Tag: nonprofit

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Engagement Marketing

Working Smarter, Not Harder: A Nonprofit Case Study (Part 3)

Here’s the last post in this nonprofit case study on how small nonprofits can effectively balance growing demands and limited resources by working smarter, not harder. As a quick review, the first two steps involved staying mission-focused and inventorying your organization’s program offerings.

The third key step called for role clarification and communication. Each ABC Healthcare affiliate was increasingly recognized as an organization that “made things happen and got things done.” As a result, other groups’ expectations were becoming unrealistic in looking to ABC Healthcare to do everything – providing funding, leadership, and manpower. The affiliates needed to better manage these expectations.

Step 3. Clarify and communicate your organization’s role

To do this, they assessed their participation in regional activities – from program development and implementation to assisting with other groups’ programs to serving on community committees. They recognized they played a number of roles (based on their mission and operation) that they labeled as: “advocate,” “catalyst,” “connector,” “do-er,” and “facilitator.”

The resulting discussion helped staff identify which role was most appropriate for certain situations instead of being all things to all people. When someone came to ABC Healthcare with a request for money and/or manpower, staff clarified “up front” their limited resources and the specific role the organization was willing to play. As a result, the affiliates learned how to better manage expectations within their communities.

An ongoing challenge

Coping with success involves a delicate balance of mission, need, and resources. To maintain equilibrium, nonprofit leaders need to continually ask hard questions: What are our mission and purpose? What programs and activities do we need to offer, maintain, or give up to fulfill our mission? What is our role in the community we serve? Should we change that role, given our capabilities and resources?

The answers may be as difficult as the questions themselves. But the results, as ABC Healthcare has learned, are worthwhile. Those who don’t engage in these critical discussions are at serious risk for fragmented focus and staff burnout.

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Engagement Marketing

Working Smarter, Not Harder: A Nonprofit Case Study (Part 2)

This post continues the case study on how small nonprofits can effectively balance growing demands and limited resources by working smarter, not harder.

The first step is to stay mission-focused, but that can also present a challenge. Many nonprofits have broad mission statements that let them justify responding to even remotely-related requests. Staff who are truly passionate about the mission find it difficult to turn down such requests or discontinue programs that are no longer worthwhile. (“But we helped the three people who came to our educational seminar!”)

Recognizing this situation, one ABC Healthcare affiliate took the next step to address the question: Where can we, with our limited resources, really make a difference?

Step 2. Inventory your program offerings

To answer this question, the affiliate conducted a detailed inventory of its educational programs and activities. This was a multi-step process in which staff completed program descriptions and developed a profile for each educational offering. First they reviewed the following key questions (several adapted from the Drucker Foundation’s nonprofit self-assessment tool: The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask about Your Nonprofit Organization) for each of their programs:

  • Who is the target audience for the program?
  • What does the target audience value about the program (based on evaluations and other feedback)?
  • Could this audience get the same program elsewhere?
  • What is the estimated return on investment for the organization (based on mission-fit, resource input, and resulting output)?
  • Will this offering advance our capacity to carry out our mission?
  • If we weren’t already presenting this program would we start now?

Answering these questions allowed staff to sort the educational programs into three categories:

  1. “Need to have” (programs that should be kept)
  2. “Nice to have” (those that might be expendable) and
  3. “Not sure.”

They further assessed each program in the “nice to have” and “not sure” categories by considering: Is what we’re doing precluding other opportunities? Can (or should) we invest our time and energy more effectively elsewhere? What would be the greatest consequence if we didn’t offer this program for a few more years?

Their answers to this second set of questions helped determine which programs to keep, which to phase out, and which to eliminate. Staff also revisited programs in the “Need to have” category to see if they should be kept “as is” or if there might be opportunities to enhance or expand them.

The inventory exercise was a valuable way for employees to prioritize and streamline their programs and activities. While initially reluctant to let go of a number of programs, they recognized that doing so would free them to explore new initiatives as well as improve current ones.

The next (and final) post in this series explores the 3rd critical step involving communication.

Categories
Engagement Marketing

Working Smarter, Not Harder: A Nonprofit Case Study (Part 1)

Picture this: You’re the head of a relatively new nonprofit serving a community need with a small, dedicated staff and board. In just a few years, you experience major growth in your activities and accomplishments. Such success, however, is a mixed blessing: work demands have grown faster than your human and financial resources. In addition, the more you do and the more successful you are, the more others expect you to do.

How do you continue to serve the community’s growing needs with increasingly limited resources?

The challenge of coping with how to do more with less is twofold. On one hand, nonprofits have to guard against potential burnout when staff members are pulled in too many directions. On the other hand, mission-driven organizations have a hard time saying no.

Several of my clients found themselves in this situation, and how they effectively dealt with it may be helpful to others. In this “case study” to be covered in three posts, I’ll share the experience of several affiliates of a healthcare-related nonprofit who learned how to manage their success by working smarter, not harder. To maintain confidentiality, I’ll call this nonprofit ABC Healthcare.

With a broad-based mission and regional scope, each ABC Healthcare affiliate – ranging in age of operation from four to 10 years – was challenged to respond to its area’s diverse healthcare needs while not spreading itself too thin. They were initially funded by government grants, so their budgets were variable (never knowing how much they would get or when they would get it).

To cope with growing demands and limited resources, they followed three vital steps:

  1. Stay focused on the mission.
  2. Inventory your organization’s program offerings.
  3. Clarify and communicate your organization’s role.

Step 1: Stay focused on the mission

Regardless of how long a nonprofit has been operating, it’s a good idea to keep the “big picture” in mind by focusing on the mission. Why? Because the mission describes your organization’s purpose and reason for being.

ABC Healthcare affiliate staff regularly revisited the organization’s mission to: 1) ensure they were on target, and 2) guard against fragmenting their focus to avoid overextending manpower and other critical resources.

In routine meetings or special planning sessions, staff members placed high priority on mission “fit” when evaluating requests to participate in new or ongoing programs. Any requests that didn’t directly fit with the mission were turned down.

While using the mission as a touchstone is a no-brainer, the reality is staff in small nonprofits can lose focus because their jobs involve multiple and time-consuming roles (such as outreach and development) beyond their primary responsibility.

Starting with the mission is an important first step in working smarter, not harder. But by itself, it is not enough as I’ll explain in my next post. So stay tuned.

Categories
Marketing

Nonprofit Marketing Book Special Offer

I shared my post about Robin Hood Marketing with its author, Katya Andresen, and she graciously offered a free copy of the book to one of my blog readers.

I’m happy to give this book to the first person who requests it by writing a comment on this post. Just be sure to include your mailing address so I can forward it to Katya. Note: I’ll omit your address before I publish your comment.

Thanks, Katya!

Categories
Marketing

“The Golden Thread” & Storytelling Magic

Lots of nonprofit and for-profit marketers are extolling the virtues of storytelling.

 

As Trish Lambert writes in her blog:

 

“Stories work.  They always have and they always will.  Whether you are trying to teach someone something better or sell someone something, stories will get the point made better than any other form of communication at your disposal.”

I’m privileged to know a professional storyteller, Susan Danoff, founder & Executive Director of Storytelling Arts, Inc.  And with all the interest in storytelling these days, I wanted to tell you about her latest book, The Golden Thread: Storytelling in Teaching and Learning.

In full disclosure, Susan and I are childhood friends who’ve stayed in touch.  I became familiar with her work with Storytelling Arts about a year ago when I wrote a nonprofit marketing case study on her organization.

Not for teachers only

While the book is targeted to traditional educators, it’s also a great resource for business professionals.  I don’t work in a K-12 classroom; my “teaching” occurs in professional development workshops & seminars for corporate and nonprofit managers.  Yet I found Susan’s book engaging and relevant, particularly the section “On Becoming a Storyteller” and the sources cited.

The Golden Thread explores the experience and profound impact that storytellers have on children, including those with special needs – strengthening their literacy skills and increasing their motivation for learning.  The magic and power of storytelling is enhanced with traditional and original folktales woven throughout the book.  And I highly recommend it for both educational and business professionals.

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Engagement Marketing Training & Development

Mission Statements – One More Thing

Here’s a postscript to my recent series on Memorable & Meaningful Mission Statements – it’s a great example of how one organization is making its mission truly viable.

To enable its employees & staff to more effectively keep up with the growth of medical technology & research, along with changes and challenges to the healthcare industry, the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Hospital System created its Center for Learning & Innovation.

Touted as “one of healthcare’s first corporate universities,” the Center was designed to instill & reinforce a “sense of shared mission” for all employees and “be a transformative culture changing force” within the organization.

What’s most impressive is all course content is directly linked to the Health System’s mission, vision, and strategic plan.

You can learn more about the Center (as I did) from the Leader to Leader Institute.

Categories
Engagement Marketing

Memorable & Meaningful Mission Statements – Part 3

Here’s the last post in my series about making mission statements both memorable & meaningful.  The final challenge is: does your mission statement really differentiate your organization?

I’ve seen too many instances where you could easily substitute the name of a competitor in another organization’s mission statement.  It’s not unusual to find a lot of “me-too” or similar sounding missions for organizations in the same industry.

This was the situation for one of my nonprofit clients, and here’s how we handled it.

While its organizational charter was somewhat unique, the group’s services overlapped with several other nonprofits.  The result was its members, donors, and even board members all had trouble explaining how the organization was different from others in the market.

What’s Your Score?

To illustrate the problem, I developed a “Mission Matching Quiz” for the board’s executive committee retreat.  After a web search turned up hundreds of nonprofits offering similar education, research & support services, I selected 10-12 organizations (many fairly well known) and listed them on a sheet of paper with their mission statements in random order.  The exec committee was asked to match each organization with its mission.

No one scored 100% on this quiz or even came close … ditto for the rest of the board members and staff.  But everyone was astounded by this demonstration in which almost every organization’s mission read & sounded the same!  No wonder they were challenged in distinguishing their own organization.

As a result, the group clarified its mission to highlight and better articulate its differentiation.  Board leadership continues to refine the mission as needed.

Maintaining & Changing Your Mission

A mission statement is dynamic.  As the market changes, as your competition changes, and as your organization evolves in response, you’ll need to update your mission.  This is why Peter Drucker encouraged organizations to revisit their mission statements every three years.

When is the last time your organization reviewed its mission?  And how memorable & meaningful is it?

Categories
Customer service Marketing

To Be Like Everyone Else, Press 1

In last week’s post, I talked about the quality of an organization’s employees as a critical differentiator.

It reminded me that sometimes it’s the little things that make a difference.

Case-in-point: I recently conducted a nonprofit marketing workshop for social service agencies.  Professionals in this sector face a growing glut of competition for resources (.e.g., clients. donors, volunteers, etc.) from other nonprofits.  They also have to compete for consumer awareness & attention from non-profits as well as for-profit firms.

So, how does your organization differentiate itself?

When I asked this question in the workshop, one attendee responded with the following anecdote.  He heard from a representative of a grant-making foundation who complimented his agency on having real people answer the phone instead of using automated voice mail.  Seems the foundation staff is finding this a point of differentiation among the social service agencies and other nonprofits they deal with.

Why sometimes you need to sweat the small stuff.

As Prophet’s Scott Davis so aptly put it in the title of his recent MarketingProfs.com article: “You’re Only as Strong as Your Weakest Brand Touchpoint.”

Categories
Customer service Engagement Marketing

Customer Service for Nonprofits: Can You Hear Me Now?

To membership-based nonprofits, listen up: the concept of the customer experience also applies to you!

 

Here’s the situation: about a year ago I joined an organization that serves leaders in the nonprofit field with offerings that include information & idea-exchange, e-newsletter, discounted publications, annual conference, etc. But I decided not to renew my membership since I hadn’t gotten much out of it. It was only when working on my budget for memberships that I even realized they never sent me a renewal notice.) I also realized I never received the quarterly journal promised in their new member material, and they were unresponsive when I e-mailed them with a question about one of their events.

                                                                                                                                           

Welcome Back!?
                                                                                                                         

So I was surprised when I got a letter telling me my membership was extended for one year. I e-mailed them asking why — given my service to the nonprofit field as a professional advisor/facilitator as well as a volunteer leader, I was just a bit curious. Was it a matter of member service recovery? Or did the organization have such a great year they decided to “share the wealth” with their members?

Guess what? No response (surprise, surprise). So I sent a letter with a copy of my earlier e-mail to the organization’s Board Chair, a well-known & highly respected leader. This time I got a response (while it wasn’t directly from the Chair, at least I got through to someone). I received a phone call and letter from the staff apologizing for the situation (which was acceptable) and offering an explanation based on insufficient staffing, mis-communication with the members, etc. (which I found lame).

There’s no excuse for this treatment of members, especially given the prestigious founders & supporters of this particular organization. (Sorry, I know the power that dissatisfied customers have in spreading negative word-of-mouth and the more current “word-of-mouse,” but I’m reluctant to divulge the name of this group).

Acquisition Without Retention = Leaky Bucket

Membership-based organizations, no matter how well-intentioned their missions, won’t survive without members. They have to pay attention to the “customer” experience, and I’m not talking about anything complicated here — just the basics of being responsive to members, answering their concerns in a timely manner, communicating effectively to manage member expectations, and delivering what was promised. 

When it comes to member/customer satisfaction, this is Customer Service 101. My friend Mike McDermott and his colleague, Arlene Farber Sirkin, wrote a great book on this entitled “Keeping Members”, published by the ASAE (American Society of Association Executives (Foundation).

What’s surprising and disappointing is that there are member-based organizations out there who still don’t get it. Trust me, they won’t get my membership either.