A strategic communications plan for nonprofits and foundations might include more than you think. From strengthening your organization’s brand to helping you connect more effectively with the people you serve, the plan is a living, breathing guide that is simple, easy to reference and relevant to your goals.
It’s not the big, scary 100-page monstrosity you throw in a drawer and never look at again. It’s the easily accessible guide that the leadership team is familiar with — yes, even the board — and it’s central to the work of “doing good” at your organization — if it’s not, we should talk.
Since we’ve already shared the must-have elements of all strategic communications plans — goals, audiences etc — (you can check out more about that here) we’re diving into some unexpected elements you might include in your nonprofit communications plan.
Note: These are items you might consider — though, trying do it all might not work for every nonprofit or foundation.
Adding new elements to your communications plan for nonprofits or foundations
Thought leadership — Some people hate this word. If you find a better one, let us know. When you lead a foundation or nonprofit, you have a lot to offer your peers, donors, staff and others based on what you’ve learned over the years. So, how are you building this into your communications plan? From blog posts to video — there are many opportunities to share your point of view.
Branding – You may be a grantee organization or you might represent a foundation that provides grants to those serving our world’s most vulnerable populations. Either way, there are things you can do to ensure your organization is tied to good work being done. For foundations, this might mean including information about communications in the grant contract. For nonprofits, this might mean training staff with talking points and providing language to beneficiaries that clearly shares how your organization is connected to the effort.
Training – For foundations, this could go hand in hand with your branding parameters. Investing in training for your grantees not only builds capacity but enables these organizations to articulate how your foundation supports their work.
What other unexpected elements have you added to your strategic communications plan?
