When it comes to recruiting and motivating volunteers to ever higher and more effective levels of engagement, no organization has its work more cut out for it than New York Cares.
As New York City’s leading volunteer organization, New York Cares runs volunteer programs for 1,000 New York City nonprofits, city agencies, and public schools, enabling more than 50,000 volunteers annually to contribute their time, expertise, and energy to a wide array of organizations that address critical social needs citywide.
In order to ensure that its massive and complex operation runs smoothly, the staff at New York Cares has spent considerable time developing and refining their volunteer recruitment strategies, whose lynchpin, not surprisingly, is communication.
I’ve spent some time talking with the folks at New York Cares recently, and as you’ll see below, their strategies can be put to work to boost your organization’s volunteer recruitment, engagement and retention rates, no matter the size of your organization.
The challenges facing volunteer communications
In the recent past, New York Cares realized it faced three challenges that limited its ability to grow the base of volunteers serving its nonprofit partners.
1) They needed to raise “activation rates” of attendees who came to learn about New York Cares volunteer opportunities. Only 45% were immediately signing up for an assignment after their informational orientation.
2) They needed to increase the levels of volunteer engagement. The great thing about New York Cares is that it’s a one-stop shop for want-to-be volunteers to learn about opportunities to help a broad range of nonprofits, and register for a project that has a commitment level of as little as just a few hours.
But New York Cares needed and wanted volunteers to come back again and again for more of the meaningful volunteer assignments they offered. “We needed to increase the average number of projects volunteers completed in order to grow the services we provide to nonprofit partners,” says Colleen Farrell, senior director of marketing and communications at New York Cares.
Farrell notes that New York Cares also needs a volunteer team leader for every project they start.
3) They needed to create new leaders. “We wanted and needed a higher percent of our volunteer base to step into leadership roles. Taking a leadership role is the ultimate form of engagement and is critical to our expansion,” says Farrell.
What follows is a group of key principles for volunteer communication strategies I’ve gleaned from my observations of New York Cares’ work. I want to thank executive director, Gary Bagley, as well as Colleen Farrell, for volunteering their time and insights on how they’ve achieved their success. Where credit is due for brilliant insights and ideas, it is theirs alone; for anything less, I take responsibility.
New York Cares’ volunteer communication strategy
1) Understand that all volunteers aren’t the same. Every group of volunteers incorporates various segments, each with distinct wants, needs and interests.
2) Get to know each segment well—very, very well. And keep in touch on an ongoing basis.
3) Use targeted interactive communications. They’re the best way to move volunteers from one level of engagement to the next.
New York Cares segmented its audiences and developed communications plans for each. “We focused in on volunteers, segmenting them by commitment level, and developed a new framework for our engagement with them over the course of their involvement: the Volunteer Engagement Scale (VES),” says Farrell.
The VES enables New York Cares to pinpoint the best way to motivate volunteer movement from episodic to more engaged participation. This targeted, personalized approach is now the cornerstone of all volunteer communications.
4) Plan communication activities for each segment based on what you know. Planning enables you to focus on what’s important in the long term, rather than be distracted by what just hit your inbox.
5) Speak directly to the “wants” of each segment.
6) Roll out more frequent, targeted communications to build engagement and motivate volunteers to act.
New York Cares developed its Volunteer Lifecycle communications program—aligned with the VES—to provide key information at each stage and encourage deeper relevant engagement, such as more frequent volunteering. The plan specifies how to communicate to recruit volunteers and cultivate them from their first experiences to long-term engagement. For example, only volunteers who have demonstrated a significant commitment to New York Cares are engaged with leadership development messaging.
The plan also defines triggers for outreach including thank you emails, calls to volunteer leaders and special letters and awards for volunteers who reach key milestones in their volunteer lifecycle.
Here are some of the ingredients that make this plan work:
- Online communications are the backbone of New York Cares’ outreach, a focus that enables it to manage and deliver targeted communications at a moderate cost.
- Messaging focuses on volunteer impact and outcomes (vs. outputs, such as number of meals served, volunteer hours etc.).
- Increased use of storytelling, imagery and more emotional language does more to engage New York Cares volunteers.
Chart—Volunteer Lifecycle Communications Program
7) Make the ask—Converting interest in volunteering, just as in fundraising, swings on it.
8) Focus on your volunteer orientation program to ensure you’re maximizing your communication activities in this critical engagement activity.
New York Cares took a three-pronged approach to increase its “activation rate.” Bagley and team:
- Revamped the orientation process from start to finish. One striking change was that orientation leaders aimed to have most participants signed up for a project before they left the room.
- Streamlined communications with volunteers.
- Ensured that communications were clear and consistent, and that follow-up support was in place.
9) Put the 80-20 rule to work for your volunteer program.
New York Cares focuses on the 20% of volunteers who are most highly engaged to motivate them to become even more involved, and leverages them to more effectively engage less-connected volunteers.
10) Train colleagues, volunteer leadership and board members as messengers to expand the reach of your volunteer communications.
New York Cares increased the number of staff members focused on volunteer leadership development and training. The staff also strengthened its relationships with current team leaders via increased communication, and with prospective team leaders through personal and direct asks. For example, the staff is focusing now on getting team leaders more involved by inviting them to serve as organizational ambassadors.
11) Remember that your audience’s perspective, wants, needs and interests change over time.
12) Establish an active volunteer feedback loop. It’s the only way to know what’s relevant, what’s working and what’s not, and how to do it better.
13) Track outreach—responses to specific emails, changes in messaging or channels—to supplement the feedback loop. Your findings will highlight what is effective so you can do more of it.
Here’s how New York Cares’ tracks its communications impact on increasing engagement and retention:
- Its in-house technology infrastructure enables New York Cares to track and measure volunteer engagement in real time. Farrell aligns communications metrics with the VES and tweaks continually.
It’s unlikely your organization has this kind of resource in-house, but online communications platforms, from e-newsletters to Facebook, provide insight into what is working for your review.
- This real-time tracking “enables New York Cares to make real-time adjustments to both communications and program delivery,” says Farrell. “For example, we added more orientations and projects to the schedule last year to accommodate the influx of new people wanting to volunteer.
Tracking is supplemented by New York Cares’ volunteer feedback loop. The staff keeps in close touch with its volunteers’ satisfaction level and wants via monthly online polling, periodic surveys and focus groups. In addition, its volunteer advisory council provides input on an ongoing basis.
Create your own volunteer communications strategy
These 13 steps are making a huge difference for New York Cares. Any or all of them will do the same for your organization.
Don’t be put off by New York Cares’ size and sophistication. You can put these strategies (or some of them) to work for your organization, no matter its size. Select one or two steps to start with, and add more over time. Now get to work!
Five Tech Tips to Punch Up Your Nonprofit Communications
/in Nonprofit Communications /by Getting AttentionThere’s a disconnect in the nonprofit world. I read countless articles about technology and its powerful applications for the nonprofit sector, but seldom is there coverage of the critical interface between technology and communications strategies. That’s a serious gap.
What’s happened, in my opinion, is that many of us shy away from technology. By leaving tech decisions to the IT department rather than schooling ourselves on these opportunities, we limit the impact of our communications strategies.
My advice to you is to learn what tech tools can strengthen your nonprofit’s communications strategies, and what choices you have. If you have an IT team or consultant, ask them to dig into the details. But get to know the basics yourself. That way you’ll make sure you get the right tool, and you’ll get the most out of it.
I interviewed nonprofit technology expert and author Michael Stein for his take on tech tips to strengthen your web and email communications impact. Michael, who has worked with Children Now, Groundspring and now as an Internet strategist with the eOrganization.com, had some great ideas:
1. Gather accurate communication information
Improve the ways in which you gather personal information and email addresses from stakeholders with the following tips:
2. Make your communications accessible
Readers have different preferences on every platform. For email newsletters specifically, publish plain text as well as HTML format versions for the following reasons:
3. Publish content in a timely manner
A great way to disseminate content quickly without compromising thoroughness is by diving into blog publishing:
4. Use effective communications tools
Explore using application service providers (ASP) to streamline your online operations:
5. Make an online communications strategy
Develop a web search optimization agenda to improve search engine positioning:
Michael, thanks for your clear and practical ideas on how Getting Attention readers can put tech tools to work to strengthen their communications impact.
Communicating on Difficult Issues (Case Study)
/in Nonprofit Communications /by Getting AttentionQuestion: As a small domestic violence service agency in rural Pennsylvania, we face a real communications challenge. Whenever we publicize our existence or events or what have you, our communications are seen as bad news, i.e. that there is domestic violence in our county. How do we make sure the public is aware of this important issue and of the help that is available without “turning off”? The general public often holds erroneous beliefs about the cause, prevalence, etc. of domestic violence.
– Cheryl Miller
Training Coordinator/Legal Advocate
SAFE, Inc
Clarion County, PA
Dear Cheryl,
You’re facing a classic communications dilemma – talking about an issue that makes people uncomfortable. Many audiences don’t want to hear it and respond with the “it has nothing to do with me, so I don’t want to know about it” mind-set. So how do you communicate in a way that ensures your audiences really listen to what you’re saying, and respond in the way you wish?
Keep in mind that, in most cases, the underlying foundation of difficult issues is the soft, or the human, issues – attitudes, opinions, self-image, values, beliefs, and feelings about how the world is organized and people’s place in it. This context is difficult enough to tackle in a one-to-one, face-to-face conversation, much less through broader communications strategies.
However, Cheryl, you’ve already identified the challenge (an important first step), and there are definitely some concrete steps you can take to build public awareness of the issue and ensure that county residents know that SAFE is there to help.
Clearly define your communications goals
Pinpoint your audience
Hone your communications messages
Let your intermediaries promote your communications
For more articles and case studies, subscribe now to the Getting Attention e-update.
Is Cause Marketing Right for Your Nonprofit?
/in Nonprofit Communications /by Getting AttentionYou know that cause marketing is a partnership between a for-profit and a nonprofit. Each partner has something to offer the other.
Cause marketing is certainly a potentially significant strategy in your overall nonprofit marketing plan. And some of you have a cause marketing program in place already. But for those of you who don’t (and that’s most nonprofits), how do you know when cause marketing is right for your nonprofit? And if it is, how do you bring the program to life?
These questions are more weighty than ever in light of the controversies surrounding the Komen-KFC deal (guidelines for productive partnerships here) and the more recent Nature Conservancy (and other major environmental organizations)-BP deal.
I interviewed expert cause marketer Joe Waters, Director, Cause & Event Marketing at Boston Medical Center, to answer these questions and more. There’s no better resource on cause marketing than Joe’s blog, Selfish Giving. Joe features case studies (with specifics), trends and news from the field – it’s a must read for all cause marketers, and those still considering jumping in.
Cause marketing basics
Nancy: How do you define cause marketing? There are so many definitions out there. Many nonprofit marketers are confused.
Joe: Cause marketing is a win-win partnership between a nonprofit and a for-profit for mutual profit, usually involving point-of-sale and/or percentage-of-sale programs. The “profit” for the nonprofit is visibility and/or money. For the for-profit, it’s an enhanced image and sales.
Nancy: How did cause marketing evolve as a major strategy for corporate support of nonprofit issues and causes?
Joe: American Express’ campaign for the Statue of Liberty in the early 80’s was the first major cause marketing effort. Since then, companies have slowly caught on to the value of moving beyond straight philanthropy. Frankly, many have had no choice because of the disappearing bottom-line that once made “charity” possible. Cause marketing allows companies to serve two masters: Consumers that expect them to give back, and investors who demand growth. It’s called cause marketing, but a more accurate name is “Cause Sales”.
Benefits of cause marketing
Nancy: What kinds of nonprofits are likely to benefit from cause marketing, and to solicit interest of corporate sponsors?
Joe: A company will sometimes partner with a small, unknown charity simply because it’s a worthy cause, but most look for charities that are well-known and respected by consumers. There’s a double benefit here because they’re supporting a worthy cause AND a reputable organization. Companies also favor charities with a large supporter base and, increasingly, marketing know-how.
For instance, the studio that released Charlotte’s Web partnered with Heifer International, an Arkansas-based nonprofit that provides livestock to poor farmers, because of a natural farm animal connection. What sealed the partnership was Heifer’s 160,000 person mailing list and ability to conduct grassroots marketing from a nationwide network of offices. The studio could have partnered with any organization that worked with livestock, but Heifer delivered advantages they could take to the bank.
Nancy: Who usually benefits most, the charity or the corporation?
Joe: People always seem to think it’s the company, but I disagree. For most companies, cause marketing is just one of the ways they’re building reputation and driving sales.
Their marketing mix is like a dish with 100 ingredients: If you leave one out, no one will miss it. But with fewer ways and dollars to promote themselves, nonprofits stand to gain a lot from cause marketing, especially if they land the right partner.
Take the partnership between Starbucks and Boston-based Jumpstart, focused on early literacy skills. Since 2006, Starbucks has raised money and given Jumpstart great visibility via its website and stores, especially in the northeast. Thanks to Starbucks, Jumpstart now enjoys national awareness. But what has Starbucks gained from this one partnership? Can we really say that Starbucks would be any less successful if they hadn’t partnered with Jumpstart? Nope.
Cause marketing tips and best practices
Nancy: What are a few “best practices” case studies?
Joe: Well, I think the Starbucks/Jumpstart partnership is a very strong one. It demonstrates just how much one company can impact a nonprofit. And Starbucks has benefited over time from its cause marketing partnerships with Jumpstart and others to forge a credible brand that has probably helped its business.
I also really like the point-of-sale cause marketing program A. C. Moore and Easter Seals recently completed. Even though it was a national program, it has some good lessons for local cause marketers like me (and probably most Getting Attention readers).
The breakdown of the program was simple. At A. C. Moore’s 136 stores cashiers asked customers to donate a dollar to Easter Seal’s Act for Autism campaign and together they raised over $141,000.
Great results, but here’s what makes this cause marketing effort noteworthy…A special in-store event. During the point-of-sale campaign, A. C. Moore invited customers to a Make & Take crafting event in stores that involved a jigsaw puzzle (for autism awareness). What a great combination of crafting and cause! I was thinking how great it would be if we did an in-store pumpkin decorating event at iParty stores during their October point-of-sale program for us.
Nancy: How should a nonprofit dive into cause marketing for the first time?
Joe: There are many steps, but the first is to honestly assess what you have to offer a corporate partner. Does your organization’s mission resonate with a company’s customers? Do you have an event that will provide great visibility for your partner? Do you have a relationship with a sports star or celebrity to feature in a joint advertising campaign? Do you have an extensive network of volunteers or local offices to help market a company’s products or services?
With my organization, Boston Medical Center, we started with strong relationships with just two Massachusetts-based companies, iParty and Ocean State Job Lots, which had been consistent supporters of the organization for many years. Since then we’ve inked over 50 cause partnerships with Mass-based companies.
Nancy: Whom on the nonprofit staff should be involved? Is this a marketing or development responsibility?
Joe: It’s both. But what’s more important is that everyone understands the value of cause marketing to the organization. If leadership and staff members aren’t committed, it really doesn’t matter what department you work for or how talented you are. It won’t work.
Nancy: OK, let’s assume that there’s a nonprofit that doesn’t fit your criteria for cause marketing success? What other kinds of corporate support are available?
Joe: I would tell them to stop worrying about cause marketing and just focus on opportunity. If you have something of value that you think companies will want, you don’t have to stay between the lines of cause marketing.
A friend of mine works for a Boston organization with lots of foot traffic. She does traditional cause marketing, but she closed her best deal when she convinced a company to sell their products in her main entrance area. That one deal raises her organization several hundred thousand dollars annually. Is it cause marketing? No. Is their money green? You bet it is.
Final thoughts on cause marketing
Readers, I’d appreciate hearing your experiences with cause marketing so we can share them with the Getting Attention community.
Six Steps to Finding the Right Web Site Development Firm for Your Nonprofit
/in Nonprofit Communications /by Getting AttentionChoosing the right Web site development firm can be a difficult decision – especially in today’s changing world, where there are many firms promising to meet or exceed your nonprofit’s goals through Web site design and programming.
Take these six steps to identify the firm that will be the right long-term partner for your organization:
Create a site development RFP
The more detail you provide up front on scope (content, functionality, look and feel), the more accurate the site development proposals will be. And you need a sense of these specs to begin your search for the right developer.
Establish baseline criteria for web site development firm selection
Firms you consider should:
Know the 5 categories of web development firms
In most cases, unless a client organization is already working with a full-service communications agency, I recommend developer type #1. These firms are focused on developing public sites, extranets and intranets, and understand the communications context in which the site will live.
As a result, they offer the greatest depth and range of experience in the field and are up-to-date on the latest innovations in terms of programming, software, user interface design and functionality.
Research your web development firm options
Don’t just go with the firm that “everyone is using.” Those may indeed be the folks you end up working with, but don’t forget due diligence. Remember that you want your organization’s relationship with its Web development firm to be a long-term one; the medium requires successive iterations and it’s easiest and most cost-efficient to continue working with the firms that builds the next iteration of your site, if at all possible.
So ask around for recommended firms that fit the criteria above, are Web developers with a good understanding of strategic communications, and develop sites comparable to yours in scope and budget.
Contact colleagues within your organization and communications colleagues at peer organizations. Contact the site editors at nonprofit sites you have identified as strong models for your organization’s next site. I’ve found that nonprofits are eager to share contacts of firms who have provided good service and a stellar product. They’re paying it forward.
Once you have your list of the top five or ten, take a look at these firms’ Web sites. A strong caveat though – I find many firms don’t update their sites with best recent work on a timely basis. It’s a classic story of the shoemaker’s children. So don’t cross a firm off your list until you take the next step.
Interview your top picks
A two-part interview – first email followed by a phone call to firms that seem to be a good fit – is the quickest way to narrow down your list.
Here’s what you want to ask in your initial email:
Here’s what you want to discuss in your follow-up call:
Distribute your RFP and select the right web site development firm
Once you have these answers listed above, and review the sites mentioned by each firm, you’ll have a good sense of the firms you’ll want to bid on your RFP.
Send it out to no more than three firms (writing these proposals is a huge endeavor; analyzing them is too). You’ve already done the front work to ensure that the proposals submitted will be serious contenders. If you must, send it out to four firms.
While the firms are crafting their proposal, recruit a proposal review team (if you don’t have a site advisory committee in place). Firm selection is a major decision; and you want respected colleagues to weigh in.
When you receive the proposals, make sure you ask about any content you don’t understand. Remember though, you want your site development firm to be able to communicate in plain English. Too much “tech-ese” may indicate that it’ll be difficult for you and your non-techy colleagues to communicate effectively with the Web development folks.
Begin by evaluating each proposal individually. Evaluate not just what’s included in each proposal, but the proposal tone and comprehensiveness. Weigh in on each firm’s potential as a long-term partner.
Once that’s complete, compare the proposals. How do they fare in terms of presentation? How do their processes appear in terms of project management? Do they present scalability and/or upgrade paths for your project, that go beyond the needs of the goals outlined for the next site?
Before you make a decision, arrange an in-person meeting (if possible) with the finalist firm. Personal connection is a pre-requisite for a healthy working relationship.
If an in-person meeting isn’t possible, schedule a conference call (with your Web advisory team), ideally with Web cams in place on both sides.
Once you finalize your decision, contact the firms that you won’t be working with, thanking each for its proposal and sharing the reasons (in general terms) why your organization has selected the winning firm. Lastly, contact the Web development firm you’ll be hiring, and let them know the good news.
Six simple steps taken; hundreds of calamities avoided. You’re off and running towards a powerful new Web site.
Seven Steps to Compelling Testimonials for Nonprofit Organizations
/in Nonprofit Communications /by Getting AttentionRead Part One of this article series here.
You know that there’s no message more valuable than testimonials from partners, donors, members, volunteers and program participants on their experiences with your organization. Testimonials rationalize a prospect’s decision to support your organization as they back up your claims and vouch for the value of your work. As a result, these unbiased words carry more credibility than anything your organization’s staff has to say.
Questions to ask for compelling testimonials
It’s challenging to get the right testimonials from your network. But you can count on getting strong material when you ask this series of questions (via phone or an online survey) as soon as possible after an individual’s interaction with your organization. This approach is vastly more effective than an “open mike” call for testimonials strategy.
You can ask the questions at an organization or program-specific level, depending on the messaging you’re working on. Beware that asking broad questions generates broad responses that tend to be weak testimonials.
Here are the questions to ask:
How to polish nonprofit testimonials for ultimate impact
Once you have a few testimonials in hand, move on to editing. Editing is expected, as long as you don’t change the intention of the testimonial in doing so.
Here are the critical steps to take:
What makes a compelling testimonial?
Start by identifying what doesn’t work. Weak or negative testimonials are worse than no testimonials at all. Here are a few examples that add little messaging value:
“Imagine standing and just looking at a stainless steel 1936 Ford. It is great right? Now imagine working on it! EVEN BETTER!”
–Crawford Auto Aviation Museum Volunteer
So what? This testimonial provides little insight to the reader.
“I very much appreciate all of your time and insight.” (On a nonprofit news service)
—Anonymous, California, USA
Why is that effort and insight of value? And who is speaking? If I don’t know the speaker’s role and organization, there’s no way I can assess whether her take is relevant to me.
Nonprofit testimonials that work
Here are four examples of testimonials that work, and explanations of why they do so.
“The best part of camp is, without a doubt, the kids – their smiles, laughter, and maturity. I volunteer to help the kids, yet I always leave camp with a renewed sense of hope and life, which comes from the kids, and what they do for their fellow campers, the volunteers, and me. In my opinion, Camp Hope is the toughest vacation you’ll ever love.”
—Catherine Brown, volunteer
Catherine’s articulation of all she gets from giving her time and effort is moving and motivational.
“They are very consistent in their pick-ups. It’s very easy to arrange and I know that the things I donate will not be wasted and any money raised goes to a good cause.”
—Nora C., Bridgewater, MA
Nora C. donated goods to the Big Brother Big Sister Foundation and shares the practical features (reliable pick up, easy to arrange) and more spiritual benefit (any money raised goes to a good cause) that will motivate her to do so again.
“I credit meeting many of my career goals this year to my mentor. As a result of my mentor’s invaluable coaching, I have been able to map out my job experience and determine my areas of concern, update my job application form and develop my interviewing skills.”
—Carolyn Ellenes
The specifics here make this testimonial a powerful one. Ms. Ellenes shares her experience in a way that highlights specific benefits (analyzing her career path and honing related skills) and value (meeting many of her career goals) of the mentoring program. We understand who she is and how program participation has made a difference in her life, making it easy for us to evaluate the relevance of this testimonial.
Finally, take a look at the Center for Media Democracy’s video compilation of testimonials from members and community producers. It’s three minutes of warm, fun, informational, and memorable marketing, that doesn’t seem like marketing at all.
Craft a compelling testimonial headline
It’s hard to overestimate the power of a headline. Remember that today’s readers skim at a fast clip. Headlines can stop them in their tracks.
Effective headlines frame a testimonial to capture attention, making content easier to absorb and increasing the potential for audiences to digest your full message. Feature a bolded headline for every testimonial (and include it when you seek permission to use the quote). Your headline should highlight the value of the testimonial, as it does in the three headline/testimonial pairings below.
Toughest Vacation You’ll Ever Love
“The best part of camp is, without a doubt, the kids – their smiles, laughter, and maturity. I volunteer to help the kids, yet I always leave camp with a renewed sense of hope and life, which comes from the kids, and what they do for their fellow campers, the volunteers, and me. In my opinion, Camp Hope is the toughest vacation you’ll ever love.”
—Catherine Brown, volunteer
Easy to Arrange, Reliable Pick Up
“They are very consistent in their pick ups. It’s very easy to arrange and I know that the things I donate will not be wasted and any money raised goes to a good cause.”
—Nora C., Bridgewater, MA
Invaluable Coaching Moved My Career Forward
“I credit meeting many of my career goals this year to my mentor. As a result of my mentor’s invaluable coaching, I have been able to map out my job experience and determine my areas of concern, update my job application form and develop my interviewing skills.”
—Carolyn Ellenes
How is your organization developing or using testimonials?
Please leave your strategies for soliciting and using testimonials as comments below. I’ll be sure to share them with the other nonprofit communicators in the Getting Attention community.
A Volunteer Communications Strategy: 13 Steps to Driving Recruitment, Engagement and Leadership (Case Study)
/in Nonprofit Communications /by Getting AttentionWhen it comes to recruiting and motivating volunteers to ever higher and more effective levels of engagement, no organization has its work more cut out for it than New York Cares.
As New York City’s leading volunteer organization, New York Cares runs volunteer programs for 1,000 New York City nonprofits, city agencies, and public schools, enabling more than 50,000 volunteers annually to contribute their time, expertise, and energy to a wide array of organizations that address critical social needs citywide.
In order to ensure that its massive and complex operation runs smoothly, the staff at New York Cares has spent considerable time developing and refining their volunteer recruitment strategies, whose lynchpin, not surprisingly, is communication.
I’ve spent some time talking with the folks at New York Cares recently, and as you’ll see below, their strategies can be put to work to boost your organization’s volunteer recruitment, engagement and retention rates, no matter the size of your organization.
The challenges facing volunteer communications
In the recent past, New York Cares realized it faced three challenges that limited its ability to grow the base of volunteers serving its nonprofit partners.
1) They needed to raise “activation rates” of attendees who came to learn about New York Cares volunteer opportunities. Only 45% were immediately signing up for an assignment after their informational orientation.
2) They needed to increase the levels of volunteer engagement. The great thing about New York Cares is that it’s a one-stop shop for want-to-be volunteers to learn about opportunities to help a broad range of nonprofits, and register for a project that has a commitment level of as little as just a few hours.
But New York Cares needed and wanted volunteers to come back again and again for more of the meaningful volunteer assignments they offered. “We needed to increase the average number of projects volunteers completed in order to grow the services we provide to nonprofit partners,” says Colleen Farrell, senior director of marketing and communications at New York Cares.
Farrell notes that New York Cares also needs a volunteer team leader for every project they start.
3) They needed to create new leaders. “We wanted and needed a higher percent of our volunteer base to step into leadership roles. Taking a leadership role is the ultimate form of engagement and is critical to our expansion,” says Farrell.
What follows is a group of key principles for volunteer communication strategies I’ve gleaned from my observations of New York Cares’ work. I want to thank executive director, Gary Bagley, as well as Colleen Farrell, for volunteering their time and insights on how they’ve achieved their success. Where credit is due for brilliant insights and ideas, it is theirs alone; for anything less, I take responsibility.
New York Cares’ volunteer communication strategy
1) Understand that all volunteers aren’t the same. Every group of volunteers incorporates various segments, each with distinct wants, needs and interests.
2) Get to know each segment well—very, very well. And keep in touch on an ongoing basis.
3) Use targeted interactive communications. They’re the best way to move volunteers from one level of engagement to the next.
New York Cares segmented its audiences and developed communications plans for each. “We focused in on volunteers, segmenting them by commitment level, and developed a new framework for our engagement with them over the course of their involvement: the Volunteer Engagement Scale (VES),” says Farrell.
The VES enables New York Cares to pinpoint the best way to motivate volunteer movement from episodic to more engaged participation. This targeted, personalized approach is now the cornerstone of all volunteer communications.
4) Plan communication activities for each segment based on what you know. Planning enables you to focus on what’s important in the long term, rather than be distracted by what just hit your inbox.
5) Speak directly to the “wants” of each segment.
6) Roll out more frequent, targeted communications to build engagement and motivate volunteers to act.
New York Cares developed its Volunteer Lifecycle communications program—aligned with the VES—to provide key information at each stage and encourage deeper relevant engagement, such as more frequent volunteering. The plan specifies how to communicate to recruit volunteers and cultivate them from their first experiences to long-term engagement. For example, only volunteers who have demonstrated a significant commitment to New York Cares are engaged with leadership development messaging.
The plan also defines triggers for outreach including thank you emails, calls to volunteer leaders and special letters and awards for volunteers who reach key milestones in their volunteer lifecycle.
Here are some of the ingredients that make this plan work:
Chart—Volunteer Lifecycle Communications Program
7) Make the ask—Converting interest in volunteering, just as in fundraising, swings on it.
8) Focus on your volunteer orientation program to ensure you’re maximizing your communication activities in this critical engagement activity.
New York Cares took a three-pronged approach to increase its “activation rate.” Bagley and team:
9) Put the 80-20 rule to work for your volunteer program.
New York Cares focuses on the 20% of volunteers who are most highly engaged to motivate them to become even more involved, and leverages them to more effectively engage less-connected volunteers.
10) Train colleagues, volunteer leadership and board members as messengers to expand the reach of your volunteer communications.
New York Cares increased the number of staff members focused on volunteer leadership development and training. The staff also strengthened its relationships with current team leaders via increased communication, and with prospective team leaders through personal and direct asks. For example, the staff is focusing now on getting team leaders more involved by inviting them to serve as organizational ambassadors.
11) Remember that your audience’s perspective, wants, needs and interests change over time.
12) Establish an active volunteer feedback loop. It’s the only way to know what’s relevant, what’s working and what’s not, and how to do it better.
13) Track outreach—responses to specific emails, changes in messaging or channels—to supplement the feedback loop. Your findings will highlight what is effective so you can do more of it.
Here’s how New York Cares’ tracks its communications impact on increasing engagement and retention:
It’s unlikely your organization has this kind of resource in-house, but online communications platforms, from e-newsletters to Facebook, provide insight into what is working for your review.
Tracking is supplemented by New York Cares’ volunteer feedback loop. The staff keeps in close touch with its volunteers’ satisfaction level and wants via monthly online polling, periodic surveys and focus groups. In addition, its volunteer advisory council provides input on an ongoing basis.
Create your own volunteer communications strategy
These 13 steps are making a huge difference for New York Cares. Any or all of them will do the same for your organization.
Don’t be put off by New York Cares’ size and sophistication. You can put these strategies (or some of them) to work for your organization, no matter its size. Select one or two steps to start with, and add more over time. Now get to work!
3 Strategies for Creating An Effective Nonprofit Website
/in Nonprofit Communications /by Getting AttentionNowadays, having a website for your nonprofit is non-negotiable. You need your own internet outpost, a place where both committed supporters and curious website visitors can go to learn about your mission and contribute to your cause.
Luckily, designing a nonprofit website is easier than you may think. Whether you’re working with a designer or taking a DIY route with a user-friendly website builder, there are hundreds of tools at your fingertips that can help you establish a distinct look and identity for your nonprofit online.
But to make your website a truly effective tool for your community of supporters, you’ll need to make sure you’re doing more than just making your site look good. Your site will need substance, too—educational information and useful resources that make it possible for your supporters to take action and help you move your mission forward.
Read more
How to Create Enough Good Content
/in Nonprofit Communications /by Getting Attention(Case Study)
As nonprofits have flocked to the e-newsletter as an inexpensive and timely way to communicate with stakeholders, the number of newsletter tips has also proliferated. While subject lines, “from” addresses, and your template design are all important, they aren’t the biggest challenge to putting out a quality newsletter. The most difficult part is creating good content, content your subscribers want to read.
For many organizations, simply getting an e-newsletter out regularly, with enough content — let alone enough good content — is a win. That was certainly true for NTEN a few years ago. But since then, we’ve developed loftier goals for our e-news NTEN Connect, transforming it from a chore we had to cross off the monthly to-do list to a blockbuster driver of traffic to our blog. And we managed to reinforce our values and culture while doing so. Here’s how:
The chore of creating good content
NTEN is a small organization. With just a handful of staff members, we felt the pain of the e-news challenge intensely.
Writing enough good, timely content to fill a monthly newsletter was simply not an option for our overburdened staff. Instead, in 2007, we started stocking it with articles written by members of our community.
While we selected the topics and the authors for each issue, producing the newsletter itself became a matter of curation rather than creation. This shift also aligned nicely with one of our core values: providing a platform for our community’s views. And we took one step further to publish our newsletter stories on our blog (on our website). Readers of the newsletter received a teaser for the article – usually the first paragraph or two – and a link to read the entire article on our site.
We very quickly saw a jump in the website metrics we track. Traffic started to rise and we got lots of compliments on the new format. At that point, we knew we had something good on our hands, but knew we could do even better.
The content creation experiment
We shook up our e-news format again in November 2008. Rather than hand-picking topics and authors, we invited the community to write about anything they wanted. Submissions flowed in, including quite a few we couldn’t use. While we put out an interesting issue, it didn’t drive traffic quite the way we had hoped it would.
Then we added a twist to the experiment in Fall 2009. We had always used the newsletter to “break” stories, publishing all of the new articles at once on our website, on the day we sent out the newsletter. This time, we posted the articles on our website as they were submitted, letting the authors know that the most successful posts — those that generated the greatest usage as measured by page views, time spent on the site, and comments — would be included in the November newsletter.
By this time, of course, social media had burst upon the scene. Being that the NTEN community is generally pretty tech savvy, we saw them using blogs, Facebook, and Twitter to share news, likes and their own accomplishments. So we tapped the power and reach of the community for the newsletter, leveraging our authors’ social networks to drive traffic to our site and increase newsletter subscriptions.
Our incentive strategy worked! That November, we saw an 80% increase in blog traffic over November 2008. We watched our authors using their social networks to highlight their accomplishment – “Look! I have an article on the NTEN site!” – driving traffic our way. That single month was a huge factor in our 22% increase in blog traffic in 2009.
Unfortunately, blog traffic in every other month (when we curated newsletter content) flatlined.
We continued experimenting with the e-news throughout 2010 to boost site traffic, redesigning the template and removing less-popular features. Nothing helped us reach the boost that the social network November 2009 edition created.
The leap into a new content strategy
So, in September 2010, we moved to our Community Guided Content model. We still ask authors to write about specific topics, but we post new articles to our website almost daily, then use the stats to determine what goes into the actual newsletter. Since this shift, blog traffic is up 37% year-over-year and shows a fairly steady month-to-month growth rate. Plus time spent on web pages on page is up – a modest but welcome increase of three seconds.
This new strategy means we’re driving a lot of traffic to NTEN.org overall: We’re up 24% year-over-year in 2011. The blog/newsletter strategy drives most of that, as you can see from the increase in blog traffic as a percentage of total site traffic for the last few years:
2008: 17%
2009: 19%
2010: 22%
2011: 25%
Most importantly, publishing more and more diverse content on the blog gives us a sense of what the NTEN community is most interested in. Then, when we compose NTEN Connect each month, instead of guessing what we should send out to our 30,000 subscribers, we can look at our blog and social media analytics data to learn what our blog readers have already found most engaging.
Looking to the future
We now have a successful newsletter strategy in place — one that aligns our values and goals, and has significantly expanded our visibility and prominence in the sector. This year alone, our newsletter subscriber base has increased 50%.
Next, we’re hoping to match newsletter content even more closely with our audiences’ wants and interests. We’ve begun experimenting more with segmentation: instead of sending out one issue to our full list, we deliver seven different versions based on job function, e.g. Executive Directors receive different content than IT staff members.
Going forward, we’ll be able to tailor newsletter content based on the articles our readers have interacted with over time. Already, we’ve seen the potential for this level of segmentation by including dynamic content based on our subscribers’ membership status and activity levels. And we expect to continue refining our content strategy on an ongoing basis to ensure it meets the needs of the NTEN community. That’s what makes a successful e-newsletter!
What are your strategies for creating content that’s valued by your audiences and advances your organization’s mission — for your e-news, blog, or other channels — when it’s just one of many must-do tasks?
(Case Study)
3-Step Communications to Re-engage Volunteers
/in Nonprofit Communications /by Getting AttentionNew York Cares is New York City’s leading volunteer organization and runs volunteer programs for 1,000 nonprofits, city agencies and public schools, enabling more than 50,000 volunteers annually to contribute their time, expertise and energy to a wide array of organizations that address critical social needs citywide.
Every fall I feel like a kid going back to school. I don’t have to worry about pop quizzes these days, but there’s a big shift as we transition from the slower summer months into our busiest time of year. New York Cares’ inventory of volunteer projects increases dramatically -– doubling between August and November. Volunteer interest also ramps back up after summer, with a spike around Thanksgiving.
Our communication and management challenge is to quickly re-engage volunteers after the summer, and ensure we mobilize the right number of people at the right time as projects expand. Here are three things we consider:
1. Allow volunteers to act now.
We calculate the volunteers we need each month, then create a communications plan synced with our project roll-out schedule. For example, we scale back new volunteer orientations during the summer. In late July, we begin asking volunteers to become project leaders for fall (which is critical for starting new projects). From August onward, email, social media, and orientation schedules accelerate to bring in more volunteers.
There have been times where volunteer demand has outstripped our capacity –- it’s disappointing for volunteers, and something we work hard to avoid. The volunteers you turn away may never come back.
2. Engage existing volunteers.
The adage, it’s more efficient to get business from existing customers than win new ones, applies to volunteers, too.
We track and analyze volunteers’ histories through our database. This helps us forecast how many of last year’s volunteers are likely to return (about 50%) and how many new people we need to recruit to fill our available opportunities. We target communications accordingly.
3. Build a monthly messaging plan.
We create an editorial calendar aligned with our programs, and try to unify messaging across channels. We pick a lead theme each month or season – in the fall, we’re all about education. Messaging is simple and action oriented. We provide context about the current volunteer needs, paint a picture of the impact they can make, and provide clear direction on how to get involved.
Some of our most experienced volunteers will be too swamped to re-engage: that’s reality. But we stay in touch, and try to offer other, less time intensive ways to help – fundraising, donating, and friendraising, for example.
What are your Fall strategies for re-engaging volunteers and other supporters?