After more than eight years of offering a platform for nonprofit communicators to share their expertise and learn from each other, the Nonprofit MarCommunity blog ceases publication today.

My vision for creating this blog in 2013 came from a desire to create an online space where nonprofit communicators could share case studies, how-to content and other guidance. I’d had past success with in-person events, and the community of nonprofit communicators responded with great enthusiasm to the blog format – both as contributors and readers.

What set this blog apart has been content from the community, for the community. We have benefitted greatly from the generosity of our many blog contributors and other supporters and have built a comprehensive library of nonprofit marketing communications guidance.

However, I’ve had to reduce my extremely active managing editor role in the last few years. Then, over the course of the pandemic, I admitted to myself that this project was my “one thing too many.” At the same time, I noticed that community members were expressing a diminishing capacity to contribute. So while activity on the blog has been minimal for a long while, this December I’m officially shutting down publication.

What will shutting this blog down mean for the existing content?

Much of the blog content is evergreen and will continue to remain relevant. Also, I’m aware that many nonprofit communicators continue to access the how-to guidance on the site, so I will be keeping it online. However, I’ll no longer be accepting pitches or submissions and we will not be publishing any new posts.

While I do think that we created something unique in terms of community-generated content, many other publications provide excellent nonprofit communications-specific guidance. Here’s a list of some of my favourite nonprofit marketing communications resources. It’s short because it’s carefully curated based on alignment with our blog content. There are many other fantastic options; please use the comments section to add your favourites!

Blog
Nonprofit Marketing Guide

Podcast
The Smart Communications Podcast (from Big Duck)

Books
Brandraising and The Nonprofit Communications Engine by Sarah Durham
Nonprofit Marketing Guide by Kivi Leroux Miller

Conference
The Nonprofit Technology Conference

Comprehensive toolkits for nonprofit communicators
Storytelling and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion toolkits from the Communications Network.

Also, I’m still writing and sharing content for nonprofit communicators on moflow.ca, focusing on content strategy and copywriting tips and insights.

Thank you to all who have contributed to, read and supported the Nonprofit MarCommunity!

Marlene

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Marlene Oliveira

Communications advisor and copywriter at moflow

Marlene Oliveira is communications consultant and copywriter at moflow and founder of the Nonprofit MarCommunity blog. Having worked in the nonprofit sector since 1999, Marlene specializes in working with capacity building and grant-making organizations, advising on communications strategy, and writing stories and other content.

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This resource roundup is for you if you need help with annual report planning, writing, design – or if you simply need a pep talk because you want to enjoy the process this year.

The annual report guidance in these posts from the archives is timeless, so I wanted to make sure they aren’t forgotten! If you need help with your approach to your annual report, I hope you’ll find the following links useful.

Annual report tips: a roundup of resources

• Planning >>How to plan your nonprofit’s next annual report by Julia Reich
• Communicating impact, not output >> 12 outcomes to measure and communicate for a successful nonprofit annual report by Sheri Chaney Jones
• Incorporating infographics >> Three ways to use infographics in your nonprofit’s annual report by Laura Wertkin
• Enjoying and embracing the process >> Seven reasons to love producing a nonprofit annual report by me

• Using stock photos >> If the last year’s lockdowns have left you stuck with stock photography, check out:
  • Angela de Burger’s recently updated 12 stock photography sites for nonprofits.
  • Katherine Moffat’s super useful tips in 7 ways to get the most out of stock images when you can’t afford to hire a pro.
• Writing >> You can head over to the moflow blog archives (where I focus on content planning and copywriting) for a couple of posts on annual report writing:
  • Ask these six questions to write a better nonprofit annual report
  • How to develop a nonprofit annual report theme and structure

Thank you so much to Julia, Sheri, Laura, Katherine and Angela for these articles you’ve contributed to the Nonprofit MarCommunity blog over the years!

Annual report tips for nonprofit organizations: resource roundup #NPMC
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Marlene Oliveira

Communications advisor and copywriter at moflow

Marlene Oliveira is communications consultant and copywriter at moflow and founder of the Nonprofit MarCommunity blog. Having worked in the nonprofit sector since 1999, Marlene specializes in working with capacity building and grant-making organizations, advising on communications strategy, and writing stories and other content.

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In a world where people have attention spans of eight seconds, nonprofit communicators can use vibrant images to help their stories and messages come to life. A great image can convey an entire narrative that complements key elements of the story you’re telling in words. Readers are drawn to photos and graphics, resulting in more attention and interaction for the content you’re sharing. On social media platforms, posts with photos attract more engagement compared to text-only content sharing.

Readers are drawn to photos and graphics, resulting in more attention and interaction for your content. #NPMC
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The challenge many of us face is coming up with great visual elements to post on a regular basis, in a way that fits within limited budgets. We want to create awesome, engaging graphics, so what can we do?

The good news is that we are nonprofit communicators in the digital age where incredible online tools are offered for free or very minimal cost. Add in the fact that they’re user friendly and you can create customized, unique graphics in minutes and it all adds up to a big win. Even if you think you don’t have design talents, the templates and quick & easy design tutorials will get you going in no time flat. Perfect for nonprofit marcom pros who don’t have access to graphic designers, or just need to whip up a quick graphic on the fly, here’s an overview of two useful graphic creation tools.

Graphic creation tools for design rookies

Canva

Canva describes itself as “amazingly simple graphic design” and I couldn’t agree more. After registering for a free online account, you can quickly access hundreds of design templates, layouts, photos and icons and use them to create an image that meets your specific needs. There’s also a paid plan (often offered to nonprofits free of charge) which unlocks many more photos and assets, and offers additional tools such as being able to set up a brand kit and easily resize designs for additional platforms.

You start by picking a standard size template to work from (ie: Instagram post), or by entering custom dimensions for your project. There are millions of backgrounds, photos, components and fonts to use in your designs. Pricing is very accessible – there are tons of options that are free and additional options available for use at low cost. You’re also able to upload your own images (photos and logos) to use in your designs, at no cost.

With Canva’s super easy click, drag and drop functionality, you can have great looking images created and saved as an image, PDF or animated graphic within minutes. The ability to layer elements is one of the highlights of the platform. For those of us who need tips on how to compose dynamic designs, Canva provides well explained design tips and tutorials.

Piktochart

Do you have lots of numbers and facts you want to share, but you don’t have an engaging way of presenting them? Piktochart is an easy-to-use online tool that they highlight as a way to “turn any text-heavy content into a visual story that sticks.” Basic accounts are free to set up, and for full features you can sign up for one of several packages, including special pricing for nonprofits.

Using this tool, I was able to create a well-designed infographic in a very short time frame thanks to a choice of engaging layout templates. This made it easy to share important info with audiences across a variety of platforms.

To get started you pick a template and dive right in. Select a design and play with the drag and drop design features. If you’re working with a lot of numbers, you can conveniently import data from your Excel files or Google spreadsheets so they can be represented in graph or chart formats.

To meet a variety of publication needs you can save your work in a multiple formats and sizes.

Get creative!

Now it’s your turn – set up your own accounts and get creative! Great looking visuals tell a story all their own and draw people into the info you want to share. Enjoy your newfound freedom to create the graphics you need, when you need them!

Great looking visuals tell a story all their own and draw people into the info you want to share. #NPMC
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Angela de Burger

Angela de Burger is a communications professional who is passionately curious about the way individuals and organizations express themselves and connect to each other.

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In a previous post, I discussed elements to include when developing your brand guidelines, including both visual and messaging elements. Once these guidelines have been established it can be incredibly helpful to further support your colleagues (and maybe even partners and vendors) by providing handy tools and templates that are designed and on-brand, ready to be used within their day-to-day work. In this post, we’ll look at elements to include in your organization’s visual identity toolkit.

In an easily accessible location such as an online brand resource centre or on an internal shared drive, consider including the following 10 tools and templates:

1. Logo (Brandmark)

You have a fantastic logo and now it’s time for your organization to use it. Provide the graphic image in multiple formats, suitable for various scenarios: print (high-resolution, at least 300 dpi, formats such as: PNG, EPS, TIF); web (lower-resolution, at least 72 dpi, formats such as: JPG, GIF); as well as in full colour, single colour, and reverse (for use on dark background) and layouts (ie: horizontal, vertical).

2. Fonts and colours

Provide your organization’s preferred font(s) for both print and web so that they’re available and installed on the staff team’s computers. If you’re able, it would be even better to work with IT to arrange the installation for the whole organization in a coordinated effort. If you have identified specific brand colours, provide all colour details such as Pantone (PMS), CMYK and RGB values – a quick reference sheet can work well for this information.

3. Poster/ Newsletter template

Ready-to-use, fill in the blank templates can be incredibly useful tools within an organization. Ensure all departments have access to well designed, branded templates that meet the most typical needs.

4. Presentation template

If people in your organization regularly address audiences where written information, charts or photographs need to be shared, provide a branded presentation template in a program like PowerPoint.

5. Social media visuals

Your social media channels provide an ideal opportunity to showcase visuals that enhance understanding of your work. Create images that make good use of the screen space afforded to avatars, cover photos, backgrounds and skins. Consider featuring your logo, images that show your work in action and the faces/messages of your cause.

6. Digital backgrounds and wallpapers

If your organization uses online meeting platforms such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom, an option is to provide a branded background image that can appear behind the person when they are on screen. Additionally, providing and utilizing branded desktop wallpaper on all systems is a great way to create a consistent look on organization-owned computer systems.

7. Stationery

For written communication, branded stationery conveys a coordinated brand identity. Consider designing and providing templates for items such as letterhead, presentation folders, envelopes and note cards. Where appropriate, like in the case of letterhead, also include versions suitable for electronic communication.

8. Business cards

Networking and developing professional relationships with people often results in a desire to connect in the future. Branded business cards that contain contact information, your organization’s logo and tagline/mission, etc are a great way to start the relationship off with a clear understanding of your brand identity. Be creative!

9. Memo and report templates

The everyday needs of a nonprofit include communication between a variety of people such as colleagues, partners, and funders. Providing branded templates for memos and reports makes it easy for your fellow staff teams to present their information and ideas professionally, accurately and consistently reflecting the visual elements of your brand.

10. Signage

There are many cues needed within the course of a day that are solved by signage. Following your brand guidelines’ signage design recommendations for artwork, create branded designs for items such as interior and exterior signage, wayfinding signage or pull-up banners to help to reinforce your organization’s identity. For temporary signage needs think about providing templates that can be customized to meet a specific situation’s needs, such as indicating a piece of equipment is out of service.

Providing tools and templates that are well designed and accurately reflect your brand will make it easier for staff and volunteers to reflect your brand guidelines and enhance the visual consistency and recognition of your organization.

BONUS – as a counterpart to these visual elements, check out these essentials to include in your organization’s messaging toolkit.

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Angela de Burger

Angela de Burger is a communications professional who is passionately curious about the way individuals and organizations express themselves and connect to each other.

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On demand, up to the minute and valuable information is available to anyone in today’s global digital community. Your nonprofit has important info, intriguing stories and a unique perspective to share. Get the word out there! Let your organization’s voice be heard by creating a podcast – an audio production that listeners can access on demand. With millions of podcast downloads every month from services such as iTunes and Spotify, the popularity of podcasting continues to grow.

Podcasts range in format from casual conversations to formal presentations and interviews. Your approach should be in line with your nonprofit’s overall approach and tone.

Podcasting provides a different way for people to interact with your organization. The episodes you produce can help your organization raise its profile, develop a personal connection, and stand out from the crowd.

Four ways your nonprofit can use podcasting to raise its profile, develop connections and stand out from the crowd #NPMC
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Here are four ways you can use podcasting for your nonprofit:

1. Create a personal connection

You probably spend significant time planning your marketing and communications strategies. Do you have a way to make things personal? Creating a personal connection between your staff, volunteers, the people you serve, and potential donors who want to be part of what you do?

This is your chance to create a personalized link to your audience(s). There’s nothing like hearing someone’s voice and getting familiar with it – there’s a comfort level and trust built when you feel like you’re getting to know someone. Hearing a consistent voice regularly through your headphones creates that kind of connection.

A great example of this is the Art Gallery of Ontario’s podcast series, where they explore the stories behind paintings in their collection, speak to staff members about their roles at the gallery and lots more.

2. Raise your profile by sharing your expertise

Your organization has a mission and works hard to achieve it through a variety of activities. Do you ever have people say, “I had no idea you did that!?” (fill in the blank for “that”). Often nonprofits are involved in many kinds of work and no one audience is familiar with all that you do, and how the info/services you provide can be of benefit to them.

An example of this approach is the Maytree Foundation’s Five Good Ideas podcast, which grew out of their lunch-and-learn program for nonprofit professionals. The organization invites experts to share five practical ideas on a key issue facing non-profit organizations. For people who can’t attend the session live the podcast offers an additional way for Maytree to connect, provide value, and demonstrate their leadership.

3. Share your stories

The impact of nonprofit work tends to come alive when we hear from the people who access, benefit and have success as a result of being involved with the organization. How many times have you built your annual report, social media post or presentation around a great good-news story? My guess is it’s a regular occurrence because those stories paint a vivid picture of the “why” we do what we do.

Podcasts that are built around people sharing their own personal stories are exceptionally engaging and keep me coming back. The episode from Habitat for Humanity Canada podcast entitled The Impact of a Habitat Home shares the stories of two Canadian families in their own words. It’s powerful. The organization says this episode highlights “great examples of the Habitat mission in action – bringing communities together to help families build strength, stability and independence through affordable homeownership.”

Consider whether an entire episode of stories, or perhaps a personal storytelling element within episodes could work for your nonprofit. It’s hard for listeners to not be moved by a well-told story, shared from the heart by people who have been positively impacted by the programs or services of your organization.

Share your nonprofit's expertise and impact stories with an engaging podcast #NPMC
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4. Offer resources

Nonprofit marketing and communications professionals put a lot of work into creating compelling and engaging resources. Unfortunately, these excellent materials don’t always achieve the reach we’d like them to have. By adding a podcast to your tools for sharing there’s an opportunity to leverage work you create for other purposes, ie: repurposing the content of a blog post. With a podcast, you’re making the most of your work by delivering info via an additional communication channel and engaging with new people.

Volunteer Yukon has a suite of resources available, including podcasts, documents, and training videos. Tackling topics such as HR management, privacy protection, and liability/insurance, they have incorporated the podcast method of info delivery into their offerings. 

Things to think about when planning a podcast

• The audience for your podcast: some podcasts are created for internal audiences such as staff, volunteers or donors. Others are geared towards an external audience, serving to inform and attract people to the work of your organization.
• Episode schedule and organization: consider whether you will group episodes according to topic area, create a seasonal timeline, run indefinitely on a fixed schedule, or use some other organizational premise.
• Setup: think about how your podcast will be set up (interview? narrative?) and how it will sound. Will it be formal in tone, or lean towards casual and conversational? Will one person deliver the content, perhaps co-hosts, or an interviewer and guest? Will it be short form or long form in terms of length? I’ve listened to podcasts that range from 10 minutes to 2 hours long! Your decisions should be based on the needs and desires of your audience.
• Music: If you need music for an intro, segment transition or closing, determine where this music will come from and ensure you have the rights to use it. There are many music options including some that have been made available by creators for free under a Creative Commons License. Buzzsprout gives a great overview of this information, including debunking some myths around the use of music and copyright considerations. Be sure you read the fine print to ensure you are fulfilling any and all requirements of these types of licenses.

Getting started

If you’re interested in learning more, there are tons of online resources to help you get started. One of the first things you should do is listen to podcasts! Pick a couple of topic areas that interest you – whether it’s a nonprofit’s podcast, or something purely for your own learning or entertainment. Listening to several episodes will help you get an ear for the medium and jumpstart your creative side in establishing one of your own.

There are lots of resources available for nonprofit marcom pros who are looking to enter the world of podcasting, for example:

• Tony Martignetti’s Nonprofit Radio (a weekly podcast on topics of interest to nonprofits)
• The “Using Local Podcasts for a Purpose” episode of the Using the Whole Whale – A Nonprofit Podcast
• Events and conference sessions
• One of the many books on the topic

Your nonprofit has lots to offer this world! Podcasting can be a great way to create a personal connection with audiences, raise your profile by sharing expertise, share stories and offer resources. I’ll look forward to adding your episodes to my playlist!

Author information

Angela de Burger

Angela de Burger is a communications professional who is passionately curious about the way individuals and organizations express themselves and connect to each other.

Twitter

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Creating clarity and consistency in your organization’s communications assists your audiences to better understand your mission, strategies and activities. In previous posts I discussed elements to include when developing your brand guidelines and items to provide in your organization’s visual identity toolkit. To round out the resources you offer to staff team members (as well as partners and vendors when appropriate) consider establishing an easily accessible set of documents that make up an effective messaging toolkit:

Key messages

There are likely some aspects of your organization’s work that you (and your staff and volunteers) talk about regularly. Having well thought-out key points and preferred phrasing within easy reach can be a big help when you sit down to develop a presentation or an article. To start creating key messages, determine the focal point(s) you want to address and develop the key message(s) you want to convey. Key messages (aim for a maximum of 3-5) should be clear, concise and easily understood. Keep in mind that it may be necessary to create specific key messages for each of your audiences in order to reach them effectively. Your key messages may also benefit from being supported by sub-messages and proof points.

Tagline

A well crafted tagline allows your organization to succinctly convey what you’re all about, capturing your brand promise and personality in a few well chosen words. Synthesizing your organization (or an event) down to a single, catchy tagline can be challenging but well worth the effort. Keep it high level and focused, describing the benefits your organization offers to the community in 8 words or less.

Boilerplate

A brief description of your organization that can be included in items such as media releases is an invaluable tool. A boilerplate provides a consistent description that can be utilized as a standard paragraph for colleagues who need to describe who you are, what you do, and why you do it. In the world of boilerplates, keep things short and sweet: aim for 100-150 words. 

Facts / Stats

A one-stop shop for your most-requested facts and statistics will be well-used in your organization. They can be put to effective use in annual reports, infographics and videos, to name only a few examples. Include info such as membership, usage stats, success outcomes, in addition to key information about your organization such as when it was founded, number of programs and locations, etc.

Media release

When the time comes for media to be contacted, your organization’s message needs to be expressed clearly, concisely and in the correct format. Provide a template with logo and desired header information described, headline placement, text placement (what should be included in each paragraph), an indication the content has ended, your organization’s boilerplate, and where to include the primary contact information related to the release.

Elevator pitch

Quick – how do you respond when someone asks what your organization does? What do your colleagues say? To increase consistency and help people spread the message about the great work you do, create an “elevator pitch” template. This should be an easy-to-remember, accurate and concise description of what your organization does and the benefits you create for your community, which can be (comfortably) delivered in 30 seconds or less.

Email signature

Much of our correspondence is conducted electronically today and each message is an opportunity to reinforce brand identity. Include contact information but also consider adding links to social media, a current campaign hyperlink, or your organization’s mission/tagline. Consistency across your entire staff team will present a coordinated image.

Providing tools and templates to assist in conveying your nonprofit organization’s brand in all messaging opportunities will increase consistency and the comfort level of your staff and volunteers. Whenever they need to describe or communicate on behalf of the organization they’ll have all the info they need at their fingertips.

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Angela de Burger

Angela de Burger is a communications professional who is passionately curious about the way individuals and organizations express themselves and connect to each other.

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If folklore is to be believed, a picture is worth a thousand words. In a time when our messages need to be short and sweet, yet informational, impactful and inspiring, nonprofit communicators can use all the help they can get. If an element of your message can be conveyed by a great photo, I say go for it! There are numerous stock photography sites offering images to help you tell your story.

People are drawn to photos

Whether you’re publishing a blog and need a compelling image to accompany the text, posting an inspiring quote to your social media channels, or livening up a presentation or report, photography can help you convey context and emotion. People are drawn to photography and imagery that conveys a part of the story the text may not fully capture; the nuances of the story that can be better demonstrated visually.

Finding the perfect image

With so much choice, the challenge comes in finding the perfect photo, conveying the right message, with a price and licensing rights that meet your needs. Fair warning: searching for the right one can test your patience. Lots of stock images you’ll find could be described as cheesy, some may be too low-resolution for your needs, or the price may not fit your budget. There are some goodies out there though so it’s worth the hunt.

When you’re ready to start your search, there are many stock photography sites to explore and the following list is meant as a place for you to start. Full disclosure – there are many to choose from and I haven’t used them all. This list was compiled based on sites I have used, tips from fellow marcom professionals regarding their favourites, and sites that have been highlighted on best-of lists I’ve tracked over the years.

12 stock photography sites for nonprofit organizations #NPMC
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Here are 12 stock photography sites to check out

Adobe Stock: this site offers a packet of free images to try them out. All graphics are hi-res and include royalty-free licensing and several membership packages are offered to meet a variety of needs.

Death to Stock: looking to provide creators with images that don’t look hokey or staged, Death to Stock is an artist-owned co-op that offers new images every month. 

Getty Images: creative, editorial, video and music files are available, under several licensing agreements, including rights-managed and royalty-free.

Good Stock Photos: Free to use anywhere for personal or commercial projects. Creator Steven explains that Good Stock Photos is a project of SparkFlow, his design firm, and was created to help people share their brand and story with the world.

Gratisography: creative and engaging photos, which they describe as “the world’s quirkiest collection of high-resolution free stock images, comprised of the world’s best, most creative pictures.” The images are offered under a free photo license.

Kaboompics: all photos can be used for free for commercial and noncommercial use, with full license info and FAQs here.

Little Visuals: offers high-resolution images for use in personal or commercial projects.

Negative Space: is a group of photographers who contribute their work to this global community. All of the photos are free in cost as well as free to use under a Creative Commons CC0 license.

Pexels: in their own words, “all photos and videos on Pexels can be downloaded and used for free” as per their license information.

Shutterstock: provides downloads of royalty free stock photos, vector files, videos, and music tracks.

Unsplash: the folks here keep their description to the point – their images are free, high-resolution, and made to be used freely – and their license supports that description.

Vintage Stock Photos: Find the perfect “of a certain era” photo here, made available under a free use license.

+1 Bonus for you: Canva is a drag and drop graphic design platform that also includes a large library of stock photography. A free account includes lots of options for photos and graphics, and the Pro account allows unlimited access to the full collection. They even offer the Pro account at no charge to nonprofits, so be sure to submit your application if you haven’t already!

Being true to your brand

Any image you choose should be in keeping with the brand guidelines that have been established for your organization. Think about things like photography style, colour palette and filters to ensure the overall look is what you’re going for. Anything you use should reflect your brand personality and I’d suggest not worrying about getting too perfect of an image. People like real and relatable photos, and if something’s too slick looking they’ll skip it.

Use yourself as the first reviewer: when looking at stock photography site options, which image does your eye go to first? Where does your gaze linger? Why? If your answers are the same as what you’re hoping your audience’s will be, you’ve got a winner.

Taking your message from good to great

No matter how you choose to tell your story, an image can enhance the idea or emotion you’re describing. Taking some time to incorporate a visual element to your storytelling will take your message from good to great.

Need stock photos for your nonprofit's communications? Here are 12 stock photography sites to check out #NPMC
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Angela de Burger

Angela de Burger is a communications professional who is passionately curious about the way individuals and organizations express themselves and connect to each other.

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Your nonprofit does important work, serves people with needed programs and services, and enriches your community through the efforts of dedicated volunteers and staff members. Yet you feel your organization’s public profile isn’t as compelling as it could be; people aren’t clear about who you are and what you do. Brand guidelines can help you achieve that clarity.

Establishing brand guidelines

Establishing brand guidelines is an important component of increasing visibility and understanding. Consistency within the visual and messaging elements of your brand is incredibly effective and will drive awareness and comprehension.

12 elements to include in your #nonprofit's brand guidelines by @adeburger #NPMC #marketing
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Top 7 visual identity elements to include

Creating an easy-to-understand and straightforward-to-implement visual identity section within your brand guidelines takes time and effort. The benefit? You’ll see increased consistency across all of your nonprofit’s communications channels.

Your brandmark (logo)

Identify the specific design of your brandmark, including both primary and secondary approved versions.

This may include a primary version that’s full colour, as well as a secondary version that would be appropriate for one colour design needs. Details can include relative measurements, dedicated white space around the brandmark, as well as pantone/HTML colour specifics. Don’t forget to address preferred positioning for your brandmark, as well as examples of improper use. Imagine Canada’s guidelines describe their elements in detail.

Use of your name

Naming conventions should be addressed here, including circumstances where a shortened/abbreviated version of your name should/could be used (or not). For example, the United Way Centreaide Canada guidelines describe their English, French, and bilingual configurations precisely.

Typography

Consider specifying a font(s) that matches your brand’s personality and conveys your information in the most appropriate way. If you create pieces in-house as well as via contracted designers, ensure you select fonts that are readily available to both so consistency can be maintained. See how the University of Waterloo uses a variety of fonts.

Colour palette

The personality of your brand can be expressed through colour and can help you stand out if applied consistently and liberally. You can identify a primary and secondary colour palette to keep options open yet maintain control over how the nonprofit is identified through its colour choices. Food Banks Canada’s brand guidelines detail their primary and secondary palettes as well as colour tints that can be used to represent the organization (pages 17-19).

Photography and Videography

Thinking about the photo and video style that best matches your brand’s identity means you can get specific about appropriate images to represent your brand. Does it make sense for the images to be formal or informal in composition? Should people be looking into the camera or not? Posed or natural? Indoor or outdoor settings (or both)? On page 13 of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada’s brand guide they describe their preferred style, usage and treatments.

Signage

Internal and external signage is one of the most utilized and visible elements of your brand. Include details about design, sizing, and elements that ensure easy access for all users of your programs/services. All types of signage should be considered, like the YMCAs in Canada guidance for interior and exterior signage (pages 55-56) and UBC’s guidelines (University of BC) regarding digital signage.

Interior design

If you have physical locations, interior design can be utilized to express your brand’s approach. Think about colour, brandmark usage and placement, furniture style, and the overall layout of the space as described on pages 57-59 in the YMCAs in Canada guidelines. 

Top 5 messaging elements to include

The time that goes into establishing a messaging platform within your nonprofit’s brand guidelines is well worth the effort. The roadmap you create will ensure consistency and clarity for volunteers and staff members who communicate on your behalf every day.

Brand positioning and personality

Telling the story of your nonprofit grows out of knowing who you are at the core. Describe who you are as an organization, what you do at a strategic (mission or ultimate aim) level, and why you’re unique. Consider including how you would describe the brand’s personality to help frame the language you’ll ultimately use. For example, if your brand wants to primarily be seen as nurturing goodwill, your messaging choices will likely be different from an organization that exists to challenge conventions. Habitat for Humanity Canada’s brand guide (page 19) describes their brand personality and tone.

Tone of voice

If your nonprofit was a person, how would it speak? Think about the level of formality that’s suitable, style of conversation and how your brand personality will be expressed. Toastmasters International includes a voice and tone checklist on page 6 of their brand manual.

Grammar and style

Include details and examples of the words and phrases your nonprofit uses, including grammar and punctuation. If you follow a specific style guide (i.e.: Canadian Press Stylebook) state the guide and version, as well as any exceptions that are unique to your nonprofit. For example, see how Canadian spelling is addressed on page 39 of the Girl Guides of Canada style guidelines.

Key messages

Consider the messages you need to communicate to your audiences, and how they should be expressed. You may have a few key messages that are paramount to your communication strategy as well as sub-messages that provide additional context/details in support of your main points. UNICEF Canada’s guide outlines key messages related to the main pillars of their work.

Audience(s)

Your nonprofit likely communicates with many different audiences, and messages for each need to be framed differently to meet their individual needs. When crafting any form of communication, think about your internal as well as external audiences. The Canadian Cancer Society talks about their audiences and the importance of focusing on them on page 23 of their brand guide.

7 visual ID and 5 messaging elements to include in your #nonprofit's #branding guidelines by @adeburger #NPMC
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A living document

Establishing brand guidelines for your nonprofit will streamline all aspects of your communications, making messages clear and easy for your audiences to understand. It should be considered a living document; as much as you are establishing standards you will also find new areas to address in future editions.

Take some time to document the unique way your nonprofit wishes to be represented by creating a comprehensive set of brand guidelines and before long you will see the organization’s goals become a reality.

Author information

Angela de Burger

Angela de Burger is a communications professional who is passionately curious about the way individuals and organizations express themselves and connect to each other.

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If your messages are shared quickly yet thoughtfully, you can rally your donors and dissuade your skeptics. Conversely, a response that’s overdue or disjointed may cause your supporters to scatter.

There are many issues to navigate during a crisis. However, if you follow the steps below, you’ll be able to update your nonprofit’s messaging to respond to any catastrophe effectively.

I’ve served on nonprofit crisis response teams during a number of disasters—including the triple-threat of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017. These experiences taught me that even though you can’t plan for all of the challenges that catastrophes bring, you absolutely need a crisis communication plan and team. And then, crucially, you need to develop well-considered language that addresses the disaster in light of your unique audiences and goals.

Organizations that prioritize crisis communications will be best-equipped to weather the storms that come. So if you aren’t in crisis mode at the moment, be proactive now to avoid stress later. If you’re in the middle of a disaster, take a deep breath. You can figure out what needs to be said. But first, you need to do some quick reflecting, planning, and decision-making. Keep reading to find out more.

Key steps for updating your nonprofit’s messaging during a disaster #NPMC
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1. Listen and learn from others

Listen to the people and organizations most connected to your cause. What are they saying about the catastrophe?

Scan the websites, social channels and email communications of nonprofits in your community and sector. Monitoring the situation online is a key part of issues management that will help you stay one step ahead. Note whether and how others are talking about the crisis. Think about whether it would be appropriate for you to use similar themes and verbiage.

Supplement desktop research with individual feedback. Make time for conversations with your nonprofit’s top stakeholders, including your clients, employees, donors, and partners. If possible, host listening sessions, focus groups or surveys.

Seeking out other voices will provide you with food for thought as you determine your messaging. Look for patterns and pay special attention to people’s concerns and hopes for your organization’s crisis response. As you collect input, notice which groups are most affected and most concerned about the situation. Unexpected themes or unanticipated responses will widen your perspective and challenge your assumptions.

By listening to others, you will build trust with those most crucial to your mission—which is more valuable than ever during an emergency.

2. Identify your goals and audiences

It’s too time-consuming for a nonprofit to address an emergency from every angle. It’s also too expensive to try to reach the entire public with your message. By evaluating what people around you are sharing about the emergency, you can pinpoint:

• Your crisis communication goals—what you want to communicate, and
• Your primary audiences—who you want to communicate with.

After reflecting on what others have to say and prioritizing accordingly, you may decide that your goal is simply to show that your nonprofit is rapidly responding to the disaster in a few specific ways. Other times, your goals will be more complex—like addressing several sensitive questions and problems.

After thinking about which audiences you need to reach, you may determine that one or two key groups are most relevant and important. More complex situations will call for a more comprehensive response where you communicate tailored messages to several audiences using a variety of channels.

Identifying your crisis communication goals and audiences will help you zero in on the most important messages for maximum impact.  Crises are stressful, so being explicit about these foundational points will keep you on course even if the situation gets hectic.

3. Communicate both challenges and strengths

The details of your crisis messaging will depend on the emergency. In many cases, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, two of the most important things to convey are competency and compassion.

Keep the most impacted people at the center of your communications. If applicable, tell stories of the hardship that individuals have experienced, and how your nonprofit has helped them move forward. Alternatively, if the crisis stems from a misstep made by your organization, show thoughtful consideration for the people affected by your error.

At the same time, be straightforward about the crisis’ impact on your work. Tell your audiences if you’ve seen elevated levels of need for your services, decreases in donations, or both. In some of your messages, it may be important to remind key donors of the importance of every donation in your ability to overcome the disaster and achieve your mission. Supporters will be confused or upset if your nonprofit doesn’t weather the storm but you didn’t ask them for help first.

Balance stories of the challenges you and other groups are facing with evidence of your professionalism and strength. Encourage donors to give because of the crisis without diminishing their confidence in your aptitude.

Your crisis messaging will depend on the emergency. In many cases, two of the most important things to convey are competency and compassion. #NPMC
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4. Provide guidance and messaging

Next, you need to give your coworkers guidance and language so they can connect with your target audiences. Providing clear directions and easy-to-use messaging will encourage a cohesive response across your organization.

Update the messaging tools your organization already uses, such as your style guide or editorial guidelines, with crisis information. Add verbiage explaining how your organization approaches crisis communications. Include links or instructions on where they can find updated crisis messaging when an emergency happens.

Consider which channels are best suited to reaching your target audiences, and from there, decide what other crisis messaging materials you will need. Examples include:

• Talking points
• Email messaging
• Social media posts
• Press releases
• Public statements
• Phone scripts
• Internal memos
• One pagers
• Web copy for FAQs, banners, lightboxes, or donation pages

For the messages you share internally, upload them in an easy-to-find location that all your colleagues can access instead of sharing them via email. This will help you avoid sending and responding to many emails about where they can find the latest verbiage. Additionally, include dates on all materials so your colleagues can more easily determine whether they’re using updated messaging.

Updating your nonprofit's messaging during a disaster: 4 key steps #NPMC
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Be prepared for crisis messaging updates

Everyone knows that catastrophes happen when you least expect them. The good news is that your nonprofit can update its messaging to effectively respond to any crisis—even if it’s happening right now.

In collaboration with your crisis team and in line with your communication plan, use the steps I’ve outlined above to update your messaging during a disaster: make time to listen to other voices, identify your goals and audiences, share stories of need and strength and provide clear guidance and language. These steps will allow you to narrow your focus on what’s most important and make a meaningful impact.

Author information

Allison Weber

Freelance Professional Writer and Storyteller at Allison Weber Consulting

Allison Weber is passionate about helping mission-driven organizations to improve their storytelling so they can build a better world. Before launching Allison Weber Consulting, she spent nearly ten years helping nonprofit organizations raise millions and reach more people. Through working at Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger-relief organization in the United States, and Opportunity International, one of the first nonprofits focused on providing banking services in developing countries, she has developed the skills to write for a variety of audiences and channels.

The post Key steps for updating your nonprofit’s messaging during a disaster appeared first on Nonprofit MarCommunity.

Every day people share their life events, opinions, and thoughts online — 2.96 billion people to be exact. This info could be directly related to your organization and its mission or not, whatever your goals and objectives are. By looking at large sets of social media data you can identify trends common for your audience and niche. This is the general goal of using social listening for market research. 

Of course, when we talk about nonprofit marketing, we are not actually researching “the market”. Market research for nonprofits can take forms of researching your cause and how it’s discussed in media and online, looking into social data from your beneficiaries, finding influential voices to cooperate with and so on. 

In this blog post, I want to go through the process of building a social listening strategy dedicated to market research for nonprofits. To illustrate each step of the process, I turned to my own experience of using social listening as an LGBTQ+ activist. So, without further ado, let’s dive in! 

Step 1: Define your goals

As I already mentioned above, nonprofits’ reasons to do market research on social may differ from business reasons. Here are some common goals nonprofits can have when using social listening for market research:

• Find out more about the issue you’re tackling
• Learn about your beneficiaries
• Identify your allies
• Find influential voices to promote your message
• Learn what motivates your supporters to take action

Sometimes you come into market research with a clear goal in mind, for example, to find out how people based in the UK talk about poverty in rural areas. Other times it might be hard to determine what exactly you should research. 

In this case, it’s a good practice to look at your mission statement. Your marketing and public relations effort should generally be tied to your mission, so look at it and ask yourself, how you can accomplish these goals by using social listening.

When you’re establishing your goals, it’s important to remember your stakeholders. Nonprofit organizations can have many stakeholders such as volunteers, donors, sponsors, employees, and beneficiaries. Social media data can be helpful to improve your relationships with any of them.

To give you an example, the organization I volunteer for organizes educational and cultural events on issues of gender and sexuality. Our mission is to educate people and contribute to decreasing the level of sexism, homophobia, and other types of discrimination in Belarusian society.

With social listening, one of my goals was to see how people are talking about LGBTQ+ people online, see how much people are aware of LGBTQ+ issues, and what are the feelings around them. 

Step 2: Choose a tool

Now that you know your goals, you should consider what tools you are going to use to do market research. You can’t really collect and analyze social media data manually: social media platforms simply do not give you the ability to do it. Luckily, many social listening tools have nonprofit programs that give you access either for free or at a significantly reduced price. 

Before you settle on a tool you need to choose your priorities. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Do you want to focus on specific platforms? Some tools prioritize one platform such as Tweetdeck for Twitter, others want to cover as much online space as possible, for example, Awario.
• Do you need any specific analytics? For example, if you want to find out how your target audience feels about the issue you are tackling, you’ll probably need sentiment analysis, if your organization works internationally, you might need location data, and so on.
• Are the tool’s settings flexible enough? Does the tool allow you to create complicated search queries in case you need to collect data on a very specific issue? 

Protip: Boolean search is the feature to look for when it comes to getting the most precise data. It allows you to create complicated search queries for those cases when you need to specify a lot of keyword combinations or eliminate many unrelated results.

• Does the tool offer a nonprofit program or discounts for nonprofits? 

These questions should help you narrow down a long list of social listening tools. The good news is that some of them are free, and most of them offer either free versions or free trials so you can try them out without any financial commitments. This article gives you a nice run-down of tools to check out.

I’m a part of the Awario team, so I get to use the tool for my volunteer organization as well (please note nonprofits are eligible for a 50% discount for Awario). The tool covers most of the major social platforms as well as web sources and has a Boolean search mode.

Step 3: Choose keywords to monitor 

The second step is to choose keywords based on what you want to research. Same as the previous step, this one will greatly depend on your goals. Because you can get all sorts of insights from social listening, your keywords may vary greatly depending on what you want to accomplish. 

Think about the words people are using when talking about the issues you want to research. You can also do a simple Google search or Twitter search of your topic to discover more relevant keywords once you have at least one in mind.

Protip: People are not perfect and often misspell words. If your keywords are quite long or complicated, think about the most obvious ways to misspell them and add them to the alert as well. 

For example, I work at an LGBTQ+ organization that organizes educational and cultural events and here are the alerts I have set up:

• An alert to follow public sentiment around our main cause. With this alert, my goal is to see how people talk about LGBTQ+ issues online.

Keywords: LGBT, gay, lesbian, bisexual, homosexual, trans, and so on.

• An alert to gather data to improve our public message. With this alert, I want to explore what wording is more effective in our public messaging. The word queer has been used a lot lately in relation to non-heterosexual and non-cis-gender people, so I wanted to compare the popularity of the word queer to other words describing LGBT+ and see why people would use the former or the latter.

Keywords: queer.

• An alert to analyze our opponents. Lately, there’s been a lot of right-wing conservative groups active in Belarus so I wanted to see what information they present on the Internet and how it’s discussed by the general public. By looking briefly at their website, I came up with some keywords that might be useful for that.

Keywords: traditional values, family values, gay agenda.

As you see, you can use social listening for completely different purposes. Once you start getting the social listening results in your mention feed, you’ll see if you maybe need to add more keywords or remove some, but before that, let’s take a look at the settings. 

Step 4: Set up your social listening alert(s)

An alert is your keywords as well as settings and limitations you choose for the keywords that will be considered when gathering social listening data.

The settings may include:

• Country filter to make sure you only get data from certain countries.
• Language filter to get data in certain languages.
• Negative keywords to eliminate irrelevant results.
• Social media platforms to source your data from.
• Date range.

For example, the organization I volunteer for operates in Belarus, and I want to research the opinions of Belarusian and Russian people (since Russian public discourse greatly affects Belarusians). That’s why I choose these locations and set the languages to Russian and Belarusian when setting up my alerts.

Step 5: Use social listening insights to improve your communications strategy

Congratulations, we are at the last and the most exciting step of our market research journey! Now is the time to look at the analysis of the data and tweak your strategy according to the insights you discover.

Most social listening tools give you access to the analytics of all the collected data as well as to individual mentions (Tweets, Instagram posts, news articles), which you can check out for more detailed and specific insights. Of course, the type of metrics that you get may differ from tool to tool, but here are the most common ones that most social listening tools offer:

• The number of mentions and reach will let you know how popular a certain topic is and how it’s popularity changes over time.
• Sentiment shows the feelings around the topics: positive, negative or neutral.
• Topic cloud reveals the most prominent topics around your keywords. By checking out the Topic cloud you can quickly gather what themes drive the conversation in a certain period. 
• Influencers will show you the accounts and websites with the biggest reach, which mention your keywords.

All these metrics can also be broken down by sources, languages, and locations. 

To learn more about your beneficiaries, first take a look at the mention map and languages (if you’re working internationally) and the Topic cloud which will let you identify the trends in the conversation. The real gold mine, however, are the mentions themselves: by reading individual posts you’ll get a picture of your beneficiaries’ pain points (for example, people with cardiac problems complaining about lack of care from medical professionals) and their inclinations. Since you want to identify problems first, I’d suggest going through negative mentions first. 

If you embarked on your market research journey to make sure your message comes through to your potential supporters, pay special attention to the Topic cloud. It will give you a cue on what phrasing resonates the most with your audience, improving your CTA. 

You should also check out the break down of mentions between different social media platforms, to see where your core audience is: it may well turn out that the platform you’ve been neglecting hosts a large share of conversation around your topic of interest.

Here’s an example of how social listening insights can help shape your messaging: one of my goals, as you might remember, was to identify the most popular word to describe non-heterosexual people. To check that I compared the first alert with the keyword LGBT to the second one, where the keyword was queer, with the help of Alert Comparison report from Awario. 

As you can see, the word queer is not used as much especially if we look at the reach, i.e. how often people see it online.

To find allies, you can check out the most influential authors (usually ranked by their reach) and see what powerful voices are publicly supporting your cause. Seeing how many times they mentioned your cause and what is the prevailing sentiment of their mentions will give you pointers on how to reach out to them (which medium to use, which ideas to emphasize) and encourage them to support your organization (and what this support could look like). 

For example, as I mentioned above, I set up an alert monitoring the expressions used by right-wing extremists conservatives to research their activity. With the help of social listening, I could see what percentage of the mentions is coming from mass media (by filtering the mentions to see only the news and media websites). 

Then I had a look at the most influential articles and what perspective they used to cover these organizations’ rhetoric by going to the mentions feed, leaving the source filter on and sorting the mentions by reach.

As you see, the way we use social listening insights comes down to our goals, that’s why they are so important!

In conclusion

Social data is an infinite source of valuable research insights for your nonprofit, its overall strategy, its marketing efforts, and more. Besides, there are even more ways to use social listening for nonprofits, which I didn’t cover in this article, such as reputation management, identifying potential donors, engaging influencers and so on.

The main advantage of this strategy is that it is multi-purpose, so don’t hesitate to try it out.

Author information

Anna Bredava

Community and Social Media Marketing Manager at Awario

Anna Bredava is Community and Social Media Marketing Manager at Awario and a nonprofit enthusiast. She writes about social media trends, social listening and tools that help anyone interested in marketing.

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