An Organization Made up of Organizations
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One of my favorite days of the year is Super Bowl Sunday. The game is always exciting — but the commercials are what truly capture my attention. In my college courses, my students and I analyze Super Bowl ads to explore the best and the worst examples of marketing and corporate social responsibility (CSR). We all love when companies align their brands directly with social good.
We also talk about commercials that are so good the brand gets lost. You walk away loving a clever commercial but don’t know who or what it was for. My favorite recent example was Squarespace’s “5 to 9” commercial with Dolly Parton — I love her and the song, but I had to look up who was behind the ad. We call this “cart before the horse” marketing — when creativity outshines clarity.
In the nonprofit world, we may not have $8 million for a 30-second Super Bowl ad, but we face the same risk: spending precious time and resources on tactics that don’t serve a strategy. To help you avoid that, here are the most common mistakes we see — and how to fix them.
Strategy Leads, Tactics Follow
It’s easy to fall in love with shiny new tactics — a rebrand, a new social channel or a trendy campaign — but our bottom line in the social sector is impact, not impressions. Our strategy should always center on maximizing impact by meeting customer needs and delivering best-in-class results. While we have multiple customers (e.g., donors, volunteers, clients) and may need to tailor our tactics for each group, we need to be clear on our value proposition, core message(s) and brand promise.
Before we dive in, let’s clarify what we mean by strategy, marketing, marketing strategy and tactics — four terms that are often used interchangeably but mean very different things in practice.
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Think of strategy and tactics like Russian nesting dolls (matryoshka). Your tactics (the inner dolls) must fit neatly within your strategy (the outer doll) — not the other way around.
Example:
Strategy: Target aims to be a high-end, big-box retailer.
Marketing strategy: Appeal to customers who want to be “chic for cheap.”
Tactics: Collaborate with well-known designers and create trendy, off-beat commercials.
When your strategy and tactics nest perfectly, your marketing feels authentic and aligned — not forced.
Sell Your Impact, Not Your Organization
Today’s donors care less about institutions and more about solutions that work. They want proof their contributions drive real change.
Use tools like storytelling, impact prospectuses and visual dashboards to help people see the tangible difference their giving makes. When you lead with results and emotion, donors will find you.
Choose Loyalty Over Glamour
Here’s a sobering stat: according to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project (2024), for every 100 donors gained, nonprofits lost 103 through attrition.
Too often, organizations focus marketing on attracting new supporters, when the cheapest customer to get is the one you already have.
Invest in stewardship strategies that keep donors engaged — thank-you videos, personal notes or quarterly impact reports. Retention beats recruitment every time.
A great example is charity: water, which builds donor loyalty by showing them exactly where their dollars go — personalized videos of wells being drilled and GPS coordinates of projects. That’s loyalty built on transparency and storytelling.
Don’t Drink Your own Kool-Aid
We all fall into the trap of assuming we know what our audience wants. But once you’ve been with an organization for a while, it’s easy to develop blind spots. We often hear that market research (e.g., focus groups, surveys and interviews) before the launch of a new strategic plan, logo or website is expensive. While this may be true, failure of a tactic or strategy can be even more expensive and lead to market confusion.
We wholeheartedly agree with Peter Drucker: “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service (or its impact) fits him and sells itself.”
The 5 C’s of Nonprofit Marketing
Marketing is both art and science, and it should never be driven by tactics alone. To help you stay focused, we use the 5 C’s of Nonprofit Marketing — a framework adapted from business strategy to fit the social sector. It helps ensure that every marketing decision connects to your broader mission and context.
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By revisiting these five lenses regularly, nonprofit leaders can ensure that marketing decisions are both strategic and sustainable.I
In the social sector, marketing strategy is even more complex because we must serve multiple audiences — donors, volunteers, clients, partners and policymakers. The key is to find your organization’s unique value to the community and tell your story in a way that inspires others to champion your cause.
So the next time you’re tempted by a shiny new marketing idea, pause and ask.
Does this tactic serve our strategy?
Because in the end, great marketing isn’t about selling — it’s about storytelling. It’s how we connect hearts and minds to the causes that change lives. We’d love to hear from you — what nonprofit marketing strategies have worked for you, and which lessons did you learn the hard way?
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