Mission-based Marketing
for Nonprofit Organizations
What is “Mission-based Marketing?”
Mission-based marketing involves putting together (then adhering to) an accurate
mission statement that conveys the mission and purpose of your organization,
with the focus on the “customer,” not the organization.
Who are our customers?
Your customers are all those involved in achieving your mission, including all
the groups listed in this table. Each of these groups has different “wants” or
reasons for supporting your organization.
Who They Are
|
What They Want
|
Clients, Patients
|
- the highest quality service available at the lowest cost
|
Donors
(foundations, gov’t agencies, private firms, individuals)
|
- recognition for supporting your organization
- assurance that the money they donate isn’t wasted (that it’s managed
efficiently)
- assurance that their choice of your organization is the best choice they can
make
|
Volunteers
|
- recognition for the time they spend volunteering
- responsibility in accordance with their education and experience
- satisfaction that they are accomplishing something worthwhile
- assurance that they’ve made the best choice of where to volunteer their time
|
Board Members
|
- recognition for the time spent doing board work
- satisfaction that they’re “managing” well and achieving the organization’s
goals
- assurance that they’ve made the best choice of where to volunteer their time
|
Staff
|
- assurance that they’re being paid in line with like positions in other
non-profits
- satisfaction that they’re accomplishing something for the community
- pride that they are supplying the best possible service to their clients
|
How do we go about satisfying all these different groups?
To satisfy all of the wants of these groups, you need to analyze your mission
statement carefully from the viewpoint of each one. To do this, you have to know
what your customers want.
How do we go about getting that information?
One way to accomplish this is to survey your customers to find out exactly what
they want. Here are some DO’s and DON’Ts to keep in mind as you set out to
gather these vital facts:
- DO determine what you want to know. Don’t waste your time or your customer’s by
“fishing” around with no particular goal in mind.
- DO decide who is best equipped to give you the information you want. Target your
questions to specific groups. For example, don’t ask volunteers questions that
only clients can knowledgeably respond to.
- If you’re planning to ask the same question of many individuals, DO make sure the
question is understandable and specific. When determining what to ask, try the
question on four or five people to see if their answers tell you what you want
to know.
- DO determine how and when it’s best to ask the questions of your customers.
Should you use e-mail? Phone calls? Meetings? Often, this depends on how many
people have to be asked. If you can get all members of one group together in a
meeting or luncheon, you may be able to get answers to your questions and obtain
additional input as well.
- DON’T ask too many questions. Be sensitive to your customer, and don’t take more
of his or her time than you really need. If it looks like you’ll be pressed for
time (or your respondent is getting impatient) get your most important questions
out of the way quickly, then stop.
- DON’T give your respondents too many responses to choose from – it just makes it
harder for them to make a decision. Asking a respondent for a reply on a “scale
of 1 to 10" probably won’t give you any better information than the same answer
on a scale of 1 to 5.
- DON’T assume that the answers to your questions will be the same every time you
ask them. You should sample your customer’s feelings and opinions continually on
an informal basis, and conduct formal sampling at least once a year before your
annual strategic planning session.
- Since you will have to ask these questions periodically, DO take the opportunity
to learn from your mistakes. Using your experience, improve your questions until
they give you just what you want to know.
How often should we to gather this info, and who’s responsible for doing so?
The Board of Directors’ annual strategic planning session should always start
with defining and updating the mission statement and goals. Since the most
important aspect of the review should be whether your mission statement applies
to all of your customers, the Board and its representatives should have been
gathering this information all year long, at least on an informal basis. If that
is not possible, it should be gathered at least once a year before the start of
your strategic planning.
How can SCORE help?
The Greater Knoxville SCORE Chapter is available to counsel the Boards of
non-profit organizations with regard to creating accurate, customer-oriented
mission statements.
