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Marketing Your Nonprofit Three Ways to Get Your Board ‘On Board’
If your board thinks marketing is the sole responsibility of marketing or communications staff, they don’t “get it.”
At a recent keynote presentation in Lincoln Nebraska, I spoke to a roomful of amazing and committed nonprofit marketers and development specialists at an American Marketing Association (AMA) Nonprofit Brand Camp. They face several challenges, one of which is getting their boards and senior management teams ‘on board’ with marketing. Then, as chair of the AMA’s Nonprofit Special Interest Group, I spearheaded a recent online discussion about marketing plans and discovered that many nonprofit marketers face this same challenge. How do we get our boards and senior teams to embrace marketing with the understanding that all staff and volunteers share its responsibility?
Here are three ways to influence your board:
1. Bring in a hired gun. When I worked on the “inside,” I faced the same challenge. Since our CEO was keen on board development workshops prior to meetings, I volunteered to bring in the speaker. I hired a local marketing consultant with a lot of experience in the nonprofit sector. In a one-hour session, he did a convincing PowerPoint presentation on why marketing and branding were crucial to nonprofits’ abilities to raise money, attract volunteers, and grow.
You could see the little light bulbs go off around the table. It worked. No matter how much I had talked about it as a senior staff member, it took an outside voice to bring it to light.
2. Share case studies. When you find articles by other nonprofit professionals outlining their marketing successes, print copies for the board and distribute them at meetings. There’s a good chance they’ll read the hard copy rather than receiving the article by e-mail. If they get antsy during the meeting, it’s possible they’ll scan the article right there. If you do this periodically, reinforcing the ROI other organizations’ marketing efforts have produced, hopefully, it will have an influencing effect on the board, although it may take time.
3. Conscript a lay committee. If you have a marketing and communications committee, ensure there are the “right” professionals serving on it. No point having volunteers who are not in the “biz.”
If you don’t have a committee, it’s time to conscript your volunteers. The committee has the ability to make recommendations to the board through the marketing chair. And when volunteers speak, the board has to listen. There’s no guarantee that they’ll buy into the committee’s suggestions, but, as a courtesy and a matter of protocol, they should listen. Working with, and stewarding this committee can have a valuable influence on the board.
If you attempt these suggestions and one works, please share and e-mail your success story. © 2007
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