The 'giving' part of Thanksgiving is, inevitably, what the charity industry's media experts focus on every November. Outsiders are sometimes astonished to learn that it's some 40% of all charitable giving that happens at the end of the year.
But this time many of our non-profits, especially those operating in the field of social deprivation, have been badly rattled by the sex-abuse scandal surrounding Penn State ex-Assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky -- and an anxious Chronicle of Philanthropy is carrying articles like Lessons for Nonprofits From 'Second Mile' (Sandusky's own "charity") and Penn State Grapples With Angry Donors, which repeat a worrying theme that the Sandusky case "points to common problems at nonprofit groups," especially problems of governance and accountability.
Their worry is all about the money, of course. And even more than reputation-damaging sex abuse, non-profits face the broader and deeper slump in business confidence that's been battered down further by this week's Congressional failure (entirely predictably) to agree on deficit reduction measures, and by Europe's sovereign debt crisis threatening to engulf everyone. In such a climate, it's feared, non-profits' already shrinking income from charitable donors will get smaller and smaller.
Unless their media mavens can do better, that is.
So conferences, seminars and planning retreats have been held right across the whole non-profit sector over the past few months to formulate fresh action. Be prepared, if you've not already noticed its beginnings, for a full-fledged onslaught of image-enhancing and fund-raising advertisements across all traditional platforms -- plus an upsurge of banner ads, web videos and a multiplicity of 'social media' messaging in the digital space.
This year many charities will be redoubling their social media efforts, especially on Facebook, having found that they can acquire fans (or "Likes," if we have to use Mark Zuckerberg's more recently prescribed term-of-art) at the relatively low marketing cost of $0.18 to $0.80 per fan. This compares with what the non-profit world sees now as an onerous cost -- more than $2.00 per newly-acquired supporter -- whenever the old-fangled medium of email is used.
The consensus plan for Facebook-based promotion is, after recruitment, to then spend a careful 30- to 60-day period of 'stewarding' these new fans -- to switch to the trade's own rather unctuous jargon -- into their first actual cash gift.
Zuckerberg's networking machine is felt to be an especially useful avenue for this approach. A canny use of timing is urged by one of the field's sages, Jeff Patrick of Common Knowledge, a San Francisco online fund-raising consultancy that has guided the Sierra Club and the Arthritis Foundation. "Eventually," he advises any Facebook-using charity, though wisely refraining from dictating exactly how long a period should elapse, "move to inserting an 'ask' into your micro-message stream."
The venue obviously favors any non-profit that is multimedia-savvy, and which works in social fields characterized by projects with a real physical presence -- one that can be captured visually. Photos and video, after all, are the most viewed and most shared resources on Facebook. No wonder charity war-room strategists like the omni-present Nancy Schwartz, who's advised the Ford Foundation and the National Urban League, have been saying in those seminars and planning sessions: "Use pictures liberally, especially moving pictures, and of course that applies not just to Facebook but to virtually all communications outlets, new and old.
I'VE JUST BEEN ALERTED to one way -- though perhaps too specific for general application -- of turning lemons into lemonade. It's simultaneously discomforting but also encouraging to learn that Penn State alumni have rapidly employed social media to raise $360,000 out of an initial target of over half-a-million dollars, in support of -- how appropriately -- a major non-profit devoted to combating sexual abuse and supporting victims, the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN).
Branding themselves with a website ProudToBeAPennStater.com and the Twitter hashtag #ProudPSUforRAINN, the alumni's immediate aim is to garner one dollar for each of the university's 557,000 graduates. And in this instance, it is about more than the money.
Supporters who sign up will also be pointed to RAINN's own website, and encouraged to become volunteers, buy a T-shirt to further advertise the cause, and learn more about child sexual abuse.
It's good to give thanks, especially during what could be a dispiriting Thanksgiving, for this one instance of inspired (and entrepreneurial) communications work.
Follow David Tereshchuk on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dtereshchuk
As for conferences and seminars that help nonprofits market more and better, there have been multiples of these events over the past many years. As the 2011 chair for the American Marketing Association's Nonprofit Marketing Conference, I was pleased to see more participation this year than in the past two years. Nonprofit marketers are always eager to learn innovative ways to build their organizations' brands and generate more fundraising dollars. And, in the past couple of years, it was certainly a challenge.
The good news is that philanthropy has been steady in the U.S. over the past decade with total giving exceeding $280 billion annually. No matter how bad things get, people are committed to nonprofit missions and their communities.
The reality for nonprofits is the same as it is for for-profits...if they want to stand out, build more support, and reach their objectives, they need to market more and market smarter.
Rightly or wrongly, I'm afraid there have been some rattled reactions to the Sandusky affair among non-profits - certainly among those I know well (if not those more confident ones of your acquaintance that haven't been buzzing about the potential negative fall-out). And the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which knows its audience, did feel it wise to devote space to "lessons for non-profits" from the Penn State scandal.
I agree entirely with your general observations that media planning for non-profits is positively and upwardly engaged. I'm glad for instance that this year the American Marketing Association's Nonprofit Marketing Conference was bigger than before, during the tough tough time of the last few years.