2. Purpose
The purpose of this presentation is to help
administrators/boards of nonprofit
organizations to rethink their relationship with
the environment in a manner that proactively
allows for the accessing of a diverse array of
resources the organization needs to not only
survive, but to thrive
This requires a paradigm shift in thinking and
acting regarding the notion of marketing your
nonprofit organization
3. What Resources Do Nonprofit
Organizations Need?
Tangible
Funding
Clients
Staff
Board members
Volunteers
Infrastructure
Intangible
Political support
Social support
Sense of making a
difference
Hope of sustainability
4. So How Do We Access These
Resources
Writing grants
Charging for services
Fundraising
Recruiting
Referring
Buying
Donations
Building
Creating
5. What is Marketing
While selling is offering something in
exchange for money, marketing is a
process that entails satisfying certain
needs of clients or consumers
through an exchange process
Examine how your organization’s
mission statement addresses needs
such as the need for learning new
skills, the need for improved
functioning, the need for increased
opportunities, etc.
6. I Hate Selling!
People who care
passionately about
their nonprofit
programs can also
have a strong distaste
for the term “marketing”
because they imagine it
to mean having to try to
get people to give up
their money
7. Unfortunately, this
narrow view of
“marketing” can
actually serve to block
the flow of many kinds
of non-monetary, as
well as monetary,
resources a nonprofit
program needs in order
to thrive
8. Therefore, we need to shift our
perspective on marketing from
one that emphasizes what we
want to get from another party,
to establishing a win-win
relationship whereby, when we
meet the needs of various
audiences, they reciprocate by
providing us resources
9. So, what then, are some of the needs an
organization can try to meet that various
markets care about?
And how does meeting these needs then
help to facilitate an exchange process
whereby our organization receives
resources (including, but not limited to,
money) that it needs to thrive?
10. Hope
Peace of Mind
Social Justice
Redemption
Feeling Needed
Accountability
Compassion
Information
Services
11. Why is This Shift in Marketing
Perspective Critically Important
One hypothesis
emphasizes the
interconnected
nature of people and
holds that all people
are only separated
by six degrees of
separation
What then, are the
implications of this,
in terms of
marketing?
12. You have no way of knowing
then, how, what appears to be
an apparently informal
interaction or chance encounter
with one person, can potentially
lead to a gold mine of resources
your program could use, from
sources you might not normally
meet or know exist
13. Think about taking
action in order
to receive
potentially unlimited
sources of resources
rather than solely
trying to find ways to
get money from other
sources
14. There are Three Tools Board Members,
Administrators, and Staff of an Organization
Should Have in Order to Optimize Marketing
Opportunities
1.Elevator speech
2.Business card
3.Website
Three Essential Tools
15. Elevator Speech
Be able to articulate clearly and simply in 30
seconds what your organization’s mission is
8 to 10 seconds is even better
Make sure to emphasize the human needs
your organization meets rather than a
technical description of what it does
Helps facilitate the exchange of resources
that your organization needs
19. Identification of Your Primary, Secondary, and
Tertiary Markets and
Their Hard and Soft Needs
Need to know who your consumers or
potential consumers are and what
they need and want
Don’t assume you have only one
market
All people aren’t the same
What about other markets such as
potential volunteers, board members,
donors?
Once you have identified your
potential market(s)
What do you know about them in terms of
their needs?
What do you need to know?
20. Identification of the Market and
Its Needs (cont.)
Once you have identified your markets, learn
everything you can about them
Don’t forgo market research on the
assumption you know what the market wants
and needs, even if you think you are an
expert on it or are a member of that market
Identifying needs is not a one shot deal
Markets can change rapidly in today’s fast-paced
environment
23. The Marketing Plan
Identify your target
markets and describe
their needs
How does your story
speak to these needs?
Decide what you want
to accomplish
Why should the
markets care about
your program
What strategies are
most likely to succeed
Think about
relationships
What resources do you
need to implement
these strategies
Personnel, expertise,
money, time, etc.
When do you plan to
start?
How long should the
strategy go on?
How will you evaluate
the effectiveness of
your strategy?
Adapt, evolve,
persevere!
24.
25. Donna Leigh Bliss, Ph.D.
University of Georgia School of Social Work
(706) 542-2585
dlbliss@uga.edu
www.donnaleighbliss.com
Contact Information
Editor's Notes
Nonprofit organizations do not exist in isolation. In order to survive and thrive, they need to access many types of resources from their environment. Unfortunately, all too many nonprofit administrators are placed into the position of “living hand to mouth” and having to focus more on getting money just to keep their heads above water. However, just as human beings need air to survive, they also need many other resources as well.
1. It is also important to note that this purpose is designed to be feasibly done with existing resources. Therefore, this is a practical presentation in terms of its intent. The hope is that as the result of attending this presentation, nonprofit administrators/boards will have an action list of a few items that they can begin to work on in order to implement a new way of thinking of how they relate to the environment.
1. Note that these resources are tangible and intangible in nature. Have attendees identify other kinds of tangible and intangible resources.
1. While I think it is relatively straightforward to think about how we access the tangible resources, the same is not necessarily true for intangible resources.
2. It might be helpful to have attendees think about how they have serendipitously received resources.
1. Whether we realize it or not, we are involved with marketing when we try to access resources, although some actors may be more comfortable with the term advocating. The key is to differentiate marketing from selling.
1. Some attendees may be thinking that this sounds all well and good, but the term “marketing” raises up the notion of selling somebody something they don’t want in order to get something we want. Tickets to a fundraising event is a great example.
1. What we want to do is open our horizons.
1. This is the beginning of the paradigm shift because our focus shifts from getting to giving.
1. These questions are the beginning of the paradigm shift as they involve thinking more about the needs of the environment rather than the wants of the organization.
Needs fall into two categories – hard needs such as information and services and soft needs. All too often we think about the hard needs, but fail to adequately think about the soft needs.
Can have members of the audience identify other needs.
1. So why is this shift in our perspective so important. It is because of the interconnected nature of people and how we can open ourselves up to receive more by focusing more on meeting needs.
1. We need to think beyond the initial encounter as there can be a ripple effect that could be either positive or negative in nature.
This is an essential take home point. Note that I am not saying that money isn’t important or that we shouldn’t be proactive in trying to get it. I just want us to open up to the bigger picture.
The next slide is how we operationalize this.
1. I purposely have kept this simple in recognition of smaller organizations that might have limited resources and capacities.
1. I think this speech should be distilled into an 8-10 second soundbite.
The elevator speech begins the process of meeting human needs and setting up the exchange process whereby resources are reciprocated.
1. Why are business cards important? What do they actually do?
2. Talk about what happens when you meet someone and ask for a business card, but they don’t have one.
3. Need to have a website listed on the business card.
1. The website is the hub which facilitates the exchange process as it showcases how an organization meets hard and soft needs.
2. A stale or incomplete website is worse than no website.
3. Need to understand that people make critical decisions about the credibility and worth of an organization by looking at a website.
4. Need to have a content management system that keeps content fresh (use bakery analogy). This is perhaps the most important thing to remember.
4. The content meets the needs of target audiences at various stages of the decision-making process with the ultimate decision ranging from accessing services, offering to volunteer, to donating money or inkind goods.
1. Some members of the audience may be thinking about what to do next.
1. Our plan is predicated on identifying the primary, secondary, and tertiary markets and identifying their hard and soft needs.
1. Unfortunately, this step takes time and is easy to shortcut by focusing on primary audiences.
1. This is a graphical representation of primary markets.
1. But we also need to be mindful of their connections as these are sources of serendipitous resources.
