Question

List relationships that are key to your not-for-profit organization and explain why they are key.

Answer 1

Following are the relationships that are key to our not-for-profit organization and their significance -

 

1. Relationships between staff and colleagues

Email is probably a big part of your relationships with colleagues. Sure it’s useful, but many of us are feeling overwhelmed by it these days. Social media can help lighten the burden and actually make email more useful. I’m thinking in particular about those “have you seen this?” emails. Imagine if staff shared interesting articles or videos with hashtagged on social media.

 

2. Relationships with program participants

 

We’ve all struggled with whether or not our website really reflects all the great work that’s happening in our organization. This is why blogs are important. Over time, short concise updates build a more complete and current picture of your nonprofit’s work. An editorial calendar can help you think through upcoming news hooks or events to tie your work to. But who’s going to do this, you ask? Think about easy ways to digitally “capture” your work as it’s happening. While professionally created photos or videos can be an important part of your communication strategy, it’s also possible to document the work of your organization easily and cheaply.

 your nonprofit focuses on social services, be sure to think through issues related to the possible confidentiality of participants, especially when they’re minors or public events, encourage all of your staff to document events and activities with fun mobile-based apps. Rather than just assigning written blog posts to staff, ask staff to record short participant interview clips with audio or video that don’t require lots of editing. 

 

3. Relationship with volunteers and supporters

 

While your staff curate information online, your social media followers and supporters can “eavesdrop” on these conversations and look to your staff as thought leaders on your issue. But to move beyond a “broadcast” mindset, you can also involve volunteers and supporters directly in your communications strategy. Like staff, invite them to help capture events with video, audio, or photos. To cultivate your own media makers, recognize and thank them regularly. Also, pay attention to the measurement tools provided by social media to see what your supporters like best. That way, you’ll have a better sense of what to make more of.

 

4. Relationships with broadcast journalists

 

If we want journalists to cover the important issues we work on, we should help distribute their reporting. News organizations are watching their web traffic to make editorial and advertising decisions. The more readers, viewers, or listeners that we send their way, the more likely they will report on our issues in the future. In social media terms, this means sharing links to articles and not copying/pasting text into emails. 

 

5. Relationships with funders and donors

All nonprofits struggle with quantifying their work for funders and donors. To illustrate your work, you can repurpose much of the digital content that your staff, program participants, and volunteers have made. At the same time, analytics on your website, Social Media page reveal lots of information about the value of your work. Examine how others are sharing or talking about your content, how extensive your reach is and how this has changed over time. Use these numbers to explain what funder and donor support make possible.