1. Ethnic Marketing - Marketing to the Hispanic community
Mary Anne Chern,
president of the White Memorial Center Charitable Foundation in Los
Angeles, offered several strategies for raising money among Hispanics:
- Diversify the
staff and board.
- Emphasize common
needs and interests.
- Involve a broad
base of grassroots organizations respected in the community. (Implicit
in that is knowing what those organizations are.)
- Have language
translation services. "You can't just translate it," Chern said. "You
have to adapt some of the cultural issues," among varied Hispanic
cultures.
- Having multicultural
leadership is a must.
- Work with collaboratives
and coalitions to expand capacity. It takes more time and it can
be more trouble, Chern said. "But it works."
- Clarify challenges
and opportunities in fundraising.
In addition, Chern
suggested three items that are important to Hispanics.
- Ethnic identity
-- titles. "I've never seen a community that is as into titles
as Hispanics," Chern said. "You have to have a title to get into
the door. ... Consider having external titles in addition to internal
ones."
- Gender. There
can be problems about the gender of the person who is asking until
the woman gains the donor's respect. "You have to think about this
in board makeup," Chern said.
 2. Like
it or not you're always selling
Whether nonprofits
like it or not, marketing is becoming an essential component of their
work. In the increasingly competitive world in which we live, marketing
can pay huge dividends if done correctly.
In his book Mission-Based
Marketing , Peter C. Brinckerhoff explains the six characteristics
of a market-driven organization that remains mission-based. Such
organizations:
- Understand
their markets. They realize that their markets extend beyond just
the people they serve. They identify, quantify and target the markets
they want to serve and can serve well.
- Treat everyone
like a customer. Funders, board, staff and recipients of services
are thought of and treated like customers. Even difficult customers
are treated as well as possible.
- Have everyone
on the marketing team. They work with the attitude that everyone,
every staff person and volunteer, is crucial to the success of
the organization's marketing, its customer service and its competitive
edge.
- Ask, ask, ask,
and then listen. Successful organizations shape their services
to meet customer wants, and they are constantly asking so they
can stay in tune with how those wants change and develop.
- Innovate constantly.
These organizations are extremely flexible, with staff and board
encouraged to take reasonable risks on behalf of the people they
serve.
- Embrace competition.
They don't fear competition (although they may not revel in it).
They focus on customers' wants and doing the best possible service.
3.
Media program is strategic
With all the problems
facing a nonprofit, a media program, that is a strategic plan to
increase an organization's profile in the news, may seem like an
extra and unnecessary burden.
In his book Making
the News : A Guide for Activists and Nonprofits , Jason Salzman
offers several benefits that organizations can reap from an organized
media campaign. The benefits include:
- A better chance
of winning. You can achieve little or nothing in public life without
a sterling communications plan. Whether it's winning an election,
passing a law or changing public opinion, communication is central
- Increased funding.
Like other people, funders are impressed with an organization that
gets media attention.
- Higher morale.
Whether they are answering phones or typing a newsletter, employees
and volunteers feel better about their work when they are recognized
for it.
- More volunteers.
Even the smallest media exposure can bring in volunteers.
- Responsibility
to the community. People should know about their communities, especially
social ills and those trying to fix them.
- Unknown good
stuff. It's a big world out there, and by connecting to it through
the news media, you make things happen.
Salzman acknowledges
that there are arguments against such a campaign: fear that the media
will distort an organization's views or won't care about an issue.
He counters that initiating a campaign lowers the risk of distortion
and it is highly unlikely that a news outlet will be completely indifferent.
Also, an organization
deciding on a media campaign must make a genuine commitment to it,
providing adequate resources.
4.
Designing a valuable survey
Any organization
planning a survey must do a lot of preparation. Bruce Campbell, in
his book Listening To Your Donors, suggests a systematic random
sample, the one most used by nonprofits and easiest to implement.
He also suggests probability sampling, by which the probability of
selecting any given member of the sampling frame is equal to the
probability of selecting any other member.
Probability techniques
are the only ones that will provide results accurately reflecting
the population, he said.
Three probability
techniques are:
- Random sampling.
This is the equivalent of putting names in a hat and asking a blindfolded
person to pick out a certain number. If the population is so high
that manual selection is impossible, computers may be necessary.
If that is so, there are spreadsheets and statistical software
packages that include random number generators.
- Systematic random
sampling. This is especially useful for large populations. It is
also referred to as "Nth name select" because every Nth
name is selected from the list, N being the number reached when
the total population is divided by the number of names desired
in the sample. For this, it is important to start at the beginning
of the database and continue to the end.
- Stratified
random sampling. Separation of a sample into groups or strata may
be necessary when the working population is composed of mutually
exclusive subgroups that warrant separate analysis. One possible
drawback of such a survey is that overall results can be skewed
toward the opinions of smaller strata.
5.
Getting market-based results
Although taking
on a market-driven approach may be a difficult concept for many nonprofit
managers to accept, there are real and substantial benefits that
can result from a good market-based strategy.
In his book Mission-Based
Marketing , Peter C. Brinckerhoff offers six results that he
observes most often when organizations become and remain market-driven.
- You will have
happier markets, particularly consumers and government funders.
If you ask and listen and then make a reasonable effort to accommodate
the wants people have, they will get a better feeling about you;
first because you asked and second because you take action to try
to accommodate them.
- Your organization
will have a better image in the community. People will talk about
you as a "business-like charity," one that is using what
they perceive as their money in a more efficient, effective manner.
- You will retain
your current markets. If it is not happening already, it will soon:
Someone will show up to compete for your core business. Good marketing
now can help cement long-term relationships.
- Your organization
will be more efficient and effective in provision of services.
By definition, if you are a market-based organization, you are
doing things that your markets want.
- You will develop
new revenue sources. Success bring success.
- Your organization
can become and remain more financially stable. More income gives
you the means of stability, but you still need to manage those
funds well.
6.
Relationship Marketing - Donor And Fundraiser Working Together
Fundraising is
of ongoing importance for any nonprofit, and in their book Building
Donor Loyalty Adrian Sargeant and Elaine Jay emphasize relationship
fundraising, one that focuses on the special relationship between
a nonprofit and each supporter.
Although it may
sound good, Sargeant and Jay argue that it cannot be implemented
overnight. Preparation is important, and the following prerequisites
are essential:
-
Supportive
culture. Everyone must want to seek relationships with donors
and must view them as an integral part of the organization. Further,
all managers, employees, trustees and volunteers should know
why donors quit and how to help reduce this attrition.
-
Willingness
to invest. Developing a strong focus on donor needs and preferences
requires research. For this approach to succeed, senior management
and trustees must be committed to the process and must be willing
to make the requisite investment in staff time and monetary resources.
-
Adequate database.
Smaller nonprofits may require only a restricted number of fields
that can store information on a low number of donors. For others
setting up a donor database may require considerable investment,
proprietary software and the capacity to handle thousands of
donor records.
-
Understanding
why donors lapse. An organization needs to have a clear understanding
of why donors stop giving and whether their doing so varies by
method of giving or by level of giving. Where practical -- and
always in the case of major donors -- it is worth approaching
lapsed donors to determine why they left and the weaknesses they
perceived in the relationship.
7.
Segmentation of donors/prospects
Segmentation,
the breaking down of a market into common properties, can be used
effectively in gathering information about donors, as well as to
enhance response rates, gift amounts and donor loyalty.
In their book Building
Donor Loyalty, Adrian Sargeant and Elaine Jay outline a variety
of criteria that can be used for segmentation.
-
Demographic.
Donors can be clustered on the basis of variables such as age,
gender, socioeconomic group, family size, family lifecycle, income,
religion, race, occupation and education. Of these, age tends
to be a reliable indicator of the sources of information people
use, the communication routes they are most comfortable with
and the social influences they are susceptible to. Some nonprofits
develop "male" and "female" appeals.
The income level
of the ask may be related to the income level of the prospect. It
should be noted that many EU countries prohibit gathering information
based on such categories as religion.
- Geodemographic.
This combines data on geographical location and type of housing
with lifestyle data. This can be helpful in ascertaining the purchasing
and giving behavior or particular neighborhoods.
Much of this involves
the PRIZM system, developed by the Claritas Corporation. This is
based on ZIP codes with categories and social groups within them.
-
Lifestyle.
This is defined as a pattern of living in the world as expressed
in one's activities (work, hobbies, social life, entertainment),
interests (family, home, job, community, recreation, media, achievements)
and opinions (of oneself, social issues, politics, business,
education, products, culture).
8.
Ethnic Marketing - Marketing
to the Hispanic community
Mary Anne Chern,
president of the White Memorial Center Charitable Foundation in Los
Angeles, offered several strategies for raising money among Hispanics:
- Diversify the
staff and board.
- Emphasize common
needs and interests.
- Involve a broad
base of grassroots organizations respected in the community. (Implicit
in that is knowing what those organizations are.)
- Have language
translation services. "You can't just translate it," Chern said. "You
have to adapt some of the cultural issues," among varied Hispanic
cultures.
- Having multicultural
leadership is a must.
- Work with collaboratives
and coalitions to expand capacity. It takes more time and it can
be more trouble, Chern said. "But it works."
- Clarify challenges
and opportunities in fundraising.
In addition, Chern
suggested three items that are important to Hispanics.
- Ethnic identity
-- titles. "I've never seen a community that is as into titles
as Hispanics," Chern said. "You have to have a title to get into
the door. ... Consider having external titles in addition to internal
ones."
- Gender. There
can be problems about the gender of the person who is asking until
the woman gains the donor's respect. "You have to think about this
in board makeup," Chern said.
9.
Key marketing management trends
In addition to dealing
with ongoing and recurring issues, nonprofit managers are operating
in a time of radical change. In his book Marketing Management
for Nonprofit Operations, Adrian Sargeant maintains that there
are several key trends that nonprofits will have to face in the next
few years:
- Globalization.
Many nonprofits are now global in scope. Moves toward globalization
are gradually leading to the erosion of national traditions and
cultures.
- The rise of a
contract culture. Hard-nosed contractual negotiations and business
deals now sit alongside the more traditional collecting tins and
flag days.
- Public trust and
confidence. There has been increasing interest in this area lately.
Governments in the United States and United Kingdom believe that
trust is essential if the levels of public support of the voluntary
sector are to be maintained.
- Accountability.
Historically, the accountancy profession has been more concerned
with measurement of for-profit operations. Now, however, there
are "benchmarks" for performance in the nonprofit sector.
- Changing definitions.
In the UK, for example, the government is wrestling with a review
of the charitable status of many organizations. The definitions
of these has been unchanged since 1601.
- Growth in community
foundations. The number of these in the U.S. has almost doubled
since the 1990s. They are typically created to fund initiatives
that matter to local people.
- Civic disengagement.
The growing gap between rich and poor, serious enough in itself,
raises the need for programs to support the poor yet reduces the
number of individuals prepared to undertake this work.
10. Getting
the word out about you
Public relations can be an important part
of any nonprofit's work. It is one thing to have a noble mission
and plenty of vigor. It is another to enlist support in either the
local community or the donor world.
In his book The Public Relations Handbook
for Nonprofits, Art Feinglass writes that the first part of
public relations is having a plan, and he offers eight steps to
create a PR plan.
- Know your audience. Be clear about
who you want to reach. Learn about them.
- Know the results you want. What do
you want your audience to do?
- Develop a clear message. Know what
you want to communicate to your target audience in order to achieve
the desired results. Develop key message points.
- Choose the appropriate media. Different
media reach different audiences.
- Target specific individuals within
each media outlet. Find out which reporters cover the area that
includes you (geographically or topically) and cultivate them.
- Develop the tools to reach out to the
media and the individuals you have targeted.
- Develop a plan for using your outreach
tools.
- Review, re-evaluate and refine the
planning process as necessary, for maximum results. Set concrete
goals and objectives. To gauge your level of success, you must
be able to measure results.
11. Tips
for your PSAs
One way by which a nonprofit organization
can get free, although haphazard, publicity is the public service
announcement, or PSA, that appears on radio or television. This announcement
can be written by the organization and submitted to the nearest media
outlet for public distribution.
In his book The Public Relations Handbook
for Nonprofits, Art Feinglass suggests PSAs as handy ways
of maintaining visibility because radio and TV stations are required
to provide a certain amount of airtime at no cost to serve the
public interest.
With that in mind, Feinglass offers a few
tips for getting maximum mileage out of PSAs.
- Usually, PSAs are 10- or 30- or 60-second
spots. Know the time frame, and write a script for that time. Sometimes
stations will specify the number of words they will accept, and
they may rewrite your PSA.
- Prepare the PSA on a single sheet of paper,
and be sure to include contact information. Organization letterhead
can be good for this.
- Make the PSA warm, lively and conversational
in tone and content.
- Keep the sentences short and easy to read.
Try reading it aloud yourself. If you find yourself gasping for
breath, the sentences are too long.
- Avoid words that are hard to pronounce
or easily misunderstood.
- Grab the audience's attention right from
the outset.
- If a station does run your PSA, send a
thank-you letter.
12. Marketing
- How to evaluate your public relations
If an organization
has embarked on a specific public relations campaign or overall public
relations effort, one helpful part of that process is an evaluation
of it.
In his book The
Public Relations Handbook for Nonprofits, Art Feinglass offers
a few suggestions for measuring success or lack thereof. He acknowledges
that such measurement is not always easy because it is not always
quantifiable, because something like setting a goal of increasing
attendance at an event is easy to measure but one like increasing
name recognition is not. Nonetheless, there are certain signs and
indicators that may be of help.
- It could be
helpful to conduct focus groups before and after a PR campaign.
This can help determine what changes in public perception of an
organization the campaign has accomplished. It is possible to gauge
if more people have become aware of an organization or if they
have a better appreciation of what it does.
- Compare press
clippings from before and six months to a year after a campaign.
This can help reveal whether the organization's key message points
are being communicated effectively. Look to see if the media reporting
on the organization are being read or heard by the organization's
target audience. This can help in planning the next public relations
campaign, especially if key points are being missed or misinterpreted.
- Look and see
where the problems are, either in the person handling public relations
or in the message itself.
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