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Vulnerable language. Fabulous life?

December 3, 2014 by Erica Barnhart

I recently read Brene Brown’s book, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead.

Rocked. My. World.

That’s what I have to say about that book.

Like Brene, I’m not one who cozies up naturally to vulnerability. It often leads to pain and who wants that? Not me. But what I had failed to realize was the missed opportunities when we avoid being vulnerable. And it’s those opportunities, those moments, that make for a stupendously fabulous life.

My research on The Wordifier made it crystal clear that we are very conservative in our language usage. We’re all using the same words over and over and over again. There are lots of reasons for this, surely. But I believe one of them has to do with our willingness–or lack thereof–to put ourselves out there. To use words others aren’t using. To be linguistically bold and, therefore, vulnerable.

In this Language Lab podcast, I explain what I mean:

My challenge to you is to dare greatly when it comes to your words. Use words that others aren’t. The Wordifier can help guide you to some not oft used gems. Your words should be as awesome and unique as you are. Go for it!

[gravityform id=”27″ name=”Language Lab Podcast”]

Who else do you need to reach? [9 of 15]

November 20, 2014 by Sarah Healy

[This is part nine of our 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree Step-by-Step series, written by our fabulous intern, Vicki. If you’re new to the series, you can catch up on previous posts. If you haven’t already gotten a 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree, now is a great time to either buy the awesome poster-size version or download the free version, so you can follow along. You can find the free version in Claxon’s DIY tools a la carte menu or in the Marketing 101 Toolkit. You can buy the super spiffy poster here.]

Last week we discussed your supporters. This week, we are going to wade into murky waters and discuss people who aren’t your supporters. What do you do when you want to reach people who aren’t like your current supporters? Ask yourself if you really do need to reach them and then think long and hard about your answer.

There are three basic cases where you might be thinking of reaching outside of your current sphere.

Case #1: You need to reach a new demographic.

First, make sure you are clear on why you need this new demographic. Is it a good reason? Is it connected to the purpose and strategy of your organization? You will have to work harder to get a new type of supporter. Will the return be worth the investment? Notice the difference between, “We need more Spanish speaking volunteers because so many of our clients speak only Spanish” and “We need a lesbian on our board to improve diversity.” (True story.)

Second, be realistic. If you can target a new demographic that is only a bit of a shift, that’s going to be much easier for you.

Then, research. Lots of research. It is always hard to get out of your own head and look at things from another’s perspective. It’s a much harder task when you don’t have a lot of experience with the other person.

Case #2: You want to raise public awareness.

Don’t do this.

Seriously, don’t. The general public is too broad and vague a target. Be specific. The more focused your efforts are, the more effective you will be. Even if you need to eventually get your message to as broad an audience as possible, break it up into smaller steps.

Approach this as in Case #1. What is a new demographic that shares some characteristics with current supporters? Who could help connect you with a broader audience as you continue to expand your demographic reach in the future?

Erica uses an example of a campaign to stop texting while driving and objects that this isn’t about general awareness, it is about stopping people from texting. I’ll add to that objection that the target isn’t everyone, it is people who text while driving.

When you get to how you are going to reach your targets, you may find that it is more effort than it is worth to differentiate your target from the general public, but that question comes later. You aren’t doing yourself any favors to assume you won’t be able to differentiate or to forget who your real target is.

Case #3: You want to reach opponents.

Caution! Do you need to do this? If not, this is a waste of your precious time.

Usually you don’t actually need to do this. But, some people, not nearly as clever you, get sucked into trying to woo people who just aren’t interested. Their cause is so important that they just can’t imagine how anyone could not support it.

Anytime you see something weird, your brain is drawn to it. At Claxon, we like to talk about how you can use that fact to improve your messaging by making sure your words are interesting. But, don’t let that same tendency be your own downfall. Yes, I know it is super weird that someone wouldn’t believe in what you are doing, but let it go.

If you are struggling with this, Claxon has a handy tool called the Belief-o-Meter that helps you figure out who you should be focusing on and who you should leave alone.

There are rare cases where you do need to convert the opposition. This is usually because your strategy requires support from a significant percentage of the population as with advocacy campaigns or boycotts. If this is you, take everything I said about case #1 and amplify it. Do even more research. Be even more realistic. If you just need someone to not oppose you, be satisfied with that. Don’t expect them to become donors. And, then do some more research.

An interesting, headline grabbing example is same-sex marriage. Freedom to Marry’s goal is to end the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage. They are changing hearts across the nation so that the US Supreme Court will feel comfortable ruling in favor of marriage equality. To do this, they need to reach the opposition.

Why do they talk about freedom to marry instead of marriage equality? Because their opposition responds more favorably to the phrase “freedom to marry.” They know this because they did lots and lots of research. And it’s working. After state campaigns started using their research, in 2012 the general populations of not one, but four states, became the first to vote in favor of freedom to marry.

Freedom to Marry has put in a lot of hard work, resources, and research time. And they have been realistic. They are asking people who have opposed them to change how the respond to polls, not expecting new donors. The investment required to reach the opposition has been enormous, but it is necessary for their mission and strategy.

Example: Chirp

Chirp, the school for birds founded by Claxon’s mascot, Roxie, needs to reach a new demographic. (Check out previous posts for the full back-story.)

After surveying their students, they learned that there was more interest in social mixing between different flocks than they had thought. This was very encouraging, but they also came to a concerning realization. All of their current students are birds that tend to flock. They want to reach all birds, but what about solitary birds? Could these birds be reached? Difficult decisions needed to be made. The leadership of Chirp decided to be realistic about their ability to grow into such a different market space. For this year’s marketing campaign they will target new types of flocking birds.

More research is needed before they can understand the needs and interests of their more solitary brethren. Owls typically roost alone or as a pair. However, they do occasionally flock and so are a good target audience for Chirp’s next phase of expansion. Albert the Owl has agreed to lead research efforts and will be traveling to the next parliament. (Don’t you just adore collective nouns?)

In sum…
Before you try to reach beyond your supporters, make sure you really do need to and be prepared for it to take extra effort. Next time we will be back to talking about supporters as we describe your ideal one and develop personas.

What are the very best verbs for year-end fundraising?

November 14, 2014 by Erica Barnhart

Support. Give. Donate. Which one is best for year-end fundraising (including #GivingTuesday)?

The answer, of course (and annoying as it is) is–it depends.

As you can see, all of them show up in the red category, meaning they’re used a whole heckuva a lot. So that’s not so awesome. #Drat And they’re used pretty equally by all sub-sectors. #DoubleDrat

Let’s look at results for support:

Support

For give:

Give

And for donate:

Donate

But don’t despair! There’s a litany of data that drives The Wordifier–the tool itself is just the tip of a worderific iceberg!–so I took a look at the individual results:

Support is used most often
Give second most often
Donate third most often…by a pretty wide margin

So, if you’re wondering which word would stand out the most, it would be ‘donate’. Because it’s used the least. But it’s kind of a blah word.

‘Give’ is used way more often than ‘donate’, but it has the virtue of being direct. Even directive. So when coupled with something like ‘now’ (e.g. Give now), it could be an excellent call to action because people tend to respond well to simple, direct language, especially on social media.

There’s not much to recommend support as a verb to use in your year-end fundraising efforts (or your fundraising efforts period). It’s vague, over-used and boooooooring.

The Wordifier can be a great tool for seeing if you’re using the best words possible. But it’s only one tool among many that you should use. Two others I swear by are:

The Hemmingway app, which is based largely, although not exclusively, on the Flesch Kincaide Reading Ease research.
The Headline Analyzer from the Advanced Marketing Institute. I just discovered this one and it’s–wow–super spiffy.

Now you can venture forth armed with data to drive your verb-erific decision-making. Verb on, my friends, verb on!

Who are your best supporters? [8 of 15]

November 13, 2014 by Sarah Healy

[This is part eight of our 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree Step-by-Step series, written by our fabulous intern, Vicki. If you’re new to the series, you can catch up on previous posts. If you haven’t already gotten a 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree, now is a great time to either buy the awesome poster-size version or download the free version, so you can follow along. You can find the free version in Claxon’s DIY tools a la carte menu or in the Marketing 101 Toolkit. You can buy the super spiffy poster here.]

Now that you’ve figured out WHAT success looks like for your organization, we’re going to move on to WHO you need to reach in order to be successful.

Have you ever wondered what your future supporters will be like? Probably a lot like your current supporters.

In the next three branches of the 1, 2, 3, Marketing Tree, you will:

Name some common characteristics of your best supporters – past and present.
Figure out why your best supporters say they like you, and
Also identify how your best supporters find out about you.

In working through this part of the Tree, there really is no substitute for good data. There are many ways for your perceptions to be biased. Consider creating a survey. I have worked on projects where I thought I knew what supporters wanted. Then I did a survey. It turned out that the most vocal supporters weren’t actually representative of the majority. With this new knowledge I was able to adjust programming to match the interests of the target audience as a whole and check future suggestions for improvements against those broader interests.

The impact of gender differences is an interesting case in point. Women volunteer more than men, but you may be hearing from more men. Men and women talk about the same amount, but they talk about different things. Studies show that men tend to talk in more assertive ways, sometimes interrupting women (no offense, guys). It may just be, however, that women have different conversational conventions from men; being more talkative in small groups or when the topic is children, and more assertive with compliments. The take home point? It’s complicated, so do a survey.

Talking with supporters, one-on-one or in groups, can be another powerful way to connect with your supporters and to learn from their perspective on your organization. In addition to being able to learn what drives their engagement on a deeper level, a conversation can make them feel valued and strengthen the emotional bond they feel with you and your organization.

If you are trying to learn about your supporters in this way, there are a few things you should be mindful of (yes, I know that’s a dangling participle…cut me some slack):

Listen more than you talk.
Give them explicit permission to say what they aren’t happy about. Many people are afraid to mention these things for fear of hurting feeling or seeming rude, but it is often the most important thing to hear. Ask them for negative feedback and tell them how valuable you find it. You’ll still want to focus on what they do like. You are looking for things to use in marketing after all. But, don’t miss this valuable opportunity to learn ways to improve.
Listen more than you talk.
Select people at random. You probably can’t talk to all of your supporters, and if you pick the first people to come to mind you will just confirm the misperceptions you already have from hearing the most vocal people. If you take a list of your best supporters in Excel (all, major donors, long term donors, or however it makes sense for you to define “best”), you can create a column of random numbers using =RAND() and then sort by that column to put them in random order. This is super easy. I promise.
Listen more than you talk. Am I revealing too much about my own weakness here? Seriously though, this is a common bad habit. Let’s work on it together.

EXAMPLE: CHIRP

Let’s look at how Chirp, the school for birds founded by Claxon’s mascot, Roxie, identifies its best supporters. (Check out previous posts for the full back-story.)

For Chirp’s first avian cohort, the students all came through personal connections with school founders. Birds also came as a whole flock, rather than enrolling just a few students from each group. This exemplifies the social nature of bird culture.

Because Chirp is small, it is possible to talk to all their students. Since the founders were already having regular one-on-one interactions with them in the school, however, they decided that the benefits of an anonymous survey outweighed the benefits of discussing the organization in person.

The lack of opposable thumbs makes writing difficult for birds. To compensate, they took advantage of an online survey builder so that the students could peck their answers out on a keyboard.

When the results came in, they found that the students enjoyed classes where they were mixed with members of other flocks. They most valued the way their new wordy knowledge enabled them to engage with birds from other communities. Not at all what the executive team at Chirp would’ve predicted!

In the coming year, in order to expand, Chirp will have to reach new and different flocks. Thinking about this problem has their feathers ruffled. You may be wondering what to do if you want to expand into a new demographic, raise general awareness, or convert people who are opposed to your organization. We’ll cover that next week. In the meantime: enjoy getting to know your supporters!

Introducing The Wordifier!

November 10, 2014 by Erica Barnhart

We are overjoyed to announce the arrival of our newest (and dare we say spiffiest?) tool to the Claxon family–The Wordifier!!!

What the heck is The Wordifier?

The simple answer is that it’s an amplifier for your words.

The slightly more in-depth answer is that it’s a tool based on research we did to figure out what words nonprofits were using to talk about their work.

You see, the more a word is used, the less likely someone is to notice that word. It’s just how our brains work. We crave new-ness. So we figure, give the people–and their brains–what they want. Use words that others aren’t using and you dramatically up the odds that someone will pay attention.

We decided nonprofits needed this information. Yet it was nowhere to be found. We felt that was unacceptable and decided to do something about it.

Research. What research?

Here’s what we did to rectify this problem of not knowing what words nonprofits were using.

We pulled a random, yet representative, sample of 2,503 nonprofit websites. Then we partnered with Community Attributes to create a tool that would tell us which words were used most often and who was using what words.

That makes it sound easy. It wasn’t, trust me. But it was worth it because now you have a tool that will tell you exactly which words you should stop using, use with caution, or use all you want. And it’s, like, statistically significant. #OMG

Go ahead. Give it a whirl.

#WordifierLove

Twitter_Kate_FromNPStoryConf

Twitter_Brooke_FromNPStoryConf

Twitter_Ginny_FromNPStoryConf

Twitter_WomensFund_FromNPStoryConf

We’re just starting to sift through everything our research reveals about nonprofits and language. We will be sharing everything we learn with you!

BTW, if you play with The Wordifier and have a suggestion for how we can improve it, pretty please let us know. This tool is meant to be useful, actionable, helpful, etc! So let us know your ideas in the comments, on Facebook, or Twitter using #Wordifier!

What will be different for your organization a year from now? [7 of 15]

October 30, 2014 by Sarah Healy

[This is part seven of our 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree Step-by-Step series, written by our fabulous intern, Vicki. If you’re new to the series, you can catch up on previous posts. If you haven’t already gotten a 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree, now is a great time to either buy the awesome poster-size version or download the free version, so you can follow along. You can find the free version in Claxon’s DIY tools a la carte menu or in the Marketing 101 Toolkit. You can buy the super spiffy poster here.]

Without being clear on the details of what success looks like for your organization, you will have a hard time knowing how you are doing. It would be like going on a trip without planning your route. Just knowing what your destination is won’t help you see that you missed a turn. You need to know what your route is. As you help your organization move towards its long-term destination, you need mile-markers. Like, where will you be one year from now?

The next question in the 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree is, “What will be different for your organization one year from now if your marketing is successful?”

It is tempting to think that the answer to this is obvious. You want things to be better. You want more money. Or public awareness. Or maybe, you want more volunteers. But, with a vague answer like that, how will you know if you are a little off target? And, more importantly, how will you know when to throw the party when you succeed?

Here’s a handy acronym to help you think through what’s needed for a clear marketing objective:

You need a SMART marketing objective.

There are quite a few versions of what those letters stand for. I’ll talk about what I mean by them as well as embracing a bit of the controversy.

Simple: Now, if you have seen the SMART acronym before, you may already be disagreeing with me. “The S stands for Specific,” you say. I’ll admit, I’m in the minority camp here, but this whole list is about making sure you are specific so that feels like a waste of a perfectly good letter to me. I’ve also seen organizations get into the trap of starting to talk about how they are going to do something too soon. Saying that it should be specific tends to get people focused on “How?” questions like who is going to lead which committee. That comes later.

Measureable: The controversy on this one is that you need what you need whether you can measure it or not. Some things are hard to measure, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive toward them. I think this is a valid concern, but when I say something is measurable, that doesn’t mean I necessarily already have a plan on how to do so. Measuring is hard which is why I’m going to have a lot to say about it before we finish the 1, 2, 3, Marketing Tree. Let’s say you are trying to address donor retention by improving the esteem they hold for your organization. If your objective is a 10% increase in esteem, you could know whether or not you hit the mark or by how much you’re off. First, you’ll end up needing to figure out an appropriate survey or indicator, but it is possible to measure that. So, that is a measureable objective. Granted, you’ve just made your job a bit more complicated, but if that is what you need, that is what you need. Don’t head off in the wrong direction just because it is an easy direction to measure. But, if your objective doesn’t seem measureable at all, you need to be more specific about what you are trying to do.

Achievable: This one is about being realistic. Missing the mark is a morale buster. Also, if you and your team know you are probably not going to make it, your motivation can be sapped before you even begin. This doesn’t mean it can’t be a stretch if a stretch is what is truly needed. Stretch goals get an unfair bad rap. When you stretch your body, you make small shifts in your range over time by pushing calmly and just slightly beyond the comfortable. Yet, “stretch” has become a euphemism for extreme risks and wild, unattainable promises. Stretching is good, but we aren’t trying to dislocate any joints here.

Relevant: Your objective should clearly relate to the mission and be in line with the broader strategic direction or your organization. Everyone should know why this is important.

Time-bound: We’ve given you a head start on this one by asking you to define where you want to be “one year from now.” You may be in a situation where a one year time-frame doesn’t work for your project. Maybe it’s a six month project. That’s fine, just make sure you have some sort of time limit or measurements will be meaningless. If your time-frame is longer than a year, set an intermediate goal to help you stay on track.

Marketing Objective for Chirp:

As an example, let’s turn to Chirp, the school for birds founded by Claxon’s mascot, Roxie. (Check out previous posts for the full back-story.)

Last week, we talked about Chirp’s plan. They want to conduct experiments on their teaching methods so that they can set appropriate, research-based standards. To ensure methods will work across a variety of bird subcultures, they need to bring in students from a broader range of flocks.

Chirp’s objective:

We will increase recruitment for the next school year, doubling the number of students in the school from 15 to 30 and tripling the number of distinct flocks represented from 3 to 9.

It is SMART?

It is simple. They state clearly what they want to achieve, but don’t go into unnecessary detail.
It is easily measureable.
Though it will certainly be a stretch, since they are small and in a growth phase, those growth rates should be achievable.
It is relevant to immediate research needs, which in turn is relevant to the long term growth strategy. It also supports the general educational mission of the organization.
The time-frame is defined. In this case, it is a little less than a year because they need a fresh batch of students before the school year begins.

Now that we know what our destination and route are, it is time to invite people along on this road trip. Next week, we will start on the “Who?” section of the 1, 2, 3, Marketing Tree.

Where is your organization going? (6 of 15)

October 23, 2014 by Sarah Healy

SWOT analysis napkin doodle [This is part six of our 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree Step-by-Step series, written by our fabulous intern, Vicki. If you’re new to the series, you can catch up on previous posts. If you haven’t already gotten a 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree, now is a great time to either buy the awesome poster-size version or download the free version, so you can follow along. You can find the free version in Claxon’s DIY tools a la carte menu or in the Marketing 101 Toolkit. You can buy the super spiffy poster here.]

If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there. (Yogi Berra)

Where is your organization going?

If your organization has a well thought out strategic plan, great! You probably know exactly where communications fits into that. If not, never fear! I’m going to take a quick break from the 1,2,3 Marketing Tree to give you a simple tool to fill in that gap so you can move on with your marketing plan.

What the heck is a SWOT Analysis?

A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis is a framework you can use to assess your position is in the marketplace. The strengths and weaknesses are about the internal aspects of your organization (e.g. resources, skill sets, reputation), whereas the opportunities and threats come from interactions with outside forces (e.g. collaborators, competitors, cultural shifts in a target audience).

Step #1

The first step is to makes lists in each category. This works well as a collaborative group activity, but if you have a hard time getting everyone in the same room at the same time, you can also ask everyone to submit their own list.

You will want to give explicit permission to be critical of the organization. No one will want to sound like they don’t think you’re great. Asking, “If we were to fail, what do you think the reason might be” can help. Don’t worry if there are disagreements. I was talking with an organization recently where some board members felt the large number of programs was a strength and others felt that was a weakness. It is both. The fact that there is “something for everyone” helps them engage with more people, but they also drop some important balls as they struggle to keep up with the juggling act they have created.

Step #2

Once you have lists for each category, it is time for strategy. Compare strengths & opportunities as well as weaknesses & threats. If you are weak in an area where there is a threat, think carefully about whether or not you should be there. You may want to scale back or pull out altogether. If you do continue in this area, you should prepare for this effort taking more resources as you try to convert weaknesses into strengths. Generally speaking, your resources are better spent building on existing strengths rather than turning a weakness into a strength. But it depends on your long-term organizational goals/vision.

If there is an opportunity in an area where you are strong, this is a great place to push for growth. As much as we would all like to pursue all the opportunities and overcome all the threats, that might be a tad ambitious even for an organization as amazing as yours. Hard choices will need to be made and it is wise to be realistic about your capabilities as you make those choices.

EXAMPLE: SWOT Analysis for Chirp

Let’s do a SWOT analysis for Chirp, the school for birds founded by Claxon’s mascot, Roxie. (Check out previous posts for the full back-story.) Roxie met with her friends to brainstorm their SWOT’s and this is what they came up with:

Analysis

Comparing Weaknesses and Threats:

Given the organization’s age, limited organizational leadership experience, and lack of established policies and procedures along with the flocking tendencies within bird culture, it seems unwise to pursue a strategy of developing a strong centralized organization with an international scope.

Comparing Strengths and Opportunities:

International ties along with their ability to set initial standards makes the development of a certification process a promising avenue for growth. Rigorous trials of teaching methods will create compelling findings as well as ensure superior training for certified teachers.

Short Term Strategy:

Start trials of different teaching methods with incoming students. To ensure methods will work across a variety of bird subcultures, marketing efforts should focus on bringing in students from a broader range of flocks.

In Sum…

A SWOT analysis doesn’t take the place of a full strategic plan. But, if you are stuck waiting for one, I’m hoping this will help unstick you. There are a lot of alternatives and they all have strengths and weaknesses. (ha!)

At the end of the day, it is just a framework so pick the one that works best for you. The important thing is to take some time to ask hard questions about where your organization should go.

Now that you have a game plan for figuring out where you’re going, we can get back to the 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree. Next week, we’ll be talking about how to set marketing objectives that align with your organizational goals…which is harder than you might think AND very, very, very important!

Who, or what, is your competition? (5 of 15)

October 16, 2014 by Erica Barnhart

competition, unique differentiator [This is part five of our 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree Step-by-Step series, written by our fabulous intern, Vicki. If you’re new to the series, you can catch up on previous posts. If you haven’t already gotten 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree, now is a great time to either buy the awesome poster-size version or download the free version, so you can follow along. You can find the free version in Claxon’s DIY tools a la carte menu or in the Marketing 101 Toolkit. You can buy the super spiffy poster here.]

Your competition may not be who you think it is.

The next two questions on the 1,2,3 Marketing Tree are:

Who, or what, is your competition?
What makes you more compelling than your competition?

Before we can answer these questions, we need to ask another question.

What do you need?

Your organization requires many inputs from muffins for the staff meeting to grants for that new program you want to start. But, you are probably only worried about a small subset of inputs due to factors like a high impact on outcomes, supply shortages, or supply instability. Do you need clients? Funding? The attention of law-makers? When you want your voice to be heard, your biggest competition might be another nonprofit doing similar work. Then again, it might be the latest hit TV show.

Your local movie theater isn’t just worried about other cinemas. They are in competition with video games, putt-putt golf, that novel everyone is talking about, and all of the other things you might do with your free time this weekend.

The easiest way to think about competition is to step back from your own point of view and look at things from the point of view of the resource(s) you need and the people controlling that resource. Where else might the resources (e.g. money, time, energy) flow? That’s your competition.

Now think about the people making decisions about that flow. The potential volunteers deciding how to spend their time. The foundation manager designing metrics for grant evaluations. What factors are they considering as they make their decisions? Being more compelling than your competition is about being different in a way that impacts those decisions, i.e. in a way that inspires people pick you over the competition.

Who, or what, is Chirp’s competition?

Let’s turn to Chirp, the school for birds founded by Claxon’s mascot, Roxie. (Check out previous posts for the full back-story.)

As a reminder, Chirp needs to get more students into their classes. This means they need to be thinking about what else birds might choose to get involved in. They need to know who/what their competition is and what differentiates them from that competition.

Steve the Crow’s bird choir is another organization that draws birds in from multiple flocks for a culturally enriching pursuit. This is the obvious competition. Steep competition also exists, however, from other bird pastimes like digging for worms, swimming in ponds, and pooping on cars.

Like all of us, birds use their free time to engage in activities that they find fun and meaningful. Chirp believes it is both fun and meaningful AND is distinctive in that they offer an opportunity to communicate with other flocks. Within bird culture, however, loyalty is expressed through choosing to be like all of your fine, feathered friends. So, many birds make choices about their time by simply flocking together with birds of the same feather. For this reason, Chirp will also want to show that entering its program can be a fun group activity and tout the benefits the whole flock can glean from being able to communicate with other species. By speaking with other flocks, birds can learn about cats to avoid and bushes with ripe berries.

Albert the Owl has been doing some interesting linguistic studies and has found geographic patterns in the single word songs that different flocks are using. He is proud to be part of an organization that cares about supporting such research and expects his findings to impact the way words are taught to birds in other areas. Steve’s bird choir is not engaging in any research and Albert is at a loss as to how anyone could consider the two organizations even comparable. If Chirp were competing for grant funding, this would be a compelling. From the viewpoint of a student considering entering the school, however, Albert’s research isn’t likely to be something they would participate in. So, as interesting and important as it may be, it isn’t something that makes them compelling to those birds.

In sum…

As you are thinking about who your competition is, make sure you think outside of the nonprofit box. And, as you think about what makes you more compelling than your competition, make sure you are thinking beyond the differences that matter to you and focus on what matters to the people you’re looking to engage in your mission.

So far in this series, we have been talking about some big picture aspects of what your organization is about. As we focus in on what your marketing should be about, some strategic decisions have to be made. That’s what we’ll go over next week.

Marketing is a means to an end. Period.

October 13, 2014 by Sarah Healy

I teach a graduate course in Nonprofit Marketing at the University of Washington and Seattle University. The third week of class, we spend our entire three hours together focused entirely, exclusively, fully on gaining clarity on the ways in which marketing is a means to an end.

You’d think this class would be a no-brainer. These are super smart graduate students in public affairs and nonprofit management. They are up to their eyeballs in strategic planning, logic models and whatnot. Plus, they are goal-oriented by nature.

And yet this class, more than any other class during the quarter, leaves my beloved students bedraggled and forlorn. Their eyebrows furrowed. Their morale drooping.

This mystified me until I finally realized that it’s one thing to be told you have to set goals and another to set them, prioritize them and figure out how you and your team are going to achieve them.

Far more fun to think theoretically about goals and then proceed, in reality, to obsess about how many new folks are following your organization on Twitter. Never mind that Twitter isn’t the best way to achieve your goals necessarily. It feels good to have hoards of adoring fans and followers. It feels concrete. You can point to it. Each month you can put a spunky little green arrow in your report the board, indicating the upward growth occurring on the social media front for all y’all. #HipHipHooray

Unless you can clearly show how more followers and fans will lead to you achieving your organizational goals–goals like attracting more volunteers, retaining more donors, serving more people–your social media stats don’t matter one wit.

Traffic to your website or your blog. Number of people attending your event. None of these matter unless they support a specific organizational goal. That’s because marketing is nothing more–nor less–than a means to an end.

Start by setting your organizational goals. Then identify the specific ways in which marketing can help you achieve them. Always and forever in that order.

If you feel as befuddled by all this goal setting as my students do, this might help.

What is the most important thing your organization does? (4 of 15)

October 9, 2014 by Sarah Healy

[This is part four of our 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree Step-by-Step series, written by our fabulous intern, Vicki. If you’re new to the series, you can catch up on previous posts. If you haven’t already gotten 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree, now is a great time to either buy the awesome poster-size version or download the free version, so you can follow along. You can find the free version in Claxon’s DIY tools a la carte menu or in the Marketing 101 Toolkit. You can buy the super spiffy poster here.]

Imagine you tell someone about the work your organization does and they think it is so interesting that they to run tell all their friends about you. Wouldn’t that be great? Here’s the catch: they aren’t going to remember the whole long list of programs or outcomes you tell them about. Not only will they not remember, but you may even overwhelm them, causing them to disengage instead. You want someone to remember and share what you tell them. For that you need to tell them just one thing.

You are probably very excited about all of the great things your organization does. I’m not saying you need to cut programs down to just one, but looking at everything as part of a single whole can bring great clarity.

There are two main reasons that it is helpful to focus on just one thing.

Your organization will be more productive with a single focus. From your personal inability to multi-task to your organizations success at pursuing funding, the research is overwhelming. If you want to be good at something, focus on one thing.

Your supporters will have an easier time remembering you if they can easily categorize you. Erica has a great video on mental file folders. The idea is that people are going to file your organization away in a mental folder and you need to make sure it is the right one. If you give them a whole long list of things you do, you risk being filed away in the dreaded “miscellaneous” folder. Have you ever found yourself thinking, “I would really love to collaborate with an organization that does miscellaneous things?” No? Me either.

Having trouble narrowing it down?

If you are facilitating a discussion about this, I have two helpful exercises for you.

Erica created a method based on the mental file folder idea. Have the group write things you do on file folders and then start organizing them by nesting them together. Make additional folders as needed, making sure you are as specific as possible. “We do awesome things,” while true, is just another way of saying “miscellaneous.”

Another way to narrow things down is tournament style elimination. This is a quick and easy way to get feedback from a large group because a simple show of hands will often be enough to settle which program or project wins. Create a bracket and then start picking between pairs asking, “Which is these is closest to the heart of what we are about?” The idea isn’t to actually cut programs, but to think about what would happen if you did. If you had to stop doing advocacy work, for example, would you become irrelevant as an organization or would you just be hampered by the loss of a tool? The interesting part of this exercise comes when two core programs square off. People will want to cheat and say, “What if instead we called that ‘x’ which would encompass both of those programs?” Perfect! This is exactly the sort of answer you are looking for.

For an example, I’ll be using Chirp, the school for birds founded by Claxon’s mascot, Roxie. Check out previous posts for the full back-story.

In many ways Chirp has an advantage here as a young organization. They haven’t had time yet to develop a whole long list of programs. They do have various goals, however, and different views on which are the most important ones. Albert, the wise owl, is a passionate student of languages. He is eager to teach words to other birds and to expand his own vocabulary even further. Myrtle, the friendly mallard, believes in the importance of fostering inter-species relationships among birds.

The single most important thing Chirp does is to teach birds how to use words to communicate with other flocks. This goal is broad enough to encompass both the language lessons and the bridging of cultural divides between flocks. Note that in merging these two ideas into a single goal, it is more specific, not vague. Words aren’t being taught for just any reason. It is about communicating with other flocks. Bird relations aren’t being improved by just any means. It is by making language accessible.

What is the most important thing your organization does?