national philanthropy day in ct 2013

Rallying Support for a Common Cause

Drive Action and Inspire Change

Co-CommunicationsJessica Lyon, Senior Vice President

Danielle M. Cyr, Senior Director of Integrated Marketing

5 Things to Remember

5. Actions are measurable4. Awareness is not an action3. You need a foundation of awareness before you can inspire action2. Nonprofits often get stuck at the bottom of the funnel1. It’s all about relationships

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Laying the Groundwork

Let’s Talk Strategy

• Why do I need a strategy?• How often should I update my

strategy?• Who should be involved in creating

the strategy?• What should be included in creating

the strategy?• How will I know if the strategy is

working?make yourself perfectly clear

5 Reasons You Need a Strategy

1. To ensure everyone – internally and externally – is working towards the same goal(s)

2. To maintain synergy between marketing and development initiatives

3. To ensure all marketing and development activities support the organization’s overall strategic plan

4. To provide a framework for defining and evaluating success

5. To minimize (unpleasant) surprises

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Creating a Data-Driven Strategy

• Ask the right questions – what information do you need from stakeholders to create a strategy and campaign that drive meaningful action?– Surveys– Stakeholder Interviews– Focus Groups– Campaign Analysis– Custom Research

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Being Strategic in a Real-Time Media World

• Be a student of the world around you• Seize timely opportunities• Plan for the year ahead…and how to

dovetail on existing initiatives• Be realistic about how many extra

initiatives you can tackle• Be mindful of maintaining a balanced

strategy

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Creating a Strategic Framework

• Identify who has a stake in the outcomes

• Ask yourself, “Whose support/involvement do I need to achieve the objectives?”

• Ask yourself, “What are the anticipated barriers to success? How can I work with/around them?”

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Core Strategic Components

• Situational Assessment• Measurable Objectives• Clearly Defined Target Audiences• Compelling Key Message Points• A Blend of Digital and Traditional Tactics• Cleary Defined Roles and Responsibilities• A (Realistic) Timeline• Success Metrics

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Is My Strategy Working?

• Clearly defined success metrics• Short- and long-term goals• Measurable outcomes

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Driving Audience Action

Reel ‘em In

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• Optimized website• Remarkable/sharable information• Downloadable incentives • Compelling calls-to-action• Robust blog• Sizzling social media channels

Be Part of Something Big(ger)

Be Part of Something Big(ger)

What’s In It for Them?

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Strengthening Connections

http://www.charitywater.org/september/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bH7SPNdSt4

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Lessons from charity : water

• First-person account of the challenge• Makes the problem personal• Shows donations at work• Eliminates geographic barriers• Multichannel• Shareable

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Rewarding Loyalty & Engagement

• It’s all about the experience– Being first to tour a new facility– Small group meet and greet with a special guest– Individual recognition– Entry into a special drawing

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Defining the Ask

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Making Engagement Easy

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Making Engagement Easy

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Making Engagement Easy

• Thunderclap.it• Share buttons• ‘Forward this email’• Voter VOICE

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Making Engagement Exciting

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Making Engagement Exciting

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The Challenge:

• Create a social campaign to educate Dutchess County teenagers about healthy relationships

The Solution:

• Ask teens, How Messed Up is YOUR Relationship?

The Results at 30 Days:

• Reached 30,318 teens through Facebook advertising

• Generated 1,788 website visits

• 1,000+ quizzes completed

Defining Success

• When to measure:– Before– During– After

• What action is meaningful to your nonprofit’s bottom line?– Signing a pledge– Sending a letter to congress– Volunteering– Donating

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Integrating Online & Offline for a Cohesive

Campaign

Overcoming Obstacles

• Multiple audiences• Widely varied communication preferences• Limited budgets• Restrictive grants• Limited manpower• Knowledge gaps• Competition– time & money

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Case Study: Winning a Vote & Securing a Lease

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GOAL:

To gain substantial community support for Westchester Children’s Museum to be housed at the Rye Playland North Bathhouse by raising awareness of the Museum’s mission through social media platforms…in 60 days. 

CHALLENGES:

Need 12 votes from County Legislature for lease approval with no Republican support. Low following on Facebook and Twitter.

Case Study: Winning a Vote & Securing a Lease

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Case Study: Winning a Vote & Securing a Lease

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Tweeted regularly and encouraged followers to RT “Tag! You’re it!” to gain more followers and Museum support

Case Study: Winning a Vote & Securing a Lease

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• Strategized and implemented various Constant Contact email blast campaigns, most notably “10 Days, 10 Ways” Countdown to lease vote

• Utilized “10 Ways, 10 Days” Countdown on both Facebook and Twitter as daily posts

CONSTANT CONTACT“10 Days, 10 Ways” Countdown1 blast per day 10 days prior to

lease vote

Case Study: Winning a Vote & Securing a Lease

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Campaign Successes• Lease unanimously approved by County Legislature 17-0

• More than 1,000 letters of support received by Legislature

• More than 800 new Museum supporters via Voters Voice• More than 500 new Facebook “Likes”• 129 Facebook Cause members• More than 200 new Twitter followers• Multiple Twitter ReTweets including local celebrity

support• More than 40 local press hits including substantial print

features

Integrated Success Metrics

• Success metrics should be tied to short- and long-term campaign goals and strategic organizational goals– Success metrics are not one-size-fits-all– You should evaluate both progress meeting an end

goal as well as the success of individual tactics/initiatives in helping to meet that goal

– The definition of success is not universal…which is why benchmarks need to be part of a strategy that an entire team has bought in to and agreed upon

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Top 5 Takeaways

1. Audiences need to feel connected to the cause before they will take action

2. There are meaningful ways for audiences to take action beyond making a donation

3. Effective, action-driving campaigns are built around a nimble strategy and upon a foundation of awareness

4. Success Metrics are not universal5. The more actively engaged your online and offline

communities, the greater your ROI…and your ROEmake yourself perfectly clear

Jessica Lyon@jesslyon |

jessica@cocommunications.comDanielle Cyr

@daniellecyr | danielle@cocommunications.com

New York | Connecticutwww.cocommunications.commake yourself perfectly clear