What would you give a nonprofit if you really wanted to help it grow?
Money is the obvious answer. But what about the capacity to raise more money? To reach more people? To explain its impact more clearly? To finally have the outside of the organization reflect the extraordinary work happening on the inside?
That’s the idea behind a remarkable commitment Marivi Bryant made when she launched HOME Agency.
Every year, her agency gives one nonprofit $100,000 worth of professional marketing and branding services. And the application process for this year’s Mission Based Action Award opens now. That made this an especially good time to share my recent conversation with Marivi on You Are What You Give.
The Problem Isn’t Always the Mission
Marivi has spent some 25 years helping organizations communicate, and she sees a recurring problem in the nonprofit world. Many organizations are doing exceptional work, but very little of their funding is available for the infrastructure that helps them communicate their impact.
The people inside the organization know exactly why their work matters, while a potential donor visiting from the outside may have no idea.
Marivi offered a wonderfully simple test during our conversation:
When someone lands on your website, can they understand within 15 seconds what you do and whom you serve?
And then: Is it clear what you want them to do next?
Those sound like marketing questions. They’re also fundraising questions.
Mission Isn’t the Same as Impact
One distinction from our conversation struck me as particularly important.
Nonprofits tend to be very good at talking about their mission. But donors need to understand their impact. Those aren’t the same thing.
A food pantry can tell us its mission is to fight hunger. It can also tell us how many meals it distributed. But the deeper impact might be children arriving at school able to concentrate because they weren’t hungry. Or families gaining enough stability to deal with the other challenges in their lives.
For other organizations — think tanks, advocacy organizations, educational initiatives — impact can be considerably harder to quantify. But difficult to measure doesn’t mean unimportant to communicate.
Part of running a strong nonprofit is doing the work of understanding not only what we do, but what changes because we do it.
Maybe Marketing Isn’t Overhead
This brings us back to the $100,000. There’s a longstanding tension in the nonprofit world around “overhead.” Donors understandably want their money going toward the mission. But if an organization can’t communicate its mission, reach new supporters, cultivate relationships or explain its impact, we shouldn’t be surprised when its ability to fulfill that mission eventually suffers.
Marivi’s approach offers another way of thinking about capacity building.
Instead of asking only: How can I fund the work?
A donor might also ask: What does this organization need in order to become better at doing the work?
Maybe that’s technology. Maybe it’s professional development. Maybe it’s a stronger board. And sometimes, it’s better marketing.
And That’s Where You Come In
Marivi’s Mission Based Action Award is now opening for its second year.
HOME Agency will select a nonprofit to receive $100,000 in pro bono marketing and branding services.
So there are two ways to act on this episode.
If you work with a nonprofit that could benefit, apply: https://wearehomeagency.com/mission-meets-action-award/.
And if you don’t? Think about the organizations you know. The organization doing extraordinary work with an outdated website. The founder who can explain the mission brilliantly in person but hasn’t figured out how to communicate it online. The nonprofit everyone in the community loves — but almost nobody outside that community has heard of.
Send this to them: https://wearehomeagency.com/mission-meets-action-award/.
As Marivi pointed out during our conversation, you don’t have to be the person who can provide $100,000 worth of help. Sometimes your contribution is simply connecting the right people.
Watch the Full Conversation
We talk about nonprofit marketing, mission versus impact, fundraising, activating your board, getting development and marketing teams to work together, and why nonprofits should be willing to think a little more like businesses.
And, of course, we talk about why Marivi decided that one of the first things her new business should do was give away $100,000 worth of its work.
To learn more about HOME Agency and the Mission Based Action Award, visit WeAreHomeAgency.com. Marivi also invited listeners to connect with her directly on LinkedIn.
As always, thank you to Victoria Hearst, whose generosity helps make You Are What You Give possible.
And if one organization in your orbit could use this opportunity, don’t just admire what Marivi is giving away.
