Is Marketing Important For a Charity? If not, What is?

Is marketing important for a charity? When I was in class I learned that many organizations (particularly nonprofit organizations), marketing department is a prey for annual budget cuts - so no, it's not important...? Many do not have an in-house marketer at all. The mindset is like, anyone can do it or we cannot afford it; and everyone in the organization sort of contribute in a marketing campaign... How many messages would a public receive then?

Out sourcing sounds very tempting, but again, that would incurs big amount of dollar and it won't look good for our annual report. What next? What are the options? How can get public trust and create positive reputation without spending that much? Let's go on social media.

The Art Of Marketing, 2014

Social media in my opinion, are awesome tools... "tools". I said this to everyone, if you don't know how to utilize a tool, someone is going to get hurts. I talked to my old friend who is currently working on a social media campaign. After I listened to her, there is a pattern of social mediagaphoning. "Social mediagaphoning" (Adj.) - yes, I made it up - is the action of shouting information on the social world regardless of the listeners. Well, we got the information out but... who is listening? Is this what we want? How loud should we shout until someone notice?

My point today is, marketing is an investment. An investment contain risks, and risks can be minimized. Everyone can get into stock market, but how many make fortune out of it? Same thing. You required knowledge, experience, and guts to invest in marketing. Perhaps, risks were always the reason why small charities choose to avoid (similar to someone with small budget trying to buy a stock).

But! this is not our last hope. We can turn this around. I had this idea for 3 years now; unfortunately, my situation did not allow me to move on with the idea. I think it is time to share it to everyone; in case someone can start or share with me the viability of the idea. I will share this idea in my next post because I think you have enough today. Let's close the page and we will continue later.

"Shaping the Future of Business"

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Revival of What The Blog!: The NonProfit Marketers

It has been over a year I was apart from this blog. Now I assuming that everyone who was reading this has long forgotten this blog already. My apologies if I disappointed you, but disappointments come with learning, I learned a lot during the missing period and I would love to share with you still.

First, HAPPY 2016! well, that's done. Many nonprofit organizations I tried to talk to in Metro Vancouver were incredibly busy during the year ended period. It was very interesting that some organizations were providing me supports in a short interview. I thank you.

Financial Post published one of its findings over the 2015 from the top 25 charities in Canada regarding the amount of donations received. The leader this year goes to the World Vision Canada, followed by Salvation Army and Plan International Canada respectively.

Who are they?

World Vision Canada -
The organization is commit to develop a long lasting change for children, families, and community away from poverty and injustice. By providing supports to children around the world, the organization is able to create positive impacts in eight major areas including: health, food, water &hygiene, education, economic development, child protection, humanitarian assistance & emergency response, and Canadian program.

For more information about World Vision Canada please visit the official website

Salvation Army -
If you are in Canada during period prior to Christmas, then you cannot miss the Salvation Army people. They wear red vest written Salvation Army on the back and have a red poll attached with donation box, and of course, the bell. Those people together all over Canada raised over CAN$22 million over the Christmas period, thanks to all the supporters. I'll not go into deep about the organization due to certain reasons; if you would like to know about Salvation Army, do visit the official website

Plan International Canada
Another awesome charity that bring positive changes for children all over the world. The organization aims to create the world that children can meet full potential in societies. In 2015 Plan International Canada implemented over 4,000 projects in 52 countries, and that's over 85,000 communities OR 214+ million lives.
For more information about Plan Canada, do visit the official website

Today post I'd like to share a story from the World Vision. This is a story of Sonia, a 12 year-old girl living in Burundi, Africa. While education is unreachable for her, she needs to work hard AND long everyday hoping to fill a tiny potion of her stomach. Above all, she wishes "to have a pen and notepad and to go to school".

I never have an intention to move your emotion for Sonia. Everyone has different standard of living, where do we draw the line of "standard"? Yet, standard has never been a standard, has it?

"Shaping the Future of Business"

My A Day in The Life - 2015 New Year Eve Edition (just for fun)

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[Part 1] Micro-Econonprofit 101

[Continued: Issues OR Opportunities?]

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone has had a great time with love ones and safe journey. Once again, lots of great things were done over Christmas this year.

Previous post I touched on three major focuses I've found when I was volunteering, working, and studying about nonprofit organizations in BC, particularly Lower Mainland BC. In this post, I would like to expand on the first focus, "Lack of Financial Supports".

There are several ways a nonprofit organization can obtain financial income: donations, sponsors, grants, product or service fees, etc. Many organizations I am aware of, spend lots of time on seeking donations, sponsors, and grant writings; but not many seek to improve its services or products and focus on sustainable income from its own operation. It is true that many organizations are serving to the target with limited income; thus, charging the clients for sustainability would not be feasible, but that does not mean the organization cannot have additional services to generate funds, or even a social enterprise.

The question is probably how to create such thing as social enterprise or provide services that high income population can enjoy because of the perception toward nonprofit organizations' services (eg. private fitness facility versus YMCA).

As many nonprofit organizations will hate me for this, but it is true that we need to operate as if we are a business. This does not mean that we need to pursue maximization of shareholder's wealth. It means, we need to have a organizational (business) plan for both short and long term (click here if you are not sure what is business plan looks like).

Do we really need a organizational plan for a not-for-profit organization? I say yes, because business plan organizes all aspects within an organization and the detailed organizational plan would create a clear single path for staff to follow. Which will likely lead the organizations to the successful result.

Lastly, having products and services that allow organizational sustainability will generate constant cash flow rather than relying on single-time donation. Several organizations is now pursuing sustainability plan by using monthly sign-up which in my opinion, is not sustainable (even though the results proved otherwise).

Next I will discuss about the second topic, "Lack of skilled labors". Generally, it is one of the important reasons preventing nonprofit organizations to grow. Find out in my next post.

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Issues OR Opportunities? [The Introduction]

It sounds bad as it is but we need to face the truth that nonprofit sector is becoming competitive. I had conversations with a few of local nonprofit organizations, all of them were seeing other nonprofit organizations that are offering the same services/products, locating in the same area, targeting the same people, having the same value(s), as partners. My question was "How is the idea treating your organization?"

The results I found in those nonprofit organizations can be categorized into three main focuses, (i) lack of financial supports, (ii) lack of skilled labors, and (iii) lack of public awareness. I will briefly describe each of the issue in this posting.

As an MBA student and marketing apprentice, seeing the competitors as partners will not only limit the organization to differentiate itself from competitors due to lack of competitiveness, but also discourage the clients and donors to support the organization because they cannot distinguish the organization with the rest; hence, they tend to support those organizations they are familiar with or had been using the services or products.

Second issue is most likely to limit only to some nonprofit organizations, lack of skilled labors. My experience volunteering and working for nonprofit organizations, this seems to be one of the most important issue because without skilled labors, the organizations grow slowly, if lucky. In fact, not many nonprofit organizations see the importance of or cannot afford a professional marketing personnel or agency. Some perceive marketing activities as unnecessary expenses. Again, how is that idea treating your nonprofit organization?

Most nonprofit organizations I've been with did not have any issue regarding number of clients because they serve to the local communities where they are located and to a small portion of the communities. But that does not imply that the organizations have solid public awareness because the amount of donations received in the community is relatively small considering size and income of the people living in the area.

I will leave it here for this post as I am planning to write several chapters on these concerns. Although I mentioned these as issues or problems, I do not mean that they cannot be seen as opportunities. I will expand on those in the following postings.

Credit: Striatic

"Shaping The Future of Business"

Follow up with this topic on next Saturday 27th November, 2014

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Marketing Agency for Nonprofit Organization

The Rise Of Nonprofits

As the number of nonprofit organizations is increased tremendously. This means that the competitive level in the nonprofit sector is becoming more important when it comes to marketing.

In today's posting, I would like to introduce two marketing agencies (in the US) that focus to serve nonprofit organizations.

Who are they?

1) Shoestring:

Shoestring is a virtual company established over ten years. The organization believes that "...nonprofit organizations should not have to rely on pro bono agency left overs." Hence, it offers an affordable price for nonprofit organizations. The company has marketing expertise in nonprofit sector serving anywhere between Maine to California.

2) Mission Minded:

Mission Minded is a niche marketing agency located in San Francisco. The organization is an expert in communications aspect of marketing. It focuses on the organizational branding for nonprofits. The organization "...believe that nonprofits, foundations, and other do-gooders can only have an impact if people understand the importance of their work—not just what they do, but why it matters."

There are many more marketing agencies that devote themselves to nonprofit organizations. Above are the two that I came across and interested in.

Although most of nonprofit organizations are aiming to improve our society, we cannot disregard the competitive level within the sector. There are numerous number of organizations promoting breast-cancer, wildlife, children & family, homelessness, etc. It is time to take marketing into consideration because "just doing good is not good enough to make people care".

Please feel free to comment and suggest marketing agency that you like as it would help the readers to expand our knowledge.

"Shaping The Future of Business"

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Generating Funds Is Fun: Visual Matters

Youtube Campaign? Great Idea, Let's Make It Effective!

Posting a video on Youtube is not a difficult task. A successful video however, can be puzzling. How many people recall, share, embed, subscribe the video (channel)? How long people stay on your Youtube page/channel? Those are some of many ways to measure your video's success. I would like to share knowledge and opinions from what I have been taught by a few people about how-to create an effective video.

8 Steps To Success

1. Take a brainstorming session to identify goals, concepts, and ideas of implementing the video. Always remind yourself on the budget and timeframe of the video.
2. After you have a solid goal, concept, and idea, compare them with your organizational message, image, and position. You do not want a successful video campaign to reposition your organization (except it was the goal).
3. Designing ad script - this step requires you to determine the locations, time, characters, and budget of the video. These assessments will allow you to create a video script.
• Location - A specific place and time of the day/night to shoot the video as well as the number of scenes and setting of the scenes.
• Time - How long will it take for planning, shooting, and editing processes?
• Character - Who are the actor/actress for your video? 
• Budget - A video production can cost a fortune depending on the plan you create. As a nonprofit organization, use the advantage of sponsorship from students, other nonprofit organizations related to film, etc.
4. Designing storyboard - is the most indispensable step among all. Storyboard gets your script into action. It looks like a comic strip in a way that it should give a full understanding of the video from opening to closing details of a scene. Here is 8 steps to creating a great storyboard by Jake Knapp.
5. So far, you would have everything planned and ready to shoot. You will need to contact people for location, actor/actress, etc. This will take a while to complete, plan it well and have plan B and C.
• I advice to create another script for each shooting location. It will save time and cost.
• Expect the unexpected - Anything can happen, if it does, act fast. it might not be the best decision, but it is better than no reaction.
• Just in case your video might go on broadcast channels, it is a good idea to have a video shortening plan (from a minute to 30 seconds).
6. After your video is shot, update your script and rearrange all the files into proper place that is easy to find. A small tip from an instructor of mine, "never let the shooting team edit the video". Because they do not want to remove anything off the film.
7. Find some time to sit together in a room and watch the video. This aims to improve the message being delivered to the audience by giving feedbacks and comments to the video editor.
8. Final touch - the final step after adjusting the video from the feedbacks and comments. And you are ready to post it on Youtube!

Although...

your video is great, everyone is happy with the video; however, there are a few unexplainable reasons about social media. Nobody can guarantee the success of a social media campaign.

All in all, Youtube is one of the social media tools; for that reason, it has to integrate with other media platforms to maximize the result. For now, I hope this helps.

"Shaping The Future of Business"

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Selling The Impact of Your Nonprofit Organization

The End of Fundraising By Jason Saul

Today I would like to introduce a book I read long time ago written by Jason Saul. In his latest book "The End of Fundraising: Raise More Money By Selling Your Impact", Saul emphasizes on how the social capital market impacts nonprofit sector.

The book is divided into three parts: Capturing Your Impact, Marketing Your Impact, and Selling Your Impact.

Here are what I leant:

Capturing Your Impact

Sale is one of the most important skills to have in everything we do. It is even more challenging for nonprofit organizations, because what they sell is intangible. Nonprofits must convince the stakeholders with "value" that is hard to measure. However, it can be done and I found that in this section.

Marketing Your Impact

People do not care what you do, if you cannot give any benefit to them. The obvious benefit ones can see is the economic benefit. Impact buyers - "those who are willing to pay for the outcome you produce" - are the most likely target to purchase your impact. This book taught me how to find them and add values to the organizations for Impact Buyers to see.

Selling Your Impact

Similar to business, nonprofits need to sell and consumers (donors) need to buy. Take contemporary salespeople for example, they do not sell the products to the customers, they sell "solutions". Thus, nonprofits are the "solutions" to many problems, but how are you going to relate the problems to each one of the customers.

Overall, I love the ideas written in the book. I do believe that nonprofits have to be inside the business world if they want to be success in the contemporary world. I recommend this book to everyone who are interested in nonprofit sector.

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Road to The Future of Nonprofit Sectors

The Destination We Should Look For

As a student in public relations and marketing communications, I'm fortunate to witness and involve with many nonprofit organizations.

According to my experience, nonprofit organizations are short of professional marketers to be able to communicate and bring change to our communities. 

This is a great opportunity for students to get a hand-on experience in real practice. Through volunteer as a marketer, students can learn much more than books and professors can possibly teach.

For that reason, nonprofit organizations should connect with college and university students, and give the students a chance to work with the organizations. That way, not only the organizations can learn from the students, but also serve as a foundation of the students' attitude and behaviour toward the future.

I always believe that one day society will not need nonprofit sectors. It is the day that our world is at peace and people are helping each other at our own time and will.

What Do You See In The Future of Nonprofit Organizations?

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Fundraising Associate

A New Job Position For Nonprofit Organizations

"Fundraiser As a Sale"

Many nonprofit organizations are facing financial difficulty. It becomes first and foremost for the organizations to prepare a sustainable plan.

Several books published to guide nonprofit organizations to operate as if they were a business. Without doubt, in business world, the biggest portion of revenue comes from sales department. Nonprofits call it "fundraising" team.

Building a relationship requires time and sincerity. Customer relationship management (CRM) tools can be an essential tool to assist fundraisers with their "leads". Many CRM software products are available online with minimal to no cost, for instant:

• DonorPerfect
• NeonCRM
• eTapestry
• Trail Blazer
• Donor Pro 
• NonProfitEasy

There are many more software programs facilitate nonprofit organizations for utilizing database management. If the programs were to use efficiently, they could save a fortune and generate stable income for the organizations.

From my experience, many nonprofit organizations are lacking of donor database. It is near impossible to acquire sponsorships and/or big gifts without personal touch and relationship.

I hope this will help grow your nonprofit organizations. 

Best wishes.

Think Ahead, Think New West

Think Ahead, Think New West

"Building a Brighter Future For Foster Kids"

Secure Future For Foster Kids - turning 19 years old is one of the biggest celebrations for stepping toward the next stage of life; but for foster teens, it could be a major pit-point.

Most of the kids who left foster care faced uncertainties in their lives. Without proper support these young people can go astray. This can cause societal problems and lead to more detrimental issues.

Aunt Leah’s is a nonprofit organization established to provide assistance for individuals in foster care as well as teen moms. Its programs cultivate self-sufficient that enable foster kids and teen moms to grow into successful adults.

The organization is located in New Westminster, offering safe place to live, essential life skills, and career training programs for foster kids and teen moms.

For more information visit: http://www.auntleahs.org/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Auntleahplace 

Twitter - @AuntLeahs