Nonprofit Communication in the Digital Age: Changing Times, (mostly) Same Old Criteria
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By Sarah Ryan, Ph.D.
If your nonprofit doesn’t have a second life presence, are you doing a disservice to your clients? Probably not. If you don’t provide economic data on your website, are you failing your donors? Maybe so. These questions point to the difficulty of strategic communications planning in the digital age. The good news: You already have (most of) the tools to make the right decisions!
Nonprofit leaders, volunteers, and supporters can help their organizations succeed through effective external communications – digital or otherwise. And, the criteria for making decisions in the digital world are almost identical to those for newspaper, radio, and billboard campaigns. Yes, you might have to debate things like “Twitter vs. Blog (or both!)”, but your options should be judged based upon how well they serve your audience and your mission. With those two criteria in focus, decisions become much simpler. Let me demonstrate…
A nonprofit client came to me very concerned about second life. Other nonprofits in the neighborhood had a presence in the virtual world, offered clients the chance to chat via avatars, and hosted online socializing events. “We need to be doing this,” I was told. “And soon.” When I asked “Why?”, the organization’s community outreach director mumbled something like “…because the Jones’ are doing it.” I actually found this to be a compelling argument – no organization wants to lag behind its community or competitors. But the core mission of my client was assisting small businesses, mostly immigrant-owned, in succeeding. Having been a small business owner, I could not imagine wanting to create a pretend me and interact with pretend others in cyberspace while trying to juggle face-to-face meetings with clients and vendors, budgets, etc. So I asked, “Did any of your clients ask for this?” Silence. And I advised, “At your next big gathering, ask your clients what they need and want from you online. Maybe it’s second life. More likely, it’s a page with all of the business forms they’re always hunting for. I’m guessing it’s not virtual socializing. I bet you’ll find that that’s a waste of time and resources for this audience.” I offered that advice both because of the audience and the organization’s mission…
Some organizations, like my client, assist a select group of people in achieving specific goals. The people and those goals are central to the mission and are the basis for making almost all decisions (e.g., does X get our clients closer to Y). Other organizations – most nonprofit organizations, I’d argue – have a broader mission. While a nonprofit might protect animals in a certain jurisdiction, for example, it might also aim to educate a wider audience about animal cruelty. While a 501(c)(3) might support a single arts institution, it probably also champions the power of the arts to promote peace and tolerance in the broader world. When broad-missioned organizations ignore new technologies, they fail to fully realize their potential, or keep their promises. If an arts leader, for instance, laments that fewer people (than ever!) are visiting her museum in this down economy, she needs to bring the museum to them via the organization’s website, Twitter (e.g., pithy quotes from artists), blogs, etc. If she has to pay for underutilized physical spaces (e.g., empty galleries because there is no money for school bussing…), her digital showcases can actually save money while increasing the number of constituents served. Maybe. Of course, nothing substitutes for viewing a piece of art or watching a performance up close. But when the audience doesn’t show, the institution must find other ways of fulfilling its mission. New technologies not only fill gaps, they can take information, art, and client service-delivery in interesting and meaningful new directions.
So, the criteria for judging an external communication strategy are still service to the audience and mission. Nonprofit leaders, staffers, and volunteers should begin digital communications conversations by asking, “what does our audience want, need, and desire?” and finish with “does this forward the mission of our organization?” In the digital age, it is important to reach out to audiences in more ways than ever before. But not every tool or site or activity is right for every organization. There are costs associated with unnecessary communication strategies – time, money, burnout – as well as with underutilized digital technologies – loss of clients, educational opportunities, and potential revenue streams, declining prestige. Digital strategies are exceedingly important for large organizations in major markets such as New York City, where “cutting-edge” is a mission, not a vision. But smaller organizations and individuals working for good shouldn’t feel obligated to jump on every e-bandwagon. Just like always, they should focus on doing what they do best for the people they serve – in person, on the radio, or via frenetic tweets.
Sarah Ryan, Ph.D., is from the Department of Communication at The University of Texas at El Paso and is a guest blogger.