Communication Strategies Nonprofits Should Steal From Businesses (Yes, really.)
I don’t hide my for-profit marketing background, but I try not to draw a neon sign around it, either. (Erm, until now.)
It’s my experience that there’s a small stigma attached. The two worlds are viewed as being so different that we can’t possibly learn from each other.
And sure, each has challenges the other can’t fully understand—but they have more in common than meets the eye.
There are three main components at the heart of both nonprofits and commercial businesses: people, storytelling, and the way that the latter is used to influence the former to encourage action.
Both industries revolve around people first, consumers (for-profits) and donors (nonprofits).
To meet their goals, both sectors have to excel at not only communicating with an audience, but knowing them well enough to influence their purchasing behavior.
(I think we can all agree this sounds easier than it is.)
Here’s the thing.
In my work with nonprofits struggling with thoughtful and consistent communications, I often find that the actual groundwork they lay to learn their audience isn’t enough.
The stories are there. The data is there.
But the foundation is shaky, so the messaging isn’t right.
Maybe their foundation used to be great, maybe they did deeply know their supporters once—but they stopped being inquisitive about them.
They’ve lost sight of who their audience is because they, A) think they’ve got them figured out, B) lack resources to dig deeper, or C) forget donors aren’t a static monolith.
How can they get them back?
By taking some notes from, yeah…for-profit companies.
Before I dive in, I wanted to note there are many nonprofits incredible at fostering meaningful connections with supporters, just as there are commercial businesses lousy at talking to customers.
This is not a referendum on the entire sector, just what I’ve seen first-hand and peripherally.
Dig deeper to find the heart in your audience.
In a previous role at an SEO agency, I co-led the content strategy for a Fortune 100 pet insurance brand looking to increase the number of policies sold from their website.
They were a new client, which meant building their strategy framework from the ground up: discovering their target audience and how to best speak to them to drive action.
One of the first steps?
Pulling data about pet owners to look for overlapping insights that could be used to create distinct personas.
Why?
Each buyer has their own reasons for wanting to purchase pet insurance. Understanding those reasons informs the content creation.
Example:
Emily is our risk-averse millennial.
She desires financial security, so she hates surprise, costly vet expenses.
Therefore: She’s more likely to buy a policy if she knows it means avoiding hefty vet fees whenever her injury-prone Goldendoodle decides to be a playful menace.
Emily is also active online and reads reviews for EVERYTHING before purchasing (unfortunately, very relatable to me).
How does that information help? We highlight the insurance provider’s TrustPilot rating on our site, so Emily knows she can trust us.
See, we know all about Emily—where her heart lies, what makes her tick—so it’s easy to write for her.
We’ve even given her a name so she remains real to us. No mysterious person behind a debit card.
You can apply a similar approach to donor communications.
Donor segmentation is, of course, already a standard component of nonprofit strategy.
But many organizations never see the ample possibilities in combining traditional behavioral segmentation—new, lapsed, recurring donors, etc.—with other forms of segmentations.
It’s this rich blend that creates more specific personas, making it easier to interact with donors in ways that resonate.
Let’s pull in the example above of Emily, the millennial dog mom. For this exercise, I’ve built out an entire persona, but specifically for nonprofits.
Name: Environmental Emily
Age: 35
Occupation: Engineer
Annual income: $120,000
Living: Single, in a mid-sized city with her Goldendoodle, Max
Philanthropy: Passionate about climate change, particularly environmental racism
Giving habits: With a tight monthly budget, Emily prefers to give a big donation at the end of the year with her bonus. She loves volunteer days at work and spreading awareness on social media.
Motivation: Emily wants her donations to be spent on awareness campaigns and mobilizing local communities to fight for clean energy.
Communication preferences: Social media and direct mail (her email inbox is old and overrun with newsletters she doesn’t read)
Engagement preferences: Volunteer days with colleagues
By visualizing Emily, your communications can be tailored to her values and preferences, like sending her big end-of-year direct mail appeals vs. monthly appeal emails. Her persona not only enables you to refine your outreach channels, but makes it so you can marry your campaigns with her interests.
Stop feeling icky about competitor research.
I remember the first time I did competitor research. It felt icky, like I was being a slimy sneak for analyzing publicly available information.
I imagined myself tip-toeing through the dark cloak of night—in a wardrobe of black clothes, naturally—to break into an office somewhere, evilly rubbing my hands together like a cheesy movie villain.
I quickly got past that feeling. Competitor research is a common practice, and so insightful when done correctly.
(Really, we research our competition ALL the time without realizing it. Those engaging LinkedIn posts you’re admiring from every angle, trying to figure out exactly what it *is* about that person that gives them their razzle dazzle? Yep—competitor research!)
Maybe because we’re nonprofiteers, we hold ourselves to a higher, altruistic standard.
We’re mission driven, so competition feels gross.
But it shouldn’t.
When we’re all fighting tooth and nail for funding, you have to know how to stand out in a crowd—and you can’t do that if you don’t know what the rest of the crowd is doing.
So, get your hands dirty:
- Sign up for an org’s email list. How are they talking to supporters? What’s their call-to-action strategy?
- Dive into their website. Is the copy compelling? What’s the donor experience like?
- Analyze their socials. What kind of posts do they share? What’s their engagement like?
- Perform a SWOT analysis. What are your competitor’s weaknesses? What opportunities exist for you to outperform them?
The last bullet point is where the application truly comes in, taking what you’ve learned and applying it.
For instance, let’s say a large part of your mission is educating others about climate justice. You see that a comparable nonprofit has a library of resources on their website, but they’re text-heavy and difficult for the average layman to digest.
Then, it hits you—you’ve got a small video team able to put out short, digestible, and educational clips to form your own video library for your website.
(Bonus: You can cross-post to social media for engagement.)
Obviously, there are limitations to this research. You don’t have access to an organization’s metrics beyond what they make available.
But you don’t need them to recognize gaps or opportunities.
Your gut is plenty.
Audit your content and marketing strategy. Often.
Conducting audits on your strategy is a smart way to find gaps when there’s something that’s not working in your donor communications, right?
Typically when engagement is low or giving is down.
I love doing these for clients—finding where the issues are and creating a plan of attack.
What I often find, though, is the problems are preventable. Sometimes they arise from layered factors, like staffing limitations, but more often, it’s because the comms are stuck on autopilot.
It’s worked in the past, so it’ll keep working.
But.
Algorithms change. Platform popularity wanes.
Email providers modify rules.
Appetite for direct mail ebbs and flows as analog tech becomes popular again.
SEO evolves on Google’s whim.
Supporter attitudes shift, but you’re still talking to the version of them they were 2 years ago.
It’s impossible to keep up with the changes, but tapping in periodically for a maintenance audit can keep you ahead of the game before you see it reflected in your donations.
Think of it as mending nail holes that can be repaired with spackle paint instead of trying to close deep fissures. (Ahem, can you tell I’m not a homeowner?)
At the end of the day, your audience deserves regular, innovative nurturing—no matter where those tools come from.
Being willing to source inspiration from unlikely places is what drives real impact.
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Olivia Rowe is a nonprofits copywriter and strategist who wrote her first short story when she was 9 years old. From her college years spent writing screenplays to her early career in journalism and marketing, she’s deeply passionate about telling stories that resonate with audiences of all kinds.
As the CEO of Liv J. Rowe Copywriting, Olivia helps organizations reclaim their time, energy, and funds as she transforms their donor communications. Her clients have included nonprofits based both here in the U.S. and overseas.
Although she works with organizations of varying missions, Olivia has a special interest in those
that serve marginalized people and help further social justice and equality.
In her free time, she can often be found with her nose buried in a fanfiction story and a chai latte
warming her hands.
LinkedIn: Olivia Rowe | LinkedIn