Marketing

Don’t Let Your Board Ruin Your Nonprofit Communication

By | June 24, 2016

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Within nonprofit organizations, the board of directors plays an important role in the success of a non-profit. For the director of fundraising, a healthy relationship with the board is an important indicator of job success.

The board of a non-profit is full of wise leaders, but the director of fundraising needs to be in control of the day to day operations of fundraising and communication or the board can make your job frustrating.

So here are the two tips I give people who report to boards.

Be the expert!

When you’re working with the board of an organization, it is a tricky task. They have ideas and advice, but if you spend your time trying to make them happy you’ll find yourself spinning your wheels chasing the latest idea of the loudest board member.

It’s important for the director of fundraising to be the expert; the expert in communication, marketing, and the nonprofit’s brand. Don’t feel like an expert? I once heard this definition of expert: if you can talk about something for 1/2 hour you are an expert. If you have passion enough to talk about something for 30 minutes – you are an expert.

Focus on goals

Almost every board member probably has an idea for how to best promote the organization. But you don’t have time to meet everyone’s expectations. This is why it is so important to present goals to the board. or have the goals defined for you. I prefer presenting goals and reporting on the strategies you are executing to reach those goals.

By focusing on goals you have a filter to movenew ideas and opinions. For example, when a board member communicates that organization should have snapchat account. You can respond that our goal to grow our email list by 100 emails a month means we are spending time doing x, y, and z. We don’t have resources to spend on other social media platforms. Do we think we should find more resources to do that or revise our goals?.

Make it a win win

When you are the expert and you have goals, you are in a much better situation to enlist the board instead of being driven by the board. This formula will allow you to manage your time and resources while building trust with board members.

Like what you’re reading? Read more about nonprofit marketing agencies or download the 30 Greatest Lead Generation Tips, Tricks & Ideas.

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Jeffery James
Jeffery James
Jeffery is the Creative Director and Principal of Spire2. He brings marketing expertise from a variety of industries. He excels at understanding clients' corporate objectives, translating them into brand positioning and executing marketing materials that exceed expectations.