Planning for Sustainability: Marketing the Initiative to Secure Financial Support
Learn how marketing can be a powerful tool to help your organization succeed in its quest for financial sustainability.
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WHAT IS MARKETING?
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WHY SHOULD YOU MARKET YOUR INITIATIVE FOR FINANCIAL SUPPORT?
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HOW DO YOU MARKET YOUR INITIATIVE?
Marketing is not a word that comes easily to the lips of community health and development professionals. When we do think about it, we tend to do so in a negative way. The expression "smoke and mirrors" comes to mind; we think of corporations spending huge amounts of money to convince people to buy something that they don't really need.
WHAT IS MARKETING?
Although it's true that marketing can be done for items and ideas of questionable worth, it is not in and of itself a bad thing. In fact, marketing can be a powerful tool to help your organization succeed in its quest for financial sustainability. This section will tell you how.
But what exactly is marketing? One of the best definitions of marketing for nonprofit organizations that we have seen comes from the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. In their words:
"Marketing is a process that helps you exchange something of value for something you need."
In any community, these exchanges occur all the time. For example, an adult literacy program offers education and skills training, which will lead to a more capable work force for employers in the community. In return, the organization that runs the program needs clients, referrals, and resources to allow the program to continue.
Or, take the example of a neighborhood revitalization coalition. Members might want businesses to move to the area to provide jobs and improve the economy of the area. In exchange, they might offer a semi-skilled work force and tax breaks.
Marketing can be done in many ways, and it includes different things. That's because the idea of marketing asks you to look at everything you do, and to do some of it differently. When the receptionist at your office picks up the phone, you probably don't think of that as part of marketing, but it really is. How he greets the caller says a lot about your organization: what you do, how professional or casual you are, and so on. And that's true of the follow-up to that phone call--who the caller talks to next, or the information he receives in the mail, or the visit he makes to the agency. Image may not be everything, but it probably counts for more than we would like to admit.
When you think about marketing, then you're really thinking about all of the following:
- Image-building
- Friend-raising
- Membership development
- Community relations
- Political activities
- Citizen education
--You're not just asking for money.
In this section, we will assume that the bottom line for your marketing plan is obtaining resources: either money or in-kind support. And because of that, we will discuss how to market your organization, not the problem or issue your organization is working to change. That is, if your group is working for honesty in government, we will discuss how to convince people that your group should take on the issue. We will only discuss the importance of honesty in government to the extent that people must believe it is important if they are going to support your organization.
Changing people's ideas and behavior about issues, such as honesty in government, or drunk driving, or maintaining a healthy lifestyle, are known as social marketing.
Does all of this make sense to you? Then let's move on.
WHY SHOULD YOU MARKET YOUR INITIATIVE FOR FINANCIAL SUPPORT?
As we suggested above, you do some marketing anyway in the way your organization presents itself every day. By focusing your energies and making a concerted effort to do it better, you can:
- Obtain more resources to survive and thrive. If your organization is known as an effective group that works hard and gets important things done, people will want to jump on the bandwagon. Marketing lets the right people know about your successes, and also how and why they can add to them.
- Gain valuable insights on your community. As part of a marketing plan, you will be asking people what they think. This will give you a better understanding of why some people don't give to your organization at all, why others do support your group, and how you can convince both groups to donate more.
- Better focus your current resources. With the knowledge you gain through marketing, you will have an improved understanding of the best ways to use resources your organization already has to reach your goals.
HOW DO YOU MARKET YOUR INITIATIVE?
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