You’re doing great work, and you have an important mission. Who cares?
You see it time and again: Nonprofit organizations with amazing programs and services, brilliantly thought out fundraising strategies, strong leadership, and willing and excited staff. Yet, despite all of those things, you see some organizations struggle to attract donors, volunteers and other key stakeholders.
Likewise, you see associations offering stellar benefits, regularly advocating on behalf of their members, and providing quality education. Yet their membership numbers have flatlined, and checkbook members outnumber champions.
So, what is the problem? These organizations are clearly doing great work and have important missions, but they are simultaneously left feeling like ‘no one’ cares.
The real question isn’t ‘Who cares?’ It is, ‘Who knows and why should they care?’
Ask yourself these three questions:
- What is my organization’s mission?
- How are we meeting the mission today?
- Why should people become champions for our cause?
If you can’t answer these questions, send me an email and let’s talk it out. If you can answer them, ask yourself one more: Do all my stakeholders — volunteers, members, clients, staff, donors potential donors, etc. — know the answer to these questions?
The Three Pillars: Brand Recognition, Belief and Buy-in, and Retention
Here’s the truth: attracting and retaining stakeholders requires your organization to focus on three key pillars of communication: brand recognition, belief and buy-in, and retention.
- Brand Recognition: Stakeholders need to know you exist and what you do. At the core of the three key elements is the need for your stakeholders to know your organization. Whether it is through branding efforts, a strong thought leadership platform or a combination of integrated communications, ensuring your name is top of mind is vital when competing in a noisy marketplace.
- Belief and Buy-in: Stakeholders need to believe and buy-in to your cause. Once you’ve caught the attention of a key stakeholder, you now need to get him to believe in what you are doing and buy-in to your mission. This is where strategic storytelling comes in handy. When you understand what makes your stakeholders tick, you can build stories that speak directly to those drivers. It may be emotional storytelling, the use of quantitative data, or any number of storytelling styles and techniques – you just need to make an effort to tell your story in a variety of ways to speak to your various stakeholders’ communications preferences.
- Retention: Stakeholders need to find value in their relationship with you and see how you are meeting your mission. Once you’ve gained their attention and found the drivers to get stakeholders to believe and buy in to your cause, you should be focused on showing the value of the relationship. Communication doesn’t stop after the acquisition of a volunteer, donor or payment of membership; communication should shift to retention and growth strategies. Ensure you are regularly reminding your stakeholders they have made a smart decision by engaging with your organization.
A communication strategy that consistently hits on these three pillars will almost always outperform those that strategies that don’t do this.
Back to the original question: who cares? If you ensure your brand is visible, your stories are tailored to the various stakeholders you are targeting, and you focus on retention and growth communication as much as you do acquisition communication, those who care will continue to do so, and those who are just learning about your organization will quickly make your mission their personal cause.
Let’s Collaborate: How do you focus on brand recognition, belief and buy-in, and retention in your communications efforts?
