Communication - the biggest conundrum for nonprofits

Thoughts on the 2021 Nonprofit Communications Trends report, and email the most preferred communication channel but nonprofits fail to utilise them.

Ask any nonprofit fundraising or marketing professional:

What is her biggest goal this year?

“Acquiring new donors.” And a small percentage would also vouch for “Retaining donors.”

In both scenarios, the secret is:

“Communication - effective and continuous communication.”

Not only communicating about the latest donation campaign but also giving preference on how the money is being used, how the nonprofit is making a difference on the ground, and more so why it exists. 

Is it happening?

NO!!!

What is the proof?

11th Annual Trends report released recently. 2021 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report is an ongoing effort from the folks at Nonprofit Marketing Guide. 547 nonprofit communicators participated in the 11th edition.

Email is the top communication channel

According to this year’s report Email happens to be the most preferred communication channel followed by Website/Blog and Social Media. With the entire world experiencing the joys of lockdown; communication channels such as Events and PR/Media Relations have not been the preferred mode of communication. 

As you can see from the above data - “Not At All Important” is nearly zero for the top four preferred communication channels. While it is a no-brainer that email has once again found its glory for one-to-one communication; I am surprised to see that nonprofits ignoring the potential of LinkedIn. The only social network that still has organic reach. 

The latest report from Bigwidesky on the State of Nonprofit Digital Giving 2020 had shared the same sentiments.

“It’s much easier to be seen organically on LinkedIn. The same was true of Twitter in certain cases.”

Despite the fact that LinkedIn is 1/10th the size of Facebook. The study finds that “A small- or medium-sized nonprofit might very well be able to compete effectively against much larger organizations both organically and with ads on LinkedIn as compared to a place like Facebook or Instagram.”

Facebook is the most actively used communication channel

While Email(88%) has been the most important communication channel to the nonprofit success but when it comes to frequently used communication channels then it is Facebook. 78% used Facebook from daily updates to multiple times in a week. Whereas Email dominates the weekly and monthly percentage.

44% don’t post on LinkedIn - what a shame.

The report says: “The most effective teams generally post more often than less effective teams. The ability to do so also increases with communications team size.”

However, I don’t agree that regular updates on social media are required to just keep popping on the feed of the users. Social media started with the notion that it is a place of quantity but users don’t go to social media for consuming brand/nonprofit communication. So it is better and rather accepted that you only post when it is required or when it creates value.

Email still underutilised by nonprofits 

According to the report: Nonprofits say email is their most important communications channel, but the sector is woefully behind in implementing best practices for email list management and engagement.

Less than a third of nonprofits are testing their email subject lines (29%), using UTM codes to track email performance (28%), sending an email welcome series (26%), or sending a re-engagement campaign series to un-engaged subscribers (16%). 

The only bright spot: Over half (59%) have personalized subject lines or email body content by merging in names or other personal information. 

We accept personalisation plays a vital role in communication but we hardly think beyond inserting just the first or last names in the email body. However, personalised detailed communication means investments in tech. Lack of funds and belief in technology are some of the biggest challenges for nonprofits. 

Things that can be done without investments and are bound to give results are often ignored. The above data shows how nonprofits give less importance to new welcome series. (Read: Why new welcome series is important to build a lasting relationship with donors.)

At one end nonprofits consider email to be the top communication channel of success but at the same time, nonprofits are failing miserably to work on the basics of email marketing. A similar sorry state of affairs was also highlighted in the last year’s report too.

“Email deliverability and engagement are like the climate change of nonprofit communications: Half of the people are unaware or in denial about it and the other half aren’t sure what to do or if their actions will make a difference.”

Bigwidesky report also had similar findings, clearly showing how nonprofits are lagging on email communications:

96% of nonprofits sent an email the same day the donation was made. 66% of nonprofits sent just this one email. A further 22% sent 2 emails. In most cases weirdly enough, this was a basic, templated receipt and then another more letter-like receipt, but again with no substantial thank you or welcome information… just another receipt really.

Additionally, after that one email of thank you, 62% of nonprofits didn’t bother to have any communication with the donors. Only 3% averaged more than 5 emails per month.

Lack of clarity in communication

Communication thrives on clarity and clearly, nonprofits are struggling. The report highlights that decades of marketing and behavioral research into what motivates people to act are clear: “We need to share simple, clear calls to action that help people feel like they are taking an important step forward. Yet, many nonprofit awareness and engagement campaigns are too vague or too complicated.”

The report surveyed nonprofits on their use of five of our favorite calls to action for issue awareness and engagement campaigns. 

A little less than half of survey participants (45%) said they had used at least one of these campaign calls to action in 2020.

Of the five calls to action surveyed, “Sign the Petition” or “Tell Your Representative” campaigns were the most popular, with 20% of survey participants saying they’d run that campaign in 2020, followed closely by a “Take the Challenge” campaign.

How can nonprofits enable effective donor communication?

Simply go back and pull up your Google Analytics and find the social channels giving you results or traffic. Just be on them. If it only means Facebook then be on it but try to see how you can use Facebook Groups for organic results.

Invest time and effort on owned channels: Website + Donation Page, Blog and Email.

And lastly, hire smart and effective people. You can’t hire one person and make her work like a donkey.

“Good communications work is more dependent on time than any other factor. As organizations add staffing beyond 1 FTE, they have that capacity — the time — to implement best practices, especially increasing the frequency with which they use multiple communications channels. They also have the time to develop skills and expertise,” says the report.