Developing a strategic plan to help focus your nonprofit’s goals and objectives is a critical first step in ensuring long-term sustainability. But simply having a plan doesn’t guarantee success. Actively putting it into practice and measuring progress toward those goals is just as crucial.
To that end, experts say, nonprofits need a formal communications plan that is designed to support the strategic plan as the organization puts it into play—something that many charities don’t quite understand.
By their nature, strategic plans are “big picture”—they cover everything from succession planning and developing fundraising and donor engagement programs to investment strategies aimed at achieving long-term financial stability… not to mention mission-related components that keep the organization on track and headed for success. According to Roger Sametz of Boston-based Sametz Blackstone Associates, communications touches on it all.
“For any of that stuff to happen, you need people to think and act in your favor, both internally and externally. And this often doesn’t happen unprompted—you need to connect with people and drive them to action,” he said.
While many charities have general communication plans in place, they typically are focused on a small slice of the organization’s activities—for example, fundraising and donor engagement. When looking at communications in terms of a strategic plan, it’s much more comprehensive, Sametz said, involving numerous stakeholders—or audiences— that will require different levels of engagement and information. Your communications plan should be designed to speak to each of these audiences, with messages tailored as appropriate, he said.
You don’t want to get too fragmented, he said, but you do need to identify the broad categories of constituencies you are speaking to.