Who Owns Your Nonprofit's Marketing?
For many nonprofits, “marketing” is something everyone touches.
A Board Member shares a content idea. A staff member pulls the photos or videos. A volunteer posts on social media or sends the newsletter.
Factor in AI tools and how quickly they can create seemingly endless content, and you’ve got an organization-wide, “all hands on deck” approach to your marketing.
That might be an efficient approach to churning out content… but is it effective?
Not so much.
When your organization’s marketing efforts are spread across multiple staff and volunteers, no single person takes responsibility for ensuring its success. Instead of being an endeavor that holds huge potential for your nonprofit, marketing becomes a checklist of things that simply need to get done by somebody.
Then when the Board asks how things are going (or you want to pitch a marketing budget increase), you don’t have anything concrete to show for it.
The reality is that when everyone touches your marketing, nobody really moves the needle on the results you want and need and here’s why.
Why it matters that someone owns your marketing
If you want your nonprofit’s marketing efforts to make a difference, someone needs to own it. Posting on social media, sending email, creating event flyers, writing content, designing graphics… all of that work takes time, even if you use AI tools to help. When different people take on those tasks, they do it how they think they should, which means inconsistent results every single time.
When someone owns it, they’re maintaining the same level of commitment every time. They’re trying new things, doing more of what works, and doing less of what doesn’t. They’re learning how to blend what the organization needs to post and what the audience wants to see.
And they’re learning from it, so every single post, flyer, and email is stronger than the last.
If your organization doesn’t have someone who can dedicate themselves to marketing or if your team isn’t comfortable with a certain aspect, like video editing, it’s more than okay to look for outside help!
Whether you work with an agency, hire an external marketing consultant, or bring in a fractional marketing person, there are tons of different ways to get help with parts of your marketing (or even all of it!).
It’s all about bringing in needed expertise and giving you and your team more time and less frustration.
Take your marketing changes one step at a time
Effective marketing helps all aspects of your nonprofit organization, from fundraising and program participation to grant writing and volunteer recruitment.
It’s too important a task for nobody to own it… But change doesn’t happen overnight.
Start by evaluating your current marketing process. Make internal changes to reduce the number of people touching your marketing efforts. Start putting feelers out for marketing support before fully committing to a job posting.
Small changes can make a huge difference in how successful your marketing is.
All you have to do is take that first step.
See you in two weeks!
Catrina
P.S. If you’re at the stage where you’re looking for external marketing support, let’s chat! I work with nonprofits and community organizations to increase awareness and reach with consistent and effective marketing, and I'd love to help your organization next.
