Here at Nonprofit Marketing Guide, we survey communications and fundraising staff all the time. So it’s interesting for me to hear what staff who aren’t directly responsible for those functions have to say about nonprofit marketing.
Marc Pitman of the Concord Leadership Group recently surveyed over 1,000 nonprofit leaders, 60% of whom are executive directors or middle managers. While most of the survey dealt with strategic planning, leadership succession, and evaluation, Marc did include a few marketing-related questions.
The Results . . .
Eighty-five percent (85%) of nonprofit leaders reported communicating a compelling vision as one of their top three priorities. Yet two out of three said that their toughest challenge was communicating their vision. And 62% said they weren’t even sure how to create one.
Twenty-seven percent (27%)of nonprofits reported budgeting less than $1,000 a year on marketing or community relations. This is increasingly true in smaller nonprofits. Forty-three percent (43%) of organizations with annual budgets of less than $1 million reported budgeting less than $1,000 on marketing or public relations annually. An additional 15% report budgeting between $1,000 and $5,000 a year.
Get the full Nonprofit Sector Leadership Report here.
