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Is Your Nonprofit’s Reputation at Risk? What You Can Do About It

May 2, 2016 by Dennis Fischman 7 Comments

Nonprofit organizations live and die by our reputation.  It’s what brings us clients, volunteers, funding, and dedicated staff who could earn more in a for-profit setting.  But what is reputation, and how do you protect it?

Nir Kossovsky

Nir Kossovsky

I spoke with Dr. Nir Kossovsky, the executive secretary of the Intangible Asset Finance Society and the author of Mission: Intangible. Managing risk and reputation to create value and the more recent Reputation, Stock Price, and You ).

Nir, what is reputation as you define it?

Many companies think of reputation in terms of likeability, but people express your reputation through their wallets.  In every relationship, there comes a moment of truth.  The customer is looking at what you have to offer and thinking about everything they like about it–but do they actually buy it?  The correlation between likeability and the decision to purchase is very low.

I think of reputation as a set of expectations.  The customer expects a specific kind of performance from you, and you expect that if you perform, the customer will purchase what you have to offer.

So your reputation is more than just your brand?

Your brand is the promise you make, and that sets the expectations.  Your reputation is whether you are known for keeping your promise.  Your reputation can be your greatest asset.  It can create cash flow for your organization.  (It’s also a liability in the sense that to keep your brand promise, you will have to spend time and money.)

What is the cash value of having a good reputation?

It adds value at every level. For instance, you can hire and retain good employees for less when they expect your company will be a great place to work and their expectations are fulfilled.

The way the New England Patriots used to be able to attract great players for less because they expected to have the chance to compete for a championship every year?

Exactly.  You can measure the discount employees give when they love to work for you, and when they stop loving their jobs, it costs you.

How else does a good reputation pay off?

Suppliers and vendors also charge less when they trust you, and they charge more when they think you are the proverbial pain in the ass to work with.  Regulators are required by law to take reputation into account.  Even creditors, who are as unsentimental as anyone in business, give a reputation discount.  Organizations with a good reputation borrow money at 60 basis points, or .6%, less than companies without that advantage.  And nonprofits start out with a good reputation because people know they are devoted to a mission.

But it’s different for nonprofits, isn’t it, because we don’t have one set of “customers”?  Some people pay for the services that other people receive, and the funders and regulators often don’t know what the clients think of us.

It is more complicated for nonprofits.  Your funders and regulators try to measure performance by setting up objective measures and requiring you to use them when you report.  Having a good reputation with them is important because when they come under public pressure to cut programs, they may wield the axe somewhere else.

It’s like protecting against terrorism.  The U.S. can’t prevent terrorists from striking anywhere in the world: all it can do is to ensure they go seeking a softer target.  You can’t stop ideological attacks on your programs, but you can make your own agency less vulnerable.

You believe performance is the key to reputation.  Should nonprofits take the attitude, “Just do the work and it will speak for itself?”

No, that would be naive.  If a tree falls in the nonprofit forest and no one hears it, it will not make a sound and it will not add to your reputation.  You may be not-for-profit, but you are still competing with other organizations: not only in your field, for clients, but all the other organizations, for funding.  You have to communicate your value proposition just as effectively as for-profits do.

What role can nonprofit communications play in building reputation?

Communications are a major tool for reducing reputation risk and increasing the value of your reputation.  Relations with the public and with the funders and donors who invest in your program are key.  Your communications are vital to the financial health of your nonprofit organization.

Okay, readers, your turn.  What are you doing to make sure your nonprofit organization lives up to the promise it makes…and that people recognize and appreciate your performance?

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Are You Communicating Better This Year?

December 31, 2015 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

resolutions

10 easy ways to communicate better in 2015

It’s a new year.  Here are ten resolutions that every organization should make to improve their communications in 2016.

  1. Google yourself. What are the first things people see about you? Would you support the group you see on screen?
  2. Take charge of your brand. Create your own reputation through the news you make and the stories you post.
  3. Cultivate local reporters.  They work too hard: if you feed them human interest stories and photos, they’ll be grateful.
  4. Everyone in your organization speaks for you.  What are they saying to their friends? Do they have stories to tell your supporters?
  5. Your website: keystone of all your communications.  Ask an outsider to click through it. Is it easy to navigate? Informative? Fun?
  6. Facebook is a party, not a meeting.  Find ways to get your fans talking with each other.  They’ll come back more often and like you better.
  7. Which social media should your group use?  Depends.  Who do you want to reach?  Where do they go when they’re online?
  8. Horror movie: “I mail to dead people.” In January, take people off your postal and email lists if you haven’t heard from them since 2013.
  9. Photos: not just for breakfast any more. Your readers want to consume photos at every meal, including online posts.
  10. Your good name is your most valuable asset.  What’s it worth to you?  THAT’S the return on investment for your communications.

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How to Measure Results–and How Not To

August 11, 2014 by Dennis Fischman 1 Comment

Should you measure the results of your blog and social media?  Why?

In the for-profit sector, the answer seems obvious. “Executives and business owners sleep, eat, and breathe ROI,” or Return on Investment, according to Nichole Kelly.

But nonprofit organizations exist for different purposes and calculate value differently. If your small nonprofit is using social media, what is worth measuring, and what is not?

Your Goals Should Set Your Measures

What’s not worth measuring are the “vanity metrics” of followers, likes, and views. Sure, you can keep track of them because it’s so easy to do so.  But they tell you nothing.  As Julia Campbell points out, nonprofits don’t count their success by how many times they are mentioned.

Donations, email sign ups and event attendance are signs of success because they help you obtain the support you need to do your job.  Reputation helps you get things done more easily, at less cost.  And advocacy helps you make social change, which may be the reason you exist in the first place.

Julia suggest you take the following steps to measure the real value of your social media:

  1. Pick a specific project. “The more specific you can be, the easier it will be to measure your efforts.”
  2. Choose objectives. What do you want to see happen as a result of your blog, post, or tweet?
  3. Only then, choose your metrics.  Make sure you’re measuring what matters to you.  Don’t bother measuring anything else.

 

Your Measures Should Live Within Your Means

Here’s a question I haven’t heard anybody ask: what is the ROI of measurement?

Certainly, you must make some well-planned attempt to figure out what you’re getting from your social media.  But let’s be real.  For many small nonprofits, it’s a stretch to DO the social media.  Carrying out a methodologically sophisticated measurement of results may be a waste of precious time and money.

Consider harvesting some of these low-hanging fruit:

  • Listen for signs that people are paying attention to what you post. Are they commenting or sharing them online? Are they mentioning them to you? Is the conversation changing because of your efforts?
  • Ask people what they think.  When they come to your office or to your events, take a minute to ask.  If you can, send a survey or hold a focus group.
  • Read studies about what works.  Adapt best practices to your own situation.

 

Your Measures Should Be Humble

Aristotle said it thousands of years ago: “Our measures cannot be more precise than the phenomena we are trying to measure.”  Be cautious about reading too much meaning into a small statistical change.  You’ll need to follow your social media results for months to be sure that what you’re seeing is real and meaningful.

Einstein said it best: “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”  How do you measure the value of building relationships with the next generation?  By and large, Millennials use social media all the time, and if you don’t, you will have a hard time reaching them.  Even if you can’t measure it, investing in social media now is like planting a tree.  It will bear its fruit in the future.

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