By: Margaret Karren

We had a lively panel discussion yesterday at our GHJ Nonprofit Workshop on "Marketing Best Practices for Nonprofit Organizations." The panel was moderated by our own Director of Marketing Kari Schott. The panel discussed ideas and best practices around marketing strategy, branding, social media, advocacy and cause marketing. The key takeaways from our panelists were:

• Laurel Mintz of Elevate my Brand focused on websites and social media. She suggests that you watch your metrics since the numbers don’t lie and make sure you have a conversion tool on your website.
• Tania Mulry of DDx Media recommends that you follow a three part formula for telling your story. The three questions you should ask yourself are: 1. Why us (Why should you care), 2. Why you (Why you should care), and 3. Why now (What is the urgency).
• Larry Kaplan of Larry Kaplan Consulting states that organizations cannot endorse candidates, but they can do most everything else to advocate their cause and they must do advocacy. Since one-third of funding comes from the public sector, advocacy is an important element of fundraising.

The marketing umbrella covers many areas and it seems that most organizations have limited budgets if they have thought of a budget at all. Great suggestions were given on approaches to getting a budget, stretching your website dollars and obtaining funding or in-kind services. Marketing is necessary to ensure the sustainability of your organizations. Please look for future blogs on this topic.