Forum 2007 – John Grounds
Challenges and Opportunities, John Grounds, Director of Communications, NSPCC
John Grounds, Director of Communications for the NSPCC, shared his experiences of using marketing and communications as a charity/organisation.
John began his talk by mentioning the charity marketplace of 2006/7 – a continuing emergence of big-name charities and an increasing gap between large and small charities. This competition means that it is harder to raise money, decisions to make between investment and consolidation, and recruitment and retention.
He gave encouragement to small organisations by recognising that there would always be a place for both small and large organisations as they offer different services and opportunities.
John offered some definitions of what marketing is: “it is the whole business seen from the point of view of the final result, that is, from the consumers point of view”.
It is the process by which:
- we understand which audiences we need to have a relationship with in order to deliver a message
- we understand what their expectations and needs are (price and place) – key targets/advocates
- we bring the objectives and the audience’s needs together (promotion)
John encouraged that it is OK to think of your organisation as a brand as it is one without having to build it. A brand is a set of ideas, images and associations a person carries in their head about a product, service or organisation. But, how do you help to make these images ones that represents the organisation?
- know your strengths
- know your audiences
- build relationships with audience
John’s ideas of donor motivations, echoed Steve’s suggestions earlier: philanthropy, affinity, social recognition, mutual benefit. Therefore, the principles which organisations can use to attain commitment/a donation are:
- passion and inspiration, which can only be generated in supporters if those working for the organisation are themselves passionate about the organisation;
- understanding of donors;
- open hearts (emotional link), minds (donors can see they can do/contribute something), cheque books;
- people give to help people, as Avinoam remarked earlier, try to connect the donor to the people;
- donors/supports are partners in the organisations purpose – they can work with you in many ways;
- donors/supporters can be for life.
In attaining commitment, there are key decisions that must be made regarding your audience:
- do you know who your wider audience are?
- Focus v expansion: defining your audience
- Mass audience v focused audience
- Thinking about media – think about how best to reach your target audience, build up a profile: use the same advert slot each week/month, “own a spot”.
“Investing in visibility” is a key strategy for gaining and keeping support; John suggests this should be about 10-15% of an organisations budget spent on marketing and communication.
Assessing “touchpoints” – all the places where someone can be in contact with your organisation i.e. switchboard, newsletter, website – should all feel like the same organisation with the same key messages.
There is not a crisis of trust at the moment, statistics show that giving is increasing but there is more demand for information and expectations about impact are higher. These are issues that everyone in the organisation, no matter how big or small that organisation is, must take responsibility for; you have a duty to be transparent, open and clear.
In summary, know your brand, purpose, audience, strengths, and invest in visibility.
“Keep focused on the vision and passionate beliefs at the heart of your organisation”.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is a UK charity working in child protection and the prevention of cruelty to children. The charity has 177 community-based projects and they run the Child Protection Helpline and ChildLine in the UK and the Channel Islands. The NSPCC also work to achieve cultural, social and political change – influencing legislation, policy, practice, public attitudes and behaviours and delivering services for the benefit of young people.
www.nspcc.org.uk
