One of the more interesting parts of this year’s 2014 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report is how the responses vary by job title. This is the first year that we asked for job title, as well as age (that’s another post).
Take what you consider to be a top communications challenge, for example. If you are an executive director, you are more likely to pick lack of budget for direct expenses as one of your top three challenges.
If you are at the director or manager level in either marketing or fundraising, you are more likely to say that your biggest challenge is lack of time to produce quality content.
If your job title includes assistant or coordinator in either marketing or fundraising, you are more likely to say that lack of clear strategy is a top challenge.
We all know the time and budget constraints of working in the nonprofit world, but that last one surprised me a bit. Does this mean that the director/executive director level staff are not necessarily sharing the strategy with the coordinators/assistants? Or that a lack of strategy overall is just that much harder on you, when you are the one trying to do the day-to-day tactical implementation that many people at the coordinator/assistant level are tasked with?
We also found these differences between executive directors, communications directors, and development directors.
Executive Directors are more likely than the others to say . . .
- Meeting a combination of fundraising, marketing, and programmatic goals is important to their success
Communications Directors are more likely than the others to say . . .
- Meeting marketing or community engagement goals are important to their success
- General brand awareness, thought leadership, and getting media coverage are top goals
- Websites, media relations/PR, and blogs will be very important communications tools
Development Directors are more likely than the others to say . . .
- Meeting fundraising goals is important to their success
- Acquiring new donors and retaining current donors are top goals
- Print marketing, in-person events, and phone calls/phone banks will be very important communications tools
What do you think? Do you see these variations in your office? Is it worth having a conversation to talk about the differences?
