May 31, 2007 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Nearly two-thirds of charitable organizations do not keep track of the results of their marketing efforts and therefore have no way to know whether they are reaching the people they hope to influence, according to an online survey of 350 nonprofit communication leaders.
The survey, conducted by Nancy Schwartz & Company, a Maplewood, N.J., company that advises charities on their communications, found that 55 percent of the respondents are frustrated by a lack of resources for marketing, and only 37 percent spend time tracking results of their marketing and communication efforts.
“That means that there are 63 percent of nonprofits that have no idea whether they are succeeding with their marketing,” says Ms. Schwartz, the study’s author and president of the consulting firm. “They’re essentially throwing their money away.”
Possible Waste of Resources
The results echo the findings of a 2005 study by Cause Communications, a Santa Monica, Calif., nonprofit consulting group that works with charities.
That study found that 90 percent of respondents do not conduct market research to better understand their audience or test the effectiveness of their communications. It also found that 85 percent of charities do not regularly include members of their communications staff in their organizations’ decision making.
Together, the two studies suggest that charities are not taking steps to make sure they spend marketing resources wisely. Ms. Schwartz says many nonprofit leaders, including those at grant-making foundations, either do not have training in marketing or believe that marketing efforts run counter to their organizations’ charitable mission.
But, she argues, organizations cannot effectively reach prospective donors, volunteers, grant recipients, and other constituents without it.
“The framework of nonprofit leadership has to shift to appreciate the value of marketing,” she says. “But within the funder community, there is unease with the concept of marketing. It might suggest a relationship with consumerism that is contradictory to how the funding community sees itself. There’s a fear there. But there’s also a lack of understanding and a lack of support.”
Ms. Schwartz says many organizations can start by focusing on low-cost, simple ways to monitor marketing efforts, such as having staff members ask those calling their offices how they found out about their organization.
More complex efforts can involve splitting a mailing list into two groups and sending a different type of message to each one to figure out which message prompts a greater response.
Organizations should also take advantage of online tools that allow them to measure how people find out about their Web sites and which parts of their sites are getting the most traffic.
“Anything is better than nothing,” Ms. Schwartz says. “Whatever you do is going to have a huge return on investmtent.”
Results of the survey can be found online.
