One of my clients asks me to do lots of research, but some of it is simple: I look into our creative archives and that’s where I find most of it. Sometimes, I have to go a bit further, but not far. That’s where I found myself today. Searching for something that wasn’t there. My stats from an 2006 article about a charity were the freshest out there.
Sure their site has a newsroom and an annual report – dating back to 2006. What happened in 2007 – anything? It’s no coincidence that this charity is regarded an under the radar operation. They don’t pay [money for or attention to] marketing or PR and it shows.
At one event they asked me how one of our charity clients got to be so visible and successful. Given that our goal was to make the charity a household word county-wide, our intentions were to be familiar, accessible, friendly and easy to partner with.
The charity has a face – make that faces. Over 400 of them turned out for a gala last weekend. Although this charity hasn’t engaged our services for a year or so, I have to think that our four years of foundational groundwork paid off.
This fall, I taught a college course in marketing execution for non-profits at the Academy for Excellence. We tossed out the 600+ page book that allowed 1.5 pages for online marketing. And, I came up with my own curriculum that covered how to compete online with little or no budget. You don’t have to spend a fortune on marketing, but you do need to know that it’s necessary for fund-raising [or generating revenue] and visibility – no matter what business you’re in.
What do you think?
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