I was surprised to see that more than 60% of nearly 200 nonprofit communicators responding to the recent Getting Attention e-news survey reported that they do not work from a marketing and communications strategy. Even those who do have a plan, shared the following problems:
- The plan isn’t followed.
- There’s no budget.
- The environment (in which the nonprofit works, or within the organization) has changed dramatically, making the plan irrelevant.
- Those nonprofit communicators who are "planless" report that they do a lot of talking about creating one, but first need to develop leadership support for the process.
Equally compelling, more than 89% of respondents said that learning more about strategy (why, what, when and how to communicate) was either "important" or "critical" to them.
Readers, I can’t tell you how strongly I believe in the value of a marketing plan to serve as the foundation of your daily work. The right plan is flexible enough to embrace the changes your organization faces on a regular basis yet specific enough to guide ongoing implementation. So do everything you can to start building a strategy today.
Click here to review the complete survey results.
Nancy Schwartz on December 5, 2005 in Getting Attention E-Newsletter, Nonprofit Communications, Strategy
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Tags:marketing strategy
survey results
Getting Attention
The over 200 nonprofit communicators who responded to the recent Getting Attention e-news survey consistently pointed to these "greatest challenges" faced in their everyday work:
- Getting buy in (strategically, and in terms of resource allocation) from colleagues and leadership.
- Creating brand or name recognition to build and reinforce awareness.
- Lack of time and budget to do all that has to be done.
In addition, over 80% of survey respondents identified these topics as "important" or "critical" areas in which they need to strengthen their skills:
- Strategy (tied for top pick, identified as an "important or "critical" skill gap by 89% of readers).
- Message development and branding (the other top pick.)
- Website development and promotion.
- Evaluating success.
Lots of challenges and "need to know" topics but have faith, each and every one of the elements readers mentioned can be tackled with success. It’s just a matter of learning how…from peers, from training and from the Getting Attention blog and e-newsletter.
Click here to review the complete survey results.
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Nancy Schwartz on December 5, 2005 in Getting Attention E-Newsletter, Nonprofit Communications, Planning and Evaluation
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Tags:communications challenges
skills
