Future:Media:Change

blogging the intersection of media, technology and the global good

Survey Shows Non Profit Messaging Failing

30 January 2010 View Comments

A survey of over 900 nonprofit leaders revealed a sizable inadequacy in their ability to connect with their audience and portray their primary messages. According to the blog GettingAttention.org the survey showed that non profits are failing at motivating their donors, volunteers and advocacy – and had generally poorly targeted, difficult to remember and uninspiring messages.

Looking beyond the fact that the organization releasing the survey is the business of crafting messages for non profits, there are some takeaways from examining the effectiveness of non profit messaging. The survey revealed:

Most nonprofit messages don’t connect strongly with key audiences.

Behind the disconnect—86% of nonprofits characterize their messages as difficult to remember.

Inconsistency reigns, leaving confusion and annoyance in its path.

How Many

Non Profit slogans can you remember? Now compare that to corporations; “Just Do It” “Pepsi Generation” “Do the Dew”… We’ll never be able to compete with corporations ability to repeatedly push messages into our heads through every conceivable medium possible but we do have the ability to develop messages that have an impact. For a really really in-depth guide on non profit taglines checkout this report.

Also make sure to checkout our previous posts on Non Profit Branding here and here.

Nancy Schwartz

Yes, Amil, it's both the message and the outreach strategies. But outreach goes nowhere without relevant, consistent messages!

Thanks all for spreading the word on the survey findings and tagline report.

Best,
Nancy
amilh

it's both message and marketing. in a crowded space just having a great message won't work, but having a horrible message that is marketed well won't work either.
Julie C. Roth

I agree, Jason. Consistency is another major part of the problem. A message is memorable when it's repeated over and over again -- verbatim. Think of how you went about memorizing things in school: you repeated them over and over again, word for word, until they were stuck in your head. Variety is the enemy of memorability.

In his presentation about branding for nonprofits in December (http://bit.ly/5MSXge), branding expert Loid Der said organizations have to be "fascists" in their brand consistency. Perhaps that kind of non-freedom of expression rubs nonprofit staffers the wrong way.
jasonwhat

Is it the message, or the marketing? I sit in far too many meeting where NGOs brainstorm the one brilliant message that will break through the noise, or the amazing video concept that will go viral. What I've learned, is that that idea, or "content," rarely matters. What does matter is the distribution of the message. The private sector relies on massive ad spends to get their message out.

That said, messages should be more targeted. NGOs often try to craft messages that mean all things to all people, and end up with ones that mean little to anyone. I'd rather 10,000 activists remembering and promoting a targeted message, than 100,000 having it go in one ear and out the other.