The first two questions of a communications audit
Do you know what you're selling?
Who do you hope will buy?
Coffee with a commercial direct mail expert;
one difference between profits and nonprofits
I led a workshop in fundraising letters recently and the organization posted "Why we throw away requests for donations" on its website (you can even see me on video!), which referenced several books I like on the topic. Much to my surprise and delight, award-winning author Alan Rosenspan sent me an email thanking me for including his great book on direct mail, "Confessions of a Control Freak". What's more, turns out he lives in my same little town of 17,000 people south of Boston. We agreed to meet for coffee where the Starbucks used to be.
We had an ironic conversation. Alan works exclusively with profits and I with nonprofits. He marveled at how nonprofits show enthusiasm for learning and trying new ideas, which he doesn't feel the business world sufficiently embraces. I admired how the profit sector has to know answers and demand results (or go bankrupt). I worry that too many nonprofits would sooner limp along than give in to the 'dark side' and learn basic business principles.
Our conversation reminded me yet again why nonprofits should conduct communications audits.
A nonprofit is always selling something.
You use an audit to measure the quality of the effort.
Okay, maybe you don't like the word "selling". Still, your nonprofit has a goal every time it meets with a prospective donor, distributes a press release, publishes an annual report, holds an open house, answers the telephone, convenes a staff meeting, places a 'help wanted' ad, serves a client, issues an RFP, or gives directions to the restrooms.
You:
Hey, I didn't accuse you of selling DDT to organic farmers. Your goals are good things, and intrinsic to making the world a better place in which to live. But admit it: in every instance you are "selling" something to get something: social change, money, influence, hard work, new ideas, and clients.
Here's where profits and nonprofits are the same: you are successful or you are not. You may measure success in different ways; success may be harder or more abstract for one sector than another. But in either case, a transaction will ensue or it will not. Money will change hands, an employee will give his or her all, and you will gain respect and influence that can be used as needed. Or not.
In other words, the communication worked or the communication didn't work.
If your nonprofit isn't selling something, i.e. you are the proverbial tree falling in the forest and you don't care if anyone is around to hear you falling, then why would you need to audit the effectiveness of your communications?
That's the first question.
Who are you selling to? (Or "To whom are you selling?"
if you're picky.)
The second question asks who is the desired consumer. Is it a 'he' or 'she'? A young person or an elder? A client or a donor? Living in the city or the 'burbs? Loves dogs or hamsters?
The most common -- and depressing -- answer I hear is "everyone". The website, the newsletter, the annual meeting, the speech, the site visit, the Op-Ed, etc. is for "everyone"?
Forget it. You have key audiences and they want your undivided attention. When you try to talk to several people at one time, your message becomes bland and boring and middle of the road. Read virtually any opening letter to a nonprofit's annual report (alas).
Some years ago, Disney wanted to attract even more people to its theme parks (is that even possible?). So it ran television ads featuring newly-retired adults alone, having fun. The message: what a good time they'd have without the little rugrats. (As a retiree, would I go on vacation somewhere full of screaming kids? I couldn't even stand that 2-year-old on the plane ride down to Orlando.)
You're not limited to one or two audiences;
you just have to do a lot more communicating
Yes, of course, you have more than one or two important 'consumers' for what you're selling. (Call them 'audiences', 'constituencies', 'publics', whatever makes you comfortable.) More likely you have 25 or 30, and every one of them demands effective, meaningful communication.
I occasionally train childcare advocates working both within their nonprofit centers and for statewide policy change. My first exercise with them is always to ask, "Who are the important people in your neighborhood?" i.e. who did they have to keep happy to be successful. Here's a quick 20:
- Parents
- Prospective parents
- Children
- Teachers
- Board of directors
- Immediate neighbors (who could complain or be volunteers)
- Local businesses (who could complain or be donors and vendors)
- Building inspectors
- Local State Representative
- Local State Senator
- Local City Councilperson
- Childcare association or coalition or colleagues
- Vendors
- Donors, small, medium, and large
- Prospective donors, as above
- Foundations, current and prospective
- State agency: licensors
- State agency: if providing subsidized child care slots
- Volunteers, substitutes
- Health, social services, mental health, etc. providers
That's just a partial list, and for the most part, each one represents many people with individual egos to be massaged (think board members, parents, teachers...well, anybody).
But most organizations think they can talk to lots of difference audiences with a single message in the same way. That's a lot like saying that everything I tell my brother I could tell my aunt I could tell my daughter I could tell my sister I could tell my son. I don't think so (and I'm pretty open).
And even if I do want to tell them all roughly the same thing, I'm certainly going to package the message differently for each of them.
Expect, no, demand more from a communications audit
At some point, I'll stop calling them "communications audits". The two questions of what you are selling and to whom are as strategic to a nonprofit as they are to Microsoft or Sears. Frankly, I always build some "strategic thinking" (yuck on 'strategic planning') into all my communications audits because a nonprofit seldom has the answers when we first meet. I love that process of discovery.
Note too that the successful nonprofit rarely depends on 'traditional' communications, e.g. media, newsletters, annual reports, to attain its mission. We have to look at much, much more. (Think WOM, for example.)
So if you're considering a communications audit, demand that both you and the auditor (sometimes one and the same, though tricky) answer the two questions first. And that you are prepared to measure far beyond the obvious. Only then can you audit the full range of your nonprofit's communications for quality and effectiveness.
Someday a book
I've been promising my mentor Tom that I'd write my part of a promised book on communications self-audits for a long time. It's on this year's New Year's resolutions. I'm writing my promise here so I can be publicly embarrassed if I don't.
