission should not be taken for granted – employees’ and volunteers’ passion for the mission does not guarantee their continued commitment to an organization.

These valuable insights are the basis for my new book that I’m excited to introduce here. I wrote Share of Mind, Share of Heart – Marketing Tools of Engagement for Nonprofits to help nonprofit leaders, executives and managers better engage the employees and volunteers who carry out their organization’s mission.

My book will be published shortly. In the meantime, I’ll share more about nonprofit engagement and my new book in the next two posts.

Categories
Engagement

Volunteers Know What Matters

The recent PR firestorm involving two well-known women’s health organizations (I’m not going to rehash the situation here) reminded me of an experience I had in my early years of nonprofit consulting.

I was asked to facilitate a special meeting between two nonprofits involved in helping people with cancer – one was an established organization, the other was a relatively new start-up. The existing nonprofit felt threatened by the new group. In my meetings with senior staff from the existing nonprofit, some people admitted they wanted the new organization to just “go away” – they were concerned about competing for donor and volunteer support. Fortunately, they accepted the new group’s invitation to sit down together and explore how they could both serve the community.

Can’t we all just get along?

I remember my feelings of trepidation as I prepared for the joint meeting – I was a facilitator, not a peace-keeper! But my fears dissolved after I interviewed a number of volunteers from both organizations. Their message was clear and consistent: “We don’t care who we work for as volunteers, we just want to eradicate cancer! So find a way to work out your differences.“

That was the message I shared with the two organizations at the outset of their meeting-of-the-minds. Their volunteers provided the critical reminder that purpose supersedes politics.

Both organizations took the message to heart. I’m happy to report that meeting was held more than 20 years ago, and both organizations continue to co-exist and collaborate in their efforts to serve people with cancer.

Special Note: National Volunteer Week is coming up soon: April 15-21, 2012. Special thanks to all volunteers who help make a difference in our world!

 

 

Categories
Engagement Marketing Training & Development

Do You Love Your Work?

I was energized after teaching AMA’s Nonprofit Marketing Bootcamp in Atlanta several weeks ago. The wonderful professionals I met who work in nonprofits and organizations that serve nonprofits truly love their work – even with all the challenges they face on a regular basis, such as dealing with limited resources, silo’d communications, internal politics, and “what-were-they-thinking?!” decisions. A woman who works in a social services agency shared her frustration in striving to meet community needs when grant funding didn’t arrive until nearly a year after it was promised. “I must be crazy,” she said, “but I love my work!”

It’s true that most nonprofit professionals are passionate about their respective organizations’ mission. It’s also true that sometimes even passion for the mission isn’t enough to keep them engaged. But as long as they continue to love what they do, without falling victim to burnout, they’ll stay committed.

In the course of my work in internal marketing, I’ve been fortunate to meet people who are dedicated to their work in both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. They are positive, yet realistic in that they are not immune to becoming  discouraged every now and then. Face it – we all have those days that make us question our sanity. But do you love what you do enough to get back on track?

Do you love your work?

Note: If you missed the program in Atlanta, I’ll be conducting another AMA Nonprofit Marketing Bootcamp in Houston next month.

Photo credit: elycefeliz’s photostream