Letter From the Managing Directors

By Amy Celep and Heather Peeler, Managing Directors, Community Wealth Ventures

Dear Colleague,

Undoubtedly, we are all looking for new ways to manage through the recession by revisiting expenses and focusing efforts on fundraising and resource development.  One area that should receive considerable attention is marketing and outreach, an area that more often than not ends up on the budgetary chopping block.  Effective and meaningful efforts that connect your organization with its stakeholders – constituents, donors, elected officials, peers, etc. – are central to ensuring long-term sustainability.  When times are uncertain, more communication and engagement are warranted, not less.

Now is the time for being resourceful and for getting creative when it comes to your marketing strategy. This Fall Edition of the Community Wealth Vanguard looks at two strategies for effectively marketing your organization during a recession: cause marketing and social media. It doesn’t always take a bundle of money to increase awareness of your organization and engage with stakeholders. By highlighting your organization’s most attractive assets or interacting with people through new internet channels, your organization can generate awareness effectively, and at little to no monetary cost.

Think that your nonprofit is too small or that the economy is too challenging to attract corporations for cause marketing relationships? Pat Nicklin, Managing Director of Share Our Strength debunks this notion in her article The Recession: A Good Time for Cause Marketing?

Are you confused by the differences between Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn? Don’t know what it means to “Tweet”? Our Top 10 article demystifies the most highly used social media tools that your organization may incorporate into its marketing strategy, while Dave Evans, author of the book Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day defines social media and talks about how nonprofit organizations are engaging in it, in his article Nonprofits 2.0. Finally, in the article Getting Started With Social Media, Neil Shah, Founder of Compass Partners, a nonprofit with a mission to create a community of student social entrepreneurs, answers the fundamental question that most nonprofits have when thinking about their social media strategy: “Is social media right for my organization, and where do I begin in designing our strategy?”

We hope that you find this edition of the Vanguard helpful as you continue to think creatively and cost effectively about your marketing strategy. If you have ideas for how organizations can effectively connect with constituents and donors and/or a success story that you’d like to share, please let us know!  We look forward to hearing from you.

Warm Regards,

Amy Celep and Heather Peeler

» The Recession: A Good Time For Cause Marketing?

» Nonprofits 2.0

» Getting Started With Social Media

» Top Ten: Social Media Outlets

» New and Noteworthy

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