Survival of the Fittest: What Can Nonprofits Do?
By Vicki Bohlsen, President
Due to the pandemic, many charitable nonprofits faced new burdens that – without advance notice – suddenly crashed onto their doorsteps. With tens of millions of additional people turning to and relying on these organizations for services since the crisis exploded, what can they do when they are simultaneously suffering from severe financial hits?
In fact, it has been estimated that one in three nonprofits will close due to the strains of the last year, according to an AP article. More than half of our clients are nonprofits, so we’ve seen these struggles first-hand.
Now is the time for nonprofits to make sure their branding and positioning is spot on! It is absolutely necessary to communicate what differentiates your organization from others. Nonprofits don't just compete against other organizations that focus on the same issue; they're also competing for the public's attention for their mission and why it should be supported.
So, organizations must understand their target audiences and how to reach them: clients, donors, volunteers, sponsors. The failure to serve them all will sooner or later undermine a nonprofit’s survival.
When earned income has plummeted and fundraising has stalled, nonprofits need to get creative about their marketing by thinking outside of the box and turning chaos into innovation.
Nonprofits should look at strategic partnerships with people or organizations who are in sync with their mission and can help advance their work. These could be other nonprofits with similar or parallel objectives, local volunteer groups, businesses looking for philanthropy partnerships, or government agencies.
There are three key takeaways from the year that I want to share with all nonprofits.
Having social media accounts is not doing your organization any favors if you are not on the right platform(s) engaging with the right people. In fact, it could be taking precious time away from other content marketing that could be more beneficial. It is better to do less “better.” Read: Non-Profit Right Now
It’s hard enough asking for money from individuals and corporations when there is no pandemic to deal with. Nonprofits need to identify and then appeal to people and organizations in a way that resonates and shares value. Nonprofits need to just accept that the face of fundraising does not look the same as it did pre-pandemic. Learn more about that here in my podcast interview with Ken Ungar, president and founder of CHARGE, a sponsorship marketing agency.
Everything changed this past year and it sucked. But, what did you learn from it and what can you take from it to improve your organization moving forward? It could be cost savings that you were forced to take and realize you can continue. It could be a Zoom fundraiser event you were forced to do that now encourages you to change the way you engage with individual donors. Gather feedback from your target audiences and be bold enough to incorporate the information into your operations as you move forward.
