In nonprofit communications, the trend is your friend, in good times and bad.Savvy investors have numerous strategies for making money even when the economy is in the dumps – like now. Annuities, short-selling, options and many other adaptive tactics help some people win while others watch their portfolio tumble.
Savvy nonprofit executives, likewise, adopt strategies to actually take advantage of economic woes in order to increase awareness and boost fundraising at a time when people are actually paying attention. As I’ve noted before, the bad economy doesn’t have to be bad for YOUR organization. In fact, now is your time to shine.
The ideas I am talking about have implications for your branding, your fundraising and your grantwriting.
The strategy lies in adapting your message to the times.
Mental file folders
People like to put things in their brain in neat little folders. If your message lands in the wrong folder, such as “Struggling Charities with Good Intentions But Having Trouble Making Ends Meet,” you lose. In good times or bad, one thing never changes – people with money to donate, large or small, want to back winners. That’s true in politics, horseracing, and philanthropy. No one wants to provide a handout or a bailout. They want to invest in something that makes a positive difference.
If you create a new message that re-files the message into a new folder in the audience's mind – the “action” folder – you win. This folder might be labeled, “Nonprofits With Effective Solutions For This Mess We’re In.”
OK, let’s look at some examples of what I’m talking about. (Incidentally, the PR term for this work is called “Framing,” or “Message Framing.” I don’t want to get bogged down in jargon, but that’s the term commonly uses for this strategy.)
Example 1: “The ACME Food Bank needs immediate help from the community. We have lines around the block at out food bank and not enough food to meet the need. If the community doesn’t step up, we’re in trouble.” This desperate appeal might result in a few Girl Scout food drives and some short-term support to get you through the week, but it will do little to position the food bank for sustained growth over the long term.
Example 2: “The ACME Food Bank is proud to be one of the bright spots in our economic system. The worse the economy gets, the more relevant we become to this community. If we were a business, we’d say demand is great right now – demand for our food distribution has never been higher, thanks to the obvious problems with our economy. If you are looking for a way to make a difference for your less fortunate friends and neighbors during this economic slump, consider volunteering or investing whatever you can in our Community Food Fund. Thanks to in-kind donations and volunteer support, The Community Food Fun provides $9 of food to the hungry for every dollar you donate. Where else can you get that kind of return on your investment these days?”
Example 1 sounds desperate and short-term, and negative, i.e. “bail us out of this mess.” It makes the Food Bank sound like a victim of the bad economy.
Example 2 makes the Food Bank sound like one of the solutions to the bad economy. It sounds appropriately positive, positioning the ACME Food Bank as an example of something that’s actually WORKING! A solution for your community. It flips the first message around. Instead of, “PLEASE help us out of this mess,” the message is, “We’re helping the most vulnerable people in our community – your friends and neighbors -- make it through this mess, and you can be a part of that success with just a small investment in the Community Food Fund, with a tax-deductible return of 9-to-1 on your dollar.”
Example 2 re-files the message into a mental folder much more likely to prompt big-time action – donations, grants and volunteer support based on a real commitment to making a difference and backing a winner.
Time to make a U-Turn in your communications strategy
You’ll see this framing strategy at work now among nonprofits who’ve embraced the new reality of today’s economy and who realize that now is the time to distinguish yourself for sustainable growth. When the economy turns around, you’ll be leading the way from a position of strength.You might argue that there are far fewer dollars being donated today. That’s probably true. But on Wall Street, you can make a fortune on a day when trading volume is very low, if you’ve adopted the right strategy. The same thing is true for your nonprofit. In an environment where the overall donation pie is shrinking, you’ve just got to re-define yourself to get a larger slice.
I’ve developed a workshop based on this model. It’s ideal for nonprofits wondering what they can do to adapt their fundraising, grantwriting and branding messages to win in today’s economy. It’s called U-Turn Communications, and you can find more information about it by clicking here.
