April 2011 - Jonathan Poisner Strategic Consulting

Planning half heartedly

April 25, 2011

Filed under: Strategic Planning — Tags: Strategic Planning — jonathanpoisner @ 7:13 pm

I was recently talking to an organizational Executive Director who’s thinking about a strategic planning process.

He wants the planning process to get his board more engaged.

But he doesn’t think the board will take time to participate in a real planning retreat.

This becomes a bit of a chicken and egg problem — if they won’t participate fully in a robust process, how do you get an outcome that increases their engagement?

I wish I had a simple answer.

One technique is to “trick” them into greater engagement by engaging them one on one with a consultant. And then have the consultant fold them into additional conversations culminating in a short, but productive retreat.

In the end, though, no trick can replace leadership — either from the Executive Director, a board chair, or some other board champion who can rally board members to participate in a planning process.

Short of that, I worry about organizations that go through the motions of planning, without a real investment, and then expect a transformation in the organization.

More realistically, a strategic planning process that lacks serious board engagement can still be valuable as a tool for an Executive Director to get some real planning done, with buy-in from the board. But buy-in and engagement are not the same.

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Growing your Facebook fan base

April 22, 2011

Filed under: Communications,Online Communications — Tags: Facebook — jonathanpoisner @ 11:30 am

Sometimes investing a little bit of dollars has a big impact on your base.

The good folks at Idaho Conservation League did an interesting strategy and let the folks at Groundwire share it with the world.

Bottom line: Facebook for a very low dollar figure lets you microtarget ads at a very small group of people who’ll be highly likely to become fans.

I’d be interested in seeing how other organizations use this opportunity over the next few years.

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Never ask for a donation

April 21, 2011

Filed under: Fundraising — Tags: Fundraising — jonathanpoisner @ 3:34 pm

Sometimes it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking about fundraising as an ask.

Indeed, that’s the language I often use when I’m creating a fundraising plan or counseling somebody — “you have to get out and make more asks.”

Yet, at a fundamental level, fundraisers for nonprofit organizations aren’t asking. They’re inviting.

They’re inviting people to participate in an opportunity.

What the opportunity is varies wildly by organization. It could be as broad as “help us save the planet” to as narrow as “help us build a house for a family.”

The donor isn’t making a gift — the word gift implies a transfer of something of value with zero obligation on the part of the receiver. But in the nonprofit organization context, the receiver has an obligation — to fulfill the mission of the nonprofit organization.

There’s an exchange going on.

And what a great exchange it is for the donor. In exchange for your money, you get to help make a real difference in the world and feel great doing it.

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Communications plans for institutions

April 19, 2011

Filed under: Communications,Strategic Planning — Tags: Communication Plans — jonathanpoisner @ 4:34 pm

I recently had a conversation which went something like this. . .

Person A: “We need a communications plan for our organization.”

Me: “Why?”

Person A: “We need to know who the swing vote is on our issue so we can persuade them.”

Me: “Why?”

Person A: “Because they’re the swing vote. That’s who we should be talking to.”

Now I wasn’t pushing back on the “why” because I’m not a fan of communications plans for institutions. To the contrary, I think they’re extremely valuable once an organization gets to a reasonable size.

But I’ve been struck a few times now by people coming out of the “campaign” world who don’t get how communications for institutions are not the same animal as communications for a campaign — whether it’s a ballot measure or candidate campaign.

In a campaign, you have a very identifiable goal, with a timeline, and a specific set of people you’re trying to influence. In most tough campaigns, Person A is right — your communications plan should identify the swing and figure out how you’re going to move them.

But what about institutions? Institutions may engage in campaigns, but their interests run beyond the campaigns. They may be trying to influence a variety of different audiences, making different asks of each.

In my experience, the most useful communications plan for an institution asks:

What’s our brand?

Who do we need to take action and what actions do we want to take?

Of these, which audiences are most important?

How do we reach our priority audiences?

What investments in additional capacity (staff, technology, other) do we need to make to have the capacity to reach them?

It may well be for an institution, very little of their communication is aimed at swing voters and the vast majority of its communication is aimed at potential donors, volunteers, and champion opinion leaders. There isn’t a right answer here — the important thing is to make sure your communications plan for an institution is focused on the organization and not some campaign or project that has only short-term implications.

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