Successful Nonprofit "Hot Topics Breakfast" Held at Longmeadow Campus

Last Friday we had a wonderful Hot Topics breakfast on the Longmeadow Campus attended by about 200 nonprofit professionals including a good number of NMP/SFP alumni.   Rick Bailey, founder of RHB (a marketing consultancy), was the main speaker and Dina Plapler and John Urschel, both adjunct professors in Bay Path’s nonprofit graduate program, were guest panelists.

Rick’s main theme was that to market effectively in today's data saturated environment, you need to know what you want to convey to your audience and to boldly convey that message in as clear and constant a manner as possible.  “Coherence” is the term he used for being consistent in what you do as an organization, what you say you do in your marketing message, and what your target audience understands your organization does.    

While Rick acknowledged that these are challenging times for nonprofits, he also said that the current changing environment provides nonprofits with “chopportunities” to address new community needs that are developing because of these changes. 

Below are eight points that he said were critical to maintaining coherence and making the most of your organization’s “chopportunities”:

1.      Know yourself:  The practice of coherence begins by knowing your organization well.

2.     Stay focused:  Once you know your great cause, your mission, and you are assured that it’s relevant, stick to it. Use it as the measuring stick by which you organize your team, your activities, your outreach and your marketing. 

3.     Know your peeps and your would-be peeps:  While it’s important to know yourself well, if you intend to be coherent, it’s essential to know your audience just as well.  Make sure your organization is focused on what is important to your most important audiences.   

4.     Speak clearly:  Be clear about who you are and what you hope to achieve. Know your position in the market and how you differentiate from your competitors.

5.      Know your objectives:  Be clear about what you hope to accomplish.  Have clear and reasonable objectives. And remember to be specific about your audience. Who do you intend to reach? 

6.     Listen first. Then converse:  The first rule of social media is to keep in mind that it is SOCIAL. It’s conversation. It’s communication. And while it has advertising components, it’s first and foremost dialog. 

7.     Behave like your best self:  If you’re transparent and authentic; if you consistently deliver on your promises, you’ll become trustworthy. And trust will turn to the kinds of exchanges you hope to have. 

8.     Fail forward:  Failure is a great thing and can lead to game-changing success.  Welcome it. If you haven’t failed, you probably haven’t tried hard enough.

The event was taped so I’ll alert you to when and where you can watch it on-line.  Thoughts?

Jeff