Does your nonprofit engagement strategy consist of a weekly email blast alongside the occasional Facebook post? If the answer is yes, you’re not alone! As a nonprofit organizer, I see hundreds of organizations struggling to answer the same question: How can we engage our community in a way that mobilizes people to take action?
Community building is essential for nonprofits, because you can’t move the needle on important social issues without an engaged and committed supporter base. Yet, many organizations default to a mass marketing approach that is focused on list building and email open rates, overlooking the most important ingredient to change - empowerment.
Many nonprofits struggle to get to know their supporters, identify effective ways to engage them, and leverage the full potential of their network. Community organizing has the potential to address these challenges.
Popularized by the Obama campaign, organizing is a completely different model that focuses on relationship building instead of list building, prioritizes peer to peer asks instead of institutional asks, and values empowerment over brand loyalty.
By applying the key principles of organizing to your engagement strategy, every nonprofit has the potential to make a much larger impact.
Put relationships at the center.
Your biggest asset as an organization is your people, so it’s imperative to understand who they are and how they prefer to be communicated with. Think about how you build relationships in real life. Your initial conversations are all about information sharing and realizing common interests. If a new friend told you she loves puppies and the best way to get in touch with her is via text message, how do you think an email about kittens would go over? Keep track of the information you know about people and don’t have organizational amnesia!
Create various ladders for taking action.
When it comes to outreach strategies, we often hear about the “ladder of engagement.” Other variations include the engagement vortex or matrix of engagement, but both ideas emphasize the need to move supporters along a pathway of actions that build on each other over time. From an organizing perspective, the key is recognizing that not everyone is going to follow that same pathway, so you’ll need to create multiple points of entry for potential supporters. An easy way to visualize this is through a ski resort. Think about all the different runs that exist on a single mountain. Not everyone has the ability (or desire) to ski the black diamond, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t another run they would enjoy.
Think about all the different ways people could be useful to your organization. Nonprofits immediately focus on asking people to become donors. However, there are tons of other ways people could engage with an organization outside of donating that could be valuable. Get creative, and think of clear asks that could build over time.
Empower leaders at different levels.
Resource constraints are one of the biggest challenges nonprofits face. Limited time and money often make it difficult to get the word out about new programs, maintain relationships with donors and volunteers, etc. What if other people could help you with this? Hint: They totally can.
It may seem counterintuitive, but people actually like being asked to do things. It gives them a sense of purpose and helps them connect to the larger mission. Peer to peer outreach is one of the most powerful tactics an organization can employ because it has built in trust and validation. People are far more likely to get involved with a cause if their friends are already participating, so organizations should empower their supporters to be advocates in every way possible. Think of both light touch sharing strategies, like spreading the word about a new program on social media, and high touch strategies, such as enabling leaders to organize their own events on your behalf. There are so many ways supporters can carry your mission forward, it’s worth taking some time to brainstorm them.
If you’re interested in digging more into what organizing looks like and how it could unlock new potential for your nonprofit, join us for one of our upcoming workshops!
Rethinking Nonprofit Engagement - Applying the Principles of Organizing - Feb 11th
Rethinking Nonprofit Engagement - Exploring NationBuilder Use Cases - Feb 18th
Check out more workshops at http://nationbuilder.com/workshops
