Corporate Communication on a Non-Profit Budget

Today’s guest post is written by Sarah Ann Noel. Sarah is a writer and communications professional in Denver, Colorado, specializing primarily in creative writing, public relations, and non-profit communications. Find Sarah on Twitter.

My day job is to manage communications for a tiny program in a tiny non-profit. For those of you familiar with the non-profit world, you read into that exactly what I meant to imply—small budget. In my experience with corporate and private sector communications, it’s not unrealistic to expect a budget of several thousands of dollars per project. If you work for a non-profit, you’re lucky to get that much for all of your communications projects for an entire year.
If I was being honest, I like the challenge. Every day I am tasked with effectively communicating important messages both internally and to the masses in a way that is engaging, exciting, and essentially, well, free.

This is why I am shocked at how few non-profits are utilizing social media. When it comes to my organization, I’m not updating Twitter and Facebook daily—but hourly. We also have a blog and are putting time and a portion of our budget into redeveloping a website. Has it been effective for us? Absolutely. And better yet—it completely fits my budget.

Since beefing up our project’s web presence, there has been an increase in clients, public awareness, and media interaction. In an organization that grows by reputation, typically an increase in one or more of those categories yields something: A BIGGER increase in clients, public awareness, and media interaction.
Even though non-profits are organizations not all of them are always organized. Utilizing the web has also helped me streamline messaging and collateral. Because my project is so tied into Colorado’s non-profit network, it’s important that I can easily send messages and materials to other partners, sponsors, funders, etc.
And let’s face it: Not only are non-profits not organized, they can also be living in the dark ages. Still, current and potential funders love to see new, innovative systems in place that will effectively maximize the dollars they’re granting. I’m pretty sure we all want happy funders.

Here’s the other thing that all those groups are seeing: the same thing. Regardless of the medium, an online presence allows you to create a voice, or a brand, that can be communicated consistently to a broader group through different resources. Constituents reading our blog might not follow us on Twitter, but they’re receiving the same messages overall. And I bet they like choosing how they receive those messages.

So, to recap, I have found a way to effectively streamline messaging, brand the project, and communicate to the public, the media, internal groups, statewide partners, and current and potential funders for free.

Did you get that?

Therefore, non-profit or not, my question to you is, “Are you utilizing social media to further your company’s mission?” If the answer to that question is no, I have to ask, “WHY NOT?”