photo by ontwerpplus
What’s the purpose of your communications program? Is it to build awareness for your organization and its mission? Inform people about your issue? Get your name in the media? Maybe you think it’s about sharing the latest news of what you’ve accomplished.
If that’s what you think, you’re not alone. Too many nonprofits have a severely limited understanding of a communication program’s purpose. Nonprofit boards and staff may value their communications team, but too many think its job is simply to get the word out as to what the organizers and policy wonks and fund raisers are accomplishing.
That’s all well and good and vital to the cause, but an effective communications strategy can be much more than that. Let’s reframe things a little:
A great communications program gets stakeholders to do something and then helps them do it.
See the difference? Yes, making people aware of you and what you’re doing can lead to others joining your cause. And getting media coverage can certainly enhance your credibility as an organization that gets things done. But if you’re not turning awareness and knowledge and support into action, you’re not accomplishing anything. Remember, the point of all this is to change the world (or at least your small corner of the world). Anything less is missing the big picture.
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