Читать книгу The Nonprofit Marketing Guide - Kivi Leroux Miller - Страница 29

A MORE MEANINGFUL DISTINCTION: MARKETING FOR FUNDRAISING OR FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

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After coaching hundreds of nonprofit communications directors, I've found that rather than debating whether they are doing marketing or communications, it's more meaningful to discuss whether they are marketing for the primary purpose of fundraising or marketing for the much broader purpose of community engagement.

Through the many years of research for Nonprofit Marketing Guide's annual Nonprofit Communications Trends Reports, we found a pattern: communications directors answered our survey questions quite differently depending on the “why” behind their work. We found a nearly equal split: about half of nonprofit communicators work directly in support of fundraising goals and the other half work more broadly for community engagement, which may or may not include some fundraising.

Communications staff who work primarily in service of fundraising goals have a more well-defined target audience: donors. Much of the communications they produce fit within the “Ask, Thank, Report” donor communications cycle. They ask for donations, then thank donors for their support – both individually and collectively – and then report back on the good works that those donors have made possible, often using a supporter-centered style of writing. (We'll explore ways to express gratitude in particular in Chapter 9 and various nonprofit writing styles in Chapter 10.) These communicators often focus more on direct mail and events as communications channels, as compared with staff who are not personally responsible for fundraising goals.

The other half of nonprofit communicators focus more broadly on community engagement, with fundraising as a secondary or tertiary goal, if at all. Their primary goals, target audiences, messages, and communications channels are usually much more varied than those of communicators focused more narrowly on fundraising.

But what does community engagement mean? Just as with the conversation about the difference between marketing and communications, it's essential that you define what community engagement means in the specific context of your work, because it can mean many different things.

At Nonprofit Marketing Guide, we define community engagement simply as keeping people inspired by and active in the work. To elaborate, community engagement includes awareness, interaction, and participation. Let's look at these elements a bit closer.

The Nonprofit Marketing Guide

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