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How to Get Your Great Staff and Volunteers to Stay

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Engaged at work

How can you keep staff and volunteers excited to come to work?

A guest post by Sybil F. Stershic, Quality Service Marketing

True or False?

1. Mission matters in a nonprofit organization.
2. The people behind the mission – a nonprofit’s employees and volunteers – also matter.
3. Employees’ and volunteers’ passion for the mission ensure their commitment to a nonprofit organization.

The first two statements are true. While the third statement may be true in an ideal world, the reality is, while passion is critical, it’s not enough. Here’s why.

Every nonprofit will attract employees and volunteers who share a special affinity for its mission. People typically don’t work for a nonprofit for the money or glory. But a noble mission doesn’t guarantee a great workplace. If employees’ and volunteers’ work is not respected, and if they’re not given the tools needed to do their work, they’re not going to stay.

Bottom line: once engaged doesn’t mean always engaged.

The good news is, keeping staff and volunteers (including board members) engaged doesn’t involve anything complicated. It does require an intentional and ongoing application of internal marketing – a strategic blend of marketing, human resources, and management to ensure people have the resources and reinforcement they need to do their work. (Don’t be concerned with the “marketing” term as you don’t need to be a marketer to apply this approach.)

How to engage employees and volunteers with internal marketing

Internal marketing basically connects employees and volunteers on three fundamental levels:

• To the overall organization – to ensure everyone who works in the nonprofit understands its mission and goals, where they fit within the organization, and what’s expected of them in helping it achieve its goals.

• To the people the organization serves and those it works with in the process (such as donors, community influencers, advocates, etc.) – so staff and volunteers know who is important to the nonprofit and how to serve them.

• To fellow volunteers and employees – so they understand their individual and collective impact on the mission, along with how best to work together.

You can build these connections through a range of organizational activities that include but aren’t limited to: new staff and volunteer orientation; training; team building; and group meetings to share important information on new programs, policies, strategic plans, funding and organizational updates.

Nothing truly extraordinary – just whatever it takes to provide the necessary tools, attention, and reinforcement that enable the people behind the mission to do their best and know that their work is valued.

Even though I advocate “internal marketing” as a framework for engagement, it doesn’t matter what you call your approach to engage the people who work in your organization, as long as you are intentional and proactive in your efforts.

Remember, an inspiring mission may attract talented employees and volunteers to work with your nonprofit, but it takes much more to get them to stay. People need to feel they matter as much as their work.
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Sybil F. Stershic, author of the award-winning Share of Mind, Share of Heart: Marketing Tools of Engagement for Nonprofits, is a respected thought leader, speaker, and facilitator who specializes in engaging employees with internal marketing. Active as a volunteer leader in many organizations, Sybil is a former chairman of the American Marketing Association. For more information, please visit her website and blog at Quality Service Marketing.

Any Nonprofit that Runs Like a Business Will Go Broke

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Are you tired of being asked, “Why can’t you run your nonprofit like a business?”

I’ve written about how nonprofits can use advice written for businesses (with just a little translation).  When it comes to nonprofit finance, however, some business wisdom is just wrong.

Clara Miller, the former director of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, explains why.  In her wonderful article, “The Looking-Glass World of Nonprofit Money,” she lists seven assumptions that businesspeople make that–in the nonprofit world–are just not true.

  1. “The consumer buys the product.” False. Donors and funders buy the “product” (which may be a service, a program, or a campaign), and clients benefit from it.
  2. “Price covers cost and eventually produces profits, or the business folds.”  False.  Nonprofits are devoted to their missions and will keep on pursuing the mission as long as they  can.  They have a sideline in fundraising to support their “business”–but it also saps energy away from the reason they exist.
  3. “Cash is liquid.”  False.  Government and foundation grants are often restricted to specific purposes and can’t be used to pay for anything else.  A nonprofit can get more grants and have less money to pay its day-to-day costs of doing business!
  4. “Price is determined by producers’ supply and consumers’ ability and willingness to pay.”  False.  Since the consumers don’t pay (see #1), they don’t have the say.  Government or foundation funders decide what they’re willing to pay AND how many clients the nonprofit must serve in return for the money.  If it’s not enough, the nonprofit has to make up the difference with fundraising, or the quality of service suffers.
  5. “Any profits will drop to the bottom line and are then available for enlarging or improving the business.”  False.  Many nonprofits have spent less than budgeted only to see their budget reduced for the next year, on the theory that they must not really have needed the money.
  6. “Investment in infrastructure during growth is necessary for efficiency and profitability.”  False.  Well, actually, true, but not recognized by funders!  Many funders want to pay for program, but only a far-sighted few will invest in building capacity for the future.
  7. “Overhead is a regular cost of doing business, and varies with business type and stage of development.”  False.  As Miller says, “Overhead is seen as a distraction—an indication that an organization is not putting enough of its attention and resources into program.”  (Thankfully, this is beginning to change, but only beginning.)

Nonprofits, have you heard well-meaning but useless advice from people who think you ought to “run like a business”?  What would you want those people to know?

Your Most Urgent Questions about Social Media-Answered Jan. 21

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"How can we use social media better?"

“How can we use social media better?”

Here’s a question I often hear as a communications consultant. Is it a question you’d ask? Would you like to hear the answer?

“My nonprofit organization is on Facebook and Twitter and even Instagram, but we don’t really know why. Everybody’s doing it, I guess. But what can we get out of it?”

If that sounds like your organization, then you should sign up for a free webinar: No Nonsense Social Media. Tripp Braden and I will be hosting it next Wednesday, January 21, at 2:00 EST.

Here are some of the things I know already we’ll be discussing:
1. What nonprofits most frequently ask me about social media
2. The big question you should be asking yourself instead
3. Why your supporters spend time on social media
4. Are you cuter than a cat video? Are your supporters as loyal as a dog?
5. The unique advantage that lets community-based nonprofits rock social media

Tripp will also ask me some questions of his own, and I’m looking forward to hearing those.

But some of the most important things we’ll be talking about during the No Nonsense Social Media webinar will be a surprise to me. That’s because we’ll be leaving plenty of time for your questions.

We know the challenge nonprofits face when trying to use social media. Let’s face it, you didn’t start working for a cause because you wanted to learn about social media. Your mission is what matters to you.

It matters to Tripp and me, too. Tripp is an executive coach who has works with many foundations, nonprofits, corporate foundations, and privately held businesses to create their best funding strategies for special projects and annual fund development. His corporate partners give in excess of a billion dollars per year to support philanthropic work around the globe.

He is actively involved in using social media to build stronger, more engaged communities. Tripp is actively involved in helping entrepreneurs decide what causes they can get more involved with upon retirement and before. He currently hosts two online journals that have over 132,000 leaders in their communities.

I worked as a senior manager at an anti-poverty agency for nine years. Through my practice at Communicate! Consulting, I dream of putting great communications within reach of every nonprofit organization. Communications is the “easy button” you can press for visibility, volunteer and Board recruitment, and fundraising. That includes social media, and I want you to know how to make those media your own.

You will get the chance to ask your most pressing questions about social media and get thoughtful, informed answers from people who understand the nonprofit sector. Just take a moment right now and sign up for the No Nonsense Social Media webinar.

Talk to you there!

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