Once you have completed your situational analysis and SWOT summary it is time to establish the goals for your Marketing Plan. Knowing that a well developed Marketing Plan is designed to support the strategic goals of your nonprofit organization, it is important to know that although broad in context, your Goal Statement should provide a concrete direction and the desired outcome for all your marketing efforts. If you do not have a Strategic Plan for your organization (and you definitely should!) the most common goals for nonprofits evolve around increased awareness, ongoing education, and raising funds to support, or expand mission, programs, and organization.
Here is an example of a Goal Statement from the 2010 Marketing Plan of The National Center for the Prevention of Home Improvement Fraud. This nonprofit that was started in 2009, but because of their focus and commitment to developing and leveraging a strong Marketing Plan has increased awareness, expanded their reach, and raised more support than they could have imagined only one year ago. I will use this organization as a Case Study moving forward so that you can see how Goals, Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics all work together.
CASE STUDY - The National Center for the Prevention of Home Improvement Fraud http://www.ncphif.org/
Goal statement:
The goal for our 2010 Marketing Plan is to create a clear road map for our community outreach efforts to expand our organizational reach from local to regional, so that fewer homeowners will be victimized, fraudulent contractors will think twice, and contractor fraud statistics will decrease significantly.
Now it's time to write YOUR goal statement.
ADD THIS TO THE MARKETING PLAN WORKSHEET WE STARTED IN LESSON 1
V. GOAL STATEMENT
This is a single paragraph that defines the desired outcome of this marketing and shows the “big picture” of where you want to go.
Directions: Answer the following questions to create your nonprofit’s Goal Statement.
1. What is the desired outcome of this marketing plan?
2. Why do we want this outcome?
3. What promise(s) do we hope to keep?
Next: Lesson 7 – Defining your TARGET MARKETS (come back to learn more!)
Do you want to learn "How To Write an Effective Nonprofit Marketing Plan" for your organization? Join me for a full day workshop in Atlanta on November 15, 2011.
In this 6 hour hands-on workshop, you will learn the fundamentals of a strong Marketing Plan and how to write one for your organization’s unique goals and mission.
Workshop includes:
• A customizable electronic marketing plan template
• Comprehensive presentation, discussion and instruction
• Real life examples of other nonprofit marketing plans
• In-class exercises and homework to complete your marketing plan
• Expert support and review of completed plans after the class
Topics covered:
• What’s in a Marketing Plan?
• Completing your SWOT Analysis (and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
• Identifying your target audience and how/where to reach them
• Determining realistic marketing objectives
• Developing strong strategies for success
• Outlining tactics to support your strategies
• Creating timeliness, budgets, and accountability
• Evaluating and reporting on results
DATE: November 15, 2011
TIME: 9:30 am – 4 pm
LOCATION: Ignatius House Retreat Center
6700 Riverside Drive, NW
Atlanta, GA 30328
FEE: $89.00 (includes lunch and FREE Parking)
FOR MORE INFO OR TO REGISTER: Online at www.purpleduckmarketing.com/pdu.html or Call (678) 925-3582
PRESENTED BY: Purple Duck Marketing www.purpleduckmarketing.com
HOW TO WRITE A NONPROFIT MARKETING PLAN Lesson 3 – Situational Analysis
When it comes to creating your Marketing Plan, as important as it is to know where you want to go, it is equally important to know where you are – Right NOW! Life changes, the economy changes, available funding changes. If you aren’t in sync with the changes going on around you, the odds are good you will fall quickly behind. Defining your organization’s current situation each year when you rewrite your Marketing Plan will help you adapt to change. So what will your Situational Analysis look at?
Here’s an example of how completing a situational analysis, and doing the research, makes a difference!
Several years ago, I was hired by a nonprofit to create a Marketing Plan that would increase their client base and support a building expansion upcoming Capital Campaign. The organization had been in business for many years, had an outstanding addiction treatment program, and their success rate was high. Clients came primarily through referral resource from the healthcare field, and secondly - through family members, friends, and the potential client themselves. Although, they had managed to stay in business for a long period of time, for many years their census had never exceeded 70%. I knew that by completing a Situational Analysis, it would not be difficult to identify why they were unable to break their census ceiling.
Starting with research on the organization’s external identity, the first group I surveyed was their referral resources. I created a satisfaction survey which was mailed out. I called a few people to interview over the phone. And, I held one on one meetings with several resources that had over time referred fewer and fewer potential clients. All of these methods, showed one thing. When calling the facility to refer a client for treatment, response rates were poor, slow, or non-existent. Not a good thing when you are counting on referral resources to fill your programs.
This is a perfect example of why writing your Marketing Plan is so critical to your organization’s success. It is also a clear indication why defining your organization’s current situation through research is a step that should not be skipped. By working on your Situational Analysis, you will have a clear picture of where your organization is right now. And, through the research that is part of the process of answering all the questions included in your Situational Analysis you will find that you can focus your marketing efforts in areas that will reap the most rewards.
Add this to your Marketing Plan Worksheet
III. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
The Situational Analysis defines your organization’s situation TODAY. It will include a combination of research and a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). We will work on the SWOT specifically in the next section but you must do your research first.
Tools for gathering information for this section can include:
1.Internal and External Focus Groups
2.Internal and External Personal Interviews
3.Mail, Telephone, and Electronic Surveys
Directions: Answer these questions:
1.What do our target markets think and know about us as an organization today? (our clients, our donors, the community, etc.)
2.What do we have to offer to our clients and our community?
3. What are our current organizational challenges? (ex: awareness, funding, resources, alliances, etc.)
4.What is critical to our organizations success? (ex:increased awareness, volunteers, supporters, etc.)
5.What do we need to do to be more successful from a marketing perspective? (ex: increase communications with supporters, educate the community, etc.)
Next: Lesson 4 –Developing your SWOT Analysis (come back to learn more!)
Do you want to learn "How To Write an Effective Nonprofit Marketing Plan" for your organization? Join me for a full day workshop in Atlanta on November 15, 2011.
In this 6 hour hands-on workshop, you will learn the fundamentals of a strong Marketing Plan and how to write one for your organization’s unique goals and mission.
Workshop includes:
• A customizable electronic marketing plan template
• Comprehensive presentation, discussion and instruction
• Real life examples of other nonprofit marketing plans
• In-class exercises and homework to complete your marketing plan
• Expert support and review of completed plans after the class
Topics covered:
• What’s in a Marketing Plan?
• Completing your SWOT Analysis (and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
• Identifying your target audience and how/where to reach them
• Determining realistic marketing objectives
• Developing strong strategies for success
• Outlining tactics to support your strategies
• Creating timeliness, budgets, and accountability
• Evaluating and reporting on results
DATE: November 15, 2011
TIME: 9:30 am – 4 pm
LOCATION: Ignatius House Retreat Center
6700 Riverside Drive, NW
Atlanta, GA 30328
FEE: $89.00 (includes lunch and FREE Parking)
FOR MORE INFO OR TO REGISTER: Online at www.purpleduckmarketing.com/pdu.html or Call (678) 925-3582
PRESENTED BY: Purple Duck Marketing www.purpleduckmarketing.com
- What people believe to be true about your organization (today)
- What you have to offer (today)
- What your current challenges are (today)
- What is critical to your success (today)
- What you need to do from a marketing perspective
Here’s an example of how completing a situational analysis, and doing the research, makes a difference!
Several years ago, I was hired by a nonprofit to create a Marketing Plan that would increase their client base and support a building expansion upcoming Capital Campaign. The organization had been in business for many years, had an outstanding addiction treatment program, and their success rate was high. Clients came primarily through referral resource from the healthcare field, and secondly - through family members, friends, and the potential client themselves. Although, they had managed to stay in business for a long period of time, for many years their census had never exceeded 70%. I knew that by completing a Situational Analysis, it would not be difficult to identify why they were unable to break their census ceiling.
Starting with research on the organization’s external identity, the first group I surveyed was their referral resources. I created a satisfaction survey which was mailed out. I called a few people to interview over the phone. And, I held one on one meetings with several resources that had over time referred fewer and fewer potential clients. All of these methods, showed one thing. When calling the facility to refer a client for treatment, response rates were poor, slow, or non-existent. Not a good thing when you are counting on referral resources to fill your programs.
So here’s what I did. I met with the Executive Director and reported my findings. We then met with the receptionist who was the first line of contact, and the intake counselors whose job it was to get them to the facility for evaluation. What we learned from each group was this: The receptionist, was as frustrated as the callers themselves. It seems, she was so busy doing extraneous administrative work that she had very little time to give the caller more than a quick hello and transfer them to an Intake Counselor or their voicemail. Most calls were going to voice mail. The intake counselors, also overscheduled, were either in appointments, away from their desks, or at lunch (all of them at the same time!) Unfortunately, most voicemails were retrieved at the end of the day which meant return calls didn't happen until the next day. By this time, referral resources, or potential clients, had already called another facility. Luckily, there were simple fixes to each of these problems. Here's some that were made immediately.
- The receptionist was given less work so she could make client service her top priority
- The intake counselors defined a better schedule for intake appointments, returning phone calls, and taking their lunches.
- A paging system was put into place to that allowed the receptionist to alert staff that a caller was holding that needed attention.
- The organization created a marketing strategy to contact all of the referral resources through a variety of marketing tools (newsletter, postcards, events, etc.). The message to their target audience was: "We heard what you said and we’ve redesigned our process to make sure we are available to take your call every time you call!"
This is a perfect example of why writing your Marketing Plan is so critical to your organization’s success. It is also a clear indication why defining your organization’s current situation through research is a step that should not be skipped. By working on your Situational Analysis, you will have a clear picture of where your organization is right now. And, through the research that is part of the process of answering all the questions included in your Situational Analysis you will find that you can focus your marketing efforts in areas that will reap the most rewards.
Add this to your Marketing Plan Worksheet
III. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
The Situational Analysis defines your organization’s situation TODAY. It will include a combination of research and a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). We will work on the SWOT specifically in the next section but you must do your research first.
Tools for gathering information for this section can include:
1.Internal and External Focus Groups
2.Internal and External Personal Interviews
3.Mail, Telephone, and Electronic Surveys
Directions: Answer these questions:
1.What do our target markets think and know about us as an organization today? (our clients, our donors, the community, etc.)
2.What do we have to offer to our clients and our community?
3. What are our current organizational challenges? (ex: awareness, funding, resources, alliances, etc.)
4.What is critical to our organizations success? (ex:increased awareness, volunteers, supporters, etc.)
5.What do we need to do to be more successful from a marketing perspective? (ex: increase communications with supporters, educate the community, etc.)
Do you want to learn "How To Write an Effective Nonprofit Marketing Plan" for your organization? Join me for a full day workshop in Atlanta on November 15, 2011.
In this 6 hour hands-on workshop, you will learn the fundamentals of a strong Marketing Plan and how to write one for your organization’s unique goals and mission.
Workshop includes:
• A customizable electronic marketing plan template
• Comprehensive presentation, discussion and instruction
• Real life examples of other nonprofit marketing plans
• In-class exercises and homework to complete your marketing plan
• Expert support and review of completed plans after the class
Topics covered:
• What’s in a Marketing Plan?
• Completing your SWOT Analysis (and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
• Identifying your target audience and how/where to reach them
• Determining realistic marketing objectives
• Developing strong strategies for success
• Outlining tactics to support your strategies
• Creating timeliness, budgets, and accountability
• Evaluating and reporting on results
DATE: November 15, 2011
TIME: 9:30 am – 4 pm
LOCATION: Ignatius House Retreat Center
6700 Riverside Drive, NW
Atlanta, GA 30328
FEE: $89.00 (includes lunch and FREE Parking)
FOR MORE INFO OR TO REGISTER: Online at www.purpleduckmarketing.com/pdu.html or Call (678) 925-3582
PRESENTED BY: Purple Duck Marketing www.purpleduckmarketing.com
HOW TO WRITE A NONPROFIT MARKETING PLAN - Lesson 2: Mission Statement
If you have ever attended one of my classes, you will know that when it comes to nonprofit marketing one of my biggest pet peeves is a poorly written Mission Statement. Why? Because, I believe that your mission statement should be at the center of everything you do to bring awareness and support for your organization.
If your mission statement doesn’t clearly say: 1) Why you exist; 2) What you’re organization is doing; and 3) What you expect to happen as a result of being in existence - you can’t possibly market your organization, or ask for support, successfully.
In my opinion, your mission statement is the foundation of all your marketing and community outreach efforts. It is the elevator speech that should be learned, memorized, and recited by all of your staff, board members, and volunteers. And, it is an ongoing reminder to everyone that your nonprofit comes in contact with, why your organization and the work you do is worth supporting.
Sadly, I can’t tell you in all of my years working with nonprofits, how many mission statements I have seen that even after reading or hearing them several times, I couldn’t for the life of me tell you what that organization does. Perhaps, this is because many mission statements are written by people that are too close to the organizatio. Or, maybe they were written so long ago that the organization for all intended purposes no longer does what it was first created to do.
It is not uncommon for nonprofits to change over the years. I’ve seen many who no longer serve the same communities, offer the same services, or even exist in the same locations, and yet - their mission statement remains the same as the day they opened their doors. So, if your mission statement isn't relevant to the work you do today – you have the wrong mission statement!
Here's some examples of great mission statements that do work.
The Atlanta Opera
The Atlanta Opera’s mission is to present productions of the highest standards while fostering education about the art form and encouraging its growth with educational programs designed to fill the needs of the community.
Children's Healthcare
Our mission at Children's is to enhance the lives of children through excellence in patient care, research and education.
The Foundation Center
To strengthen the social sector by advancing knowledge about philanthropy in the U.S. and around the world.
As you complete the Mission Statement section of your nonprofit Marketing Plan, be sure to really think about what you are writing down. If it is clear, easy to remember, and answers all the questions asked below, you are in good shape to move forward. If it doesn’t, (no matter how much you love it) REWRITE IT TODAY!
ADD THIS TO YOUR MARKETING PLAN WORKSHEET
II. MISSION STATEMENT
The mission statement of your organization should be clear, concise, and only a few sentences that answer the questions below, and provide a reason for someone to believe in your organization, service or product and support it.
Directions: Answer these questions:
1.Why are we here or why do we exist?
2.What are we doing?
3.What is the expected outcome of our work?
Next: Lesson 3 –Defining Your Situational Analysis (come back to learn more!)
In this 6 hour hands-on workshop, you will learn the fundamentals of a strong Marketing Plan and how to write one for your organization’s unique goals and mission.
Workshop includes:
Topics covered:
PRESENTED BY: Purple Duck Marketing www.purpleduckmarketing.com
If your mission statement doesn’t clearly say: 1) Why you exist; 2) What you’re organization is doing; and 3) What you expect to happen as a result of being in existence - you can’t possibly market your organization, or ask for support, successfully.
In my opinion, your mission statement is the foundation of all your marketing and community outreach efforts. It is the elevator speech that should be learned, memorized, and recited by all of your staff, board members, and volunteers. And, it is an ongoing reminder to everyone that your nonprofit comes in contact with, why your organization and the work you do is worth supporting.
Sadly, I can’t tell you in all of my years working with nonprofits, how many mission statements I have seen that even after reading or hearing them several times, I couldn’t for the life of me tell you what that organization does. Perhaps, this is because many mission statements are written by people that are too close to the organizatio. Or, maybe they were written so long ago that the organization for all intended purposes no longer does what it was first created to do.
It is not uncommon for nonprofits to change over the years. I’ve seen many who no longer serve the same communities, offer the same services, or even exist in the same locations, and yet - their mission statement remains the same as the day they opened their doors. So, if your mission statement isn't relevant to the work you do today – you have the wrong mission statement!
Here's some examples of great mission statements that do work.
The Atlanta Opera
The Atlanta Opera’s mission is to present productions of the highest standards while fostering education about the art form and encouraging its growth with educational programs designed to fill the needs of the community.
Children's Healthcare
Our mission at Children's is to enhance the lives of children through excellence in patient care, research and education.
The Foundation Center
To strengthen the social sector by advancing knowledge about philanthropy in the U.S. and around the world.
As you complete the Mission Statement section of your nonprofit Marketing Plan, be sure to really think about what you are writing down. If it is clear, easy to remember, and answers all the questions asked below, you are in good shape to move forward. If it doesn’t, (no matter how much you love it) REWRITE IT TODAY!
ADD THIS TO YOUR MARKETING PLAN WORKSHEET
II. MISSION STATEMENT
The mission statement of your organization should be clear, concise, and only a few sentences that answer the questions below, and provide a reason for someone to believe in your organization, service or product and support it.
Directions: Answer these questions:
1.Why are we here or why do we exist?
2.What are we doing?
3.What is the expected outcome of our work?
Next: Lesson 3 –Defining Your Situational Analysis (come back to learn more!)
Do you want to learn "How To Write an Effective Nonprofit Marketing Plan" for your organization? Join me for a full day workshop in Atlanta on November 15, 2011.
In this 6 hour hands-on workshop, you will learn the fundamentals of a strong Marketing Plan and how to write one for your organization’s unique goals and mission.
Workshop includes:
• A customizable electronic marketing plan template
• Comprehensive presentation, discussion and instruction
• Real life examples of other nonprofit marketing plans
• In-class exercises and homework to complete your marketing plan
• Expert support and review of completed plans after the class
Topics covered:
• What’s in a Marketing Plan?
• Completing your SWOT Analysis (and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
• Identifying your target audience and how/where to reach them
• Determining realistic marketing objectives
• Developing strong strategies for success
• Outlining tactics to support your strategies
• Creating timeliness, budgets, and accountability
• Evaluating and reporting on results
DATE: November 15, 2011
TIME: 9:30 am – 4 pm
LOCATION: Ignatius House Retreat Center
6700 Riverside Drive, NW
Atlanta, GA 30328
FEE: $89.00 (includes lunch and FREE Parking)
FOR MORE INFO OR TO REGISTER: Online at www.purpleduckmarketing.com/pdu.html or Call (678) 925-3582
PRESENTED BY: Purple Duck Marketing www.purpleduckmarketing.com
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