Elevating and Promoting Nonprofits’ Missions

Despite their massive size and impact, most nonprofits are years behind in their communications strategy. Nonprofits have a unique set of communications needs, including recruiting volunteers, educating the public on their cause, soliciting donations, and communicating with a wide range of stakeholders like a board of directors, internal staff, volunteers, and funders. To complicate matters even more, many nonprofits are often understaffed and underfunded.

With such a lack of resources, nonprofits often don’t have the luxury of creating a robust communications plan as for-profit businesses do. Instead, they must focus on their bottom line -- bringing in donations. Unfortunately, without consistent and effective communications strategies, most nonprofits struggle to retain and sustain donors. If you don’t communicate your organization’s mission and programs and their value to society, how are people supposed to support them?

The most effective way to communicate a nonprofit’s goals is to turn it into a story. Stories are “sticky” – we remember them. A well-told story is fundamentally memorable because stories make us feel things. Stories can move us to action. Whether it’s to vote a certain way, to become a brand loyalist, or to donate your money or time, stories with strong emotional engagement, a clear rationale, and a sense of urgency can drive us to take desired actions.