Near daily verbal assaults and threats of Executive Orders from the White House make it a precarious time to run a nonprofit. Recent Administration attacks on universities and climate nonprofits, create fear and distract leaders from their critical work regardless of how possible or improbable the threats to remove their tax exempt status would be to implement.
Last week, Women In Development Boston, a group that supports fundraising professionals, held a listening session to learn what was concerning nonprofit leaders the most. Questions that swirl through their minds at 3 a.m. include: If their organization loses its 501c3 status, will anyone contribute if the ability to get the tax benefits is removed? How will they continue to fundraise? Will corporations, historically eager to associate their brands with organizations that do world-bettering work, decline future opportunities to do so?
From a communications perspective, we at Teak Media have been fielding questions from our clients about when to speak up, or not speak up, and how to identify potential benefits or detriments of being either vocal or staying silent. Using the specific audience as a guide can be helpful to nonprofit leaders as they consider when to speak and what to say during these turbulent times.
- Internal employees and organizational partners: The people whose livelihoods are connected to the nonprofit’s financial wellbeing need to know that leadership is committed to the work and is taking all necessary steps to ensure the stability and longevity of the nonprofit and its mission.. Focus on facts. Don’t be alarmist and don’t speculate. Hearing about the challenges the organization has faced and overcome in the past can also be helpful for this audience so they can understand the context and see the organization as a survivor.
- Participant / clients: The people who rely on the services a nonprofit provides will be interested in knowing what the organization is doing to continue to provide its services. They will look to organizational leadership to be strong, resilient and committed to the work. This is a good time to ask clients to support the nonprofit by sharing their own stories of the assistance they have received through social and traditional media, thus lending their faces and experiences to help others understand the importance of the nonprofit’s work. Finally, if the organization is not doing well under the scrutiny and pressure, there will come a time that participants and clients of the organization will need to know that too. In this case, organizational leaders must communicate clearly and come prepared to help their clients find services elsewhere.
- Donors: Financial supporters need to know their financial contributions are appreciated, more necessary than ever, and that the organization is strong. They will want to know how their money is being used and they want to be informed with clear metrics that show impact. Donors will also want to know if grants and other corporate funding sources are committed or in jeopardy. There is almost no such thing as over-communicating with donors if you aim to keep them aligned with, and contributing to, the organization and its mission.
- Volunteers: Those who choose to give in non-monetary ways can be emotionally committed and will always seek information from an organization to which they share their time and talent. Perhaps when communicating with volunteers, the information shared does not need to be as transparent as it should be for employees, but supplying updates, lines of thinking, and actions the organization is taking to continue serving its mission and people will help nurture volunteer loyalty. Organizations might want to ask volunteers to increase their support by speaking out about the organization’s work and the people they serve. They can use their own social media channels to advocate for the nonprofit and they can go to their legislators to advocate for support.Committed volunteers will welcome the opportunity to help their beloved nonprofits.
- The public: This can be the trickiest audience to address because of the risks involved. Nonprofits advocate for their clients’ needs and give a voice to those who may not have one by sharing their stories with policymakers and funders. However, many nonprofit leaders fear that being vocal will make them a target. Rather than staying silent, a nonprofit might choose to partner with other organizations in their space, (climate, immigration, food insecurity, higher ed, etc.) and reach out to legislators together, or write joint pieces for earned media like opinion editorials (op-eds) and letters to the editor, or partner in social media posts. Doing so will help them share the importance of their work and advocate for their constituents while reducing the fear of being harmed as a result. We can use the example set by 200 institutions of higher ed in their letter of protest.
Although there was a long list of worries, the listening session revealed many flickers of hope, resiliency and the fighting spirit for which nonprofits are known. Afterall, by nature, a nonprofit is an organization that was founded to envision and then work toward a better world for its constituents – from the financially or physically vulnerable, to the marginalized or persecuted, to our own planet.
The conclusion of the session: we are all in this together and are not backing away. With long histories of struggles, progress, growth and success to look back on, nonprofits are circling the wagons and digging in for the long haul.
For tips on fundraising in turbulent times, register to attend Women In Development’s May 7th workshop, Meet the Moment, presented by CCS.
