Giving Thoughts

Funding nonprofit marketing training: a priority on the corporate philanthropy agenda

By Gary Wexler, Founder, Seize the Conversation Transformations, and Adjunct Lecturer in Nonprofit Marketing, Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism

The billions of dollars that corporations and foundations are now pouring into nonprofit causes are expected to be leveraged and create big social returns. But in addition to corporate investments being a human strategy, they are also a business one. Corporations want these funding dollars to be recognized by their customers, employees and the community at large, enhancing their business image and branding efforts. Additionally, corporations hope the nonprofits they fund will provide deeply satisfying volunteer experiences for their employees, leading to greater staff morale.

But these hybrid human/business investments will never produce the expected returns if nonprofits don’t market their causes properly.

And they don’t.

Therefore, it is in the greatest interest of the return on investment (ROI) that corporations expect, that nonprofits know how to market powerfully for a new era. Otherwise, nonprofits will never be able to maximize the return, which will reflect upon the corporation’s strategy and due diligence—and ultimately its image.

Nonprofits lack marketing nous

Today, nonprofits still don’t know how to market their causes properly to donors, advocates or participants. They don’t know how to effectively and powerfully create the awareness corporations expect for their funding dollars. Nonprofits underfund marketing. They don’t understand it. They don’t believe in it. And they fear that if they do spend the money, Charity Navigator will report it as an overhead expense, awarding them a low rating.

The answer to this problem lies in the philanthropic priorities now being set by corporations, foundations and major donors. They need to help create a culture shift in the nonprofit world stemming from marketing.

Among corporate priorities should be the funding of marketing education for nonprofits. This is the kind of funding that creates results forever. The knowledge taught, being a strategic, creative, idea-based learning will instill a culture that improves everything the nonprofit does. This is a natural funding for corporations, who understand the critical importance of marketing know-how.

The private and family foundations should be realigning their priorities to follow corporate investment by creating marketing grants. Individual major donors committed to the cause should then be collaborating with the foundations to fund the initial marketing budgets during the first few years.

After a period of this help, nonprofits should be on their own, now armed with knowledge and experience to create realistic marketing plans and budgets, just like they create other internal budgets.

Understanding nonprofit marketing

It is important that all parties involved understand what nonprofit marketing is. It isn’t just like business marketing. Here are some key differences:

• Spending vs. giving away: Business marketing asks people to spend money and get a product or service in return. Nonprofit marketing asks people to give their money away and create a better world in return—two very different propositions requiring very different skill sets.
• Profit vs. cause: Business marketing is about helping a company realize a bottom line profit. Profit drives everything. Nonprofit marketing is about helping an organization actualize a bottom line cause that will change lives or the world. The cause is what drives everything. Nobody gives away their money if they don’t believe the organization can actualize the cause. Business marketing is laser focused upon sales and profits. Nonprofit marketing should be laser focused upon the end goals of fundraising, advocacy and participation.
• Multi-million dollar branding vs. the conversation: Business marketing is about multi-million dollar branding. Nonprofits cannot afford real branding. Nonprofit marketing results are created by seizing the conversation that is spread to donors and others, engaging and involving them through big ideas that move virally through communities and the internet.

Corporate objectives should not only be to fund a cause, but to help transform the nonprofit sector. Bringing the right creative and critical thinking marketing culture into these organizations is one of the ways to do this. It’s well worth the investment, considering the growing collaboration between the corporate and nonprofit worlds. Both will benefit.

About the author:

Gary Wexler is the founder of Seize the Conversation Transformations. He is the Adjunct Lecturer in both Nonprofit Marketing, as well as Advertising in the Masters program at USC/Annenberg School of Communication. He has helped to market over 1000 nonprofit organizations in the US, Canada, The Caribbean, Europe, China and Israel. During his ad agency career, he created award-winning campaigns for clients ranging from Apple Computer to Coca-Cola. Read more of his work at www.seizetheconversation.com.