An increasing number of nonprofit organizations are mobilizing, calling for a change in the way they market their causes to a consumer public that is spending less and thus donating less. These marketing leaders will be sharing ideas and recommending different approaches at the upcoming American Marketing Associating (AMA) annual nonprofit conference to be held in Chicago on October 11-13.
According to Cynthia Currence, who is president of the AMA nonprofit group and will be chairing the conference, there is a need for their sector to reinvent and transform the way they approach marketing, especially now in a challenging economic environment, as it is tremendously underleveraged.
The conference will address four key barriers identified by a recent CMO summit, facilitated by Currence, on the subject of transforming nonprofit marketing:
- Maintain marketing’s seat at the table in influencing organizational policy and strategy
- Embrace technology solutions
- Integrate and align around stakeholder needs
- Deliver ROI and ROM (Return on Mission)
I’d have to say that is a pretty astounding agenda — not that any of these ideas are not relevant to marketing in any sector, but that they’re even discussing such things in the year 2010. It seems this discussion should have been going on 10 years ago, or 50.
One would think nonprofit organizations would have been leading the charge in advancing more progressive strategies for engaging donors on a deeper, more emotional level, as they have something most companies do not have: a worthwhile cause, other than making a profit. Rather than focusing on the “ask,” they should know the way to the pocketbook is through the heart. They should understand more than anyone that purchase decisions are driven by emotion, and that making people feel rather than think about donating money is the way to optimize return on mission. Cynthia is right; most do not.
In his writings back in the 1950s, business management guru Peter Drucker urged companies to take a page from nonprofit organizations by engaging both customers and employees in a higher purpose than simply making a profit; that is the reward. The key to effective marketing is to identify what that higher purpose is for different customers and to align the organizations and the brand message accordingly, across all channels and media.
That page in the nonprofit handbook must’ve been missing.
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