As a nonprofit professional, you understand the importance of a strong donor communication strategy. Regular communication with your supporters that involves fundraising updates, recent projects and general donor appreciation messages can help your donor base stay engaged and eager to give back to your cause on a recurring basis. However, if you’ve noticed a drop in engagement or are experiencing slowdowns in your fundraising progress, it’s time for a change.
A nonprofit communications audit helps you take a deep dive into your existing communication strategy and assess what’s working well and what’s not. With this information, you’ll be better prepared to reach supporters in a way that resonates with them and motivates them to get more involved in your nonprofit’s efforts.
Use these essential tips to conduct a successful nonprofit communications audit:
A nonprofit communications audit can give you the guidance you need to enhance your communications plan and get your organization back on track to meeting its fundraising goals. Let’s begin.
Reflect on your existing communication strategy
What communication platforms does your organization currently use to connect with supporters? How often are you communicating with your donors and what level of engagement are you driving with these communications? Do your communications accurately reflect your nonprofit’s brand?
To understand your weaknesses and strengths in your current communications approach, take a close look at metrics such as:
- Your social media engagement numbers, such as reposts, likes, comments and shares
- Email metrics like open rate, clickthrough rate and conversion rate
- Your nonprofit website’s metrics, such as page views, time spent on page, conversion rate and bounce rate
This will help you understand, platform by platform, what’s working and what isn’t in terms of your outreach. Then, you’ll know where to invest your time and resources and come up with the best combination of content strategies that will deliver results.
You’ll also want to reflect on your existing audience and where they’re most likely to see your content. For example, if you’re targeting an older demographic, it wouldn’t be worthwhile to spend time generating TikTok and Instagram videos. Instead, your communication strategy would benefit from sending direct mail appeals and creating content on Facebook.
To better understand your audience’s demographics, leverage your nonprofit’s CRM to determine your average donor’s age, location, communication preferences and any other metrics that may inform how you can make the most of your marketing and communication efforts. If you have any gaps in your donor profiles, NPOInfo recommends using a demographic data appending service. This can help you gather more information to support your stewardship efforts and tailor your communication strategy to your audience.
Survey your stakeholders
One of the most effective ways to determine where your communication strategy can improve is by asking your stakeholders directly. These include your:
- Major donors
- Volunteers and staff members
- Board members
- Corporate partners
Seek out a variety of perspectives so you can gain a better understanding of what people like and dislike about your current approach to communication. While favorable opinions are welcome, this is your opportunity to dig deeper into your organization’s gaps and where you can enhance your strategy. Be clear that you are open to receiving constructive feedback, as this will ultimately point your nonprofit in the right direction towards creating positive changes.
However, gathering unbiased feedback can be difficult if stakeholders feel uncomfortable voicing their opinions. This is where working with an outside expert can help. According to Aly Sterling Philanthropy, a nonprofit consultant can give your organization much-needed insight into how to improve its internal operations to promote success.
To support your communications audit, a consultant can help your organization conduct one-on-one meetings with stakeholders to collect their input, then compile the results and suggest actionable changes for your organization.
Develop a plan of action
Once you’re reviewed your strengths and weaknesses and collected feedback from stakeholders, you’re ready to develop a plan of action. This plan should clearly outline exactly how you’ll improve your communications. Specifically, you’ll want to map out:
- The central goals you want to achieve based on the areas that need improvement
- The projects you’ll need to complete to optimize your communication strategy, such as rehauling your nonprofit’s website or sending more targeted email communications
- The timeline for completing these projects, along with milestone benchmarks to reach in order to foster accountability
- The team members that will be responsible for executing these projects, ensuring that everyone is on the same page and knows exactly what their role is in optimizing your communication strategy
- The resources you’ll need to execute your tasks, such as a CRM or email marketing software
For example, let’s say your organization has been struggling to raise enough funds for your fundraising campaign, even though the deadline is coming up quickly. After further assessment, you discover that your emails requesting donations have low open rates and conversion rates. To optimize your approach you might choose to:
- Leverage your CRM to develop segmented donor lists based on donation frequency, recency and amount
- Incorporate storytelling into your emails to help your audience emotionally connect with your cause and see the tangible impact of their donations
- Use a robust email marketing software solution to automate your messages with personalized details for each recipient
As you develop your plan for refining your communications, make sure your entire team has a voice in the process. This ensures that everyone will commit to their role in refreshing your communications plan and increases accountability across your organization. You’ll also want to lay out a way to track your progress, such as by regularly monitoring engagement metrics across email, social media, your nonprofit’s website and other nonprofit marketing channels you might choose to revamp.
A strong communications foundation is an essential component of your nonprofit’s fundraising plan. By conducting a communications audit, your organization will be able to identify where you can grow and adapt your strategies to drive even more engagement. Do your research to find a nonprofit consulting firm that will help your organization rework its communications approach and increase its overall success. Good luck!
Guest post by Aly Sterling
Long before Aly Sterling founded her eponymous consulting firm, she was solving the unique yet similar problems encountered by nonprofit organizations.
Her decision to start her own business in 2007 was driven by her belief in leadership as the single most important factor in organizational success, and her determination to work with multiple causes at one time to scale societal change.
Aly’s expertise includes fundraising, strategic planning, search consultation and board leadership development for the well-positioned nonprofit. She is regularly sought for comment by trade and mainstream media, including the Chronicle of Philanthropy and U.S. News & World Report. She has contributed to publications of BoardSource and The Governance Institute, as well as the Toledo Chamber of Commerce and The Giving Institute.
Donations
Events
Petitions
Forms
Shop
Directories