4 Signs It’s Time for Your Nonprofit to Rethink Its Strategic Approach

Field of Dreams is considered to be one of the best sports movies. It’s known for a scene in which Kevin Costner’s character hears a whisper when walking through his cornfield, which says, “If you build it, he will come.” Eventually, long-dead baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson shows up to play catch. 

In business terms, it means your organization will succeed if you just work hard. Hollywood scripts and sports ghosts are no match for good old-fashioned facts and data. Does your nonprofit need to rethink its strategic approach? 

Here are four of the top signs: 

1. Operations: You’re Trusting Intuition Over Data

You’re relying on intuition rather than data and not monitoring a dashboard of key performance indicators, like the donor retention rate, acquisition cost, average gift size and total number of people reached. 

According to “The State of Data in the Nonprofit Sector,” about 80% of nonprofit leaders are too busy to focus on data, and only about 57% use data to help manage donors. With the number of nonprofits we’ve spoken to over the last year, it’s surprising that Nonprofit Tech for Good says that one in three nonprofits isn’t using a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. 

So much time and energy is lost running in circles, doing the wrong thing but expecting different results. Your organization is getting suboptimal outcomes if it isn’t tracking changes in your data from year to year. 

Solution Starter: Invest in Good CRM Software

The tool keeps your constituent list organized, manages potential donors, tracks performance — like email open and click-through rates — and forecasts results based on the data. Some sync with your email and let you know when to send communications to constituents and what to say to them. 

There are loads of no- or low-cost CRMs where the supplier maintains the servers and security, provides updates like an app on your phone and offers customized analytics so you can see how well your messages land with your community.

Before even talking to a provider, answer these three questions for yourself: 

1. What are your specific goals or expectations? Pull together a list of critical capabilities you want. For example, maybe you want to have encryption while improving email opens and allow others on staff to see the information you’re putting in a record. 
2. What’s your budget? Some CRMs are free, but you may need to budget a little to get more of what you want.
3. Go back to your list of needs and force rank the most important ones. This will help you prioritize features and select a CRM that best meets your organization’s needs. 

2. Fundraising: You’re Sending the Same Message to Everyone in Your Database

Neglecting donor segmentation leads to decreased engagement and retention. This can manifest as a barrage of unsubscribes, lower database numbers compared to last year, a need for more potential volunteers reaching out to see if they can help or people just asking questions about your organization. 

Solution Starter: Switch Up Your Story and Tone 

Do this by separating donors based on their giving history and amounts, shared interests, connection to your cause and demographics. If you’ve got a CRM or are following the steps outlined above, make sure to have A/B testing on your must-have list. That’s when you can send emails to a small database segment and see which one performs better. 

Creating personas also goes a long way. Follow these steps: 

• Think of 10 to 15 constituents you know well and are engaged in the cause. What are all the things that make them alike, and what makes them different? 
• Group constituents together based on similarities. What do each of those personas care about? Is there a segment of the population missing that you need in your cause to be successful?
• Think about how you communicate and connect with each persona you develop. For example, maybe you’re a conservation nonprofit, and there’s a whole active segment of your database of women under 30 who love animals. Your emails to them ought to be about living as a young professional and always feature animals you’re helping. 

3. Communications: You’re Not Meeting Your Staff Enough

There’s this trend right now: "Don’t have a meeting about something that could be an email.” Time is a finite resource. No one wants boring meetings, but when there are misunderstandings, no one gives feedback or the work volume is so high that it causes tension and distress, you’re not meeting enough. 

Busy nonprofit staffers juggle many tasks, and we absorb information differently. It is sometimes necessary to say the same thing seven times in seven different ways to be heard. 

Solution Starter: It Doesn’t Hurt to Overcommunicate

It’s like one of those Matrix memes: “What if I told you…” you’re not overcommunicating clarity? That’s when everyone is on the same page because everyone is saying the same thing in different ways and through different mediums. Steps to follow: 

• Don’t set an agenda for your weekly leadership team meeting. Instead, decide on your organization's three to five ongoing critical focus areas (fundraising, operations, programs, etc.). Assign each leader to an area of focus and have them report if the area is red, yellow or green. Topics that are red and maybe yellow go on the agenda. This magnifies the focus on problem areas for the team to fix and doesn’t allow for too many topics. 
• Practice inserting active listening into your conversations. Make it a habit by saying reflective listening statements like, “What I think I hear you saying is…” 
• Silence isn’t agreement. Sometimes, we move on in a conversation thinking others agree when they’re still thinking or trying to find the right words to say. Don’t move forward in a conversion until others verbally commit to moving forward. It vastly improves coordination and commitment to goals.

4. Innovation: ‘But We’ve Always Done It This Way’

Dixon Ticonderoga is one of the oldest corporations in America. It was founded in 1795 as a mining company until the founder decided to bake some of the graphite he pulled from the ground with clay and water before pressing it into wood. That’s how we got the No. 2 pencil. Now, the company sells classroom and art supplies around the globe. 

Our causes demand innovation and experimentation. The nonprofit ArtistShare only sought out ways to help artists in 2001 when their fan-financing ideas led to the seismic explosion of crowdfunding. Finding new ways to help your community can challenge how the industry thinks and operates. 

Solution Starter: Fostering a Culture of Innovation and Growth

Here’s where you can start: 

• Communicate a culture of vulnerability-based trust. It’s OK to fail because mistakes are how we learn. Due to societal and cultural expectations, it’s tough to do. Still, as author and work culture guru Simon Sinek says, leaders must create a circle of safety that promotes innovation without fear of reprisals. 
• Schedule time to ask “what if?” and challenge the status quo. Put it on your calendar.
• Collaborate with others internally and externally. There’s a saying, “Every good idea is taken.” With eight billion people, it’s probably true. Connecting as much as possible to learn others’ experiences, perspectives and ideas brings excellent ideas to the surface. Make a goal of how many people you’ll connect with in a week.

The preceding blog was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.