A Guest Post by Kivi Leroux Miller, author of The Nonprofit Marketing Guide
“Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.”
I included this quote from author and pastor Basil King in the opening of the first chapter of my new book, The Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for Your Good Cause, because I think it sums up clearly and eloquently what nonprofit marketing should be all about.
Too often, nonprofits are overly conservative in their marketing. Instead, they should be trying bold marketing approaches that can break through all the clutter and set their organizations apart from all of the other good causes vying for attention.
But what we often see are sedate, safe communications that are sure to offend no one. The problem is that those same communications are just as likely to impress or inspire no one.
I’m not saying that you have to push your messaging so far that it is sure to offend. But what I am saying is that nonprofits need to more clearly focus on their real target audiences and to speak directly and boldly to them, with much less regard for everyone else in the “general public.” You should care more about impressing the people who are most important to your success and care less about offending or annoying people who have little or nothing to do with it.
Instead of letting fear of what a mythical “someone” might think about your communications, be bold. You may not get it right the first time, and maybe not the second either. What’s important is that you try new ways to reach out and grab hold of your supporters’ hearts and minds. When you do, they will come to your aid. If you don’t, you remain one of hundreds of thousands of nonprofits across the land who don’t get the support that they really do deserve.
I think this video interview by Beth Kanter of Ashley Boyd of MomsRising is a good example of what I’m talking about. Instead of fretting endlessly or beating each other up when something doesn’t work, they hold a “joyful funeral.” By coming up with a way to embrace the inevitable failures, MomsRising gives itself permission to be creative and to try new approaches — to be bold.
If you can do the same, I bet you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish for your good cause.
Kivi Leroux Miller is president of Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com and the author of the Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for Your Good Cause.
